The 10th Anniversary of Chinese Opera Festival in 2019

The Chinese Opera Festival brings to the local and tourist audiences exciting performances of different genres of Chinese opera between June and August annually.  It is further enriched by ancillary activities such as exhibitions, talks, meet-the-artists sessions, film shows on Chinese opera etc, with a mission to promote and preserve the rich heritage of traditional Chinese opera. As it enters its 10th year in 2019, the Festival will present the top-notch and elite troupes of Peking Opera, Kunqu Opera, Yue Opera, local Cantonese Opera and other regional genres.

China National Peking Opera Company – The Wild Boar Forest – Yu Kuizhi (left) and Li Shengsu (right)

The Grand Opening of the Festival, jointly presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and the Xiqu Centre, West Kowloon Cultural District will be performed by two leading Peking Opera troupes to stage six performances of Peking Opera North and South by China National Peking Opera Company and Shanghai Jingju Theatre Company at the Xiqu Centre, showcasing the traditional classic repertories. In the first three performances from 13 to 15 Jun, Yu Kuizhi and Li Shengsu from the China National Peking Opera Company, who are highly acclaimed in the genre of Peking Opera will perform The Wild Boar Forest, The Great Beauty Xi Shi and The Lady General Mu Guiying Leading Her Army to War. In the following three performances from 17 to 19 Jun, the Shanghai Jingju Theatre Company will stage the excerpts and full-length repertoire of Peking Opera in Shanghai Style, Seven Heroes and Five Gallants. The star-studded cast of the Company includes Shi Yihong, performing in The Incarceration of Su San, as well as Wang Puiyu, performing in The Vermilion Birthmark.

Shanghai Jingju Theatre Company – Seven Heroes and Five Gallants

In another jointly-presented programme from 19 to 21 Jul, the Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre will be led by three Representative Bearers of Kunqu Opera as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage and winners of the Plum Blossom Award for Chinese Theatre. Together with other three winners of the Award, a total of six winners of the Plum Blossom Award for Chinese Theatre gathering in the same programme is truly inviting to audiences. They will be performing the full-length play The Mistake Caused by a Kite and a series of traditional excerpts.

Shanghai Yue Opera Group – Romance of the West Chamber – Qian Huili (left) and Fan Yafen (right)

Over the years, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre is the signature venue for the Festival.  Since this year marks the 30th anniversary of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, the first celebrative programme under the Festival at the venue will be a new Cantonese Opera, A Love Poem Stained with Blood by the local Cantonese Opera artists from 21 to 22 Jun. Sun Kim-long, a renowned local Cantonese Opera artist, adapts the famous play, A Fan to Remember to reveal the ups and down of the Ming dynasty through the love story between courtesan Li Xiangjun and scholar Hou Zhaozong. The illustrious local Cantonese Opera stars: Sun Kim-long, Nam Fung, Yuen Siu-fai and Tang Mi-ling will lead the young artists with an aim to pass the cultural legacy to the next generations.

Shanghai Yue Opera Group – Meng Lijun – Zhang Ruihong (left) and Shan Yangping (right)

In the Festival, another celebrative programme of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre will be performed by the Shanghai Yue Opera Group from 25 to 28 Jul. Yue Opera has always been popular in both the mainland China and Hong Kong. The Shanghai Yue Opera Group will present four classic full-length plays under the leadership of the Plum Blossom Award winners and National Class One performers including Qian Huili, Fan Yafen, Zhang Ruihong, Shan Yangping and Wang Zhiping. The four classics, Romance of the West Chamber, Meng Lijun, Tale of the West Garden and Southeast the Peacocks Fly, are all-time favourite repertoires of the audience and the best combination of presentation by the virtuosi.

More details on the programmes of the Chinese Opera Festival will be published in April 2019.  Please visit the website of the Festival here.

Tickets available from 17 April onwards at URBTIX, Hong Kong.

Click here to visit Kong Cultural Centre’s website.