Scenes from Chinese opera,
Border Town. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Chinese opera, Border Town, made its premiere at China National Opera House in Beijing on Oct 28. With three shows, the opera attracted over 3,000 audiences in three days.
Adapted from the 1934 novella with the same title by the noted Chinese writer Shen Congwen (1902-88), the Chinese opera was performed by the symphony orchestra of China National Opera House under the baton of conductor Yuan Ding, featuring soprano Lei Jia as the lead role.
The setting is Fenghuang county, an idyllic rural area in the far west of Hunan province. Lei plays the role of a young woman, named Cuicui, who lives with her grandfather. Her family makes a living by operating a ferryboat across a river outside the small town of Chadong.
Scenes from Chinese opera,
Border Town. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Cuicui, who is coming of age, begins to feel the first romantic love. However, while falling in love with a young man named Nuosong, Cuicui realizes that Nuosong's brother, Tianbao, also falls for her. She struggles among her love, family duty, and doubts about what the future might bring.
The Chinese opera stays loyal to the novella. Besides telling the romance, it also portrays the beautiful small town in Hunan, against a backdrop of local customs and traditions.
Chinese composer Yin Qing adapted local folk songs into his own composition when he traveled to Tujia and Miao autonomous prefecture, Hunan province, along with the creative team members of the opera, such as director Wang Xiaoying, scriptwriter Feng Baiming and Lei, back in 2014. Traditional Chinese musical instruments, such as bamboo flute and Chinese percussions, are used in the opera
Chinese soprano Lei Jia (second from the right) has been traveling to Tujia and Miao autonomous prefecture, Hunan province, to learn folk songs from local people since 2014 for the Chinese opera
Border Town.[Photo provided to China Daily]
Born and raised in Hunan, Lei has been influenced early by folk songs, thanks to the rich ethnic cultures of her hometown, Yiyang, in the north of Hunan.
She says this opera means a lot to her personally since she also worked as the opera's artistic director.
"We've traveled to Hunan several times during the past eight years to prepare for the opera. The local people are connected to the nature closely since they live in the mountains and their houses are located near the river. We wanted to tell the poetic and romantic story by Shen through the opera as well as presenting the rural idyll that forms the backdrop to this story to the audience," says Lei.
Scenes from Chinese opera,
Border Town.[Photo provided to China Daily]
