The Taipei Symphony Orchestra (台北市立交響樂團, TSO) has returned to the National Theater this week to mount its annual opera production, which this year is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (尤金‧奧涅金).
The three-act lyric opera, which premiered in 1879, is based on Alexander Pushkin’s verse novel of the same name, and tells the story of Onegin, who coldheartedly spurns the love of a shy girl, Tatyana (his best friend’s fiancee), kills the friend in a duel and then spends years traveling abroad in the hope of escaping his remorse. When he returns home, he finds Tatyana is now married to a wealthy prince; she refuses to leave her husband even though she is still in love with Onegin.
Tchaikovsky did not try to tell the full story in the opera, but selected what he felt were the key chapters, leaving the audience to make the connections.
Photo courtesy of TSO
The TSO production has been directored by Frenchman Marc Adam, the artistic director of the Nice Opera House, with the sets and stage designs by Tsai-Hsiu-chin (蔡秀錦), while the orchestra and Taipei Symphony Orchestra Chorus will be under the baton of Hungarian conductor Domonkos Heja.
There are about 170 seats left for tonight’s show and just over 100 left for Sunday.
■ The shows are at 7:30pm tonight and 2:30pm on Sunday at the National Theater (國家戲劇院), 21-1 Zhongshan S Rd, Taipei City (台北市中山南路21-1號)
■ The only tickets left are in the NT$2,000 and NT$2,500 categories, available at NTCH box offices, online at www.artsticket.com.tw and at convenience store ticketing kiosks
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
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
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