Original title: A tribute to the "Chinese spirit" with a brilliant and tragic fate - the original musical "Zhao's Orphan" was a complete success at the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Chinese Theatre Culture Festival
Macao, April 13, 2024 – The 4th Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Chinese Theatre Festival, the original musical "The Orphan of Zhao", was presented for the first time in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) and ushered in its 92nd performance at The Venetian Macao.
The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Chinese Theatre Cultural Festival is directed by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, organized by the Chinese Dramatists Association, the Chinese Opera Association of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the Hong Kong Ta Kung Wen Wei Media Group, co-organized by the Macau Chinese Dramatists Association, and co-organized by Sands China Ltd. As the first joint exhibition of Chinese theatre in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Macao is the core platform to radiate the Greater Bay Area, and unites top theatre artists to provide a splendid audio-visual enjoyment for the audience, as well as a platform for the exchange and display of broad and profound Chinese theatre. Since its inception in 2020, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Chinese Theatre Culture Festival has been successfully held for three times, and has initially grown into an influential performing arts brand and art platform in the Greater Bay Area.
The original musical "Zhao's Orphan" is produced by Shanghai Xu Jun Culture and Art Co., Ltd. and co-produced by Shanghai East Hongqiao Theater Management Co., Ltd. The play is based on Ji Junxiang's original work, rooted in the cross-cultural context of the East and the West, deeply focusing on traditional ethical values and modern individual expressions, and interpreting the drama classics inherited for thousands of years. During the three-hour performance, more than 1,000 audiences were enthusiastic, heart-to-heart and affectionate, like a solid bond, immersed in the intertextuality and echo of the classics and the present, intertwining the tragic fate with brilliance, and paying tribute to the "Chinese spirit" with the fiery and deep feelings of the family and country.
Absorb the strengths of famous artists, refine the aesthetics of tragedy, and forge the "Chinese temperament" of musicals
The musical "Zhao's Orphan" is a modern interpretation of the classic tragedy, and the creative team has gathered top artists in the stage art industry at home and abroad to present the "tragic aesthetics" to the extreme. The play is based on a play written by English poet and playwright James Fenton for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Professor Jin Shenghua, President of the Hong Kong Translation Society, and Professor Peng Jingxi, Head of the Department of Drama Studies at National Taiwan University, translated Fenton's script into Chinese.
"There is nothing more worthy of our Chinese art workers' efforts than telling our stories and spreading the Chinese spirit. As the musical adaptation and director of the play, Xu Jun believes that "the musical can also become a position for the revival of traditional culture, and it has our own backbone, beliefs and realms." Under the theme of love and revenge, we look up to the sublime, but we also face the abyss. Known stories are full of unknown possibilities. "Zhao's Orphan" has history, present, and future. ”
Composer Jin Peida said, "I spent a full 'sixty' years composing 'The Orphan of Zhao'", and many characters, overlapping conflicts, and complex emotions were all composed into this passionate and generous tragedy. Lyricist Liang Mang spent a lot of effort to study the flow of the story, immersed in it to find each character. During the creative period, he lived at home in Chongqing for a long time, "I often cried for them when I was writing, and my tears flowed like the water of the Jialing River."
The lighting designer, Xiao Lihe, intended to create a breakthrough vision of light and shadow for this work. Eight projections and more than 100 lamps release a powerful image.
Styling master Zhang Shuping has collaborated with director Xu Jun for the third time for "Zhao's Orphan", completely subverting the concept of time and space, creating an unimaginable stage character modeling, with traditional elements embedded in the details of the costumes, and the avant-garde silhouette design colliding with the ingenious beauty.
Bravely fade away, temper the stage image, and inherit the classic "Chinese spirit"
"Zhao's Orphan" not only gathered Zheng Qiyuan, Xu Junshuo, He Liangchen, Zhao Fanjia and other popular "out of the circle" musical actors, but also took the initiative to break the circle and ushered in the "crossover" of film and television stars Ming Dao and Xue Jianing. This time, a total of 34 performers from the whole group participated in the performance of the Arts Festival, which was a great honor and a great responsibility. Zheng Qiyuan, who is known as the "textbook of musicals", plays the role of Cheng Ying in the play, he said, "This is a classic that is well-known and has many versions, but Cheng Ying in this musical is different and challenging. This process has been a game changer for me and for all the actors in our group. Cheng Ying, Gongsun Pestle, Han Ju and other righteous people, who are not afraid of power, sacrifice, sacrifice for righteousness, kindness and compassion, have been passed down from generation to generation in the annotations of generation after generation. Today, we musicians also hope to carry forward this spirit in our own form, and continue to understand and pass on this spirit. It is our responsibility and privilege."
Nearly 100 performances in two years, living up to the wait, living up to the love, and transmitting the cultural temperature at zero distance
Since 2021, the number of performances of the play has reached 91, and it has been praised by the audience as the "ceiling of China's original musicals" and has become the first in the musical category of the box office list of the Chinese performance market in 2022.
The first time I came to Macao to perform, the whole crew was very excited. Producer Yu Huiyan believes, "Although we have performed many times, for many audiences, it is the first time to see us, and we should present the best "Zhao's Orphan" for them. Many viewers said that this drama made them love their national culture more deeply and cherish the character and spirit of the Chinese.
The musical "Zhao's Orphan" is a tribute to the Chinese spirit, as Cheng Ying sings in the play, "Darkness cannot oppress the starlight, and kindness is never desolate". Sacrificing one's life for righteousness and going to the soup is the best appearance of the Chinese. In the context of the revival of traditional culture, the original musical "The Orphan of Zhao" is based on the Chinese context, concerned about the current reality, and unfolds this brilliant picture of fate intertwined with tragedy with passion and reason, releasing the infinite energy and shocking beauty of classic tragedy in the magnetic field of the musical, and moving towards the future in the exploration and practice of contemporary theater art.