With the latest installment of Taipei Li-Yuan Peking Opera Theatre’s (台北新劇團) New Old Operas (新老戲) series, the company continues its efforts not just to reinvent Beijing opera for a new generation, but also to get dyed-in-the-wool traditionalists to reassess the art form.
In this year’s program of four operas, titled Li Baochun Plays Beijing Opera Classics (李寶春精演新老戲), director Vivien Ku (辜懷群) says one of the works will be unfamiliar to even the most avid theatergoer.
That’s not because the story is a contemporary reinvention of Beijing opera, but because it is a rediscovered work that had languished in dusty libraries for decades.
Photo Courtesy of Koo’s Foundation
“It still has a great story to tell,” Ku says.
Based on an incident from the The Three Kingdoms (三國) period, an era of Chinese history well-known to movie buffs, computer gamers and literary connoisseurs, The Battle of Weinan (渭南之戰), which will round off the four opera series on April 17, was planned by Li Shaochun (李少春), father of Li Baochun (李寶春), the leading performer and artistic director of the Taipei Li-Yuan Peking Opera Theatre.
According to Ku, The Battle of Weinan fell out of the Beijing opera repertoire because it is technically difficult, requiring two male leads, both proficient in martial and civil roles, who are equally commanding on stage.
Photo Courtesy of Koo’s Foundatio
“Male leads who are proficient in both martial and civil roles are few enough, but to get two of them onto the same stage is a real feat,” Ku says.
The story of The Battle of Weinan focuses on a delicate strategic situation in which the great general Cao Cao (曹操) seeks to cause dissension between general Ma Chao (馬超), who holds the upper hand in a conflict in the autumn of 211 AD, and his subordinate Han Sui (韓遂). This is a martial epic, but intrigue plays a major role, and the characters’ abilities to express inner turmoil as well as outward martial valor are integral to the show’s success.
With the multitalented Li taking on the role of Han and guest performer Tian Lei (田磊), winner of the coveted Plum Blossom Award (梅花獎) for Beijing Opera and stalwart of the Fujian Province Beijing Opera Company (福建京劇院), in the role of Ma, dramatic tension is created as two generals make decisions that will change the direction of Chinese history. The Battle of Weinan will be performed on April 17 at 2:30pm.
The three other operas in this program are also well worth watching. The series opens on April 14 with Scholar of Bashan (巴山秀才), which has won numerous awards in China since it was first released in Taiwan in 2003. Adapted by the company from a Sichuan opera, it has since become a classic of the Taipei Li-Yuan Peking Opera Theatre. Accompanying Li in the production is the highly regarded young talent Wang Yan (王豔).
The two other shows include The Phoenix Returns to Her Nest (鳳還巢), in which troupe regular Huang Yu-lin (黃宇琳) drops her usual youthful zest for a more demure role, “in order to push her,” Ku says.
The final part of the program is Turbulence Over Duanmi Stream (斷密澗風雲), a fusion of two well-known Beijing opera segments.
Taipei Li-Yuan Peking Opera Theatre is famous for its faith in the conventions of Beijing opera, but while it stands firmly with the forces of tradition, it has never feared to play with new ideas.
Li Baochun Plays Beijing Opera Classics is a superficially conventional program, but it combines a revival of a lost classic with fusions and reworkings of established repertory pieces, and programming that pushes local performers beyond their comfort zones as well as introduces outstanding performers from China.
Li’s move to the big auditorium of the National Theater for this program (from the excellent but much smaller Novel Hall venue) means many more seats are available for the often sold-out performances of this series.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist