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Shanghai opera festival going more avant-garde

2014-03-14 17:02 Shanghai Daily Web Editor: Si Huan
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The annual festival of traditional operas at the Shanghai Grand Theater includes the country's top-notch artists and new stage creations.

This year, the festival, running from April 12 to 19, will be more avant-garde, with recent experimental works from Taiwan's Guoguang Opera Company.

The company will present a "Chinese Opera Actor Trilogy," including "Meng Xiaodong," "Flowing Sleeves and Rouge" and "One Hundred Years on Stage."

It took the company around five years to produce the trilogy. All the plays, led by famous theater director Max Lee, feature new aesthetics of Peking Opera in music, stage effect and performing style.

"Meng Xiaodong" is about the legendary Peking Opera actress Meng (1908-77) who was well-known for her male roles on stage and romance with her fellow performer Mei Lanfang and gangster Du Yuesheng.

Famous Peking Opera diva Wei Haimin will present different singing styles in the show to portray Meng's life, career and love stories. A band of 60 people from Shanghai Chinese Orchestra will provide live musical accompaniment.

"Flowing Sleeves and Rouge" is a new creation of fantasy and imagination. It was inspired by the ancient Chinese fantasy novel "Romance of the Flowers in the Mirror." Set to the backdrop of an imaginary world of theater, the show tries to explore the essence and vitality of performing arts.

"One Hundred Years on Stage" chronicles the development of Peking Opera over the past century. Classic opera pieces are interwoven in the show to depict different eras from the 1910s to modern China. It also provides insight into the opera's evolution in its vocals and performances, as well as the tough time the art endured during the cultural revolution (1966-1976).

According to Wang An-chi, artistic director of the Guoguang Opera Company, they have made a lot of attempts over recent years to innovate in the art form to increase its appeal to young, white-collar workers.

The company has presented Peking Opera interpretations of contemporary novels from noted writers. Many of the shows have new perspectives and diversified storytelling methods and have been hailed by young people in Taiwan.

"Peking Opera is not just a theater art," says Wang. "It has huge potential to become a vivid modern literary and artistic piece on stage that reflects people's desires, confusion and dilemmas."

• "Meng Xiaodong"

Date: April 12, 7:30pm

• "Flowing Sleeves and Rouge"

Date: April 15-16, 7:30pm

• "One Hundred Years on Stage"

Date: April 18-19, 7:30pm

Venue: Shanghai Grand Theater, 300 People's Ave

Tickets: 80-380 yuan

Tel: 6386-8686

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