Composer, vocalist and writer Liu Sola has always gone her own way. In the mid-1980s, the free-spirited Beijing-based artist turned her post-Cultural Revolution experiences as a composition student at the Central Conservatory of Music into the award-winning cult novella You Have No Choice. In 1987, she went to the US on a writing fellowship and experienced a life-changing moment upon hearing bluesman Junior Wells perform in Chicago.
She spent the 90s and beyond overseas, bringing Chinese touches to similar sounds and releasing several innovative recordings, including the acclaimed Blues in the East. Now, with everyone on the mainland racing forward, she has been drawing her music and writing together to look back.
The result can be seen in Fantasy of the Red Queen, an intriguing chamber opera originally commissioned and premiered at Germany's House of World Cultures in 2006. Germany's Ensemble Modern and the Liu Sola & Friends Ensemble will present the show this week in Hong Kong as part of the New Vision Arts Festival.
To Liu, who wrote the libretto and score, and who takes the main role, reflection on the culture of the past is important in order to recognise the influences that guide the present.
'China wants to be involved in the new cultural movements in the world. But if you're not alert to what went before, there will be a great deal of confusion,' she says.
In Fantasy of the Red Queen, Liu employs the tumultuous existence of Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong's fourth wife and member of the Gang of Four, to make such a return journey. Jiang isn't portrayed directly. The lead character is an old woman driven mad by her desire for power. However, the nameless woman identifies herself with Jiang. As the story unfolds on stage and through video flashbacks, the opera offers an opportunity to contemplate the past.