Venue
Dates
Duration
Approximate 160 mins (Intermission Included)About
Synopsis
Conductor
Artist
Presenter
Production: National Centre for the Performing Arts
Composer: Yin Qing
Playwrighst: Huang Weiruo, Dong Ni
Conductor: Lu Jia
Director: Liao Xianghong
Stage Design: Liu Xinglin
Costume Design: Li Ruiding
Music Coach: Huang Xiaoman
Physical Director: Xiao Yanying
Leading Cast: Wang Lida, Wang Hongwei, Wang Li, Sun Li, Wang Zhe, Wang Zenan, Jin Tingting, Wang Hexiang
Chorus: NCPA Chorus
Orchestra: NCPA Orchestra
Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal with the history of over 2500 years is an artificial miracle on par with the Great Wall created by ancient Chinese. The original opera The Ballad of Canal is the first national opera presented by NCPA, in the style of folk singing. It describes the ups and downs of the characters on the canal and their vicissitudes including joys and sorrows, good and evil, life and death, as well as righteousness witnessed by the canal. The show integrates the cream of Chinese cultural essence like opera, folk songs and folk customs, showing the unique artistic texture and charisma of folk operas.
The creation of The Ballad of Canal takes two years. NCPA manages to develop a Chinese opera style different from the Western opera through the sincere and pragmatic artistic practices. The opera has gathered the top creation team in China including: director Liao Xianghong; writers Huang Weiruo and Dong Ni, jointly wrote a touching tearjerker story about Shui Honglian, Qin Xiaosheng and Guan Yanyan; the composer Yin Qing, once Sky Road and Entering a New Era, this time composed the beautiful melodies for the opera; the stage designer Liu Xinglin, presents a wonderful scroll of canal through his creative design. The opera is conducted by Lv Jia, the Chief Conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra of NCPA. Excellent singers like Wang Lida and Wang Hongwei are ready to offer you an opera feast with national aesthetic charms through their amazing performances.
During the Ming Dynasty, scholar Qin Xiaosheng is captured by the police for exposing official's corruption cases in Hangzhou. The folk singer Shui Honglian, resisting being a concubine, also fleeds to the banks of the canal. The two meet up at the sacrifice ceremony for the Dragon King of the river, on a song and dance tournament. They pose as performer on the dragon boat and escape. Qin wears sailor Li Xiaoguan's abandoned uniform and forfeits as a sailor. They take the boat of Zhang Shuiyao and went north along the canal in exile.
Meeting in trouble, they fall in love with each other, but the ship owner Zhang also has vicious love for Shui. Over Suzhou pier, the ship encountered Guan Yanyan, who, due to the romantic sailor Li's tricky plays, gave birth to a child and cried her eyes blind. Zhang convicts Qin to be Li Xiaoguan. To avoid arrestment, Qin has no way to speak up but is forced to live together with Guan. If the truth is told, Guan will resort to suicide; Qin and Shui are in immense grief.
Zhang finds out Qin's true identity and informs the police. In danger and emergence, Shui asks Qin to take Guan, with visual inconveniences, to go first, and leaves behind to stall for time.
Zhang bounds Shui to lure Qin to come back. To save her love, Shui ignites the lamp on board and burns the boat with herself on.
Qin wants to follow Shui away. But Guan asks him to finish the uncompleted cause of Shui, Qin is thus moved.
Qin and Guan come to Beijing and decide to denounce the corrupt officials to the Emperor.
Shui's love, beyond common love of common human beings, makes Qin and Guan find the home of soul of wanderers.
Yin's representative works include songs: Into a New Era, Western Singing, Road to Heaven and Road to Revival with nationwide influence; operas: Daughter of the Party (cooperation with others), ballet music Matsu and The New Fourth Army, The Last Cavalry, Love between the Sea and the Sky, Make a Promise and Village Official Pu Faxing, which are widely acclaimed. He has won the Best Works Award by the Central Publicity Department, the Wenhua Award by the Ministry of Culture, Literature and Art Award of the People's Liberation Army, Gold Works Medal of the Chinese Music Golden Bell Award, China Golden Record Creation Award and other national and PLA awards for over three hundred times. He has served as the music director and art director on several important cultural activities around the country and for the PLA.
Liao Xianghong publishes On Organic Integration of Reproduction and Performance in Director's Artistic Creation and other academic papers with more than 300,000 characters, publishes individual monograph Musical Drama Creation Theory, directs Private Soldiers, Jade Bird Military Depot, Equatorial Rain, Popcorn, Zheng, King of the Qin Dynasty, Optional Topic and many dramas, operas and musical dramas. By virtue of explorations in terms of drama teaching, creation and research, she makes a contribution to cultivation of directing talents and the prosperity of dramatic art in China. She wins the title of "Young Backbone Teacher of Beijing" and the Second Prize of Outstanding Achievements for the Fifth Philosophy and Social Science Research in Beijing. Essentials of Directing, co-edited by her, was appraised as 2008 Quality Teaching Materials for Higher Education. Directing Segments, imparted by her, won Excellent Course Award of the Central Academy of Drama and the First Prize of 2008’ Beijing Teaching Achievements (Higher Education). Directing art lesson Multi-Act Play Rehearsal won 2010 Excellent Course Award of Beijing. She won 2010 Renowned Teacher Award for the Sixth Beijing Colleges and Universities.
His main stage design works include: drama Wilderness, The Sound of the Wind, Brother, Thunderstorm, Butcher, Mother and Popcorn; symphonic drama poem Appeal to Heaven; small theater drama Practicing Love, Love Ants; children's drama Take Greenness Home, Young Pioneers; opera The Chinese Orphan, Song of Youth and Wushan Mountain’s Goddess; ballet Sister Drum and The First Emperor of Qin Dynasty; symphonic opera poem Mei Lanfang; Peking Opera The World's Hearts United as One, Kunqu Opera A Dream of Red Mansions. He has won the second session of Academy Award for the Central Academy of Drama, Best Work Award at the Second Stage Art Exhibition, the Third Chinese Drama Golden Lion Award, Outstanding Award for Stage Design at the 3rd China Peking Opera Festival, Excellent Award for Stage Design at the 6th and 12th Chinese Drama Festival, the 10th Wenhua Award, Outstanding Award for Stage Design at Beijing Theater Drama Performances and International Forum, Excellent Stage Design Award at the excellent children's drama plays and Gold Award at WSD2009.
His works include: Stage Art Optical Illusion, Inspiration of Monet's Impressionist Paintings on the Creation of Stage Lighting, Opera Stage Lighting Creation and other professional papers.
In the decades of her opera career, Huang has been music director and artistic director for many operas, collected dozens of classic operas home and abroad, and also cultivated plenty of artists for the development of opera in China. In 1999, she designed and implemented a concert series of "Chinese and Western Art Songs"; in the same year, was Chief Planner and Artistic Director of a grand concert entitled with "Chinese Heart" held at Tiananmen Square for celebrating the return of Macao. In 2001, in order to bid for 2008 Beijing Olympics, she was Chief Planner and Artistic Director of "The Three Tenors' Beijing Concert" held at the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City, Beijing. Since 2002, she was, four years in a row, one of the judges for CCTV Young Singers Grand Prix Bel Canto Group. She was also Chief Planner for the CCTV grand features To Feel Symphony and About Opera.
Her creative dance masterpieces include: My Father and Mother, Three Friends of Winter, Rain Flower, My Mother, Words of the Lotus Pond and Mark - Yuanmingyuan Palace Capriccio. She participated in the creation of the ballet masterpieces include: Kekexili Diary, The Years of Passion and Shi Guangrong and Me, Ms. Liniang, Love and Hate for the Yuanmingyuan Palace, Dream of Dunhuang, Loss of Love and Dream on the Red Mansions – Mourner for the Soul of Flowers. She participated in the creation of dramas include: original opera of the NCPA Xi Shi, the Beauty, large-scale modern Huangmei Opera stage drama Yan Fengying, large-scale luxury youth version of Kunqu Opeara A Dream of Red Mansions (second half); experimental drama Force of Habit and On the Road. Her works repeatedly won the first creation awards in national competitions and her performances are widely praised by the general audience.
Wang Lida boasts wide range and sweet voice. She devoted to professional learning of Flower Drum Opera over years, which forged solid basic skills. With excellent traditional opera skills and folk singing skills, she successfully plays the role of Jinzi in the opera Savage Land. In the musical drama Qingcheng, she successfully plays the female role of 'Yuxian', who is unanimously praised by the industry. She often participates in national large-scale performances. She successfully held 'Kissing the Motherland—Wang Lida Solo Concert' at Poly Theater in June 2009.
Wang Lida takes a lead in China's new generation of folk song artists. She often wins awards in national-level important vocal events in recent years, such as Gold Award of the 14th National Young Singer TV Grand Prix; Gold Award of the 7th National Vocal Music Golden Bell Award; First Prize of the 8th and the 9th PLA Performing Arts Collective Show; the Most Popular Female Singer of Chinese Folk Song List; and Best Female Singer of 'Gold Horn Award' for Nationwide Audience's Favorite Singers (Folk Singing). In addition to singing, she is always keen on public welfare undertakings, and actively takes part in various public welfare charity performances for donating money and goods to disaster areas and poor areas. She serves as Poverty Alleviation Image Ambassador to China Poverty Alleviation Association, who was conferred with '2010 Green China Annual Highlighted Figure—Public Welfare Figure Award'.
Representative works include: Kissing the Motherland, Blaze Longer and Broader Path Forward, Sleepless Love, Reunion Wine, My Mother Yimeng Mountain, Five Hundred Li, Love Is a Myth, Let Heart Take a Holiday, Love for Motherland, Female Soldier's Call, Tangle, Liuyang River, Fisherwoman on the Yellow River Mother, A Harmonious Big Family and Happiness.
He won the Gold Medal for professional folklore group and the Audience's Favorite Singer Award in the 9th BBK National Young Singer TV Grand Prix; Best Male Folk Singer Award for the China Golden Record Award; Folk Songs Album Award and Folk Song Class Actor Award at the 4th China Golden Record Award; Special Jury Award for the 10th Global Chinese Music Award, the Best Mainland Folk Male Artist Award at the 6th CCTV-MTV Music Festival.
In recent years, Wang has sung Western Singing, Children Traveling Thousands of Miles, Reputation, Homeland Feeling, The Great South, All Dedicated to the CPC, Kashgar Girl and many more outstanding works. He starred in the northern Shaanxi opera Women from Mizhi and Men from Suide, Qinghai huaer drama White Dove and folk opera Xiao Erhei's Marriage. His solo concert was successfully held in Beijing, Ningbo, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Guiyang, Jinan, the Philippines, Singapore, Vienna and a number of cities at home and abroad and has visited the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Philippines, Italy, Austria, Russia, France, Spain, Australia, Belgium, Sweden, Portugal, Brazil, Korea, Indonesia and Hong Kong, Macao and other countries and regions.
He starred in the opera The Wilderness in 2007, playing Jiao Daxing; in 2008 he starred in the opera Yang - The Magnificent Concubine, playing by Tang emperor; in 2009 in cooperation with Peking University Institute of Opera, he starred in the opera Song of Youth at the Peking University Centennial Auditorium, successfully playing the Lu Jiachuan, the male lead role, and in June 2010 at the NCPA Opera Hall he once again successfully starred in the opera. In April 2011 he participated in the new opera Telegraph that Will Never Fade Away rehearsed by the General Political Department Opera to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, in which he portrayed the lead role of Li Xia, in July ,1 in the People's Liberation Army Opera House, the debut was played. In cooperation with the Zheng Xiaoying Opera Center of the Xiamen Philharmonic, in September 2011, he starred in the opera Die Sad and played the role of Juan Sheng. It was successfully staged at the NCPA. He also participated in the new opera of the Opera Research Institute of Peking University in October 2011, Soong Ching Ling, in which he portrayed Chiang Kai-shek. It was staged in Beijing's Tian Qiao Theatre. In November 2011, at the just-concluded the 1st Chinese Opera Festival, he starred Lu Jiachuan in opera Song of Youth and was awarded by the Ministry of Culture of PRC the Outstanding Performance Award.
She is member of the 11th National People's Congress and of the National Youth Federation. She won the Newcomer Award at the Best Works Award; Bel Canto Gold Medal at the 11th National Young Singer TV Grand Prix of CCTV; first prize at the National Art Song Contest by the Ministry of Culture; First Prize at the 8th and 9th PLA Arts Festival Concert; Best Voice Award at the German's New Voices International Vocal Competition; the Best New Artist, Top Ten Singer, Best Female Singer and Most Popular Award for the Favorite Singer for the National Audience Gold Award by the State Administration of Radio. Her singing bass on bel canto and integrated folk and popular tones, combining the traditional beauty of sound and popular elements, forming her glorious, graceful, and stylish singing style, which is closer to life and known as the best of fashion bel canto and the most beautiful voice in China.
Awards and honors: she won the Gold Medal of the 22nd Poland Bydgoszcz International Vocal Competition in 1999; she won the Folk Singing Excellence Award in 2006's 12th CCTV Young Singer TV Grand Prix, in the same year, China Record Corporation issued her solo album In the Mood for Love; she won the 2007 Bronze Award of the 6th China Golden Bell Award Folk Vocal Competition; in the same year she won the Third-Class Merit by the People's Liberation Army General Political Department; she won the Newcomer Award in the Folk Singing Category at the 6th Gold Record Awards in 2008; she won the Second Prize in 2009 for the 9th PLA Arts Festival performance; in 2011 she was the winner of the Bronze Award at the 8th China Golden Bell Award Folk Vocal Competition; in 2010 she participated in the re-rehearsed large-scale music and dance epic Road to Revival by the NCPA and sang The Light of Early Dawn. She played major roles in the operas include: Sister Jiang, Struggle in an Ancient City with Wildfire and Spring Wind, Sunny Snow; in 2011, to celebrate the 90th anniversary of CPC, the General Political Department Opera launched the original opera Telegraph that Will Never Fade Away, in which she played He Lanfen, the female lead role.
China NCPA Orchestra keeps an international standard for its arts quality and management. The musicians are from various countries and regions, and most of them have experience from working or studying in Europe or North America. Many artists have worked with this orchestra, including Maestro Lorin Maazel, Maestro Christoph Eschenbach, and soloists such as Stephen Kovacevich, Wang Yuja, Han-Na Chang, Leo Nucci, etc. Maestro Lorin Maazel has appeared with the orchestra in several operas and concerts, in his view it is 'an excellent, hard-working orchestra with great passion.' The orchestra keeps close working relationships with Maestro Maazel and Maestro Eschenbach.
In 2011, China NCPA Orchestra has won acclaim for its performances in NCPA's new productions of Tosca, The Barber of Seville, Die Fledermaus, and a newly composed opera The Chinese Orphan. At the same time, the orchestra was also deeply involved in NCPA's 2011 Gustav Mahler Cycle. Under the batons of maestros including Christoph Eschenbach, Yoel Levi and Jun Maerkl, the orchestra performed Mahler's Symphonies No. 1, 2, 3, 8 and 10. In this year the orchestra has also performed two concerts of contemporary music, with works from Takemitsu, Giya Kancheli, and a group of young Chinese composers. Mr. Kancheli himself attended the concert featuring his work.
Devoted to educational and outreach activities, China NCPA Orchestra has presented a series of Weekend Matinee Concerts since its establishment. With specially selected repertoire, performances of high quality and extremely low ticket prices, these concerts have won great acclaim from both audience and critics.
In 2012, China NCPA Orchestra will perform in NCPA's productions of The Flying Dutchman and Lohengrin. A notable list of artists including Maestro Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Roger Norrington, Yan Pascal Tortelier, and Rudolf Buchbinder will perform with the orchestra for the first time, and Maestro Christoph Eschenbach will also return to give multiple concerts. Various tours are also under preparation currently.
NCPA aims to build a world-class orchestra with operation and management conforming to global practices while incorporating Chinese characteristics.
The Chorus presented its debut performance in NCPA Opera Festival 2010, and has taken part in and gained critical acclaim from the performances of NCPA's Xi Shi, Carmen, La Traviata, L'elisir d'amore, Turandot, A Village Teacher, Tosca, Die Fledermaus, and The Chinese Orphan. As NCPA's resident chorus, it took part in Turandot (NCPA version) on the tour to Seoul Arts Center in January 2011 and gained high praise.
The Chorus has offered a great number of performances including Road to Revive, To the Music (debut), Roam About the Classics, To Our Motherland-- NCPA Chorus Concert for the Army Day, Arias of Love, Beethoven's ninth symphony, and Mahler's second symphony.
The Chorus has cooperated with top artists like directors Francesca Zambello and Giancarlo del Monaco; conductors Lorin Maazel, Lu Jia, and Li Xincao; singers Inva Mula, Juan Pons,Brandon Jovanovich, Dai Yuqiang, Warren Mok, Zhang Yalun, Zhang Liping, Sun Xiuwei, and Liang Ning. Its over-one-hundred performances have taken an active role in the further development of NCPA.
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Dedicated to the staging of epic operas, ballets and dance dramas, the golden Opera House is considered the centerpiece of the NCPA. Its main tone is golden color, which looks glamorous and splendid. In the auditorium are the stalls and three higher levels of balconies, which can seat an audience of 2,207, including the venue of SRO. It is equipped with a modern stage that can be moved up/down/backward/forward or rotated, a ballet stage that can slant, and a rising orchestra pit for the triple winds orchestra. All the cutting-edge staging mechanism provides artists with enormous possibilities of creative performance.
Dedicated to the staging of epic operas, ballets and dance dramas, the golden Opera House is considered the centerpiece of the NCPA. Its main tone is golden color, which looks glamorous and splendid. In the auditorium are the stalls and three higher levels of balconies, which can seat an audience of 2,207, including the venue of SRO. It is equipped with a modern stage that can be moved up/down/backward/forward or rotated, a ballet stage that can slant, and a rising orchestra pit for the triple winds orchestra. All the cutting-edge staging mechanism provides artists with enormous possibilities of creative performance.