The Moon Opera
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
This “gem of a novel . . . gives us a glimpse not only into the Chinese opera world but deep into a woman’s heart” (Lisa See, author of The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane).
Twenty years ago, in a fit of diva jealousy, Xiao Yanqiu, star of The Moon Opera, violently assaulted her understudy. Spurned by the troupe, she turned to teaching.
Now, a rich cigarette-factory boss has offered to underwrite a restaging of the cursed opera—but only on the condition that Xiao Yanqiu return to the role of Chang’e. So she does, this time believing she has fully become the immortal moon goddess . . .
Set against the drama, intrigue, jealousy, retribution, and redemption of backstage Peking opera, this “tiny, perfect novel [with] distant echoes of All About Eve” is a stunning portrait of women in a world that simultaneously reveres and restricts them (The Times, London).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A peerless singer in the Peking Opera is ruined by her jealousy of her understudy in this vividly sketched tale of art and money by Chinese screenwriter (Shanghai Triad) and novelist Feiyu. In 1979, 20 years before the novel takes place, the actress Xiao Yanqiu debuted brilliantly and memorably as the lead in The Moon Opera, although she soon wrecked her career when she attacked her understudy's teacher in a fit of rage at sharing the spotlight. Now 40, unhappily married and overweight, Xiao is offered the chance to reprise her role in a new production bankrolled by a factory owner and former fan. Xiao, who assumes the role to perfection, chooses as her understudy a gifted student, Chunlai, who postpones a TV career for the promise of the stage. The scene is set for a terrible showdown, naturally, complicated by the clash between art and money, as exemplified by the crass interests of the factory owner. The novel's slimness, simple storytelling and overarching morality lend it a fable-like air, with Xiao filling the role of its tormented star.
