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18th China Shanghai International Arts Festival mixes past and present

2016/10/19 13:22:05   source:Global Times

From Thursday to Sunday, Chinese Kunqu Opera performer Zhang Jun once again sparked heated discussion among critics with his latest creation, a one-man show that dressed Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet in the guise of Chinese Kunqu Opera, one of the oldest extant Chinese opera forms.

Performing before a full-house each day at the China Art Museum of Shanghai's 400-seat auditorium, Zhang constantly juggled four different roles as he presented his I, Hamlet in a mix of both Chinese and English. The music too was mixed, as the band broke with tradition to include a cello in with the more traditional instruments such as the Chinese flute.

"I, Hamlet is definitely an experimental theater piece. Its ambition is to break from traditional opera and traditional values, and to strive for difficult and creative improvement," Chinese writer Wang Feng commented on the play.

It took Zhang, a UNESCO Artist of Peace winner, about half a year to prepare for the show, which was commissioned by the currently ongoing 18th China Shanghai International Arts Festival (CSIAF). The festival was founded by China's Ministry of Culture and organized by the Shanghai Municipal Government.

Running from October 12 to November 15, the festival will present roughly 50 productions, seven art exhibitions as well as 88 free-admission outdoor shows and 60 educational activities around the city. I, Hamlet is just one of a series of prominent shows at CSIAF that emphasizes a contemporary interpretation of classic works and looks to establish creative dialogues across different cultures.

Classical modernity

The Shanghai Chinese Orchestra opened CSIAF with New Oriental Chinese Music Scene - the first time that the festival has been kicked off with a Chinese concert.

Liu Wenguo, the concert's planner, explained that there were three reasons why the performance was chosen for the opening.

First, Chinese music, which has evolved over the course of thousands of years, embodies the essence of Chinese culture. Second, the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, formed in 1952, represents the highest achievements of Chinese music. Third, the concert represents both the city's cultural heritage and open-minded vision of mixing music, dance, singing and multimedia technology together.

During the festival, there will also be new theater productions of Golden Bear-winning film Red Sorghum, Romeo and Julietand Henry V by Shakespeare, and The Tale of Handan by Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) playwright Tang Xianzu.

To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the deaths of Shakespeare and Tang, the Zhejiang Xiaobaohua Yueju Opera Troupe will blend Shakespeare's Coriolanus and Tang's The Peony Pavilion in a new show titled Coriolanus and Du Liniang.

Additionally, the Shanghai Tianchan Yifu Theatre is collaborating with 14 Chinese opera performers representing nine different performing styles to present the 600 Minutes, 600 Years Chinese Opera Gala, which will feature a good selection of abridged Chinese operas in three shows whose total duration will reach 600 minutes.

Chinese veteran theater director Chen Xinyi has created a theater piece about the Long March (1934-1935) accompanied by a symphony orchestra for CSIAF. She noted that popular stories and classic scripts serve as a convenient and rewarding platform to promote mutual understanding and dialogue between different cultures around the world.

One Belt and One Road

In the light of China's devotion to further cooperation with countries involved in its One Belt and One Road initiative, CSIAF has spared no expense to promote cultural exchanges in the region this year.

From October 12 to Sunday, CSIAF set up an area in its arts fair dedicated to artistic program traders from countries along the Belt and Road. More than 410 companies and cultural venue owners from some 60 counties and regions attended the fair. On Thursday alone, CSIAF signed papers with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations as well as Uzbekistan's Sharq Taronalari music festival.

Mao Shengrong, a PR representative for CSIAF, told the Global Times that the festival will select more programs from the Belt and Road region in the future.

Yao Rui, deputy general manager of the Beijing Poly Theatre Management Co., Ltd., was very involved in the fair. The largest theater operator in China with 51 theaters across the country, the company presents some 6,500 performances each year.

According to Yao, about 2,500 performances are imported annually, with 1,000 or so of these part of larger tours. Of these imported touring shows, half of them have come from countries along the Belt and Road.

"There are a lot of opportunities for cooperation along the Belt and Road, which possesses time-honored cultures and many different ethnic groups that are good at singing and dancing," Yao said.

Previous cooperation between the company and performing troupes from the Belt and Road countries has been rewarding, according to Yao, as the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Warsaw Symphony Orchestra have proved popular among Chinese audiences.

Yao told the Global Times that this time he was looking for shows that would be suitable for touring across China.

"Some foreign productions boast very high artistic achievement, but their extravagant stage designs and huge production teams also mean extremely high costs for tours. For such shows, our company would consider making a touring version with them," Yao said.

Government subsidies are provided to companies that import shows from the Belt and Road region, but Yao believes that in order to build a sustainable market, companies should also work hard to make these shows popular and profitable on their own.

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