Monday sees an unusual event in Taipei’s National Concert Hall. Called Un Bel Di — Puccini Festival, it’s the central scene from Madama Butterfly and the complete one-act opera Gianni Schicchi. The latter was performed to great acclaim by the Taipei Symphony Orchestra (TSO) earlier in the month, and many of the same soloists will be taking part again. But this time the orchestra will be the Hsin Tien Youth Orchestra (國立新店高中音樂班管絃樂團), the role of Butterfly will be sung by a teacher at the Sindian Senior High School, Flora Wu (吳秋萱), and the assistant director of January’s Idomeneo, Dennis Chung-kuang Lin (林中光), will sing Gianni Schicchi as well as directing both operas!
So, what on earth’s going on?
The reality is that this mix of professionals, educationalists and students and is an admirable exercise in expanding the experience of Taipei’s young. The 45-strong orchestra, all seemingly in their teens, will be flung into a public performance with some of the best of Taiwan’s opera soloists. To add to the challenge, the Butterfly part of the program is some of the most beautiful operatic music ever penned, while Gianni Schicchi follows hard on the heels of a fully-staged professional production.
All this is every reason to go along and take a look. Prices are extremely reasonable (NT$300 to NT$800). It will be semi-staged, which means full costumes but limited scenery (though it’s hard to believe that the TSO’s Gianni Schicchi set won’t for the most part be used).
And some of the soloists couldn’t be bettered anywhere in Taiwan. The production’s biggest catch is Grace Lin (林慈音) who’ll sing the crucial role of Lauretta in Gianni Schicci. But there’s also Yang Lei (楊磊), so very strong as the young lover Rinuccio for the TSO, who will sing the same part again on Monday. And Liau Chong-Boon (廖聰文) will be Sharpless, the American consul, in Madama Butterfly, as well as repeating his role of Simone in Gianni Schicchi.
All in all this looks like a performance not to be missed, and there are apparently plenty of tickets still available.
Un Bel Di — Puccini Festival is at the National Concert Hall on Monday at 7:30pm. For tickets, call (02) 2341-9898 or visit www.ticket.com.tw
Dec. 16 to Dec. 22 Growing up in the 1930s, Huang Lin Yu-feng (黃林玉鳳) often used the “fragrance machine” at Ximen Market (西門市場) so that she could go shopping while smelling nice. The contraption, about the size of a photo booth, sprayed perfume for a coin or two and was one of the trendy bazaar’s cutting-edge features. Known today as the Red House (西門紅樓), the market also boasted the coldest fridges, and offered delivery service late into the night during peak summer hours. The most fashionable goods from Japan, Europe and the US were found here, and it buzzed with activity
These days, CJ Chen (陳崇仁) can be found driving a taxi in and around Hualien. As a way to earn a living, it’s not his first choice. He’d rather be taking tourists to the region’s attractions, but after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck the region on April 3, demand for driver-guides collapsed. In the eight months since the quake, the number of overseas tourists visiting Hualien has declined by “at least 90 percent, because most of them come for Taroko Gorge, not for the east coast or the East Longitudinal Valley,” he says. Chen estimates the drop in domestic sightseers after the
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo, speaking at the Reagan Defense Forum last week, said the US is confident it can defeat the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the Pacific, though its advantage is shrinking. Paparo warned that the PRC might launch a “war of necessity” even if it thinks it could not win, a wise observation. As I write, the PRC is carrying out naval and air exercises off its coast that are aimed at Taiwan and other nations threatened by PRC expansionism. A local defense official said that China’s military activity on Monday formed two “walls” east
The latest military exercises conducted by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) last week did not follow the standard Chinese Communist Party (CCP) formula. The US and Taiwan also had different explanations for the war games. Previously the CCP would plan out their large-scale military exercises and wait for an opportunity to dupe the gullible into pinning the blame on someone else for “provoking” Beijing, the most famous being former house speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022. Those military exercises could not possibly have been organized in the short lead time that it was known she was coming.
RSS