Festival pays tribute to original Chinese theater productions

Peking Opera performer Wang Peiyu, renowned for her laosheng old male roles, will present her production, Luan Tan, on March 26, which will focus on musicians who play at Peking Opera performances. [Photo Provided to China Daily]

The Tianqiao Performing Arts Center has just launched its Spring For Chinese Arts, an annual festival which pays tribute to original Chinese theater productions.

Shanghai-based Kunqu Opera singer Zhang Jun kicked off the festival - which runs till May - with his Kunqu Opera piece, Spring Moonlit Night, on March 17.

Inspired by Blossoms On A Spring Moonlit Night, a work by Zhang Ruoxu, a poet from the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the Kunqu Opera production, which features Zhang Jun as the producer and lead performer is a love story transcending life and death.

This year, the festival, which is in its second edition, will feature 10 stage productions covering the theater, musicals, and contemporary dance.

Like Zhang Jun's Spring Moonlit Night, the productions aim to keep traditional art forms alive while introducing contemporary aesthetics in the performances.

Meanwhile, Peking Opera performer Wang Peiyu, renowned for her laosheng (old male) roles, will present her production, Luan Tan, on March 26, which will focus on musicians who play at Peking Opera performances.

The production, split into three parts - solo instrumental music, ensemble music and singing - will introduce the exponents of traditional Chinese instruments, such as the erhu, the sanxian (a three-stringed Chinese lute), the gong and the ruan (a plucked string instrument), to the audience.

Speaking about the show and what it aims to project, Wang, who is a singer with the Shanghai Jingju Theater Company, says: "In Peking Opera performances, the singers are the stars. And the musicians performing by the side of the stage are usually ignored. I want to showcase these musicians and their instruments, which are vital for Peking Opera."

Wang says she came up with the idea of the performance about a year ago and was able to bring it to life with the help of her classmates from the Shanghai Theater Academy - composer Lin Yuan and san xian player Zhou Yi. The production premiered in Shanghai in August 2016.