Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Comments on the Finalist

While “transforming tradition” inevitably raises the question of compatibility, the National Chinese Orchestra’s selection of this script chooses this thorny road by sidestepping “ornamentation” and “imitation.” This opera defines a new face of traditional music and breathes fresh life into it.  Radiant beauties are not to be late in their lives, and do not curry favor with their winning smiles but rather in their high aspirations. Heroes die young, and their style is not in brazen behavior, nor in seizing the world by force. Although the performance unfolds in the visual structure, with direction and execution depending upon the dramatic tension expressed by costume, masks, movement and the narrator’s style, this work’s innovative features surpass the achievements of earlier operas.  We must applaud Taiwan’s National Chinese Orchestra for this degree of integrity and ingenuity.  The critic is able to focus on the musical quality, which conveys both highly resonant, delicate moments and rich introspective elements drawn from across artistic domains in contrast with moments of emptiness and void.  It carefully scrutinizes the many components that manifest a broader Taiwanese aesthetic.  The value of the production is further evidenced by variations between a narrative feeling and one of a traveling musician, thus dissolving the predicaments of urbanization and vulgarization, awakening an unrivaled depth of consciousness and life. （By Committee Member Ching-lung CHEN）