Modeled on Jonathan D. Spence’s book of the same title The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, Woo adapted the book for a seven-act modern opera that incorporated new thinking trends in performing arts. With a solid text structure as its foundation, versatile and bold contemporary music as pillars, together with puppetry, multimedia design and digital image, the digital collage of singing, image and space reveals the legend of Jesuit Matteo Ricci, who came to China in the Ming Dynasty in the late 16^th century for missionary work and his effort to convert the Chinese people to Christianity through teaching them the western art of mnemonics, creating a memory palace transcending time, space and culture. The opera is written by Diana Liao, playwright of Poet Li Bai, with music composed by Steve Hui. The character Matteo Ricci leaded by the international acclaimed basso cantante Tian Haojiang will interact together with various virtual characters in this palace through a diversity of performing forms, such as music, singing, dancing and puppetry, to guide the audience to explore the internal journey of this pioneer of cultural exchanges.

Courtesy of the artist and Zuni Icosahedron