In what looks virtually certain to be San Francisco Opera’s most eye-poppingly resplendent production of the season, Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang’s “The Monkey King” makes its world premiere on the War Memorial Opera House stage at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14 for an eight-performance run that will end with a 2 p.m. matinee on Nov. 30. It’s based on “Journey to the West,” an epic Ming Dynasty Chinese novel that has become all-pervasive over the last four centuries, having sparked innumerable creations in artworks, plays, movies, TV shows, comics and graphic literature, music, dance and even video games.
At its center is the irrepressible Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, an iconic character who carries every bit as much cultural weight as Western superheroes such as Batman and Superman and who does battle with deities on heaven and earth in his quest for immortality. Composer Huang and librettist Hwang, whose multiple previous collaborations include the operatic version of Hwang’s 1988 play “M. Butterfly,” have created a blend of Eastern and Western traditions that will be sung in both Mandarin and English and visually enhanced with puppetry, projections, dance and gorgeous costuming. Singing the title role in his San Francisco debut is Australian tenor Kang Wang, with South Korean tenor Konu Kim performing as the Jade Emperor and soprano Mei Gui Zhang as the Chinese goddess of compassion Guanyin. The conductor is Hartford Symphony music director Carolyn Kuan, who also led the world premiere of “M. Butterfly” in Santa Fe in 2022.