Taiwan winters and notes on finishing a libretto

In Hemingway's Movable Feast, the young writer lives in Europe, surviving harsh Parisian winters. Hem wrote of wearing one layer of sweat suit upon another, bundling up with his wife, always trying to stay warm. In Taiwan, it is uncommon to have central heating. In all fairness, my mother gave me pre-departure advance warning. But I was unprepared for the bone-chilling damp of rainy winters combined with carpetless floors and a simplified wardrobe. My current indoor couture - tank top, wool v-neck, corduroy vest, full length wool coat, yoga pants, cotton socks, slippers, and a scarf, and if it's really cold, add a knit hat. Ugs would be very useful about now. The thermometer reads 12 celsius which is about 5 degrees warmer than outside making it about 45 degrees Fahrenheit. The boiling water dispensed into my ceramic mug cools to lukewarm after about five minutes.

I wonder if winter is like this in New Zealand - another place that lacks central heating.

Speaking of Paris and NZ - I completed today the working draft of the opera libretto based on the work of the Chinese playwright living in Paris. GP, currently in Beijing but based in NZ, will hopefully have some feedback and/or notes. I was asked to work on this project in Spring 2004, but there have been many distractions along the way, including several relocations and projects crying out to be finished. I've had a difficult time with the masochistic source material and ultimately had to frame things in terms of being an adapter/editor/advisor, vs. a "librettist" to justify making certain decisions. Who wants yet another label/hat to wear anyways? So out came the samurai sword, cut cut, and much rewriting and updating in a focused push of work.

Should the project continue to move forward, it will be interesting to watch and see beyond the musical composition, how a production might play out. The playwright is known for directing his own works in HK and Europe and handpicked this particular work for interpretation, though we offered to compose an original libretto based on a short folk tale emerging from one of his prior novels. In my RTI interview last week, the radio host asked if I had interest in eventually directing my own works - especially in light of the direction that "Recipe for Paper" took - i.e. when you hand over control, things can go in a few different directions whereas if you are in charge....you call the shots. My answer was that I prefer working with trusted collaborators as I can't imagine getting involved in everything that interests me. I prioritize. But as I think of the types of staging for this particular work, I can say that I have the experimental and artful qualities of Red Moon, Looking Glass and River Bed Theatre in the back of my mind. But who can say if that will be within our control.