Four-night festival feast

While the two-month-long Opera Festival presented by National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) is going to close the curtain by the end of June, the Kunqu Opera Festival will open with the four-night spectacle production The Palace of the Eternal Youth by Shanghai Kunqu Opera Company this weekend.

The Kunqu Opera Festival will showcase four most famous repertoires of the old art: The Palace of Eternal Youth, The Peony Pavilion, The Peach Blossom Fan and The Romance of West Chamber. Leading Kunqu Opera companies are producing all the shows: the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Company, Suzhou Kunqu Opera Company, Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Company and North Kunqu Opera Company.

Originating in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province some 600 years ago, Kunqu Opera is one of the oldest forms of opera in China. In 2001, UNESCO listed it into the first 19 masterpieces of oral and intangible heritage of humanity. Combining singing, dancing and acting, Kunqu Opera has an important impact on hundreds of Chinese musical theaters including Peking Opera.