The Interrupted Dream 惊梦 游园 from The Peony Pavilion 牡丹亭

The Peony Pavilion 牡丹亭: The Interrupted Dream 游园 Written by Tang Xianzu 汤显祖 (1550-1616) Performed by Wang Xiaoyan (as Du Li Niang) Developed in the Ming Dynasty (1346-1644), Kunqu 昆曲 Opera is widely respected as the most sophisticated form of Chinese opera. Of the works still in performance, The Peony Pavilion is considered the most representative of the Kunqu genre, and is known for its romantic story and exquisite style of singing and performance. The author Tang Xianzu lived at the same time as Shakespeare and wrote four major plays in sung poetic drama. The Peony Pavilion, perhaps Tang Xianzu’s most famous work, tells the story of sixteen-year-old Du Li Niang, who meets her future lover in a dream but, when she does not find him in real life, dies of lovesickness. Her lover eventually falls in love with her ghost, brings her back from the dead, and marries her. This scene occurs immediately before the fateful dream as Du Li Niang wanders in her garden among the peonies, Chinese flowers symbolizing both loss and victory.