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The joint project of Gorillaz artists Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, Monkey: Journey to the West is a circus opera that will make its United States debut May 22 at the 2008 Spoleto Music Festival USA. Monkey is described as a “circus opera for the twenty-first century,” combining the visual and physical feats of Cirque de Soleil with the vocal stylings of the world’s finest opera singers. The show first premiered at the Manchester International Festival in June 2007 as the opening performance.
Monkey: Journey to the West is based on one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese Literature. The novel tells the story of a legendary Buddhist monk’s pilgrimage to retrieve religious texts and its Chinese folklore and mythology are still prevalent in Chinese folk religions of this day. The Monkey circus opera is an adaptation, following the story of The Monkey King, an ape who becomes immortal after rebelling against heaven.
Monkey: Journey to the West is Albarn and Hewlett’s first collaboration since Gorillaz, a virtual band formed in 1998 by the pair, featuring four band members who were animated through comic books and video. The group’s first album, Gorillaz (2001), sold over seven million copies, earning the band a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s most successful virtual band. The most recent Gorillaz album was 2007’s D-Sides.
The Spoleto Music Festival USA is a 17-day festival of the arts in Charleston, South Carolina, held May 23-June 8 of this year.
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