Poeticized Opera, or Operaticized Poem? A Theoretical Speculation on Poepera

Poeticized Opera, or Operaticized Poem?

A Theoretical Speculation on Poepera

Longinus J. Y. Long¹

Abstract: Poepera is a literary term newly coined by Zhang Guangkui, and what it refers to, and how it shall be defined both requires and challenges much theoretical speculation. In light of Zhang’s idea that poepera is poem plus opera, and in light of Zhang’s works of poepera, this paper argues that a poepera is not a closet poetic text waiting to be appreciated in private, or a story to be acted out on a stage, but a text of poem to be narrated with the coordinated support from chorus, music, stage settings, and the audience. It finally reaches the conclusion that a poepera is an on-the-spot art, an art progressing in time. It is, in other words, an operaticized poem, a static verbal entity being turned into a dynamic potential.

Key words: poepera; poem; opera; on-the-spot art

Poepera is a concept coined by Professor Zhang Guangkui for a new form of literature he produces and has been showing to the audience with his touring performances since 2015. Not only the works of poepera, but also the concept of poepera itself has caused impressive ripples, if not flood or deluge, in the literary circle. When asked what is poepera, he said, poepera is poem plus opera, or a combination, a mixture of poems with operas. It is a new form of poems different the traditional ones. Poeperas are, to be sure, poems, but not that purely poetical in the traditional sense. It owes a lot to operas, but not a form of operas. It is similar to expressionist plays, but basically different from them.

This again causes “ripples”, if not “flood” in theoretical speculations. What, in exact words, is a poepera, then? Can there be an exact definition for poepera? Or, is it a poeticized opera, or an operaticized poem, since it is a mixture of poem and opera?

A poem is a static verbal entity

We shall, on the one hand, shed some light on the definitions of poem and opera, and those of some terms relevant to them, in order to give a definition for poepera. Since poepera is poem plus opera, we shall get to the bottom of what is a poem. According to the 2014’s edition of Collins English Dictionary, a poem “is a composition in verse, usually a characterized by concentrated and heightened language in which words are chosen for their sound and suggestive power as well as for their sense, and using such techniques as metre, rhyme, and alliteration.” So a poem is a verse. A verse, as defined by the afore-said Collins English Dictionary, is “a specified type of metre or metrical structure.”

If this definition is acceptable, then we shall see that verse, the form of a poem, is constructed with certain basic building materials, that is to say, words. It is a static verbal “being”, or entity, in the form of text. If we borrow from a term in drama, namely, a closet play, a play which is not fit for production, but for private reading or appreciation, then a poem can be regarded as a “closet poetic text”.

An opera is a dynamic potential to be realized

As opera makes up another leg of poepera, we should also need to know what on earth is an opera. According to the fifth edition of Dictionary of English Language by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, opera “is an extended dramatic work in which music constitutes a dominating feature, either consisting of separate recitatives, arias, and choruses, or having a continuous musical structure.” The key words to get to know an opera are “dramatic” and “music”. An opera is a drama mainly produced by means of music.

What, then, is a drama? Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary defines drama as “a prose or verse composition presenting in dialogue and action a story involving conflict or contrast of characters, intended to be performed on the stage”. And music, according to the a fore-said Dictionary of English Language, is the “art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre.”

A drama is a story to be “acted out”, and music is the continuous sounds arranged in time. Hence one can safely say that an opera is a story to be presented chiefly by means of music. We can therefore come to the conclusion that an opera is a dynamic potential to be realized by performance.

A poepera is a static verbal entity being turned into a dynamic potential

A poepera is closely related to poetry, but it is not identical with, or equated with a poem. For a poepera, the core, or the dominant part, is doubtlessly the poem, and the opera is the adjunct, or “the displaying stage” owing to which the function of the poem is highlighted. ² It is, in other words, an operaticized poem, rather than a poeticized opera. It is by no means a “closet” poem, a poem for appreciation in private when one is alone, but a poem in the process of “being”, or taking shape. And the artistic techniques, such as music (to be more specific, recitatives, arias, etc.), of opera assist it into coming into being, or taking shape. It is a closet poem in the process of performing on the part of the performers (the chief narrator and the supporting speakers and singers and bandsmen), and in the process of watching on the part of the audience. ³

A poepera is also closely connected with opera, or even drama, as it is frequently presented by means of music, stage setting, setting, and acting, but it is not to be confused with an opera. For an opera, which is a dramatic form of literature, story plays the most important role, but for a poepera, story is not indispensable, for there are lyrical poeperas, for which the dominating factor is, in Wordsworth’s words, “spontaneous overflowing of powerful feelings”. Even for poeperas focusing on stories, which can be referred to as narrative poeperas, for example, epic poeperas, a poepera is different from a drama. For the story in a drama is “acted out”, which depends on the “physical acting” of the actors, but the story in a poepera is “narrated”, which depends on the “linguistic acting” of the narrator.

To brief, a poepera is composed of the text of a poem, the performance of the narrator and his supporting staff, the stage setting, the lighting, and the reaction from the audience. It is not a static verbal entity in the form of text, but a dynamic potential to be realized both by the narrator and his or her supporting staff and the audience. It can be generally understood as poem plus opera, but it can be better understood as a text of poem plus music-based performance on certain stage.

In a sense, a poepera is similar to a tragedy of the ancient Greece. In an olden-timed Greek tragedy, actors or actresses are assisted by a chorus in “acting out” a story. As we know, during its inceptive stage in Greece, a tragedy is produced on the stage with one actor in the front, and a chorus behind aiding him in presenting a story to the audience. Aeschylus, the father of drama, later introduced another actor to the cast, but the chorus still remained. Even in the hey-day (such as the day of Sophocles, the very author of Oedipus Rex) of tragedy, the chorus still played a crucial part in tragedy. In fact, in Aristotle’s famous Poetics, drama (including comedy and tragedy) is classified as a form of poetry.

“Summer’s Last Will”

According to Hans Robert Jauss’ theories of Receptional Aesthetics, a literary work, without the participation of the readers, is but a half-finished work. In order for this literary work to be complete, it should be read, appreciated and responded to by the readers. But for a poepera, participation from the readers, or rather, audience, is not enough for a “closet poem” to be a “finished product”. In order for it to be finished, it should also be “performed”, or “narrated”. In other words, a poepera is composed of the text of a poem, the performance of the narrator and his supporting staff, the stage setting, the lighting, and the reaction from the audience, as we have elaborated above.

In Zhang Guangkui's touring performances of poeperas, his repertoire includes classic poems as well as poems of his own, such as W. B. Yeats’ “Down by the Salley Garden”, Thomas Nashe’s “Summer’s Last Will”, and “Yelling” and “Since Edinburgh” by himself. In his performances, he himself plays the major part in narrating the prepared texts of poems, but chorus, stage setting, lighting, and the laughter partly staged and shouting from the audience are the indispensable factors of his poeperas. “Summer’s Last Will” is a case in point. Let’s take a look at the original text of the poem:

Spring, the sweet spring, is the year's pleasant king,

Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,

Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing:

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo! 

The palm and may make country houses gay,

Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,

And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay:

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo! 

The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,

Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit,

In every street these tunes our ears do greet:

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to witta-woo! 

Zhang rearranges, or rather, reproduces, the text into a performable operaticized poem. After being specially arranged and adapted for performance in the form of poepera, the poem becomes a piece of rap with more refrains to adapt musical performing on stage with drum kit’s accompaniment the whole time and beat box’s accompaniment at intervals(“¶” is used immediately after every two beats; “—”stands for one beat):

(Beatbox solo as an introduction)

Spring—, ¶the sweet spring, ¶is the year's¶ pleasant king, ¶

Then blooms¶ each thing, ¶then maids¶ dance in a ring, ¶

Cold doth¶ not—¶sting—, ¶ the pretty birds¶ do—¶ sing—: ¶

Cuckoo, cuckoo, ¶jug-jug, ¶pu-we, pu-we ¶ to-witta-woo—! ¶

Cuckoo, cuckoo, ¶jug-jug, ¶pu-we, pu-we ¶ to-witta-woo—! ¶

Cuckoo—¶Cuckoo—¶ (mimicry of cuckoo by rapper)

   Cuckoo—¶Cuckoo—¶ (mimicry chorus from a distance)

（8-beat pause for beatbox solo）

The palm and may¶ make country¶ houses gay, ¶

Lambs frisk¶ and play, ¶the shepherds pipe¶ all— ¶ day—, ¶

And we hear¶ aye birds tune¶ this merry lay: ¶

Cuckoo, cuckoo, ¶ this merry lay(read in chorus):¶

Jug-jug, ¶ this merry lay(read in chorus)¶

Pu-we, pu-we ¶ this merry lay(read in chorus)¶

To-witta-woo, to-witta-woo! ¶

This merry lay(Chorus in music)¶ this merry lay(Chorus in music) ¶

Lay, lay! ¶ Lay, lay! ¶

Lay lay lay lay, lay! ¶ (chorus)

Merry ¶lay—! ¶

（8-beat pause for beat box solo）

The fields breathe ¶sweet—, ¶the daisies kiss ¶our feet, ¶

Young lovers meet, ¶old wives ¶a-sunning sit,¶

In every street ¶these tunes ¶our ears ¶do— ¶greet—: ¶

Cuckoo, jug, ¶pu-we, to-witta-woo! ¶

Our ears ¶do— ¶greet—: ¶

Cuckoo, cuckoo, ¶jug-jug, ¶pu-we, to-witta-woo! ¶

                    Our ears greet, ¶our ears greet! ¶(read in chorus)

                     Greet, greet! ¶ (read in chorus)

（8-beat pause for beatbox solo）

Spring—, ¶the sweet Spring! ¶

So— ¶sweet— ¶Spring—! ¶

               So sweet Spring! ¶So sweet Spring! ¶(read in chorus)

Mma—!¶

                     Hahahahaha…!  (all in chorus to finish)

                                (Drum kit solo as the end)

This is indeed a symphony of human voices and instrumental voices: the narration of the poem from the narrator, the relay from the chorus, the concord of the narrator and the chorus, the music, the laughter and cheer from the audience, and the muted human sounds. Thus Nashe’s text of poem is “acted out” into an operaticized poem, a poepera.

Conclusion

A poepera is a performance art, an “on-the-spot” art, and an art progressing in time. The text of a poem forms the basis for a poepera, and this written text is rendered into a poepera by means of narration, or monologue supported by chorus, instrumental accompaniment, stage settings, lighting, and reaction from the audience. In short, it is not a dead text put away somewhere waiting to be read and appreciated in private, but the coordinated progressive efforts of the author of certain poem, the narrator, the chorus, the band, the stage decorator, and the audience. It is, in other words, an operaticized poem, rather than a poeticized opera.