Co-presented by the Fraser Volunteer Association (Canada) and UBC artists, and diamond-sponsored by Ruibang Financial, Tang Kang-nian’s rendition of the opera Thunderstorm will be grandly staged at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver from May 9 to 12.

♫ The arias for Fan Yi are written largely in minor keys with lyrical and coloratura passages; the soprano’s range from low B to D♯ vividly shapes a tormented, anguished, resolute—and ultimately unhinged—“Fan Yi of Thunderstorm.”
♫ The opera boldly reduces the original eight characters to six (omitting Lu Gui and Lu Dahai) and compresses four acts into two, heightening the drama. Whether through introspective arias, intertwining duets and ensembles, or the interplay of harmony and conflict and the accompaniment’s support of the vocal lines, the score deeply exposes the characters’ layered psychologies and tragic fates.
♫ Compared with Chinese national opera traditions, Thunderstorm not only challenges conventional operatic forms but also pursues unprecedented artistic innovation, successfully melding Eastern and Western musical idioms.
♫ Director Nancy Hermiston (UBC Opera Division) said: “This May I will present the Chinese-language opera Thunderstorm, by Vancouver composers Tang Kang-nian and Pan Xing-hai, together with partners from the Chinese community. It represents the culmination of my research into contemporary Chinese opera and is a tribute to Chinese culture. Staging this work during the centenary of the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act underscores our recognition of the Chinese community’s significant contributions to Vancouver and Canada.”

This marks the first time in over 400 years of world operatic history that a Chinese-language opera has entered English-speaking society performed in Chinese by a multi-ethnic cast. Thunderstorm injects new cultural elements into opera — a testament not only to the composers’ craft but also to the artists’ bold exploration and experimentation. It is a milestone for Thunderstorm, for Chinese-language opera, and for world opera history.

♫ Vancouver Sun: “Thunderstorm is a captivating proposition that heralds a new, multicultural chapter for our local opera scene.”
♫ Canadian music critic David Duke: “Tang’s music is bold and decisive, exquisitely crafted; through clever synthesis it has established a uniquely personal musical voice.”
♫ International opera star Martile Rowland: “Mr. Tang Kang-nian is an outstanding composer — his music is beautiful and stirring. Thunderstorm brings a Chinese story to life in the style of Western grand opera.”
♫ Gao Jiulin (former President, Tianjin Song & Dance Theatre): “In both music and libretto, Thunderstorm is in no way inferior to our theatre’s six-award winner The Field.

2024 Thunderstorm — Artistic Team

• Composers: Tang Kang-nian, Pan Xing-hai

• Director: Nancy Hermiston

• Conductor: Ken Hsieh (谢建德)

• Opera Coach: Wenwen Du (杜雯雯)

• Orchestration: Dr. Jacqueline Leggatt

• Orchestra / Accompaniment: Vancouver Opera Orchestra

Principal Cast 

The Vancouver Opera Orchestra was founded in 1977 by its inaugural Music Director, Richard Bonynge, and is made up of top local musicians. The orchestra plays a key role in Vancouver Opera productions, providing high-level accompaniment and musical support for operatic performances. Its first staged work was the opera Le Roi de Lahore by French composer Jacques Offenbach, starring Joan Sutherland and conducted by founding Music Director Richard Bonynge, whose leadership brought the pit orchestra’s playing to the highest standard. The ensemble enjoys a reputation and influence both in Canada and internationally.

Further reading:
Composers Tang Kang-nian and Pan Xing-hai gave musical life to Thunderstorm. Two of Fan Yi’s arias were included in 2020 on the compilation album Fengming Dongfang: A Century of Chinese Opera Classics, released by China Record (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., which collects more than 50 outstanding Chinese operas from 1920–2020.

The opera Thunderstorm is adapted from Cao Yu’s novel of the same name. The plot is streamlined, concentrating dramatic conflict on six characters—Fan Yi, Zhou Ping, Zhou Puyuan, Si Feng, Zhou Chong and Lu Ma—while centering on Fan Yi, a figure who embodies both virtue and vice, beauty and ugliness. Her idealistic pursuit of love and quest for personal freedom were impossible in that society, consigning her to tragedy.

The composers devote extensive musical writing to the protagonist’s deepest suffering. From introspective arias to interwoven duets and ensembles, from the dialectic of harmony and conflict to the accompaniment’s reinforcement of the vocal lines, the score powerfully reveals the characters’ layered psyches and doomed fates.

Fan Yi’s arias convey a pervasive, oppressed melancholy that embodies the tragic woman’s inescapable sorrow.

In 1999 Tang Kang-nian brought early arias to Cao Yu’s widow Li Yuru and sought her counsel; she gave strong affirmation and advised that the character portrayal be centered on Fan Yi. Tang then refined the work for more than twenty years; after his passing his wife Pan Xing-hai completed the composition. The 2024 edition, revised on the basis of the 2019 version, includes substantial additions by Pan—new arias for Fan Yi and Si Feng, a quintet, and more. The depiction of overwhelming grief unfolds in layers and moves audiences to tears. Orchestration now also features the erhu and the Chinese bamboo flute (dizi), a Sino-Western fusion that highlights the distinctively Chinese character of this operatic work.

Eastern stories rendered in Western musical form
An “Eastern Shakespeare” recounts the tale of Thunderstorm

A woman driven mad by love and hatred
A young master wracked with remorse and burdened by sin
Family secrets, hidden origins
The guilty and the innocent
All erupt on a thunderous night
Body and soul alike hurtle toward death...