A German-Chinese Co-Production
Berlin, radialsystem
December 20 to 22, 2019, all performances at 8 pm
Tickets: 18,-€ / 28,-€ / 36,-€
reduced tickets: 14,- €
Elbphilharmonie Hamburg
April 12, 2020, 8 pm
Tickets: 15,-€ / 30,-€ / 45,-€
reduced tickets: 15,- €
Producers: Dr. Gabriele Minz and Song Chen
Stage Directors: Anna Peschke and Wang Huquan
Composers: Aziza Sadikova and Qiu Xiaobo
Dramaturge: Derek Gimpel
Dramaturgical Advisor: Prof. Dr. Dieter Rexroth
Artistic Advisor: Chen Zhuo
This new production of the “Ring” experiments with the stylized codes of Peking Opera and Richard Wagner’s Nibelung myth, in the spirit of intercultural discourse. The poetic-visual style of the German stage director Anna Peschke merges with the highly expressive Peking Opera aesthetic of her co-director Wang Huquan; together they arrive at a new theatrical language. The performers are renowned practitioners of traditional Peking Opera in China; they team up with contemporary dancers and singers from Germany to create and explore a new form of artistic expressivity. Compositions by Aziza Sadikova and Qui Xiaobo include both New Music and classical Peking Opera melodies and will be performed by an ensemble including both European and Chinese instruments.
A co-production of the China National Peking Opera Company and the Deutscher Freundeskreis europäischer Jugendorchester (DFK e.V.), implemented by the Dr. Gabriele Minz GmbH as part of the 25-year anniversary of the city partnership between Berlin and Beijing.
Generously supported by funding from the Lotto Foundation Berlin and the German Foreign Ministry.
Anna Peschke has been directing contemporary Peking Opera since 2012. As a director and visual artist, she creates new forms of expression incorporating elements of performance, Peking Opera, installation and new music. Her first production, Woyzeck as a Solo Performance with Peking Opera Elements, was followed in 2015 by Faust – Research through the Language of Peking Opera, a collaboration between the Italian theatrical foundation ERT and the China National Peking Opera Company. In 2017 this production was awarded the title “National Beacon Project for Excellence in Theatre” by the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China and the City of Beijing’s Department of Culture. In 2015 Anna Peschke also received the Dance and Theatre Prize of the City of Stuttgart and the State of Baden-Württemberg, preceded by the Berlin Opera Award in 2012. © Kai Kremser
Wang Huquan is one of the most famous directors in China and a baritone at China National Opera House. He is a member of the Chinese Theatre Association and China Association of Performing Arts. He graduated from the postgraduate programme of the directing department of the Central Academy of Drama. He has starred in such operas such as Carmen, Le Nozze di Figaro, Rigoletto, and Sister Jiang. He has directed such operas as Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Turandot, Tannhäuser, and Der Ring des Nibelungen: Das Rheingold. For his work he has received multiple awards and honours.
Aziza Sadikova studied piano and composition from the age of five in her hometown of Tashkent, Uzbekistan. She continued her studies at the Tashkent State Conservatory in the class of composer Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky. She graduated with 1st class BMus (Hons) and MA in composition from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and Trinity College of Music. Her music has been performed at numerous renowned festivals and concert halls. Aziza Sadikova has worked with well-known conductors and has won several awards, including the Arts Encouragement Award of the Ministry of Culture of Brandenburg and the European Composers Award. Her music has been presented on BBC Radio, Deutschlandradio Kultur, on the cultural stations of RBB, MDR and SWR, and on Moscow’s cultural television channel. © Michaela Strumberger
Qiu Xiaobo has been a composer at the China National Peking Opera Company since 1994. She graduated from the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts (NACTA) in 1991, with a specialty in Jing’erhu. She has worked with a number of renowned artists and served as vocal designer for General Flying-Tiger, Han Yuniang, Su Wu the Hero in the Desert and The Peacock’s Plume. For all of these compositions, Qiu Xiaobo won the award for excellent vocal designers of the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Did you know …?
That the carpet, an obligatory element of Peking Opera, measures 12 x 12 metres?
That the leaps executed by the performers require an open space of 10 metres in height?
That the Peking Opera knows 26 styles of eyebrow make-up? And each has its own meaning!
That the “original Ring” by Wagner lasts between 15 and 16 hours?
That Wagner’s “Ring” requires more than 34 soloists?
That Peking Opera distinguishes between 20 different manners of smiling and laughing?
“Peking Opera is a magical world where fragility, beauty and elegance meet expressivity. It is vastly different from the theatrical and operatic forms we know – sensuously impressive and fascinating! Because they cannot immediately recur to familiar patterns of interpretation, European viewers gain a new perspective on familiar stories. Viewers are challenged as active participants.”
Anna Peschke, Stage Director
“Listeners may expect a total contrast to conventional western opera casting. I chose a very experimental approach: instrumental techniques and unusually sonorous combinations of European and Chinese instruments, including some extraordinary ones, for example a box of glass shards, psaltery, glass harmonica and stones.”
Aziza Sadikova, Composer
