ANALYSIS    AIR DATE: Sept. 4, 2003  Madame Mao at the Opera
Jeffrey Brown looks at the opening of "Madame Mao," a new opera
performed this summer in Santa Fe.  SINGING: I am the wife of
Mao Zedong I loved my husband...  JEFFREY BROWN: In Santa Fe
recently, the opening of a new opera, "Madame Mao." She was, at
one time, the most powerful and feared woman in China, but early
in the opera, she stands accused as a traitor?  SINGING: Shut
up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Confess! Confess! Honor
the name of Chairman Mao!  JEFFREY BROWN: Jiang Ching-- the real
woman known as Madame Mao-- was in fact tried in Beijing in
1976, one of the so-called "Gang of Four" who tried and failed
to take power after the death of her husband, Mao Zedong. Born
into poverty near shanghai in 1914, she was beautiful and
ambitious. An actress already twice married when she met the
older, married revolutionary leader Mao in 1938. In the 1960s
she emerged as a leader of the Cultural Revolution. Western
thought and culture were pu