A Dream of Red Mansions by National Ballet of China

The National Ballet of China presents its Singapore premiere of 'A Dream of Red Mansions,' a two-act ballet adaptation of Cao Xueqin's classic novel. The performance traces the romance between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu against the backdrop of the Jia family's rise and fall. Over two hours, the ballet blends classical Western technique with Chinese aesthetic traditions to evoke the story's poetic and dreamlike qualities.

The narrative unfolds through a series of scenes that move between memory, dream, and reality. It begins with Jia Baoyu's journey toward spiritual retreat, surrounded by the souls of flowers representing past lives. The ballet then revisits the childhood intimacy between Baoyu and Daiyu, complicated by the arrival of Xue Baochai and the symbolic matching of their gold and jade locks. As the characters mature, themes of love, duty, and transience emerge—highlighted in scenes such as the reading of 'Romance of the West Chamber' and Daiyu's burial of fallen petals.

Later acts depict the family's unraveling: Baoyu's rebellion leads to punishment, the Jia mansion is searched, and the death of Imperial Concubine Yuan marks a turning point. In a climactic sequence, a marriage intended to heal Baoyu instead reveals his misplaced bride, triggering his final breakdown. The epilogue returns to the boundless field, where Baoyu confronts the ephemeral nature of his experiences, suggesting that love's moment, however fleeting, attains a kind of eternity within the dream.