Shenzhen Business Daily · Reading Client Reporter Li Dan
On the evening of October 15th, the 3rd Bay Area Cantonese Opera Festival opened at the 1990 Concert Hall in Bao'an, Shenzhen. The event will last until October 20, and over the course of six days, more than 400 artists from 20 theater troupes in 9 cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will perform on the same stage, bringing a Cantonese opera feast that spans generations and spaces.
With the theme of "Youth Arts in the Bay Area", 7 performances of Cantonese opera and drama, 2 lectures by famous artists and 1 seminar on Cantonese opera will be staged over the course of 6 days, presenting a feast of Cantonese opera culture to the public.
According to reports, this Cantonese Opera Club invited Wen Ruqing, Liang Xiaoying, Wu Zedong, Wang Yanfei, Liang Jingling, Liu Jianke, Yan Jinfeng, Qiu Cortana, Sin Jiantang, Hong Zihua, Li Peilin, Zhu Hongxing, Pan Jinlong, as well as Cantonese opera master Ye Youqi, Cantonese opera master Zeng Hui and famous Cantonese opera young artist Qian Shan from Hong Kong and Macao, bringing together more than 400 famous actors, big coffees, young talents and Cantonese opera babies from 20 theater troupes in 9 cities in the Greater Bay Area, focusing on the style of four generations of drama artists from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
At the opening ceremony, artists from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao jointly performed classic Cantonese opera songs such as "Havoc in Qingzhu Temple", "The Flower of Dongting Good Relationship", "Zhaojun Hefan", "Fifteen Runs: Visiting the Mouse" and "The Birthday of Empress Li of the Southern Tang Dynasty". The superb interpretation made the audience fascinated, and applause and cheers came one after another.
In addition to the 7 splendid performances of Cantonese opera and drama, this year's Cantonese Opera Festival also arranged 2 lectures by famous artists and 1 Cantonese opera seminar, providing a platform for Cantonese opera lovers to gain an in-depth understanding of and discuss the art of Cantonese opera.
"The Bay Area Cantonese Opera Festival has been held for three years, and in the past three years, we have cultivated a large number of Cantonese opera lovers, especially attracting more and more young audiences." Liu Mingjun, deputy director of the Bao'an District Public Culture and Sports Service Center, said that the next activities will also go into communities, campuses, and enterprises, so that Cantonese opera can be grasped from dolls and teenagers, and the vitality of Cantonese opera will be enhanced.
"I've been participating in the Bay Area Cantonese Opera Festival since the first edition, and I'm very excited to come here every time I perform. Because the audience in Bao'an is very enthusiastic, we are also very passionate about performing on stage. As a Cantonese opera worker who has been in the industry for nearly 30 years, he saw the vitality of Cantonese opera in Bao'an, and hoped that more and more young people will pay attention to Cantonese opera and like Cantonese opera in the future.
According to reports, Cantonese opera is a treasure of Lingnan culture and an important part of Chinese opera culture. As the source of Shenzhen-Hong Kong culture, Bao'an has always attached great importance to cultural construction, promoted the high-quality development of regional culture, and strived to build a high-quality public cultural brand with the goal of further promoting the construction of a high-quality cultural urban area in the Bay Area. The Bay Area Cantonese Opera Festival has been successfully held in Bao'an for two sessions, and is gradually becoming a beautiful cultural business card of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
It is worth mentioning that the theme of this year's Cantonese Opera Festival is "Young Arts in the Bay Area, Leading the Future", with special emphasis on the participation of young artists. The participation of a new generation of performers, such as the famous young Cantonese opera artist Qian Shan, has injected new vitality into this traditional art.
With the grand opening of the Cantonese Opera Festival, Bao'an will become a gathering place for Cantonese opera lovers in the coming days. This cultural feast, which integrates tradition and innovation and spans generations, not only demonstrates the charm of Cantonese opera, but also highlights the profound cultural heritage of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and injects strong impetus into the high-quality development of regional culture.
Source: Courtesy of the organizer
Editor: Huang Xiaomin
Review: Qiao Huiqing