New Peking Opera 'Aida's Love': Li Baochun's Third Challenge to Classic Opera

The new Peking Opera 'Aida's Love' will debut this Saturday and Sunday at the Taipei City Stage. Peking Opera actor Li Baochun is taking on his third challenge of adapting a classic opera. A full dress rehearsal was held today, featuring a grand overture combined with Uyghur dance, unveiling the scenes of desert warfare. According to a press release from the Koo Foundation, 'Aida's Love' was selected as a '115th Year City Stage Creation and Performance Program.' Li Baochun serves as the screenwriter, director, and lead actor, with Lu Yuyong handling vocal arrangements, Zhong Yaoguang composing, and Bao Erji choreographing, expanding the audiovisual imagination of the stage. Following 'Rigoletto' and 'The Magic Flute,' Li Baochun once again challenges the adaptation of a Western classic opera, continuing to reinterpret world masterpieces using the artistic language of Peking Opera. The entire play's singing style is presented in 'Pi-Huang,' with musical theater soprano Lin Ziyin participating in a crossover performance, blending Chinese and Western vocal techniques to present a new style of sound. In terms of plot interpretation, unlike Verdi's opera or the Disney musical version, it highlights the contradictions and choices Aida faces between country, family, and love, deepening the internal dialectic of 'emotion' and 'righteousness,' ultimately choosing to pursue love, presenting a character portrayal with a more Eastern emotional perspective.