Snow in August

Written and directed by Gao Xingjian
Music by Xu Shuya
Costume designed by Tim Yip
Performed by Wu Hsing-kuo, and student actors from the National Taiwan Junior College of Performing Arts

The première of the opera Snow in August, written and directed by Gao Xingjian, took place in Taipei on December 19th 2002.A Taiwanese production, it features actors from the Peking Opera of Taiwan, including the famous Wu Hsing-kuo in the main role, an orchestra, Taiwanese choirs and singers, a French conductor and lighting designer, Marc Trautmann and Philippe Grosperrin, as well as a composer from mainland China, who lives in France, Xu Shuya.

The story of the Sixth Patriarch Huineng, a Chan (Zen) Buddhist master very familiar to the Taiwanese public, but known only to those Westerners who are passionately interested in Zen Buddhism.