To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, the NCPA launches a compilation album called NCPA Featured Commissions, which demonstrates the century-long struggle of the CPC and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through artworks that match the aesthetic needs of contemporary audiences.
The compilation includes five classic NCPA commissions, namely Visitors on the Snow Mountain, FANG Zhiming, The Long March, Jinsha River, and The Railway to Tibet, which reflect the artistic pursuit and standards of the NCPA’s productions in performance planning, line-up and presentation. The album is published together with a score collection, A Collection of Featured Choruses from NCPA Opera Commissions.
Visitors on the Snow Mountain
In 1963, the film Visitors on the Snow Mountain became an instant hit among audiences nationwide upon its release. Its theme songs, Remembrance of My Comrades and Why Are the Flowers So Red, have become household favorites that are pass down from generation to generation. In 2014, the NCPA adapted this classic film into an opera.
FANG Zhimin
FANG Zhimin’s work, Lovely China, runs through the opera; the conflict of ideas and emotions between the characters is used to link the past and present together.
In the present time, FANG Zhimin continues to fight hard after his imprisonment; in the past time, his character is expressed through several events that have had a tremendous impact on him at different times. In the final moments of his life, the present and the past are merged into one; and the scenes that FANG envisioned in his remarkable Lovely China have already been realized in today’s China.
The Long March
Premiering on July 1st, 2016, the NCPA opera commission The Long March is an epic to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Long March of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army. It is the largest opera commission ever produced by the NCPA, with six acts, nine scenes, nearly 30 characters and a chorus of more than 120 people. Based on real history, the opera recreates the arduous process of the Long March in a faithful manner, and represents the important events involved, so as to celebrate the lofty ideals and beliefs of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army in their struggles and sacrifices for their faith, and to commemorate the Long March as a great deed in human history.
Jinsha River
Jinsha River is an NCPA opera commission to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese PLA. The opera is adapted from the novel of the same name published in 1959. CHEN Jing, the author of the original novel, was a participant in the Long March and one of the military writers who wrote about it.
The opera tells a touching tale that took place during the Long March, showing deep bonds between the Chinese Red Army under the leadership of the CPC and Tibetan people living along the Jinsha River.
The Railroad to Tibet
As a key project for Reform and Opening-up, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is known as the “Road to Heaven”. Based on the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway by three generations of Chinese people, the NCPA has assembled a creative team of the most capable artists in China to create this dance drama, which celebrates the friendship between the Tibetan and Han Chinese people, the deep bonds between the army and the people, and shows the prosperity of Reform and Opening-up. The dance drama was debuted on July 1st, 2018, to mark the 40th anniversary of China’s Reform and Opening-up.
The score collection covers nine classic choral pieces from four operas mentioned above, including We Will Win in the End, Peach Flowers Blossom in My Heart, and Wish You Good Luck for Your Journey over the Sacred Mountain from The Long March; Going North and A Gentle Night from Jinsha River; Song of the Plateau and Remembrance of My Comrades from Visitors on the Snow Mountain; as well as Ten Farewells to the Red Army and Lenin Park from FANG Zhimin.
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