Zhou Long's Madame White Snake wins Pulitzer Prize
21 April 2011, New York, US
Composer, Zhou Long
An opera by the Chinese-born US composer, Zhou Long, has been awarded this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Madame White Snake was described by the Pulitzer Prize judges as “a deeply expressive opera that draws on a Chinese folk tale to blend the musical traditions of the East and the West”.
Commissioned by Opera Boston, Madame White Snake received its world premiere in Boston last February, followed by its Asian premiere in Beijing during October. Marking an important watershed in US-Chinese cultural relations, this was the first opera to be presented in China by an American company for more than 20 years.
Speaking to The Boston Globe by phone from his home in Kansas City, Missouri, Zhou said that the prize is "really something heavyweight to me. I have been working very hard to blend the East and the West for years and I feel this has been recognized."
