Song of Farewell, an opera in four acts by Xiaogang Ye, was revived in Hangzhou by the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Yang Yang, Hangzhou Phil’s Music Director, on the evening of October 14th at Hangzhou Grand Theatre. The opera in concert was joined by the chorus of the China National Opera from Beijing as well as leading soloists including tenor Xiahou Jinxu, baritone Hong Zhenxiang and soprano Yu Guanqun, among others.
The grand opera is loosely inspired by Farewell My Concubine (1993), revisiting the theme of forbidden love between two male performers whose intimate bond is tested by the arrival of a woman within their Peking opera troupe in Republican-era Beijing. Across four acts: Meeting, Promise, Wander and Farewell, loyalty, jealousy, suppressed desire and unrequited love among the trio unfold as art and life blur on and off the stage.
Ye’s orchestration fuses Western operatic sweep with a live Peking-opera band and traditional singers, whose stylised voices and distinctive timbres lend ritualistic colour and layered resonance, heightening the drama’s tension between private longing and public performance.
This year marks the 15th anniversary since the premiere of Song of Farewell, a Beijing Music Festival commission, in 2010. The opera has reach such popularity that the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra went on to commission a 40-minute orchestral suite from Ye in 2018. Song of Farewell Without Words was premiered by the SSO that year and a recording was subsequently released by NAXOS in 2024.
