As Big As The Sky

Opera As Big As The Sky by Arnoud Noordegraaf, Ai Weiwei and Adrian Hornsby, world premiere at Holland Festival 2015.
Attracted by the boundless possibilities in modern China, the European architect Sem Aers has been lured into designing a spectacular megastructure in a remote Chinese village. Whilst there, he has a passionate love affair with the famous opera singer Qin Mulan. But just as under the layers of opera make-up and costumes, Mulan turns out be a canny, modern business woman. In a similar way his dream project turns out to be unreal.
Mixing traditional Kunqu opera with Wagnerian late romanticism, the Dutch composer Arnoud Noordegraaf evokes the clashes between East and West, tradition and modernity, romance and reality – conflicts which are also expressed through the inventive stage design and film projections by Ai Weiwei, China’s most famous contemporary artist.