Spoleto leader in China to get opera for festival

Mr. Redden is the new director of the $9 million Lincoln Center Festival

Web posted June 29, 1998

Associated Press

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Spoleto's leader hopes to join the leader of the free world in gaining a revered Chinese opera.

Nigel Redden, Spoleto Festival USA general director, wants Chinese officials to release The Peony Pavilion for its July 7 opening at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York.

Mr. Redden is the new director of the $9 million Lincoln Center Festival. He is bargaining with the Shanghai Bureau of Culture for the 20-hour opera. Mr. Redden says he will ask Ma Bomin, Shanghai's director, to hold a joint press conference this week.

``It has been a frustrating experience, and I do hope that Ma Bomin will allow the actors to come to New York to perform, after all the work that both Chinese and Americans have put into this project,'' Mr. Redden said by phone from his Garden Hotel room in Shanghai.

The president will arrive in Shanghai Tuesday and Mr. Redden wants to take advantage of Mr. Clinton's 400-member strong media contingent to help the cause.

Mr. Redden said Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed an interest in the controversy.

``I don't see what this has to do with President Clinton's visit,'' Mr. Ma said to The New York Times last week. ``This is about art, and the debate should remain about art.''

Mr. Redden said the production was scheduled for six three-hour episodes with nightly performances through July 12, followed by a weekend marathon to begin July 17.

The scheduled opening night is sold out.