The 2023 Taiwan Opera Arts Festival’s flagship production "壵" Zuoyang's worship segment - actors Ke Shihong (left) and Ke Shihua.

(Provided by Xiqu Center)

[Reporter Tu Yingru/Taipei Report] This year’s Taiwan Opera Art Festival broke through the previous practice and launched “Double Flagship Productions” for the first time. There is an opera “Phoenix Transformation” and a flagship production of the avant-garde hand puppet show “壵”. Chen Yueyi, director of the Communication Arts Center mentioned , these two groups of production teams are all "pro-level", whether it is script creation, choreography, costumes, music, lighting design, etc., they are all first-class candidates. The types of experiments are integrated together, hoping to push opera on the international stage, so that the world can see the future of traditional Taiwanese opera and lead the style of contemporary opera.

The main visual of "Phoenix Transformation", the flagship production of the Taiwan Opera Festival.

(Provided by Xiqu Center)

From April 13th to 16th, "Phoenix Transformation" was performed in the Grand Performance Hall of the Taiwan Opera Center. It started with a dusty history of the Dongning Dynasty of the Zheng family. Through the wonderful pen of the theater's senior director Wang Youhui, it was from the perspective of three generations of women in the Zheng family. Looking at the Dongning Dynasty from prosperity to decline, ask whether there is any possibility of the brilliance of human nature in the darkness of power struggle?

"Phoenix Transformation" is co-produced by Xiuqin Opera Troupe and Ruan Opera Troupe. In addition to showing Xiuqin Opera Troupe's performance style of both internal and external stages, it also combines Ruan Opera Troupe's expertise in modern stage performances. Through cross-border creations, it blends different In the previous court epic drama.

In terms of music, Zhou Yiqian, the best music design winner of the Chuanyi Golden Melody Award, was specially invited to perform the work, mixing traditional Taiwanese opera tunes with Taiwanese folk songs to create a melody rich in Taiwanese humanistic style.

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The flagship puppetry production "壵" will be staged in the small performance hall of the Taiwan Opera Center from April 14th to 16th. It will be performed by the Zhenhappy Palm Theater Troupe, which is good at innovative cross-border and avant-garde experimental theater elements. It is based on Feng Menglong's " Yang Jiao Ai Gives up His Life (also known as "Two Ghosts Fighting Jing Ke") combines the construction of puppetry, media objects, space atmosphere, body rhythm and music field to explore the "sages", "righteous men", "martyrs", etc. The "sacrifice" of ", although the theme is heroes, is actually discussing the ordinary heroes who don't have gorgeous titles and great achievements in life, but silently sacrifice.

The drama "壵" invited the 2020 "Taishin Arts Award" Performing Arts Award "The Crowd" creator Wang Shiwei and the third generation of Zhenhappy Palm Theater Troupe Ke Shihong to serve as the director, Lin Naiwen, a creator of modern drama, as the screenwriter, and Helmi Fita, a Singaporean theater ghost, as the lighting designer and director. Technical coordinator, Jiang Jianxing, who has a variety of music styles, is in charge of music design, and Guo Zhenyu, winner of the Golden Melody Award for music design, is in charge of music arrangement; and new media artist Zhang Huiming is in charge of space planning and video design, presenting the avant-garde of traditional new arts face.

For details, please refer to the official website of Taiwan Opera Arts Festival (https://festival.ncfta.gov.tw/2023tttf/zh-tw).

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