Updated Tuesday, June 10, 2008 0:00 am TWN, The China Post news staff Opera lovers — fans of Taiwanese opera, in particular — will be treated to an avant-garde production at the National Theater at the Chiang Kai-shek, or National Taiwan Democracy, Memorial Park on June 12. It’s a unique hybrid Taiwanese operatic production, titled Yellow Tiger Seal — a treasured seal of the Republic of Taiwan. Adopted from a novel of the same title by Yao Chia-wen, president of the Examination Yuan until the end of August, the opera, to be sung in Hoklo or Amoy, tells the story of a young man carrying the seal during the 12 days Asia’s first republic existed on Taiwan in 1895 and the island’s war of independence against Japan immediately thereafter. The national flag of that republic is emblazoned with a large yellow tiger, with its four paws on as many “fire wheels.” It is on display at the National Taiwan Museum at the Feb. 28 Incident Memorial Park in the heart of Taipei. Kudos for the librettists who had to struggle to transcribe Mandarin wording in the novel into rhymed Hoklo lyrics. One of them was no other than the author of the novel, who served at one time as chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party. His Yellow Tiger Seal is a roman-fleuve or river novel. Tang Mei-yun, a popular Taiwanese opera star, will sing the lead male role, though she is a “contralto.” What is uniquely avant-garde is that movie actors, actresses and even directors sing in Hoklo in the new Taiwanese opera. A theatrical art form, Taiwanese opera is believed to have originated in Yilan. By tradition, its form is said to have roots in short songs popular in the eastern Taiwan county, which were purportedly influenced by the narrative music of indigenous peoples. It became a full-fledged musical genre in the 1930s while Taiwan was still under Japanese colonial rule. Chu Lu-hao, a Peking operatic singer, takes part in the performance. Two well-known movie directors, Wu Nien-chen and Ko I-cheng, join in the singing cast. Ko is known for his “In Our Time” of New Wave Cinema fame. Wu, whose “A Borrowed Life” won the best film prize in the Turin International Film Festival and who is best known for his “Buddha Bless America,” begged Tang to let him sing a few passages in Hoklo. Stage actor Lo Bei-an, who cannot speak a word of Hoklo, had to coaxed his Hoklo-speaking wife to teach him enough of her mother tongue so that he could perform on stage. The libretto is sung to the accompaniment of the traditional three-stringed banjo, the pipa, and the vertical flute — plus electronic music to highlight a modernistic approach to Taiwanese opera. We hope the new venture in Taiwanese opera will breathe a new life in the traditional music genre.
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