Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Comments on the Finalist

By blending the musical rhythms and postures of different times and places, this performance reinterprets traditional musical genres. Arias from Robert Schumann's “Dichterliebe” and traditional Nanguan opera are woven together by two singers Tilman Lichdi and Wan, Xin-Xin who retain the original musical features of each genre in their performances. These two magnificent singers present the inherent poetry, restrained spirit, and body languages of their respective musical styles. The performer Wan, Xin-Xinof the Nanguan opera selection cuts into “Dichterliebe” in a way that is both dissonant yet subtle. Furthermore, the restrained quality of Nanguan opera complements the theatrical tension in Schumann's composition even at its most dramatic moments, creating a sublime dialog between these disparate performance styles. Committee member: Yang, Chien-Chang

Artwork Introduction

The Taipei Arts Festival was established by the Taipei City government in 1999 and in recent years, the festival is overseen by the coordinating efforts between Taipei’s Department of Cultural Affairs and the Taipei Culture Foundation. The festival’s mission is to encourage young artists and to help strengthen and develop Taiwan’s cultural landscape while providing resources for the cross-disciplinary arts.

In 2008, the Taipei Arts Festival re-oriented its mission, to focus on the contemporariness and innovative forms and values of the performing arts. Each summer, the festival hosts performances and in 2009, its series of Shakespearean concerts by local musical bands and singers won high acclaim. 

About the Artist

The Taipei Arts Festival's “Timeless Love – Concert of Dichterliebe & Nanguan” took place September 3, 2010 at Taipei Zhongshan Hall as a celebration of composer Robert Schumann's 200th anniversary.

Music director and conductor Chien, Wen-Pin reinterpreted the classical work of Schumann's compositions and Chinese Nanguan (a classical music form from Fujian, China) by weaving together literary, musical and theatrical elements. The eclectic combination created a transcending dialogue between the romantic lyrics and the highly diverse styles.

German tenor Tilman Lichdi sang Schumann’s “Dichterliebe,” sixteen songs set to poems by poet Heinrich Heine accompanied by Chien on the piano. Wang, Xin-Xin played the pipa and sang Nanguan versions of love poems by celebrated Chinese poets. She sang famous Nanguan tunes such as “A Love of Lament,” “Yearning in Secrecy for Amour,” “Golden Goblet” and performed new arrangements of selected Chinese love poems such as “Song of Flower Burial,” and “Crows Crying at Night.”

Schumann's “Dichterliebe” is typically performed by vocalists with the piano accompaniment, so Chien's innovative presentation of presenting literature and Schumann's music with Nanguan music was truly ground-breaking. While based on traditional culture, the eastern and western elements were deconstructed, reconstructed and integrated in accordance with the cross-disciplinary and innovative concept and form to accomplish the production of “Timeless Love.”

Lichdi and Wang both sang songs describing distinct love stories, and yet those stories assimilated and dialogued in perfect symmetry. This achievement not only created a new cross-disciplinary music style but also enabled the audience to appreciate the different interpretations of literature and love from the East and the West, while finding timeless similarities. In an era of cross-disciplinary cooperation and innovation, the Taipei Arts Festival has produced new styles over the past few years fulfilling a mission to promote music arts, inject new life into classical forms and to develop new audiences.