San Francisco premiere for opera The Monkey King by Huang Ruo based on Journey to the West

The Monkey King composer, Huang Ruo, was inspired to write the opera to give his children a superhero figure from Asia to look up to

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Costume design for the title role in The Monkey King by Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang, a new opera that will premiere at the San Francisco Opera on November 14, 2025. Image: SFO

Published: 5:15pm, 7 Feb 2025Updated: 10:23pm, 7 Feb 2025

Huang Ruo watched his kids on Halloween during the coronavirus pandemic, his son dressed as Spider-Man and Batman, his daughter as Elsa from Frozen.

“I was just thinking, wouldn’t it be nice to have a superhero figure from Asia so all these kids could have something from that part of the world to wear, to look up to?” the composer said.

He decided to write The Monkey King, based on an episode from the 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West in which a primate born from stone acquires supernatural powers and seeks immortality.

The work, with singing in English and Mandarin, will be given its world premiere by the San Francisco Opera on November 14.

Composer Huang Ruo, whose The Monkey King will premiere at the San Francisco Opera on November 14. Photo: Wenjun Miakoda Liang/San Francisco Opera via AP

David Henry Hwang wrote the libretto for The Monkey King. Photo: Gregory Costanzo

San Francisco Opera general director Matthew Shilvock issued the commission following the success of another work by a Chinese composer, Bright Sheng’s Dream of the Red Chamber, which the company premiered in 2016.