15 November 2017
(Group photo of performers on stage)
At the invitation of the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau of the Macao Special Administrative Region, the 70-member Peking opera and Kunqu opera troupe of the Chinese Opera School affiliated to Shanghai Theatre Academy (“STA Chinese Opera School”) arrived in Macau on 10 November 2017 to give art popularization performances for one week.
On the morning of 13 November, the first art popularization performance for middle school students was concluded successfully at the Grand Auditorium of the Macau Cultural Centre. The performance was highly praised by the organizers in Macau and the teachers and students attending the performance. This has, once again, reflected the strength of the STA Chinese Opera School in the teaching of Peking opera and Kunqu opera.
During the performance, the professional theatre with the seating capacity of several thousand audiences was fully packed, and the audiences were Year 12 students of middle school. The thoughtful organizers also prepared the well-illustrated and informative program leaflets for each student. The performance received the warm applause from the students as soon as it began, fully reflecting the good theatre etiquette and civilized quality of the teenagers of Macau, as well as their eagerness to understand the art of Chinese national quintessence. The performers on the stage were all top students for their respective specialty roles at the STA Chinese Opera School, who have won gold and silver medals at professional competitions at the national level for many times. During the two-hour performance, they staged the excerpts of a number of classic plays of Peking opera and Kunqu opera. Although these were part of the regular repertoire, the teachers and students of the STA Chinese Opera School did not slack off the least. They prepared and rehearsed fully before coming to Macau with painstaking training and strict quality supervision and strived for perfection in everything from singing to posture.
To go with the performance of the performers, the teacher of our school who acted as the moderator also introduced the basic knowledge of Chinese opera to the middle school student audience of Macau, including the origin, three major artistic features, different roles and characters and performing techniques of Chinese opera, and the composition of Chinese opera band etc. In the meantime, in order to stimulate their interest, there were also interactive activities in which the middle school students of Macau came onto the stage where they put on the Chinese opera costumes and learnt the water sleeve movements following the teachers’ demonstration. Their vivid imitation created a relaxed and joyful atmosphere in the theatre and attracted bursts of applause time and again. In the popularization of Chinese opera, it is an effective way to use such kind of artistic vehicle full of national cultural characteristics to provide the students with the exposure to the singing and speaking appreciation, posture experience, interactive acting, colors with meaning, costume culture, knowledge of history and moral education, thus guiding them to feel the broadness and profoundness of Chinese opera and taste carefully its long-lasting charm.
The preservation of the excellent traditional culture of China is a pressing need in the promotion of Chinese opera art and, more importantly, it is also the hope of the great revitalization of the Chinese nation. Especially, the popularization of Chinese opera art in Macau where there is the fusion of the Chinese and western cultures can stimulate fond feelings of young students to love the motherland and love the traditional culture. As members of the STA Chinese Opera School, we will never fail our mission to spread the seeds of Chinese opera, and we have always been on the road to transmit positive energy and carry forward the true, the good and the beautiful.
(Stage photo of performance)
(Stage photo of performance)
(Stage photo of performance)
