Musical feast of Chinese opera

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(Shanghai Daily) 16:52, August 16, 2013

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Musical scores of traditional Chinese operas are beautiful and sentimental. Tonight and tomorrow night, two concerts of the most well-known traditional Chinese opera scores will be presented at Yifu Theater.

The concert will be performed by musicians from Kunqu Opera, Peking Opera, Huju Opera, Yueju Opera and Huaiju Opera, gathering for the first time.

The repertoire includes scores for classic excerpts from Peking Opera “Farewell, My Concubine,” Yueju Opera “A Dream of Red Mansions” and Kunqu Opera “The Peony Pavilion.” Popular musical ballads of the Shanghai regional Huju Opera and Huaiju Opera from Jiangsu Province will also be performed.

Renowned conductor and composer Qu Chunquan will be the concert’s conductor. Modern musical elements will also be added to the musical scores, most of which were created many decades ago.

Shanghai Center of Chinese Operas, the concert’s organizer, also aims to develop it into an annual program to foster a lot more fans of traditional Chinese opera.

“Music is a universal language,” says Liang Hongjun, a planner of the concert.

“The development of traditional Chinese opera can’t be achieved without the widespread influence of music,” Liang said.

“The performance is also a blend of varied musical elements including traditional opera music, Chinese folk music and modern Western music.”

（Editor：LiXiang、Chen Lidan）