Tea (2005)

Directed by: Frank Scheffer | 90 minutes | documentary | Starring: Tan Dun, Pierre Audi, Xu Ying

The documentary ‘Tea’ is about the significance of tea in Eastern culture and about Tan Dun’s opera of the same name. We hear the people involved about both the music and the drink and we see some images from China: a waterfall, a tea ceremony and a beautiful puppet show. In addition, we are treated to relatively long fragments from the opera. And that’s a best treat.

Like the opera itself, the documentary consists of a combination of words, images and music. Unfortunately, the words are often hard to grasp for a sober Westerner. Tea is the mirror of the soul, the heart is bigger than the universe and more such Eastern wisdom. Composer Tan Dun especially likes it, but his librettist also often speaks in riddles. It is a pity that we do not get a clear explanation, because the words about yin and yang, Taoism and tea seem interesting.

The images already make up for a lot. Scheffer has paid a lot of attention to the colors and that often produces wonderful images. Chinese waterfalls, a rower ambushed by a rain shower, tea leaves in a bowl. Only the man who performs a tea ceremony more slowly than slowly gets on the nerves and the whole thing sometimes looks more like a magic act than anything else. We had already understood from the words that the tea ceremony is a matter of control and balance, the images add little to this.

Then there is the opera and judging by the fragments in the documentary, it is truly fabulously beautiful. Tan Dun’s music sounds pleasantly old-fashioned and is remarkably accessible. Few dissonances, warm melodies and an extremely colorful and imaginative orchestration. The images of the singers, at the peak of their concentration, are fascinating and the lighting also looks picobello. It is therefore mainly the opera fragments that last the longest and that make the documentary ‘Tea’ a fascinating spectacle. But more suitable for opera lovers than for tea lovers.