The Taipei Symphony Orchestra’s (台北市立交響樂團) production of Verdi’s Aida at the Taipei Arena (台北小巨蛋) opens on Oct. 23, with a second performance on Oct. 25. Salvatore Licitra, who was originally to perform the role of Radames, died earlier this month as a result of a traffic accident. He will be replaced by tenor Mario Malagnini, a winner of the Tito Gobbi Competition, the Belvedere Competition and other prestigious awards. He will be supporting soprano Isabelle Kabatu in the title role, with mezzo-soprano Rossana Rinaldi as Amneris, counter tenor Juan Pons and bass Giacomo Prestia. Ticket sales have resumed after temporarily being halted following the news of the tenor’s death. Tickets are NT$500 to NT$4,800 and are available through NTCH ticketing, online at www.artsticket.com.tw, by calling (02) 3393-9888, or at 7-Eleven ibon kiosks. Because of the change in lineup, refunds without deduction can be obtained by calling NTCH ticketing during office hours (Taipei office: 02-3393-9888) or at the ticketing office of the National Theater or the National Concert Hall.
Photo courtesy of TSO
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless