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Stage Performances |
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Yue Opera, also known as Shaoxing Opera, distinguishes itself from all other Chinese traditional genres with its aesthetic appeal. As a relatively young genre, it has also developed different stylistic schools, each with its engaging charm.
In this year’s Festival, the Hangzhou Yue Opera Theatre will bring to Hong Kong the classic, Interrogating the Husband, starring Xie Qunying and Zheng Guofeng who will inject new life into the genre. Also on the programme are excerpts Meng Lijun and The Jade Dragonfly starring Chen Xiaohong, Chen Xueping and Xu Ming, two excerpts Burying Petals and Mourning Daiyu from The Dream of the Red Chamber, and two excerpts Sweet Memories at the Eighteen Spots During the Long Farewell and Shanbo Dying from The Butterfly Lovers, as well as other excerpts from The Jade Hairpin. The actors will be demonstrating their respective stylistic lineages of famous virtuosi in Yue Opera, such as Lu Jinhua, Jin Caifeng, Wang Wenjuan, Fan Ruijuan, and Xu Yulan.
During the Yuan Dynasty, the talented Meng Lijun is forced to flee from home when her entire family is implicated in a crime for which her father is framed. Disguised as men, Lijun and her maid are on the road. Before their hurried departure, Lijun leaves her own portrait as a present for her fiancé Huangpu Shaohua to convey her commitment to the betrothal. Three years later, Lijun, still masquerading as a man under the pseudonym Li Junyu, has risen to the office of Prime Minister. Meanwhile, through his observation and investigation, Shaohua concludes that the Prime Minister is actually Lijun. Shaohua, however, unwittingly exposes Lijun’s secret when he prematurely petitions the Emperor for Lijun’s hand in marriage, whereupon the Emperor plans to keep Lijun for himself. The clever and astute Lijun manages, not without difficulty, to thwart the Emperor’s amorous advances. Finally, after his shrewd mother and his far-sighted teacher deliberate on and apprise him of the implications of his intended action, the Emperor decides to put duty to his country first and gives up the intent of appropriating Lijun as his bride.
Cast: Chen Xiaohong, Zheng Guofeng, Chen Xueping, Xie Qunying
During the reign of Emperor Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, a corrupt court official, Yan Song, and his son, Shifan, succeed in framing the Governor of Three Border Regions, Zeng Xian. Xian is executed. Hiding his true identity from his father’s political enemies, Xian’s son Rong manages to escape. By a twist of fate, Rong meets Yan Maoqing, a cohort of Song, and is adopted by him. Now under his new name Yan Rong, he is given Yan Song’s granddaughter Lanzhen as wife. After the wedding, Rong refuses to enter the bridal chamber. Despite Lanzhen’s repeated questioning, Rong refuses to divulge the reason. After spying on Rong, Lanzhen discovers the truth. She sympathizes with Rong and decides to fend for her husband. Rong is touched by this and makes up with her. When Rong is going to attend his mother-in-law’s birthday party, he drinks less and takes his leave in order to minimize the risk of exposing himself. But on the way out, he finds himself on the grounds of the residence of Zhao Wenhua. He is almost caught when Wenhua comes up from downstairs after a meeting, and is only saved by Lingzhu, the maid of Wenhua’s daughter Wanzhen, who hides him in her mistress’s study just in time. Meanwhile Lanzhen becomes increasingly anxious at her husband’s failure to return home. She leads her maids and goes on a rampage in search of Rong. She demands to know Rong’s whereabouts. Upon hearing this, Wanzhen assures Lanzhen that Rong is safe, and arranges for them to meet.
Cast: Xie Qunying, Zheng Guofeng
The story is set in Suzhou. The scholar Shen Guisheng and his teacher’s daughter Qingmei are fellow students and childhood sweethearts. When Guisheng’s uncle Zhang Guoxun learns about the romance, he trumps up an excuse to dismiss the teacher, coerces Qingmei into becoming a nun (where she takes on the monastic name of Zhizhen) and betroths his own daughter Yayun to his nephew. Guisheng abhors his enforced marriage. He storms out of the matrimonial home on the wedding night, and goes calling on Qingmei instead. The lovers meet at Fahua Convent and continue their courtship, eventually consummating their love, and make a jade dragonfly as the token of their union. In the meantime, Yayun, who has been looking for her husband for several months, hears about the convent and comes to make enquiries. Yayun’s suspicion is aroused when she finds the unusually poised and elegant Zhizhen there. Determined to uncover the truth, Yayun visits the convent repeatedly, asking incisive questions. Guisheng is so stressed by Yayun’s snooping that he falls ill. Guisheng succumbs to his illness and dies. When Zhizhen gives birth in a shack, she has no alternative but to abandon her newborn son there, as she is forbidden to keep the baby in the convent. Fortunately, Mrs Xu finds the infant and raises him as her own, naming him Xu Yuanzai. One day, Yayun meets Yuanzai. As the boy bears a strong resemblance to Guisheng, Yayun in turn adopts him as her son to assuage her guilt. Eighteen years later, Yuanzai comes home with news of his birth mother and then looks for his mother at convent. Yayun and her father devise a ruse to get Zhizhen to come to their residence. After Zhizhen recounts the full details of her relationship with Guisheng, Yuanzai legitimately assumes his true family name Shen and is happily reunited with his own mother.
Cast: Chen Xiaohong, Chen Xueping, Xie Qunying, Xu Ming
Zhu Yingtai disguises herself as a man to attend school in Hangzhou. She spends three years studying with Liang Shanbo, her classmate and sworn brother, before her father summons her home. On the way to the Zhu Manor, Shanbo realizes that his ‘sworn brother’ is actually the ‘young sister’ that Yingtai has promised him to marry. As he walks, Shanbo reflects on the numerous hints Yingtai dropped at their previous farewell, and is so elated that he wishes to have wings to fly to her side so they can be married soon.
Cast: Chen Xueping
Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu are in love, but because of the circumstances they cannot reveal their heart and often quarrel. Daiyu expresses the pain in her heart through poetry and burying fallen petals. On seeing her doing this, Baoyu pours his heart out. The two not only make up but also firmly pledge to each other of their love. When later Daiyu hears that Baoyu is going to marry Baochai, she is so devastated that she falls seriously ill and dies. Baoyu pays her his final respects, and hears from her maid what she did and said on her deathbed, he is so heartbroken that he decides to leave home to become a monk.
Cast: Zheng Guofeng, Chen Xiaohong
Li Xiuying, daughter of the Secretary of the Board of Civil Office, Li Tingfu, is betrothed to the scholar Wang Yulin. On their wedding night, Yulin discovers a love letter in the newly-wed’s chamber with Xiuying’s jade hairpin inside. Yulin is enraged and suspects Xiuying of infidelity. He treats her coldly from then on. However, Xiuying gives him the loving care of a good wife. Her father conducts an investigation in a bid to clear her name. When the truth is revealed, Yulin is struck with remorse. When he comes first in the Imperial Civil Service Examination, he comes to seek Xiuying’s forgiveness. The young couple is finally reconciled.
Cast: Xie Qunying, Zheng Guofeng
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