Xiqu

Peking and Kunqu Operas are all about the art of the performer.

On stage, nothing can take the place of the performer’s skills and acting. The artistic merit of a real master will not fade with time, nor will it lose any of its brilliance from being something of pure simplicity.

The performance title meaning “Everlasting Glow of a Flawless Jade” is a metaphor to describe the exquisite art and skills of great artists in Chinese theatre, which have been hammered, seasoned and polished for generations to become as precious as an unblemished jade and as perpetual as mother nature. Through the great masters’ performance, we can appreciate the true essence of Chinese theatrical art. The present production featuring Li Yusheng, Tang Yuen-ha and Lu Yongchang is one such valuable opportunity.

This is a very rare collaboration. Tang Yuen-ha, Hong Kong’s very own Peking and Kunqu Opera artist, will team up with Peking Opera grandmaster Li Yusheng and iconic Kunqu Opera performing artist Lu Yongchang to perform with Shandong Peking Opera Theatre – one of the national key troupes of Peking Opera by the Ministry of Culture of China. They will be presenting a list of classic Peking and Kunqu Operas excerpts.

Li Yusheng is a celebrated wusheng (military male) and hongsheng (red-faced male) performer. His performance has already reached a stage of total freedom, and yet not a single movement is beyond the laws of art. His wusheng performance is characterized as “simple and beautiful, speedy and steady, brisk and graceful, gentle and powerful”. His acting in Guan Yu plays could bring out the boldness and vigour of the old general and touch the heart of the audience. In 1989, The Death of Yang Zaixing at River Xiaoshang, a play that he personally arranged and performed, was listed as a grand wusheng performance art model and an exemplary repertoire in China’s “Quintessential Peking Opera Series”.

Tang Yuen-ha is a hall-of-fame Peking Opera and Kunqu Opera art performer in Hong Kong. She is the only Hong Kong artist to have won the Plum Blossom Award for Chinese Theatre, the highest honour in the Mainland for theatre workers. Her performance is like a breath of fresh air, which is also authentic and eloquent. Tang is reputed as “the Pearl of Peking Opera and Kunqu Opera of Hong Kong”.

Lu Yongchang is a role model for laosheng (old man) in Kunqu Opera. His unrestrained performance always brings the character to life. He has unparalleled singing and reciting skills. He plays Chen Zuiliang in the master’s version of The Peony Pavilion.

This performance will be a classic amongst classics.

Excerpts: Fighting in the Melon Garden |(Peking Opera), Painting the Portrait and Bidding Farewell at the Grade from The Story of the Lute |(Kunqu Opera), The Defeat at Maicheng |(Peking Opera)