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Find more NCPA 2nd Anniversary Celebration
Story: Chen Jie
Photograph: Ling Feng
The opera A Female Teacher in a Village now running at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) tells a story of love and betrayal, idealism and sacrifice.
The lead protagonist Yang Caihong (performed by soprano Dilibar) falls in love with her classmate Li Wenguang (tenor Ding Yi) while in college. After graduation, Li takes Yang to his hometown, a small village in the mountains where the two work as primary school teachers. However, the ambitious Li is not keen on settling down in such a poor village to lead a simple life. Soon, he leaves to pursue a master's degree in the city, with Yang's financial support, and promises to return to marry her after earning his degree.
Of course, things do not go as planned. Li never returns while Yang chooses to stay in the village. She meets her true love there eventually and sacrifices her life to save her students during a flood.
It was written by China's leading playwright Liu Heng, whose credits include the movie Assembly and Talkative Zhang Damin's Happy Life. The opera was scored by Hao Weiya who composed the 18-minute ending for NCPA's production of Puccini's unfinished Turandot. Lu Jia, the acclaimed Shanghai-born conductor, leads the music. A Female Teacher in a Village is NCPA's blockbuster production to celebrate the second anniversary of its founding.
Hao has written quite a few melodic arias for the lead role Yang.
"Although it still has a few flaws, the opera could be improved into a classical production. This is the first run anyway, and it is one of the few Chinese original operas that combines drama, music and characterizations so well," Lu said after its premiere on Tuesday night.
Other highlights of the production include the hi-tech settings designed by Gao Guangjian. The 14-m-high, 50-m-long screen surrounding the stage is put to good use, allowing vivid play of the production's multimedia effects. The mountains, grassland, clouds, storm and floods look so real that you almost feel like you are in the village.
Learn more about A Female Teacher in a Village |
