5 May 2019
On 26 May, the College of Chinese Traditional Opera of the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA) held a seminar on the creation of Peking Opera Mu Guiying Takes Command at the Lianhua Road Campus. Gong Xueping, retired senior leader of Shanghai, Xie Wei, Party Secretary of STA, Li Peihong, Dean of the STA College of Chinese Traditional Opera, Liu Chunyou, Secretary of the Party Branch of the STA College of Chinese Traditional Opera, and Huang Hangwei, Deputy Dean of the STA College of Chinese Traditional Opera, as well as Bai Yunming, the specially invited director of the play, and Tian Feng, the specially invited electone performer, and other key members of the creation team attended the meeting.
Li Peihong, Dean of the STA College of Chinese Traditional Opera, reviewed in retrospective the creation of the play over the past ten years. Deputy Dean Huang Hangwei introduced the planning process of the performance and the significance of the re-production of the play.
Peking Opera “Mu Guiying Takes Command” was created by Mei Lanfang sixty years as a tribute to the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. It was the only new play created by Mei Lanfang after the founding of PRC, and can be regarded as his masterpiece in his later years. In 2009, with the care of the leaders of Shanghai and the support of Mei Baojiu, “Mu Guiying Takes Command” was transformed from the Mei School to the Cheng School and had its successful debut in Shanghai. It was a useful exploration for promoting excellent national culture and for creatively transforming and innovatively developing excellent traditional plays. As a tribute to the 70th anniversary of the founding of PRC, it also participated in the performances at the Shanghai International Art Festival.
The re-production this time will achieve the purposes of teaching plays and educating people, driving the cultivation of young talents and promoting the teaching of Chinese traditional opera by way of teaching by master teachers as well as by teachers and students performing on the same stage.
At the meeting, Xie Wei, Party Secretary of STA, also put forward his expectations for the performance. At the same time, he said that STA will support the play as always and strive to create an exemplary works, and that in the process of advancing the actual work, we will overcome difficulties together to achieve the best results with limited time and investment.
Gong Xueping, retired senior leader of Shanghai, also put forward specific requirements for the re-production of the play.
