Mackay opera in Taiwanese makes music history
06 January 2009
Mackay is a name familiar to every taxi driver in Taipei for a big hospital, which is frequented by many patients in need of medical attention, carries it. But the life story of the pioneer Canadian Presbyterian missionary is not necessarily known. Many people are probably aware that he came to Taiwan to propagate his faith many years ago and eventually married a local girl. But even his exact country of origin is often lost on the population in this predominantly Buddhist land.
The Taiwanese opera titled“Mackay – The Black Bearded Bible Man”premiered at the National Theater in Taipei in late November. The international singing cast included American baritone Thomas Meglioranza as Mackay, Taiwanese soprano Chen Mei-lin as his wife Zhang Congming and Korean tenor Choi Seung-Jin as the missionary's follower Yan Qing-hua.
The National Chiang Kai-shek Cultural Center hired the very experienced Lukas Hemleb to be the director of its“flagship production.” Hemleb, fascinated with Chinese arts and culture ever since he collaborated with the“nanquan”ensemble called Han Tang Yuefu, was likewise in charge of the set and lighting design.
Chien Wen-pin, the resident conductor of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein since 1996 and for seven years until 2004 the music director of the Taipei-based National Symphony Orchestra, was invited to return to lead the NSO he knew very well during the staging of the new opera. Meanwhile Johnny Yu-chung Ku served as the capable chorus master of the Taipei Philharmonic Chorus. Foreign music critics who were invited to watch the opera took special notice of the performance by the chorus and were particularly interested in the history of the choral development in Taiwan.
To some extent, the Taiwanese opera helped shed light on the man who made an impact on Taiwan society through his involvement in the development of education, medicine and dentistry on the island of Formosa (that was how Taiwan was formerly known) in the 19th century.
Mackay dispensed medicines to malaria patients. He also acquired quite a reputation for extracting teeth. Even though women in his own country were not treated as“persons”in those days, Mackay tried to do something about giving the local women equal access to education as the men in Taiwan in the 19th century. The Canadian committed to his mission even did something unacceptable in Canadian society. He married a local girl and raised a family in Taiwan. His other half proved to be a very devoted and supportive partner.
Composer Gordon Chin was looking for a good subject for a new opera about seven or eight years ago when somebody suggested his working on the story of missionary George Leslie Mackay.
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