MEDIATHEK

Under the guise of guqin lessons, the concubine Da Ji and her lover, Bo Yi, (the son of the King’s enemy, the Duke) are having a secret affair. During their ‘lesson’, Da Ji’s maid warns of the King’s return. Bo Yi writes a song for Da Ji, and vows to return. Left alone, Da Ji sings to the moon of her love for Bo Yi. She falls asleep. The moon sings back to Da Ji, warning her that she may be due to have her heart broken. Da Ji wakes up from her nightmare just as the King enters. He invites her to look at some of his maps, and shows her a map detailing Bo Yi’s land. The King describes his strategy: to to feign a peace treaty, and invite the Duke for dinner. At the dinner are The King, Da Ji, the Duke and his wife, Lady Yi. Dinner is served and everyone eats. The King is especially enjoying his meal rather lustily. During the dinner, the King makes Da Ji play the guqin. She calls on the spirit of Bo Yi to give her strength, and their love emboldens her. However, the tale does not end well.

The Lesson of Da Ji blends Chinese, Baroque, and Western art forms while bringing legend and dance into a world of music and drama.The composer's interest in Chinese stories, led her to the concubine Da Ji of the Shang Dynasty, an invented tale of Da Ji's forbidden love affair and the revenge of King Zhou. The music is inspired by the Chinese zither, the Guqin, which becomes the instrument of seduction. In the first scene, the music evolves freely from the 7 notes tuning scales of the Guqin. In the second scene, the entire musical journey is a variation on the ancient Guqin tune “the Drunkard” (dated 220-280), which appropriately introduces the dark and lavish banquet where madness is about to happen. The piece also explores the links between the European masque tradition and classical Peking Opera.In the first scene, a Peking opera artist is introduced into the opera to represent the surreal “Dark Moon”, this character brings significant artistic meaning which symbolizes the “Omen” in Chinese culture. The unique instrumentation of the accompanying ensemble has been chosen to showcase the expressive quality of Chinese instruments (pipa, zhongruan, guzheng, and erhu), the elegant sonority of Baroque instruments (lute, recorders, harpsichord, bass viol), the lush Western strings as well as the dramatic use of percussion instruments. The Lesson of Da Ji was commissioned by the Toronto Masque Theatre through the support of Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts.