Original production dazzles at China Opera Festival

An effort to tell an original Shenzhen story in the form of Western opera won accolades at the recently concluded Fifth China Opera Festival.

The festival, running between May 9 and last Wednesday in Hangzhou, capital of East China’s Zhejiang Province, presented 24 Chinese operas with 48 performances, including 19 new, original operatic productions.

Alongside Western operas, including Wagner’s “Der fliegende Hollander” and Verdi’s “La Traviata,” and such Chinese operas as “The White-Haired Girl,” “The Love Ballad of Kangding,” and “Li Qingzhao,” Shenzhen’s production “The Pioneers” stood out by telling a contemporary Shenzhen story, where a group of young people go through the ups and downs of life as they try to start up their own businesses and change the world.

The show, co-produced by Shenzhen’s various government departments and the Shenzhen Opera and Dance Theater (SZODT), won an Excellence Award at the festival.

A scene from “The Pioneers” staged at the Fifth China Opera Festival in Hangzhou.Photos courtesy of Shenzhen Opera and Dance Theater

Performed two nights at the Linping Grand Theater in Hangzhou, “The Pioneers” was met by long thunderous applause from the enthusiastic audiences when the crew took their courtesy bow.

“This opera is of typical Shenzhen-style with its dazzling high-tech feel,” a member of the audience said. “Drones fly overhead and an electric bus drives onto the stage; neon lights and all kinds of stunning visual effects convincingly present the modern cityscape of Shenzhen.” He added that it was not just the visuals; the music and performance of the cast were impressive too.

Another member of the audience said she had not expected to see such top-quality performance presented by such a young cast. “It takes time and immense effort to produce an opera. … What these people have accomplished was totally beyond my expectations,” she said.

Opera, hailed as the ultimate art form, has singing, music, drama, and dance, and at its core, an emotional story all tucked into an intense performance of a couple of hours.

During the 150-minute show, audiences saw on the stage such familiar cityscapes as the oceanfront of the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone, the TEUs at Shenzhen ports, the skyline of high-rise buildings in downtown and night skies lit up by drones and lamplights behind the windows of hard-working people.

Incorporating rich elements from contemporary and pop music, the music lingers somewhere between a traditional opera and an operetta. The part for the chorus is experimental at times. The stage set follows the aesthetics of modern simplicity, assisted by dazzling technology.

With veteran director and teacher from the PLA Academy of Arts Huang Dingshan at its helm, the opera had hired veteran writer Zhu Hai to pen the script. Composer and music producer Wu Liqun, known for his soundtracks for movies and TV series including “Saving Mr. Wu” and “Ode to Joy,” composed the music. Choreographer Lin Sen, lighting designer Hu Yaohui, costumes designer Li Ruiding, and acoustics designer Song Duoduo all represent the best in their fields.

A scene from “The Pioneers” staged at the Fifth China Opera Festival in Hangzhou.

The show features a star-studded lineup from the SZODT: tenors Ma Teng and Cai Jiyu, baritones Yuan Shuai and Ji Pengyu, sopranos Tian Siying and Peng Yi, mezzo-soprano Li Ying and musical actor Wang Zhe.

Top Chinese culture and opera researchers convened a seminar at the Grand Canal Theater in Hangzhou on Friday morning to discuss “The Pioneers.” They applauded the production for its innovative stage set with multimedia visuals and bold introduction of a guitarist performing offstage at the side of the audience area that echoes the emotional soliloquy of the actors onstage.

Launched in 2011, the China Opera Festival is held every three years and has taken place at Fujian, Hubei, Jiangsu and Shandong provinces, bringing together Chinese operas and performers. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism, co-organizer of the event, also started a project in 2017 to foster original Chinese opera, which gave birth to many award-winning productions.

Founded in 2018, the SZODT consists of an opera troupe, a dance troupe and a chorus. “The Pioneers” premiered at Shenzhen Poly Theater in June last year.