Mao & Again: Chinese Warm to distant echo

Washington Post, June 15, 2009 STYLE section: page C1,C5:

The National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing is in the middle of its first opera festival. The event is conceived a scale to match the huge glass-domed building: 13 operas in 79 days involving 10 opera companies, both national(Shanghai Opera) and international(Teatro Regio di Parma), and more than 2,000 artists.

Some of the operas are traditonal Western fare: "La Boheme, ""Rigoletto,""Turandot," But four of them are Chinese, and of these, two are vintage works of socialist realism:"The Red Guards on Honghu Lake" and "Jiang Jie" for "Sister Jiang") which opened on Tursday for a run of three performances by the Art Troupe of the Air Force Political Department of the PLA.

Opera Fans in Beijing show a taste for revolution: Page C5

Its vocal lines -Jiang Jie's part, in particular, which was sung on Friday by Yi Hongyuan - are more nasal, high and piercing than the Western ideal, and, not surprisingly, bear a Chinese pentatonic coloring. Still, this is a traditional number piece, in form more Broadway musical than opera either Chinese or Western, shored up by stirring songs and choruses, arcing lines from a solo violin or full-voiced baying from the orchestra (lead by Jiang Xiebin in full military regalia, as befits an Air Force officer).

Here is the combo of the East and the West in musical arts.

Radio WTOP just announced car sales are doing well in China with the cost of US$ 6,000 for American reference.

Francis Shieh a.k.a. Xie Shihao to stay informed about US-China economics in action.

Monday,June 15, 2009 at 8.38 a.m.