Famed Japanese theater director Tadashi Suzuki, who is in Taipei to work on a local adaptation of the French novel La Dame aux Camelias, said he will transform the famous story into a musical that will wow audiences with its strong Taiwanese flavor.
La Dame aux Camelias, written by French novelist Alexandre Dumas and published in 1848, follows the life of heroine Marguerite Gautier, a sought-after courtesan in Paris, who leaves her lover Armand Duval rather than see him become a social outcast.
The opera La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi was adapted from the novel.
Suzuki said that instead of using the more familiar opera aria written by Verdi, he has chosen 14 Taiwanese and Mandarin pop songs that will resonate with Taiwanese audiences.
The songs include When Will You Come Again, The Person That I Really Miss and Am I Your True Love, Suzuki said after a short rehearsal in Taipei on Thursday.
“I am always interested in bringing together different cultures and people under a single production,” the 71-year-old director said.
“There will be no fun if a group of similar people come together to do similar things,” Suzuki added.
Suzuki said to add new sparkle to the famous love story, in his version of La Dame aux Camelias he combines the French script with local pop music and places a cast of Taiwanese actors in a modern European set.
He described the relationship between Marguerite and Armand as a dramatic love story that ultimately leads to death or a nervous breakdown, since it is extremely difficult to overcome social class barriers.
Suzuki is a powerhouse of Japanese theater and the founder of the Suzuki method of acting, which emphasizes foot movements and breathing, that lead to a release and channeling of “animal energy.”
Weng Ning-chien (翁寧謙) and Chou Ming-yu (周明宇), who play the lead roles in the production, spent a month training in Japan last year with Suzuki’s troupe to become acquainted with his special methods.
La Dame aux Camelias is being staged at the National Theater from Feb. 10 to Feb. 13 as part of the this year’s Taiwan International Festival of Arts, before it shifts to the Chihshan Hall in Kaohsiung on Feb. 19 and Feb. 20.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
RSS