Stills from Japan's Takarazuka Opera Company OG in Sword and the Light of Love - The Women Who Loved Napoleon. Courtesy of the organizer
BEIJING, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- The 20th "Meet in Beijing" International Arts Festival invited the world-renowned Japanese Takarazuka Opera Company OG to visit China for the first time and staged "Sword and the Light of Love - Women Who Love Napoleon" at the Guangzhou Grand Theatre and the Beijing Tianqiao Art Center. Among them, the performance time of Beijing Tianqiao Art Center is from January 10 to 12.
The Takarazuka Opera Company is a troupe composed only of unmarried women, which is rare in the world. All male roles in the play are performed by women, the actor who plays the male is called "male servant", the actor who plays the female is called "female servant", the male servant usually cuts his hair short, and the female servant has long hair, and from the appearance, he can see the difference between male and female servants at a glance.
Stills from the Japanese Takarazuka Opera Company OG. Courtesy of the organizer
Audiences unfamiliar with Takarazuka may mistakenly think that this is a modern girl idol group, but in fact Takarazuka Opera Company has been operating for more than 100 years. As early as 1913, in order to increase the number of passengers on the line, the Then Japanese Minomi Arima Electric Railway Company decided to set up a song and dance performance group composed entirely of unmarried women, which became the predecessor of the Takarazuka Opera Troupe, so people also jokingly called Takarazuka "Railway Literary troupe", and it was this dramatic curve to save the country that opened her legendary chapter.
Takarazuka's success is not accidental, and it is primarily due to its unique operating mechanism. The troupe divides all the actors into five groups of "flower, moon, snow, star and zeus", and adopts the "TOP" system, each group will have two leading artists, "male servant" and "female servant", with a strict selection system. The so-called "male servant" originates from the tradition of only recruiting female actors, so that all male roles on the stage must be played by women, so in order to achieve a more handsome appearance and temperament than men in real life, it is required that "male servants" always maintain the image of men in life, and even living habits, and this change may be more than ten years, until after leaving the group to return to the female image, the hardships, can be imagined.
The 20th "Meet in Beijing" International Arts Festival invited the former snow group male service TOP Gaoling Blowing Snow, the former moon group female service TOP Ma Nai Jia Shi, the former snow group female service TOP dance wind Liluo and another 19 selected Takarazuka Opera Troupe OG actors to perform in China, and all of a sudden came the three TOP of Gaoling Chuixue, Ma Nai Jia Shi and Dance Wind Li Luo, full of sincerity. It can be said that each TOP is a generation myth.
In addition to ten years of polishing, the heritage is also highly valued in the Takarazuka Opera Company. After each term of cadets "retires", fresh blood is brought in, so Takarazuka Opera Company has an extremely sound and strict actor training system. Before everyone enters the troupe to become a formal actor, they must first enter the Takarazuka Music School, the elimination rate is so high, even with the saying of "East of the East, West of Takarazuka", and then carry out vocal music, musical instruments, music theory to various dances, ballet, tap, classical, modern, Latin, etc. for up to two years of comprehensive study, and then become a formal Takarazuka actor.
Today, takarazuka Opera Company has more than 400 members and more than 4,000 graduates, making it a large-scale stage performance group that is well-known throughout Japan and the world, and one of the most performed song and dance troupes in the world.
The first half of the upcoming beijing performance will bring "The Light of Sword and Love - The Women Who Love Napoleon", which depicts napoleon's expedition from Egypt to Russia and finally his exile to The Island of Elba. Through Napoleon's younger brother Lucien, his loyal arm Murat, in his most intimate male position, he spoke heroically. Through his wife Josephine, polish lover Mary, he is caught in a love entanglement that is still messy, telling the love story of the hero in the war.
In the second half, the Takarazuka Opera Company's OG Song and Dance Show kicked off with "Please Watch", followed by "Because of Love", "Darkness Fills", "I Belong to Me", "Dancing Moment", each capital is a classic that fans talk about. Finally, Takarazuka OG will sing the Takarazuka school song "When the Viola Blossoms" and "Takarazuka Forever", which will definitely bring fans to tears. (End)