The Transtextual Gender Construction in the Opera Madame White Snake

The opera Madame White Snake (hereafter Madame), co-commissioned by Opera Boston and BeijingMusic Festival, premiered at Boston Cutler Majestic Theater in February 2010. It was the firstcommissioned opera by Opera Boston.1 Based on the story from the famous Chinese ancient myth Bai SheZhuan 2 (in Chinese: 白蛇传), this opera’s libretto was created by a Singaporean American librettist, whohas shed the story’s “traditional skin and taking on modern trappings” (Smith, 2019: 27) on purpose.When sniffing at male librettists’ discourses about female characters’ vulnerable and tragic lives in theiroperas, opera Madame’s initiator and librettist Cerise Lim Jacobs argues that women should seize theinitiative to make their own decisions in life. The white snake, in her mind, ought to be a whole womanwho is powerful and demonic, and yet, is also nurturing and caring, is capable of deep and intense love.In the first section of this article, I introduce the original legend’s background and the story outline in itsoperatic adaptation; I also trace back the opera’s commissioning process. After providing the backgroundinformation of the story and the operatic version, then, in the second section I analyze the opera in terms ofits transtextual figural gender construction in her characterization through comparative studies of the whiteand green snakes’ images from the sources of literary works, traditional xiqu scripts and operatic librettos.Referring to Lim’s personal growth and migrating history, as well as she and her husband co-foundedcharitable foundation’s missions and its recent IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) opera grantprogram partnering with Opera America, I aim to examine her gender construction of the “female” roles inthe opera from the perspectives of feminism, interracial marriage; and heterosexual, transsexual, andhomosexual relationships.