LI Bao-Chun on Traditional Chinese Operas
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1/7 Xi-Men Bao
Xi-Men Bao was named mayor of Ye where he found the local royal officers defrauded the people of their money in the name of the river god’s wedding. Running an investigation incognito, he decided to play along with their story. On the day of the river god’s wedding, he accompanied the bride to the riverside and announced that the bride was too ugly. Then he had the corrupted officers thrown into the river to find out what would please the river god. He thus ended the scam and awoke his people from superstition.
1/14 The Scholar of Ba-Shan
Script: WEI Ming-Lun
Adaptation, Director: LI Bao-Chun
Music Design: ZHU Shao-Yu
Stage Design: SHIH Hsun-Cheng
Costume Design: TSAI Yu-Feng
MENG Deng-Ke by LI Bao-Chun
Imperial Envoy by SUN Zheng Yang
Mrs. MENG by WANG Yan
Heng-Bao by YANG Yan-Yi
Ni-Shang by HUANG Yu-Lin
SUN Yu-Tian by CHANG Gui-Xiang
LI You-Heng by LEE Yen-Lung
Blacksmith YUAN by HSU Po-Ang
Innkeeper by LI Zhao-Yun
GE Shi-Ha by LIU Yu-Chang
Jinhu(Head of Strings): CHAO Lu-Chia
Drum(Head of Percussions): LU Yung-Hui
Duration: 150 minutes
Filmed on April 14, 2011, National Theater NTCH, Taipei
County Ba-Shan in Sichuan Province was experiencing a long draught. People pled for disaster relieve but were declined by the mayor. Their only hope was to beg Meng Deng-Ke, the only scholar in the country, to compose a statement of complaint with which they could impeach the corrupted mayor. The mayor vowed to fight for a disaster fund with his superior, the imperial envoy, and left town. Upon seeing his superior, however, he reported a county uprise. Troops were deployed to Ba-Shan and people were suppressed and killed. Scholar Meng and his wife, frightened and enraged, decided to sue the imperial envoy for malfeasance. This time it resulted in punishment for Meng in the envoy’s court.
The envoy’s lover, Ni-Shang, saved Meng and funded his journey to the capital city, where Meng took the imperial exam and wrote down what he had seen and been through in the answer sheet. When finally an impeachment was to be established, Meng found himself poisoned by the special envoy sent by the Empress Dowager to announce the good news! So much for a country scholar’s efforts to bring justice to the less privileged.
1/21 Hong Niang
Zhang Jun-Rui, a young scholar, visited Pu-Jiu Temple and fell in love with Miss Cui Ying-Ying, the late Premier’s daughter. With the help of Hong Niang, Miss Cui’s maid, the lovers spent a night together and vowed to become husband and wife.
Derived from the 14th century Yuan Qu Playwright Wang Shi-Fu’s novel “The Romance of The West Chamber,” Hong Niang is a masterpiece of the Xun School in Peking Opera.
1/28 Fleeing through the Zhao Pass
Wu She was imprisoned for expostulating with King Chu Ping about the latter’s seizing his own son’s wife. The treacherous Fei Wu-Ji forced Wu She to summon his sons, Wu Shang and Wu Yuan, so that he could destroy the Wu’s at one stroke. Wu Yuan found the summoning note suspicious and refused to go home, but Wu Shang went home and got beheaded with his father. Wu Yuan fought his way out of Fan City where he was stationed and ran into his old friend General Shen Bao-Xu with his troops. Shen Bao-Wu let Wu Yuan escape, but Wu Yuan still couldn’t go through the Zhao Pass as he was wanted everywhere. He then hid in Mr. Dong Gao’s house for seven days. His hair and beard all turned white because of the pressure and sufferance. This gave Mr. Dong Gao an idea: he found a man who looked like Wu Yuan but with black hair and beard, asking him to take a walk through the Zhao Pass. While the guards all went after the false Wu Yuan, the real one fled amidst the crowd.
