The Long March, which premiered on July 1st, 2016, is an opera commission commissioned by the NCPA in memory of the 80th anniversary of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army’s victory in the Long March, the 50th opera produced by the NCPA in the last 13 years since its opening, and the 11th Chinese opera commission of national classic subject matter after Xishi, The Chinese Orphan, Visitors on the Snow Mountain, and FANG Zhimin. The opera, adapted from the true history of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army’s Long March, faithfully recreates the hardships that were suffered by the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army on the Long March by realism. The events on important nodes of the Long March are held together based on the perspectives and experiences of common Red Army soldiers and people, evoking the “miserable glory,” eulogizing the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army’s lofty ideals to fight and sacrifice for their faith, in honour of the Long March, a great wonder in human history. Until now, various Long March-based literary and artistic works have been produced, of which films and TV dramas and stage plays alone are more than one hundred in number. The Red Army’s Long March, which is one of the greatest events of the last century, is a magnificent feat that has changed history. The NCPA opera The Long March is acted out this great event, which influenced the process of Chinese revolution, in the form of an opera.
The whole opera has six acts of nine scenes in total, with over 30 dramatic personages and the chorus of hundreds of people. The great history of Long March ensures our today’s peaceful life, and each note of the spirit of the Long March contains the era factor and has the inspiring and shocking spiritual strength. Let’s walk into NCPA and review this period of sufferings and glory through the artistic charm of the opera.
Composer: YIN Qing
Librettist: ZOU Jingzhi
World Premiere: July 1st, 2016
Conductor: LÜ Jia
Stage Directors: TIAN Qinxin, YANG Xiaoyang
Set Designer: MA Yansong
Costume Designer: SONG Li
Video Projection Designer: HU Tianji
Hair Style Designer: CHEN Minzheng
Sound Effects Designer: WANG Danrong
Sound Designer: CAI Jun
Props Designer: JIN Jifeng
Music Direcotor: HUANG Xiaoman
Chorus Master: DONG Dai
Revival Directors: TANG Xuanxuan, LI Jianbo
Cast
Commissar PENG: YAN Weiwen/ WANG Chong●
Commissar ZENG: WANG Haitao/ WANG Hexiang●
Boy Ping: WANG Hongwei/ LIANG Yufeng▲
Doctor HONG: WANG Zhe/ WANG Jing/ LI Xintong●
WAN Xia: GONG Shuang/ CHENG Wenhui
Army Commander: GUAN Zhijing●
LI Wenhua: LI Yang/ HAN Junyu
LIU Pingquan: MA Xunguo/ JIN Zhengjian●
●NCPA Resident Singer
▲China NCPA Chorus Member
After the failure of the 5th counter-campaign against encirclement and suppression in October 1934, the Red Army is about to depart from Ruijin. After receiving the transfer order, Commander ZENG and Commissar PENG from a regiment of the Central Red Army cannot bear to abandon the sick and wounded to the enemy. Doctor HONG, Commissar PENG's wife, also stays to look after them. After the Xiangjiang River Campaign, the Red Army enters Zunyi and gets a chance to consolidate. The Zunyi Meeting Announcement is proclaimed late that night, which marks a historic turning point in the Chinese revolution. Chased by the enemy, the soldiers start a raid of 120 km over the course of an entire day. They seize Luding Bridge marking the successful breakout. Ping Yazi, a young soldier, bravely tastes the wild plants but is poisoned and dies a heroic death. When the Red Army joined forces in Huining, Commissar PENG receives the last letter from Doctor HONG. This letter motivates the soldiers. The opera ends with the chorus Long live the Long March.
YIN QingMusic Director
YIN Qing
YIN Qing is Vice Chairman of the Chinese Musicians Association, Director of its Creative Committee, Member of the 8th and 9th National Committee of China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Artistic Guidance of the PLA, first-class composer and former head of former General Political Department Song and Dance Troupe, and a well-acknowledged expert who receives a special allowance granted by the State Council.
He created more than 1,500 pieces of musical works, widely-popular songs including March into the New Era, Sing in the West, the Heavenly Road, My Land, I Am A Solider, In the Bright Sunlight, Don't Ask Why, Army Soul on the Border, Rain in the Spring for the Century, Song of Blossom, Reed Catkins, Look into the Moon, When Your Gentle Hair Touched My Gun, All for the Party, Warrior and the Mother, In the Time of Peace, Song for Our Flag, Road to Revival, Work Together for the China Dream. Apart from his songs, he created operas the Party’s Daughter (co-production) and Song for the Canal, and dance drama Mazu has been widely-acknowledged. He also composed for televisions, such as New Forth Army, the Last Generation of Cavalry, Love between Sky and Sea, Promise, the Rise of Rural Official, The Hundred Regiments Offensive. More than 300 pieces of his works has been awarded in various national art contests, with multiple awards given for Five “One” Project orchestrated by Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China, Wenhua Award orchestrated by the Ministry of Culture, People’s Liberation Army Art Award, Chinese Golden Bell Award for Music, Award of Golden Disc of China. He served as art and music director in multiple high-level art and cultural events for the government and military.
ZOU JingzhiLibrettist
ZOU Jingzhi
ZOU Jingzhi is Vice-president of the Beijing Writers’ Association. Born in 1952, he has his ancestral home in Nanchang, Jiangxi, and he grew up in the capital city. He has published over 20 poems, essays and novels, including ZOU Jingzhi Poems, Building No.9, and A Collection of ZOU Jingzhi’s Plays. He has been involved in the creations of more than ten films, including The Grand Master, Coming Home, Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles and One Second; over 500 episodes of TV series, including Kangxi’s Incognito Travel, The Fragrance of Chinese Scholar Tree Flowers in May and The Eloquent JI Xiaolan; five dramas including I Love Peach Blossom and Bosom Friends; and four operas including The Banquet, The Chinese Orphan and The Long March. His works have carried off many major awards both at home and abroad.
LÜ JiaConductor
LÜ Jia
The Chinese conductor LÜ Jia has received great acclaim internationally. Born into a musical family in Shanghai, LÜ began studying piano and cello at a very young age. He later studied conducting at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, under the tutelage of esteemed conductor ZHENG Xiaoying. At the age of 24, LÜ entered the University of Arts in Berlin, where he continued his studies under Professor Hans-Martin Rabenstein and Robert Wolf. The following year, he was awarded both the First Prize and Jury’s Prize at the Antonio Pedeotti International Conducting Competition in Trento, Italy, and launched his career as a conductor.
Over the past decades, he has conducted over 2,000 orchestral concerts and opera performances in Europe and America, and became the first Asian conductor to serve as the artistic director of a major Italian opera house, as well as the first Chinese conductor to lead Chicago Symphony. He has worked with important productions at the Bayersiche Staatsoper in Munich, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and La Scala in Milan, as well as opera houses in Lausanne, Turin, Rome, Naples, Verona, Venice, Florence, Frankfurt and Stuggart. He has also worked with many renowned orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestra dell’ Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Lyon National Orchestra in France, Finnish Radio Symphony, Hamburg Radio Symphony, Bamberg Symphoniker, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and many others across Europe, America and Australia.
LÜ Jia was the first Chinese conductor to record Felix Mendelssohn’s complete orchestral works, and also the only conductor so far who has recorded the complete works by the important Swedish composer Ingvar Lidholm. His interpretations of German Classical Romanticism and French Impressionists have been praised for their “extremely convincing musical interpretation" with "musical precision and perfect baton technique.” Having directed nearly 50 operas in Italy and Germany, homelands of the European opera tradition, he has also been praised by Italian music critics as “a conductor who understands Italian opera even better than the Italians themselves do”. In 2007, his performance of La Gazza Ladra at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro was voted as European Opera Production of the Year. That same year, in recognition of his important contribution to musical culture in Italy, LÜ Jia was awarded the President’s Prize by President Giorgio Napolitano. In 2012, the Domingo International Vocal Competition invited LÜ Jia to serve on the jury, making him the Competition’s first-ever Chinese jury member.
In 2012, LÜ Jia was appointed Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of Opera at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing China. Under his musical direction, NCPA's own productions of Lohengrin, The Flying Dutchman, Othello, La Nozze di Figaro, Un Ballo in Maschera, Tosca, and many other works, have received glowing reviews from the international press. With these brand new productions aspiring to high international standards, the NCPA has become a strong contender in the world of opera, and also launched an exciting new chapter in the history of professional opera productions in China. In the meantime, the NCPA Symphony Orchestra, under LÜ's baton, has fast established itself as one of the leading new ensembles in the orchestral world in China, presenting impressive performances season after season.
In 2017, LÜ Jia has been appointed as Artistic Director of Music of National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), and Music Director of China NCPA Orchestra. Before taking up his current posts in Beijing, LÜ served as Music Director at Verona Opera, Artistic Director at Symphony Orchestra of Tenerife, Music Director and Principal Conductor of Macao Orchestra, as well as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor at Trieste Opera, Symphony Orchestra of Florence, Lazio Chamber Orchestra of Rome and Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra in Sweden.
TIAN QinxinStage Director
TIAN Qinxin
TIAN Qinxin is President of the National Theatre of China, National First-Class Director, Member of the 13th National Committee of the CPPCC, an expert enjoys a special allowance from the State Council, a talent included in the “Four Kinds Talents in the First Batch” by the Publicity Department of the CPC, Member of the 12th Central Committee of China Democratic League, and Deputy Director of the Cultural Council of China Democratic League.
Her representative works include dramas Field of Life and Death, Turmoil, Chinese Orphan, Red Rose and White Rose, Stories of the Ming Dynasty, The Yellow Storm, Green Snake, Romeo and Juliet, Beijing Fayuan Temple, and Listening to Monk Hongyi; opera The Long March; musical A Moment of Remembrance; Kunqu Opera The Peach Blossom Fan 1699; the first and second seasons of the talk show China in Stories; the innovative cultural programme China in Classics; and the epic performance Great Journey to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC.
YANG XiaoyangStage Director
YANG Xiaoyang
Vice chairman of Chinese Dancers Association, current deputy head of the Central Military Commission Political Work Department Song and Dance Ensemble, Chinese first-class scenarist, YANG Xiaoyang enjoys the special allowances of the State Council.
He is the winner of “‘four of a batch’ talents for National Propaganda and Culture system” of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the CPC, the Best Works Award of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the CPC, Lotus Award of Chinese Dance, Wenhua Director Award of Ministry of Culture, Top 10 Excellent Repertoire Awardof National Stage Art and multiple Wenhua Repertoire Awards.
His representative works include the national dance drama Railway Guerrillas, dance drama of the Hui People Helan on Moon, the national dance drama The Lvliang Heroes, the group dance Cross and Dress, Dress. He served as the chief director of three consecutive Army Veteran Cadre Parties from 2014 to 2016. He was also the executive director and scenarist for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies in 2008 Olympic Games and the parties such as The Road to Revival, Victory and Peace and Army.
MA YansongSet Designer
MA Yansong
He is devoted to exploring the future road of architecture, advocating the combination of the urban density, function and the landscape prospect to create a brand-new urban civilization age with human spirit as the core by rebuilding the emotional connection between human and nature. Since designing Flowing Island in 2002, Ma Yansong has practiced this declaration of the future habitation dream worldwide with the works full of imagination such as Absolute Tower, Harbin Theatre, Hutong Bubble 32, Erdos Museum and Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.
Fast Company selected him as “Top 10 Most Creative Persons in Global Architecture Circles 2009” and “Top 100 Most Creative Persons in Global Business Circles 2014” successively. In 2010, RIBA awarded him the international honorary member. In 2014, he was selected as “Young Global Leaders 2014” by the World Economic Forum. MA Yansong studied in Beijing Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture, and later graduated from Yale University and got the Master’s degree. Currently, he is a professor of Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture and a visiting professor of Tsinghua University.
SONG LiCostume Designer
SONG Li
As a costume designer, her representative works include The Road to Revival, Thousand-hand Bodhisattva, Soldiers and Guns, Tashi Delek, Crossing, Steed Hissing, Ode to Peony, Petrel, The Soul of the Nation, The Military Soul, A Soldier’s Dairy, Beautiful Female Role Player - Group Diabolo, Moonlight over the Lotus Pond: Treading on an Umbrella, Ballet on Shoulder, Tengyun - Pagoda of Bowls, SPLENDID, Thousand-hand Bodhisattva, A Handful of Wild Jujube, Wild Zebra, HUA Mulan, Red Clouds on the Horizon, A Dream of Red Mansions, Red River Valley, Xishi, Jasmine Flower, Farewell to My Concubine, Stage Sisters, The Silk Princess, The Legend of Kung Fu, Eternal Genghis Khan, The Legend of Marco Polo, Seaside Dream, The Moon Over a Fountain, Eight Heroines Who Drown Themselves in A River, Red Sail on the Haihe River, Impressions of Lijiang, Impressions of the West Lake, Red Cliff, Zhengkaofu, The Soong Sisters, The Daughter of the Party, The Long March, Jinsha River, White Lotus, etc.
HU TianjiVideo Projection Designer
HU Tianji
HU Tianji is the video projection designer of the NCPA opera The Dawns Here Are Quiet and the drama commission LIN Zexu, a co-production of the NCPA and Guangzhou Dramatic Arts Centre.
After graduating from the Fresco Painting Department, Central Academy of Fine Arts, HU went to France for advanced studies at the L’Institut Supérieur des Arts Appliqués (LISSA), majoring in film and TV animation. After returning home in 2007, he founded the Zhengyue Image Studio and began to work on CG effect design for interactive video projection.
His representative works include LI Yugang’s poetic song and dance drama Picture of Four Beauties, large-scale operas The Dawns Here Are Quiet, SU Wu of the Han Dynasty, Canal of Destiny, Regret for the Past and Red River Valley, large-scale musicals Jasmine Flower, The Splendid Library and Perhaps Tomorrow Belongs to me, large-scale children’s musical Legends of Beijing, large-scale dance dramas Goddess of the Luo River, WANG Xizhi, Let’s Dance Together and The Twenty-Four Solar Terms as well as its European revival and tour, dramas Peer Gynt, QIU Jin and Man in the Mirror, large-scale acrobatic drama Ghost Romance, and puppet drama Fly, Red-Crowned Crane.
CHEN MinzhengHair Style Designer
CHEN Minzheng
CHEN Minzheng, a Chinese national first-level artist, has worked on film and television character image for over 40 years. He is currently an associate director of Makeup Commission of China Film and Television Technology Association of Shandong Film and Television Group. He is the founder and art director of Beijing Hanzheng Makeup School. In 2008, he acted as the chief image designer of the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony.
He has completed over 1,000 pieces of works, including film works A Simple Noodle Story, The Revolution of 1911, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Phurbu & Tenzin, Daming Palace, Shouting, Boonie Bears, Spark and Divergence. opera Turandot in Bird’s Nest by ZHANG Yimou, dramas Windy Bukui, Anecdote in Nanjing and Commoner Confucius, etc., TV plays The Legend of WU Meiniang, Empresses in the Palace, The Legend of Miyue, Chinese Hero ZHAO Zilong, etc.
He has won the 1998, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2010 and 2012 Awards for Makeup granted by Chinese Film and TV Play Association, the 2002 Contemporary Excellent Dresser granted by Chinese Film and TV Play Association, China Golden Eagle for Best Art, the 5th National Television, Literature and Art Starlight Award (for Makeup), the Best Image Designer for Chinese Television in Recent 20 Years, the 2008 Beijing Olympics Award for Special Contribution.
Moreover, he has acted as judges in the 9th CCTV Model TV Competition, the National Makeup and Hair Style Competition held by Chinese Artists Association, and the 33rd Paris World Cup Competition in China. He has given many lectures at Beijing Film Academy, the Central Academy of Drama, Shanghai Theatre Academy, the Communication University of China, the Hong Kong Institute of Education, etc.
WANG DanrongSound Effect Designer
WANG Danrong
WANG Danrong is a graduate of the Department of Recording Art, Beijing Film Academy, Sound Art Director of the State Production Base of China Film Group, a member of the China Film Association and a national first-class sound engineer that enjoys special government allowances of the State Council.
WANG Danrong has cooperated with many well-known directors such as FENG Xiaogang, CHEN Kaige, CHEN Guofu, XU Ke, HAN Sanping, HUANG Jianxin and ZHAO Baogang. He has won awards including the Best Recording Award at the 28th China Golden Rooster Awards (The Founding of a Republic), the Best Sound Award at the 30th Hong Kong Film Awards (Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flam), and nominations for Professional Sound Awards at many film festivals such as the China Golden Rooster Awards, Hong Kong Film Awards and Taiwan Golden Horse Awards. In 2015, he served as a member of the Jury of the 30th China Golden Rooster Awards.
He has offered recording services to more than 50 films including Sorry Baby, A Sigh, Happy Funeral, Together with You, The Phone, A World Without Thieves, The Promise, The Banquet, Assembly, Forever Enthralled, If You Are The One, The Message, The Chinese Orphan, Beginning Of The Great Revival, Where Are We Going? Dad, White Haired Witch, One Step Away, Run for Love and Skiptrace.
CAI JunSound Designer
CAI Jun
CAI Jun has been devoted to stage sound performance and design for many years. He ever worked at China Children’s Art Theatre, and then he joined NCPA. During this period, he pursued advanced studies of opera stage sound production at Opéra Bastille Paris and New National Theatre of Japan, applied in Rigoletto, Tosca and other operas, and achieved favorable performance effects.
In recent years, he has served as sound designer in inaugurating performance of International Folk Festival, Peking Opera Red Cliff (Children’s Version), Meeting under Five-ring Olympic Flag and other operas. He has participated in stage sound design of the large-scale song and dance epic drama The Road to Revival as NCPA production. Meanwhile, he is also an expert panelist for construction and reconstruction of many domestic theatres, providing advice for sound system solutions of newly built theatres.
JIN JifengProps Designer
JIN Jifeng
JIN Jifeng is a member of the NCPA with a degree in stage design from the Department of Stage Art, Central Academy of Drama.
JIN has participated in the production of the large-scale dance epic The Road To Rejuvenation, the theatrical performance A Millennium Promise at the “Belt and Road” Summit, the Gathering to Celebrate the Spring Festival of 2018 organised by the State Council, the Tea Party 2019 organised by the CPPCC, a theatrical performance in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Return of Macao, and operas Un Ballo in Maschera, La Traviata, Otello, The Ballad of Canal, Samson et Dalila, The Dawns Here Are Quiet, Rusalka, King Lear, Der Rosenkavalier, etc.
JIN has designed stage props for the Tea Party 2020 organised by CPPCC; operas The Long March, Jinsha River, LAN Huahua, Marco Polo, 170 Days in Nanking, Ode to the Lotus Flower, On the Way to Poverty Alleviation; children’s opera Effendi; dramas The Crossroad, True Love Knot, February, The Count of Monte Cristo, Look West to Chang’an, Princess Deling and Empress Dowager Cixi, Bird Man, Mogao Grottoes, Desire Under the Elms, The Merchant of Venice, Listening to Monk Hongyi, etc.
HUANG XiaomanVocal Coach
HUANG Xiaoman
Mrs. HUANG is a vocal coach and pianist. She is National First-grade Player, Director of NCPA Chorus, a Member of China Musicians Association, a representative of the 7th China Federation of Literary and Art Congress, Vice President of Dongcheng District, Beijing Federation of Literary and Art, President of Dongcheng District, Beijing Musicians Association, and former Vice President of China National Opera House.
HUANG began to learn to play the piano since her child hood. She graduated from the Piano Department of Central Conservatory of Music. In 1976, she joined China National Opera House. Since 1993, she has received government special subsidy from the State Council of China. In the decades of her opera career, HUANG has been vocal coach and artistic director for many operas, and collected dozens of classic operas home and abroad. In 2000, she was appointed Vice President of China National Opera House. In 2009, she became one of the founders of China NCPA Chorus.
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 outside 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 a judge for CCTV Piano and Violin Competition in 2001 and 2004. Since 2008, she has been Vocal Coach for NCPA opera commissions Xi Shi, The Village Teacher, The Chinese Orphan, The Ballad of Canal, Visitors on the Snow Mountain,The Long March, LAN Huahua, among others.
DONG DaiChorus Master
DONG Dai
DONG Dai is an assistant conductor of the NCPA Chorus. She graduated from the Conducting Department of China Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of Prof. LI Xincao. She is currently studying for her doctorate in Opera Conducting at the Conducting Department of the China Conservatory of Music. She has worked as a chorus assistant conductor in several NCPA production operas and has cooperated with LI Xincao, LÜ Jia, WU Lingfen and other renowned conductors in the rehearsals of operas including Turandot, Tosca, The Daughter of the Party, The Long March, as well as various concerts. She also participates in the music season planning and management of the NCPA Chorus.
She served as the assistant conductor of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra of China Conservatory of Music and has performed with the China National Symphony Orchestra, Chinese Music Symphony Orchestra, Tianjin Symphony Orchestra, Gansu Opera House, etc. She served as the associate conductor of the opera Carmen (Concert Version), and successfully rehearsed the classic opera La Boheme, opera Tulip and DU Liniang, symphonies My Motherland, Red Classic Symphony, etc. She also held multiple solo concerts.
She has participated in several international conducting master classes, including Ulrich Windfuhr, Dean of Conducting Department of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, Prof. Wolfgang Redik from University Mozarteum Salzburg, Alexander Polishchuk, Dean of Conducting Department of the Saint Petersburg State Conservatory in Russia.