As winter fades and spring surges, the Guangzhou Grand Theater will welcome the opening of the 7th Women's Arts Festival, which will present the diverse beauty of stage art with a variety of performances from March 7 to April 27. . Talented female artists transform their keen perceptions into eclectic works on the stage, reflecting the relationship between themselves and the world; defining female charm through multiple perspectives, surging with endless artistic vitality.
The theme of this year's Women's Art Festival is "I am diverse", which means that the understanding of beauty does not need to be stereotyped. During the festival, 13 stage works will be staged in turn, covering various performance types such as dance drama, drama, opera, classical music, etc., including Xie Xin, who represents the backbone of Chinese modern dance, "one of the most important dancers in Asia" Wang Yabin, German violin legend Antje Werthas, as well as the National Ballet of China, Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe, the highly reputable youth drama group "Drama Nine" and other artists and groups with both strength and popularity, decorate the flower city with art. The gorgeous spring colors. The dance drama "Man Lives Among Flowers" and the Cantonese opera "Double Embroidery" will both have their premieres on the stage of the Guangzhou Grand Theater. In addition, various activities such as meet-and-greets and workshops will be held simultaneously.
Dancing in the Wind and Reflecting Spring
From March 7th to 8th, Xie Xin, the first Chinese female choreographer commissioned by the Paris Opera House and a specially commissioned choreographer for the 2023 Venice Biennale, will return with the dance theater "Quiet Place Resurrection" The stage of Guangzhou Grand Theater. Prior to this, Xie Xin left a deep impression on the Guangzhou audience with her role as the "pregnant woman" in the dance theater "Grand Hotel". He is also well-known to the public for his participation in variety shows such as "Dance Storm" and "Riding the Wind 2023". This new masterpiece intertwined with memory and time tells the story of his understanding of life after half a life and facing himself calmly.
Dancer Wang Yabin, who is also well-known in the international dance scene, will perform and direct the dance drama "Lady from the Sea". As the first Chinese choreographer in the history of the English National Ballet to be commissioned to create, Wang Yabin has created seven consecutive dance works with "female themes", and "Lady from the Sea" is the seventh of them. This dance drama is adapted from the play of the same name by the Norwegian drama master Ibsen. It is very different from the drama version. Lines are King. It uses the body to show the complex and profound heart of the heroine Alinda, telling her about the relationship between responsibility, marriage, desire and freedom. Struggle to reveal the awakening of women’s independent will. This work attempts to explore what status and role women occupy in the entire social structure, and whether women can gain the right to choose their life status during their life course.
This year, the Chinese ballet classic "Red Detachment of Women" celebrates the 60th anniversary of its premiere. As a shining pearl in the history of Chinese ballet, it shows the world the indomitable fighting spirit of the Chinese nation and blooms the unique flower of the Chinese nation's ballet art. charm. As the pride of Chinese ballet, it has now become a banner passed down from generation to generation by the National Ballet of China. From March 16th to 17th, the National Ballet of China will dance the most beautiful "Chinese Red" on pointe.
Guangdong Song and Dance Theater's newly created dance drama "Human Living Among Flowers" in 2024 will premiere at the Guangzhou Grand Theater. This dance drama is soaked in the local cultural temperament of Lingnan. Feng Shuangbai, chairman of the Chinese Dancers Association, serves as the artistic consultant. The National Ballet Fei Bo, the group's chief choreographer, directs, and Wen Fangyi serves as screenwriter. The play displays a large number of secular customs with Lingnan elements, laying out the relationship between people and the "city", and the connection between life and "flowers". It uses artistic imagination to mobilize all possible stage means, and uses reality and unreality to interweave. The combined approach presents the fireworks in the arcade flower shop and the sense of fantasy in dreams and fantasy.
The nine-person drama team of the popular drama "Spring Breeze"
, a youth drama team that has repeatedly achieved good reputations, will bring "Spring Passing", which is as exquisite as a poem, and the epic "Symmetry Broken" from the "Republic of Intellectuals Series" to the Guangzhou University Theater stage.
"Spring Dies" tells the story in a gentle and light way of the affectionate and restrained meeting, understanding, and cherishment of two physicists, the choice between ideal and reality of a trio from the Institute of Physics in troubled times, and the gentle power to resist the ups and downs of fate.
"Symmetry Broken" is the play with the widest time and space span and the richest expressions in the universe of the Nine People's Republics. The story revolves around three scientists, Ye Qisun, Wu Dayou, and Qu Jianxiong, who pursue scientific answers and solve life's problems. Each of them played multiple roles, and together they performed more than 40 characters across identities, ages, nationalities, and genders. In addition, this is a "musical drama" with precise and bold audio-visual design. Music is used as a key clue to affect emotions on the stage, and dozens of original soundtracks were created.
Commissioned by 1b62 Planet, produced by 2332 studio, and created by Bad Sleep Studio, the all-female drama "Summer Sounds: Seagulls" reconstructs the classic text of the drama master Chekhov from a modern perspective. The play dismantled the compact and huge volume of the original work, moved the story to a small Chinese town next to a big city, and placed the main driving emotion of the play on the friendship of five young girls. Transfer each role and their inner dilemma to women, and use the underlying logic of de-gendering to achieve the freedom of possibility.
The play "Shirley's Wall", newly created and staged by the Guangzhou Dramatic Art Center, tells the story of a middle-aged woman who breaks the "wall" in her heart and bravely pursues the life she longs for. In this 120-minute one-man show, actor Yu Xiaotang plays more than a dozen roles. The "one shot to the end" style performance fills the audience and completes a double test of mental and physical strength.
Another ingenious female one-woman show comes from "Where is the nearest accessible toilet?" adapted from the true story of "Internet celebrity wheelchair girl" Zhao Hongcheng. 》. The play is a self-narrated performance by Zhao Hongcheng himself, with a humorous and interesting style. It strives to break the stereotype of disabled people being hard and inspirational, and present the ordinary but touching side of "wheelchair people". Since its premiere, the play has gained high reputation and excellent box office in Shanghai and Beijing, and won the "Best Innovative Play" award at the 7th Chinese Drama Festival.
The world is full of spring in the pear garden
As the only team in the country that can perform the complete 55-performance version of "The Peony Pavilion", the Shanghai Kun Opera Troupe devoted all its efforts to launch the complete version of "The Peony Pavilion", the pinnacle of Kunqu Opera, with three performances over two consecutive days. The large-scale performance, which lasted for nearly 8 hours, was staged at the Guangzhou Grand Theater. The play specially invited the famous theater director Guo Xiaonan to be the director. Based on the shortening of the script by the late famous playwright Wang Renjie, he personally participated in the reduction of the script of the full version of "The Peony Pavilion" and specially invited Yue Meiti, Cai Zhengren, and Zhang Jingxian. , Ji Zhenhua, Liu Yilong, Zhang Mingrong, and Li Xiaoping are the inheritance and guidance of famous Kunqu opera artists. The late famous composer Xin Qinghua, the famous composer Zhou Xuehua, and the late national first-class composer Li Liang served as singing music designers, and national first-class stage design Huang Haiwei Served as stage designer. In addition, the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe's strong lineup of "five classes and three generations" provides a solid foundation for the huge group of characters in the play. In addition to the roles of "Du Liniang" and "Liu Mengmei" in the play, Luo Chenxue and Hu Weilu from "Kunban Class 4" are cast as "Quanben", Wu Shuang, the winner of the Plum Blossom Award from "Kunban Class 3", also plays the role of "Judge" respectively in the play. and "Wan Yan Liang", all outstanding young actors from Shangkun participated in the creation and performance of 55 "complete works".
The large-scale new costume Cantonese opera "Double Embroidery" created and staged by the Guangzhou Cantonese Opera Theater brings the legendary story of Guangzhou embroidery to the Cantonese opera stage for the first time, showing the beauty and charm of the two intangible cultural heritage arts. The play is based on Lu Meiniang, the "ancestor of Cantonese embroidery", and uses a cast of twin characters to interpret the legend of Cantonese embroidery, showing the innocent, simple, persistent, free and easy love view of people in the Tang Dynasty court. Two Plum Blossom Award winners Li Jiayi and Wu Feifan play the roles of Lu Meiniang and Zhuo Yingying respectively.
Music sounds ringing in the sunshine of spring
German violin master Antje Werthaus, who is visiting Guangzhou for the first time, will bring the complete set of "Unaccompanied Violin Sonatas and Partitas" to the Guangzhou Grand Theater to perform, presenting Bach's music between the bows and strings. The musical universe. Werthaus is not only an outstanding violinist, but also a violin professor at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin. The famous violinist Ning Feng once studied with her.
Steinway young artist and Irish pianist Clara Isabella Siegel will bring Schumann's piano suite "Carnival", Bach's Partita Suite No. 2 in C minor and other classics, leading the The audience enters the musical world of Bach, Schumann, Haydn and Onegger between the black and white keys.
Nandu reporter Zhu Rongting Intern Chen Mingxinyu
