Theater
Freeze 2006 (統統不許動 — 豬探長秘密檔案2006版) by the If Kids Children's Theater Group (如果兒童劇團), is the group's annual large-scale children's performance and follows the troupe's success last year. The show has been updated and developed, and children who enjoyed it last year are likely to find plenty to thrill them in the new performance. At the National Theater, Taipei. Tickets are NT$300 to NT$1,000 and are available through NTCH ticketing.
* Tonight and tomorrow at 7:30pm, tomorrow and Sunday at 10:30am and 2:30pm
PHOTO: TAIPEI DANCE CIRCLE
China Peking Opera Theater (于魁智領銜 — 中國京劇院名角名劇大匯演) once again brings the cream of China's operatic talent to Taipei to show off their moves. This is an unparalleled banquet of classic operas, and the presence of Yu Kueizhi, a multi-award-winning star of the Beijing opera firmament, is likely to prove a huge success with local opera fans. At the National Theater, Taipei. Tickets are NT$300 to NT$3,000 and are available through NTCH ticketing.
* Daily from Tuesday until Aug. 27 at 7pm with shows at 2:30pm on Aug. 26 and Aug. 27
Wild Beat (狂擊), a performance to celebrate the eighth anniversary of the Sun Son Theater (身聲演繹社), will take place at the Performing Arts Hall of the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Taoyuan County Government (桃園縣政府文化局演藝廳) next week. The event presents the wealth of Sun Son's experience in percussion. The Taoyuan County Cultural Center is located at the Performing Arts Hall of the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Taoyuan County Government, 21 Hsianfu Rd, Taoyuan County (桃園縣縣府路21號). Tickets are NT$200 and NT$300 and are available through NTCH ticketing. More information can be found at the troupe’s Web site at www.sunsontheater.com.tw.
* Aug. 25 at 7:30pm and Aug. 26 at 2:30pm
Classical Music
Taishin Arts Center Lunchtime Concert (台新金控藝文中心午間音樂會) will be held at the Taishin Arts Center (台新金控藝文中心) today from 12:30pm to 1:30pm. Part of Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture's summer program, this concert is the last of a series of six lunchtime concerts. The trio — Violinist Frank Lu (盧耿鋒), cellist Lu Chao-lun (呂超倫), and pianist Kuo Tsung-han (郭宗瀚) — will play Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in C Minor, Op.66 and Dvorak’s Piano Trio in E Minor “Dumky,” Op. 90. The Dumky is the last and best-known of Dvorak's piano trios, and the word means “a fleeting thought.” This trio departs from the typical form of piano trios in that it does not contain a movement in sonata form or one consisting of variations. Rather, it is suffused with the simple beauty and colorful quality of folk song and dance, yet the melodies are Dvorak's own.
* At the Taishin Arts Center, 2F, 118 Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei (台北市仁愛路四段118號2樓)
* Free admission
* Today at 12:30pm
Tsai Shih-hung Guitar Concert — Impressionist Paris (蔡世鴻吉他音樂會 — 印象巴黎) will be held at the Chihshan Hall, National Chiang Kai-shek Cultural Center, Kaohsiung City (高雄中正文化中心至善廳) tonight. Tsai became the first Taiwanese to study classical guitar at the Association Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris. Tsai will be joined by the Kaohsiung Guitar Association Ensemble and the Wu Hsueh-wu and Da Mao Jazz Guitar Duo, and cellist Lu Chao-lun (呂超倫), a graduate of the Juilliard School. The focus of the program is impressionistic musical works on the theme of Paris.
* The Chihshan Hall, National Chiang Kai-shek Cultural Center, Kaohsiung City, 67 Wufu 1st Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市五福一路67號)
* Tickets range from NT$300 to NT$500 and are available through ERA ticketing
* Tonight at 7:30pm
Sisters Lin Yi-chen and Lin Mei-chun Concert (林沂蓁與林玫君雙姝音樂會) will be held at the National Concert Hall tonight. The two sisters currently study conducting at Vienna University of Music. At the same time, they continue their violin and piano studies. In this concert, the two Lins will play violin and piano interchangeably. The program will include Brahms's Sonata in A Major, Op.100, Debussy's La plus que lente, Paganini’s Plapiti, Op.13, Chausson's Poeme, Op.25, Lutoslawsky's Subito, Kreisler's Liebesleid, and Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen, Op.20 and Carmen Fantasy, Op.25.
* At the National Concert Hall, Taipei
* Tickets are NT$400 to NT$1,000 and are available through NTCH ticketing
* Tonight at 7:30pm
EVA Airways Mid-Summer Family Fun Concert: Hello Kitty — A Tale of Joyful Hearts (長榮航空仲夏親子音樂會 — Hello Kitty 心之花物語) will be staged at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (國父紀念館) on Sunday. The family concert is the first Hello Kitty concert in the world and will take to the stage at 2:30pm and 7:30pm. Conducted by Lin Tien-chi (林天吉), the concert will include musical works on the theme of Hello Kitty Show. For more information on this concert, please visit ESO's Web site at www.orchestra.evergreen.com.tw.
* Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, 2F, 505, Renai Rd, Sec 4, Taipei (台北市仁愛路四段505號2樓)
* Tickets cost from NT$300 to NT$1,000 and available through ERA ticketing
* Sunday at 2:30pm and 7:30pm
Asian Youth Orchestra (AYO) 2006 Tour Concert (亞洲青年管絃樂團2006巡迴音樂會) will be presented at the National Concert Hall on Tuesday and Wednesday. This year, Taiwanese talent has filled 27 highly coveted places in the 100-member Asian Youth Orchestra. Sponsored by Taipei Philharmonic Foundation for Culture and Education (TPF) and Taipei Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, these young Taiwanese musicians are able to perform with other young musicians from other Asian nations and give two concerts in Taipei as part of their Asian tour. Conducted by Okko Kamu and accompanied by soprano Ida Falk Winland, the Tuesday's concert will feature Mozart's Symphony No.25, K.183, selections of Mozart's arias, and Mahler's Symphony No.4. Richard Pontzious will conduct and violinist Stefan Jackiw will play in the Wednesday concert, which will include Hanson's Symphony No.2, Barber's Violin Concerto, and Dvorak's Symphony No.9. For more information, please visit TPF Web site at www.tpf.org.tw.
* At the National Concert Hall, Taipei
* Tickets are NT$300 to NT$1,500 and are available through ERA ticketing
* Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30pm
Contemporary
Underworld (地下社會) presents Celluloid (賽璐璐) and Stocking Lady (絲襪小姐) tomorrow.
* Doors open at 8pm and the show starts at 9pm.
* Entrance costs NT$300 at the door.
* B1, 45 Shida Rd, Taipei (台北市師大路45號B1). Call (02) 2369-0103.
Eslite Music Store will host a free performance by 1976, an alt-rock band favored by Taiwan's “artsy” youth on Sunday at 4pm in the new Eslite in Taipei's Xinyi District.
* 11, Songgao Rd, Xinyi District, Taipei (台北市信義區松高路11號).
Bliss will host The Big Brass Balls' last concert. Brian Colhoun, the band's singer and guitarist, is moving to Paris, and band member Tom Squires has joined Neon.
* The gig begins at 9:30pm tonight.
* Cover charge is NT$200.
* 148 Xinyi Rd Sec 4, Taipei (台北信義路四段148號). Call (02) 2702-1855 or visit www.blisstaipei.com.
The Living Room (小客廳) presents The Originals with special guest Masa from Japan tomorrow. Expect mash-up tracks from the 1980s interspersed with drunken on-stage shenanigans. On Sunday the venue hosts Mingle and Homa (後馬樂隊), on Wednesday 831 (八三夭) and Water (水) and on Thursday Milestone (里程碑樂團) and The Stage.
* Tomorrow’s concert begins at 9:30pm, Tuesday's and Wednesday’s at 8:30pm and Thursday’s at 9pm.
* Entrance for tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday is NT$400, and NT$350 on Thursday
* 3F, 8 Nanjing E Rd, Sec 5, Taipei (台北市南京東路五段8號3樓). Call (02) 8787-4154 or visit www.livingroomtaipei.com
Exhibitions
MOCA Studio: Bringing to View the Invisible Spectacle (MOCA Studio: 凝視著,卻看不見的光景). A versatile artist also well known in the fields of biology and optics, Hashimoto Norihisa introduces to local viewers the Panorama Ball, a globe made from a 360-degree panoramic, digitally-processed image taken from various urban locations, as well as his works Zerographs and Life-Size. By creating a new way of seeing the ubiquitous yet neglected objects of our daily lives, the artist reminds viewers that there is a lot more happening beyond our vision, which is limited to our consciousness.
* Museum of Contemporary Art (台北當代藝術館), 39 Changan W Rd, Taipei (台北市長安西路39號). Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm. Call (02) 2552-3721.
* Until Sept. 3
The Beauty of Painting and Calligraphy in Album Leaves (冊頁書畫之美特展), a special exhibition on Chinese album leaves selected from the museum's collection. A popular way to mount art works besides hanging scrolls, a typical album consists of leaves, and its small size allows works of painting and calligraphy to be appreciated at a single glance. The exhibition features various shaped album leaves divided into three types of mounting: push-awning (vertical), butterfly (horizontal) and sutra-fold (accordion).
* National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院), 221 Zhishan Rd Sec 2, Taipei (台北市至善路二段221號). Open Monday to Sunday from 9am to 3pm. Call (02) 2881-2021
* Until Aug. 25
Chinese Fan Art Exhibition (扇面藝術展), featuring 20 fans selected from the museum's collection adorned with paintings and calligraphy by contemporary artists. Compared to scrolls and album leaves, fans serve as a distinctive medium for artistic expression: with two-sides and limited space.
* National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館), 49 Nanhai Rd, Taipei (台北市南海路49號). Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm. Call (02) 2361-0270.
* Until Oct. 1
To Fly — Special Exhibition on Glass, Artist Robin Cass (想飛 — 美國玻璃藝術家羅蘋凱斯特展), featuring the American artist's latest Bird series that fuses glass with metal to create semi-abstract portraits of birds and their surroundings in free-floating lines. Cass believes her works are all part of an ongoing project to explore how human being experiences the material world and grasp a sense of existence in such interactions. The exhibition includes a series of hands-on workshops and lectures on glass art held by the artist at the museum.
* Tittot Glass Museum (璃園水晶博物館), 16, Ln 515, Zhongyang N Rd, Taipei (台北市中央北路四段515巷16號). Open Tuesday to Sunday from 9am to 5pm. Call (02) 2895-8861.
* Until Dec. 15
Manga In and Out (漫搞Manga), featuring works by seven local artists who dissect and study the texture and sensibility of our hyper-realistic world based on the quixotic universe of manga.
* VT Artsalon (非常廟藝文空間), B1, 47, Yitong St, Taipei (台北市伊通街47號B1). Open Monday to Sunday from 8pm to 3am. Call (02) 2516-1060.
* Until Sept. 22
Upcoming
Westlife, the squeaky clean boy band made up of pretty boys Shane Filan, Nicky Byrne, Bryan McFadden, Mark Feehily, and Kian Egan is scheduled to perform at Taipei International Convention Center (台北國際會議中心) on Sept. 10 at 7:30pm. The band's first single Flying Without Wings, released in 1999, went straight into the British pop charts at number one. The quintet repeated that success with Seasons in the Sun and Swear It Again in 2000. Westlife has racked up an impressive 13 number one hits in the UK, which puts the Irish lookers in the annals of pop history just behind Elvis and The Beatles. Tickets for the performance cost from NT$1,000 to NT$3,500 and can be purchased through ERA ticketing outlets. Call (02) 2341-9898 or visit www.ticket.com.tw. The Irish band has, unlike many of its peers such as Take That, proven its staying power and still attracts hordes of young female admirers to its gigs. The convention center is located at 1 Xinyi Rd Sec 5, Taipei (台北市信義路五段1號).
Taipei Dance Circle (光環舞集) brings founder Liou Shaw-lu's (劉紹爐) award-winning 1994 piece Olympics (奧林匹克) to Taiwan for a nationwide tour starting next month. In May, the company brought Olympics to a number of smaller venues around the island prior to touring Europe, and will this time start with a performance in the capital, followed by out-of-the-way venues such as Kinmen and Penghu. The idea behind Olympics is dance as a sports event. The dancers glide like skaters and skiers, tumble and turn like gymnasts and wade through the air as if they were synchronized swimmers. The tour begins Sept. 1 at Taipei’s Metropolitan Hall (城市舞台), 25 Bade Rd Sec 3, Taipei (台北市八德路三段25號) with two performances, for which tickets cost NT$300 to NT$1,000.
* Tickets for performances in Keelung (Sept. 9), Ilan (Oct. 14), Tainan (Oct. 28) and Miaoli (Nov. 3) are NT$200 and NT$300, and performances in Kinmen (Sept. 15) and Penghu (Sept. 30) are free. Tickets can be purchased through NTCH ticketing or by visiting www.taipei-dance-circle.com.tw.
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