10/6/2025 –

Over the past two years, Xavier has been developing his first opera: The Dutch Mandarin, a groundbreaking opera that aims to bridge Chinese and Dutch culture through the fusion of Peking Opera and Western opera. In this innovative stage work, Dutch diplomat Robert van Gulik (1910 – 1967), known for his detective novels Judge Dee and academic research in the field of sinology, and his wife Shui Shifang 水世芳 (1915 – 2005) take centre stage.

Robert arrived in 1943 in Chongqing as a junior diplomat for the Dutch State, where he soon met his spouse-to-be Shui Shifang. Under the pressure of war and while navigating intricate family relations, their love manages to blossom. The three act opera, accompanied by an orchestra consisting of both Western and Chinese instruments, explores cultural and philosophical differences between Chinese and Dutch culture. Apart from the instrumentation, unique about The Dutch Mandarin is the use of various Peking Opera roles as well as Western opera roles, thus not only thematically but also musically blending two vastly different traditions.

After a rigorous selection process and panel interview, Xavier’s application for funding from the Shanghai Cultural Development Foundation was approved, allowing him to do further research into the field of Peking Opera, develop the script, conduct expert interviews and field research in both Chongqing and Leiden, where the personal archive of Robert van Gulik is hosted. The Dutch Mandarin had previously obtained support from major figures in the classical music industry such as Detlev Glanert and Magnus Lindberg, the Van Gulik family as well as the Dutch and Chinese embassies.