Kunqu Opera - The Peony Pavilion

Published on Jan 30, 2015

Rating:

Genre: NCPA

Dates: March 5-7, 2015

Prices: 100, 240, 320, 400, 500

Features: From Ming Dynasty till now, The Peony Pavilion has almost become synonym of Kunqu Opera. From March 5th-7th, the Suzhou Kunqu Opera Theatre will presents the classical The Peony Pavilion at drama theatre of NCPA.

BRIEF INTRODUCTION

Performances:
Mar. 05 - Part I
Mar. 06 - Part II
Mar. 07 - Part III

The Peony Pavilion is a masterpiece of playwright Tang Xianzu in Ming Dynasty. The opera depicts the love story between Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei, which reflects the pursuit of young men and women for the life of free love.

Since its debut, there have been so many legendary effects. It is recorded that after reading the play, some girls at that time were so deeply moved that 'resent and sigh to die'. In Hangzhou, there were actresses who played the scene of 'searching dreams' died on the stage because of over excitement.

From Ming Dynasty till now, The Peony Pavilion has almost become synonym of Kunqu Opera.

Suzhou Kunqu Opera Theatre
Suzhou Kunqu Opera Theatre of Jiangsu Province, formerly known as Sukun Theatre of Jiangsu Province, was founded in 1956 and played both Kunqu Opera and Suju Opera. Over the years, the theater has fostered four generations of outstanding performers of 'Ji', 'Cheng', 'Hong' and 'Yang' (which means to inherit and promote) of Kunqu artists of over a hundred. Currently 96% of the members are professional and technical personnel, of whom Wang Fang was the winner of the Second Plum Title of the Plum Blossom Award for Chinese Theatre; Yu Jiulin and Shen Fengying won both the Plum Blossom Award. In 2002, Wang Fang, Tao Hongzhen, Yang Xiaoyong and Lv Fuhai won the 'UNESCO Award for Promoting Kunqu Opera'. The theatre invited famous artists of Kunqu Opera including Wang Shiyu, Zhang Jiqing, Cai Zhengren as artistic directors and also invited other famous artists to engage in inheriting, engineering and cultivating young actors together with our theater teachers. We have achieved rich fruits and made great contributions to rescue, inheritance and development of Kunqu Opera arts.

SYNOPSIS
In Southern Song Dynasty, the local officer of Nan'an called Du Bao wholeheartedly trained his daughter Liniang into 'a model of gentle lady'. But Liniang was yearning for freedom. One day, she took her maid Chunxiang to ramble in the garden.

Back from the garden, Liniang fell asleep and met a scholar in front of the peony pavilion in her dream. After waking up, she was very lovesick and her feeling was difficult to release, so that she painted her portrait by herself, composed her last words and departed her life with regret.

Du Bao buried his daughter under the plum trees in the garden according to Liniang's last words.

The person in Liniang's dream is Guangdong scholar Liu Mengmei. He came to visit Nan'an also because of his dream and happened to get Liniang's portrait.

Later, Liniang was resurrected and become forever love of Mengmei.