The Marriage of Figaro with Chinese characteristics
- Source: Global Times
- [19:45 July 09 2009]
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Scenes from the Chinese version of The Marriage of Figaro.
By Guo Ying
Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro has been performed countless times and now a Chinese director is trying to make this comedic opera popular among the public.
This weekend in Beijing, a new adaptation sheds a new and very Chinese light on Mozart’s 18th century masterpiece.
Entertaining and often hilarious, this version also contains local dialects to bring the opera bang up to date in modern China.
Popular themes occupying the minds of the audience all find a place in the libretto —including the soaring price of real estate, swine flu and pollution.
Though the production’s arias will be sung in its original Italian, the narrations in between will be delivered in Chinese instead.
“In China, opera is held by some people as too highbrow for them to appreciate. But we hope to present a true-to-life version to make it more popular with local audiences, so we have added some slapstick and comic moments,” the opera’s director, Li Wei said.