The Silver River (1997) is an American chamber opera in one act, with music composed by Bright Sheng, and a libretto by the playwright David Henry Hwang.
[2] His nightmare comes true when the mortal Cowherd (also known as Buffalo Boy in China)[3] falls in love with the immortal Goddess-Weaver.
When love distracts the Goddess-Weaver from her duty to spin the stars of heaven, the skies begin to darken.
In this version, her father the Jade Emperor turns the Silver River into a barrier separating heaven and earth.
The lovers' grief is so great that chaos reigns until the Jade Emperor allows the lovers to meet each other once a year (the seventh day of the seventh moon of the lunar calendar) on the banks of the Silver River.