China News Service, Kaohsiung, March 16th: Title: Youth version of "The Peony Pavilion" returns to Taiwan after 20 years to perform Bai Xianyong: Kun Opera is a touchstone
China News Service reporter Yang Chengchen
Kun Opera's youth version of "The Peony Pavilion" celebrates its 20th anniversary. It will kick off its first Taiwan performance in Kaohsiung on the evening of the 15th with the original cast and original stage design.
It has been 20 years since the youth version of "The Peony Pavilion" premiered in Taipei in 2004, with the well-known Taiwanese writer Bai Xianyong as the chief producer and artistic director.
The play was co-created by Bai Xianyong, the Suzhou Kunqu Opera Theater of Jiangsu Province, and people from the cultural and opera circles on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. In the past 20 years, it has traveled to mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and overseas, and has toured nearly 500 times around the world.
On March 15, the 20th anniversary performance of the youth version of "The Peony Pavilion" kicked off its first performance in Taiwan in Kaohsiung.
The picture shows the show's chief producer and artistic director Bai Xianyong introducing the content of the public rehearsal on the 14th.
Photo by China News Service reporter Yang Chengchen
Selected youth editions of "The Peony Pavilion" are available at a 23% discount, and are divided into three volumes: upper, middle and lower, which will be available to Kaohsiung audiences for three consecutive days from March 15th to 17th.
Bai Xianyong introduced at the public rehearsal on the 14th that this is the first time the play has been staged in Kaohsiung since its premiere 20 years ago.
After that, the Taiwan tour of the youth version of "The Peony Pavilion" will also go to Hsinchu and Taipei.
Before the premiere, the audience lined up to take photos with Bai Xianyong, including many young people.
What makes Bai Xianyong happy is the enthusiasm of Taiwanese college students for "The Peony Pavilion".
On the evening of March 15, the 20th anniversary performance of the youth version of "The Peony Pavilion" kicked off its first performance in Taiwan in Kaohsiung.
Before the performance started, the audience lined up to take photos with Bai Xianyong, including many young people.
Photo by China News Service reporter Yang Chengchen
During the intermission, Dai Wanxuan, an audience member from Kaohsiung, was still not satisfied with the romantic plot of "A Dream in the Garden".
"I came to see the opera because of Teacher Bai, and it was my first time to watch Kun Opera, but the feeling was very shocking. The costumes, monologues, and bridge design all reflect the ultimate beauty of traditional opera." She told a reporter from China News Service, Although I couldn't fully understand the lyrics, the subtitles on both sides of the stage helped me understand.
"I don't think there is a huge difference between the emotions of ancient people and modern people."
"It has been impossible to buy tickets for the Taipei show for a long time." Guo Jinyi, a student majoring in Western classical music who went south from the Taipei University of the Arts to watch the opera, told reporters that he saw the similarities between Chinese and Western classical music in Kun Opera.
"Just as Du Liniang risked her life for love, classical art still exists in the 21st century because the values it conveys resonate with people of ancient and modern times."
"The Peony Pavilion" is a work handed down from generation to generation by Tang Xianzu, a playwright of the Ming Dynasty. It describes the life and death love affair between the lady Du Liniang and the scholar Liu Mengmei.
The creative team of the youth version of "The Peony Pavilion" followed the principle of only deleting but not changing, and used new aesthetics and modern theater concepts to re-present the classic in a youthful and beautiful form.
On March 15, the 20th anniversary performance of the youth version of "The Peony Pavilion" kicked off its first performance in Taiwan in Kaohsiung.
The picture shows Shen Fengying, the actor who plays Du Liniang and Suzhou Kunqu Opera Theater in Jiangsu Province, being interviewed on the 14th.
Photo by China News Service reporter Yang Chengchen
After 20 years, is the youth version of "The Peony Pavilion" still "still youthful"?
Wang Anqi, a supporter of the play and honorary professor of the Department of Drama at National Taiwan University, once explained that youth was what Tang Xianzu pursued when he created "The Peony Pavilion".
The playwright uses the imagery of youth to describe love, hoping to express the protagonist's earnest desire for "full of vitality and free life."
Bai Xianyong said in an interview with China News Service and other media on the 14th that Kun Opera has a 600-year history and can still shine on the stage in the 21st century. The youth version of "The Peony Pavilion" is a touchstone.
"Kun Opera can be like this. Can other splendid cultures in China also find ways to connect tradition with modernity and pass it on? In the past 20 years, we have actually conducted an experiment and achieved good results."
Actors Yu Jiulin and Shen Fengying of Suzhou Kunqu Opera Theater in Jiangsu Province have played Liu Mengmei and Du Liniang from the beginning to the present.
Shen Fengying recalled her 20 years of performance experience to reporters. She said that now she is back to where she started in Taiwan, it feels like she is experiencing the feeling of youth again.
"This is also the feeling that Teacher Bai has always wanted us to find."
On March 15, the 20th anniversary performance of the youth version of "The Peony Pavilion" kicked off its first performance in Taiwan in Kaohsiung.
The picture shows Liu Mengmei and Du Liniang played by actors Yu Jiulin (right) and Shen Fengying (left) of Suzhou Kunqu Opera Theater in Jiangsu Province.
Photo by China News Service reporter Yang Chengchen
"Teacher Bai told us from the beginning that Kunqu opera fans in Taiwan are professional theater fans who bring scripts to the theater." Yu Jiulin said that a good play requires actors and audiences to work together. Every time a performance comes to Taiwan, we can learn from the Taiwanese audience. Get stimulated.
"When we show them the beauty of Chinese classical music and get feedback from them, this is the happiness of being an actor."
The youth version of "The Peony Pavilion" is about to usher in its 500th performance. Bai Xianyong also revealed, "Our 100th and 200th performances are both in Beijing. Beijing has a large audience of ours, and we will also bring the 500th performance in Beijing." Staged in Beijing." (End)