15 October 2020
On the evening of 11 October, the special performance given by the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA), which was part of the “To to the Motherland: Performance of Peking Opera Masters’ Classic Plays” program held by the National Peking Opera Company in conjunction with other major Peking Opera companies and troupes and art colleges across the country under the guidance of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, was staged in the Shanghai City Theater.
In this performance, the STA College of Chinese Opera presented five carefully selected Peking Opera excerpts for the audience, i.e. "Fleeing by Night", "Refuse the Banquet", "Rhinoceros Horn", "Mu Guiying in Command:Teach the Son at Drill Ground" and "Mu Guiying in Command: Accept Commander’s Seal with Relief". The instructing teachers of these opera highlightswere Wang Lijun, Wang Mengyun, Tong Qiang, Zhu Yufeng (deceased), Li Peihong, Chen Shaoyun and Guo Wenhua. The leading student actorswere Li Tongsheng, Zheng Jingjing, Ruan Dengyue, Wang Zhixian and Yang Xi.
On that night, the theatre was fully seated, and there was one climax after another with cheers and applause going on and on. This was the first public performance given by the STA College of ChineseOpera since the flight again the COVID pandemic, which showed the high-quality teaching results as well as the good professional accomplishment and mental outlook of the new generation of reserve talents of Chinese opera.
Zhu Yufeng, who died of cancer on 24 September this year, was one of the instructing teachers in this performance. Unfortunately, he left us before the performance took place. We use this highly successful performance to comfort Mr Zhu Yufeng. We also believe that the spirit of keeping tradition and pursuing innovation as shown in this performance will be inherited and carried forward by teachers from generation to generation, and flow in the artistic blood of young students.
