On the evening of August 6^th, the NCPA Chorus gave a breezy and elegant concert under WU Lingfen’s baton, kicking off the NCPA August Chorus Festival 2022.

Poetry and songs are treasures that have been handed down from generation to generation in China. Based on quotations from classics, the NCPA stands committed to rendering the Book of songs, Tang poetry and Song poems in the form of choral art under the theme of “Ancient Rhyme and Versification”. Different styles of choral works were performed, bringing into being a “flowery and misty” memory of encounters, a magnificent scene where “a huge rock provides a panoramic view of the vast sea”, and a festive, gorgeous spectacle of “flowers falling from trees in east wind” that appeared on stage with the newest look after numerous modifications. The wonderful interpretation of classics and new works, such as Prelude to Water Melody: When the Moon Shows Up, Happy Rain on a Spring Night, and A Poem to the Tune of Yu Mei Ren: There Is No End to Moonlit Autumns or Flowery Springs, demonstrates the comprehensive and impressive vocal strength and artistic expressiveness of the NCPA Chorus.

In the second half of the concert, the Chorus heartily performed Everlasting Regret, a large-scale work rarely seen in the history of Chinese choral art. As the first oratorio to appear in the history of modern Chinese music, it was created based on the Qing dynasty legend The Palace of Eternal Youth and BAI Juyi’s narrative poem Everlasting Regret with the musician HUANG Zi as the composer and the poet WEI Hanzhang as the lyricist. The work has very strict requirements for the voice of the singer. That night, the NCPA Chorus interpreted Everlasting Regret from beginning to end for a second time, with this great, poetic masterpiece once again attracting much attention from the audience under WU Lingfen’s baton.

If Great Heat comes, can autumn be far behind? NCPA August Chorus Festival 2022, themed “Time of Poetry and Music”, will continue to present 5 other virtuoso performances to the audience. On August 10^th, Flowing Time—GONG Linna’s Choral Concert of 24 Solar Terms and Ancient Poetry will take spring, summer, autumn and winter as four movements to show the artistic charm of the Chinese culture in an all-round way and record the passage of time. On August 11^th, China National Symphony Orchestra Chorus will fully interpret the two composers’ immortal melodies in a variety of ways to blow the horn of the times in songs and inherit the red bloodline with art. On August 20^th, Beijing Philharmonic Choir, honoured as “Double Olympic Choir”, will put their heart and soul into the performance of choral masterpieces with distinctive Chinese and Western styles to take you back to your “golden childhood”. On August 21^st, China National Traditional Orchestra Chorus will stage a concert titled “Musical Poetry sleeking Strings” to fully demonstrate “musical poetry”, a traditional musical form featured by creation for music composition. On August 26^th, China National Opera House will stage a number of classics rearranged from MAO Zedong’s poems at the closing concert of NCPA August Chorus Festival to reproduce the great statesman’s broad mind, lofty spirit and soaring determination.