The drama's the thing for Hong Kong playwright Candace Chong Mui-ngam - except that this time, it's an opera. The esteemed playwright, who has seen success with works like French Kiss and Murder In San Jose - both commissions for the Hong Kong Arts Festival - has just finished the libretto for a new opera about 'the father of modern China' Sun Yat-sen. Written in collaboration with US-based composer Huang Ruo, Sun Yat-sen is scheduled to premiere at Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts in September. The production will play the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in October before moving to Guangzhou.
It's Chong's first libretto, and she seems intrigued by the idea of having her words sung rather than spoken.
'It was amazing for me to hear someone singing my words,' she says after hearing a rehearsal of the first act in the bowels of New York's monumental Lincoln Centre - rehearsals are taking place in New York, as part of the Vox Contemporary American Opera Lab.
'The first time I heard the singers perform the libretto, I thought it seemed very powerful. The music and the voices are very descriptive of how people at that time felt. The music brings an extra dimension to the words.'
Writing for opera was, Chong adds, almost the opposite of writing a play: 'When I'm writing drama, I try to constrain my emotions. Drama is daily conversation, so you can't be too dramatic. It has to be ordinary. But in opera, you have to make all the characters extraordinary. It's big and it's loud, and allows you to really express your emotions. When I hear the words with the music in rehearsals, I feel like I'm flying.'
Fujian-born Chong, 34, is one of Hong Kong's best-known playwrights. A psychology and playwriting major, she began her writing career at the Chung Ying Theatre Company.
Alive In The Mortuary (2003), which focuses on an ageing Medecins Sans Frontieres volunteer in Angola, was an early success. French Kiss is a story about a pastor whose career is ruined by a sexual harassment case, while Murder In San Jos? is a psychological thriller set in the US. She has, to date, received four best-play awards at the Hong Kong Drama Awards. Chong is currently working in the US as translator for playwright David Henry Hwang's Chinglish, a bilingual tale about an American businessman's misadventures on the mainland.