Episode 69 - 2011: Zhou Long, Madame White Snake

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore an opera by the composer of our podcast theme, Zhou Long. It's been fifty years since another staged opera won the prize. Is this a worthy work to break that streak? They discuss the opera's synopsis, the music, and how Zhou Long blends Eastern and Western music and themes in the opera. If you'd like more information about Zhou Long and Madame White Snake, we recommend: Tong Cheng Blackburn, “In Search of Third Space: Composing the Transcultural Experience in the Operas of Bright Sheng, Tan Dun, and Zhou Long” PhD diss., Indiana University, 2015. Fang Bo [方博], “The Transtextual Gender Construction in the Opera Madame White Snake.” Asian-European Music Research Journal 7 (Summer 2021): 1–18. Lu Tan, “The Integration of Chinese and Western Elements in Zhou Long’s Opera Madame White Snake” DMA essay, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2024. Zhou Long's publication site.