[Photo provided to Shaoxing Daily]

There was no gorgeous lighting or beautiful stage design, only a table and two chairs. There was no amplification equipment, only human voice to present the beauty of opera. The classic Shaoju opera Monkey Subdus the White-bone Demon was staged by the Shaoju Art Research Institute of Zhejiang at Malakoff No.71 Theater in Paris, France at 19:30 local time on November 28th.

“I love this show very much. I love Sun Wukong!” said a French audience Mellan after watching this most traditional Shaoju opera.

Huang Fang, deputy director of the Shaoju Art Research Institute of Zhejiang, said that an hour before the show, there had been audiences lining up in front of the theater. More than 95% of the audience were French. “As early as a month ago, tickets had been sold out. A lot of French audiences had been applying for extra seats. The applause went on and on even ten minutes after the curtain call. The audience were excited.”

The Chinese Traditional Opera Festival is held in Paris from November 26th to December 2nd. There are seven traditional operas staged by six troupes from six Chinese provinces and cities. The Shaoju opera Monkey Subdus the White-bone Demon is definitely one of the most popular operas among French audiences. The festival is an international cultural exchange brand created by the Chinese Cultural Center in Paris which is held every two years from 2003. So far, it has been successfully held seven times.

Different from other opera festivals, this festival pays the most attention to the original traditional Chinese opera art. “Our stage is very simple. The background is only a black screen and the lights are just some big white lights. We hope that both performers and audiences focus on the opera itself. The performers sing without any amplification equipment, and the band is the smallest. Many scenes such as windy, rainy, uphill and downhill are presented by the performers.” Jean Pierre Hulls, honorary director of opera of the French ministry of culture and communication and French president of the Paris Chinese Traditional Opera Festival, said that only when all packaging elements are removed will the opera be original.

Huang Fang said they had got rid of many unnecessaries for this show. They retrenched more than 70 members to 30. Meanwhile, they added martial performance to attract audience. Previously just before the festival kicked off, she led two outstanding young performers Ying Linfeng and Wang Haoshuang to Malakoff No.71 Theater, Paris City Theater, and several French colleges such as Collège Rabelais à Meudon, University of Nantes, Ecole Jeannine Manuel and Collège Verlaine to carry out eight art promotion and experience activities. They vividly presented the acting and performing art of Chinese operas through on-site makeup, dressing up, performance demonstration and procedure interpretation.