Chapter 1077 Premiere
The Metropolitan Opera on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
After the last rehearsal in the morning, it was time for evening.
Guofeng Art Troupe's "Book of Songs" themed performance started at 7 o'clock in the evening, more than ten minutes before the opening, the theater was almost full, and many audience members were taking advantage of the last time before the opening. The program manual, bilingual in Chinese and English with a Chinese-style ink background, introduces in detail the historical status of the Book of Songs in Chinese culture and the general content of the 12 dances tonight.
Michael Morton, the resident drama critic for The New York Times Culture Edition, sat in the center of the hall with an excellent view, flipping through the program brochure in front of him, while listening to the bickering of a young couple in the back.
"I don't understand why you want to see this, Vinnie, and I've inquired, the ticket price is a lot higher than before. I know that the dance team is rumored to be built by Simon Westeros himself, but, from Chinese classical dance, tsk, are they going to perform kung fu on stage?"
"Jack, what else do you know about China besides kung fu?"
“Chinese food is pretty good.”
"I feel more and more cheated by you now, and I shouldn't marry you."
"Hey, unfortunately it's too late."
"Well, I know Simon is enough to make all of you men feel inferior, so just shut up."
"In any case, even if you like Westeros, you have no chance to become the second Jennifer Bray. Speaking of which, the little guy is really lucky. Star Chaser has chased a net worth of more than 400 million US dollars. Miracle."
"To shut up!"
"Ok."
Michael Morton never looked back, but he was still in the media circle, and was very familiar with a lot of gossip. Hearing some words from the young couple behind him, he couldn't help thinking that there was still a good chance, or that he might get married. The chances are even greater. After all, some of Westeros' fascination with women is not a secret.
This slightly joking thought just flashed by, and Morton's attention was quickly turned to tonight's performance.
Compared with the young couple behind him who probably don't often watch operas, Michael Morton feels more appropriate for the ticket price of this show. It is really expensive. Compared with the previous ticket price, it is at least 50% higher. Not bad, but nowhere near the bonus booklet for the extra fare.
And this time it was his own money.
If it weren't for the singing and dancing team created by Simon Westeros, Michael would not have come to watch this kind of Chinese classical dance, which he has no interest in at all. Chinese food is probably poor and backward.
As a relatively well-known drama critic in the circle, since this time he rarely paid for himself, if the next performance cannot satisfy him, even if it involves Simon Westeros, his commentary article tomorrow There will never be anything good to say.
However, after pondering the details of the ticket price, Michael Morton felt that even if his criticism was harsh, a young tycoon might not care.
Thinking like this, the time soon came to 7 o'clock.
The lights in the theater were dimmed, and after a while, the curtain was raised, and the stage background was a row of erected bamboo slips with beautiful ancient seal characters written on them.
The elegant and neutral music sounded.
Unlike Western symphonies, most of the audience heard this kind of ding ding dong dong sound for the first time. Only the audience in the box upstairs overlooking the orchestra pit in front of the stage could see people wearing ancient Chinese costumes. oriental woman is striking a row of chimes.
Immediately, two rows of women in ancient costumes with dignified and graceful clothes slowly came to the stage, accompanied by the voice of the woman singing.
Even in two completely different cultures, but listening to the music and singing in his ears, and looking at the elegant and ancient woman on the stage, Michael Morton's most intuitive feeling is only one word: beauty.
Or, nearly 4,000 spectators who have been curious about this performance for a long time basically felt this way.
Some things after many years have repeatedly proved that "xx has no borders" is a joke, but at this moment, even with a completely different cultural background, this kind of cultural beauty accumulated by a nation for thousands of years still hits people's hearts.
Theater backstage.
The other girls who were ready to listen to the music from the front desk raised their hearts high, and they inevitably lacked a little confidence.
In fact, everyone felt that in addition to the handbook that was given with the ticket, there should be more comments for the audience. Some people suggested that the corresponding poem should be recited before each dance during the planning stage. After all, these ordinary Americans do not have a certain The man is so familiar with Chinese culture, and as a result, similar suggestions are directly rejected by someone without any explanation.
Obviously not too concerned about the success or failure of the show.
And the tickets this time around, knowing that someone personally raised the average theater ticket price for the show by 50%, it made everyone think that someone might also want them to fail.
In front of the dressing table, Wei Chan stood obediently like a little wood, spread out his hands slightly and let Teacher Wang check his makeup for him. Wang Dongyue looked at the girl's nervous appearance and comforted him, "Relax, you're just a group dance, wait for you. It's not good to be like this when you only dance in "Jianjia" solo."
"It's just nervous," Wei Cancha said, actively trying to avoid the topic to help himself relax, and said, "By the way, Mr. Wang, Simon said during the day that we can go back to China during the New Year."
Wang Dongyue nodded slightly,
Hmm.
Wei Cancha, who gets along well with several teachers on weekdays, noticed that Mr. Wang became less emotional after hearing what he said, and he roughly knew why: "Mr. Wang, aren't you going to get your green card soon? I'll wait for you. Once you get the green card, you should be able to pick up your uncle and children to come to the United States, right?"
Wang Dongyue paused, looked at the girl in front of her with hesitation, and then said, "It's uneven, I think... Can you help me with Mr. Westeros?"
When Wei Cancha heard the words, she suddenly remembered the man's indifferent reaction when she told him about Feng Caifen in the morning, but after a little hesitation, she still said: "Okay, Teacher Wang, but I can't guarantee anything. ."
Wang Dongyue hurriedly said, "You just need to help me by mentioning it."
After all, it's a matter of immigration.
Unlike the Guofeng Art Troupe, who only need to take care of their own young girls, a group of female teachers who came with them half a year ago basically all have a family. The salary package given by the Guofeng Art Troupe is completely in line with the expectations of the Chinese people for the West in this era, and even more than that. Therefore, these teachers inevitably want to go further and let their families come together.
However, the Guofeng Art Troupe has not yet reached this level of charity. To achieve this, they basically need to operate by themselves.
It's not easy.
After diverting this topic, he changed his mind a little, and Wei Chanchi also relaxed. Hearing the end of the first "Guan Ju" at the front desk, the warm applause came, which made Wei Chanchi feel a little more confident. You know, "Guan Ju" Guan Ju is one of the 12 dances tonight, which is quite normal. The reason why it is used as the opening is just because Guan Ju is the opening chapter of the Book of Songs, and the more exciting ones are in the back.
In the words of a certain man, this is called getting better.
Now, since the first dance drew rapturous applause, the audience's response could only be better.
The facts are also like Wei's mixed judgment.
The final final length of the performance is 100 minutes, with a total of 12 dances, corresponding to the twelve poems in the Book of Songs.
Under the circumstance that the opening has been quite successful, several dances such as Wei Zanqi's solo "Jianjia" and Simon's own choreographed "Caiwei" all aroused more enthusiastic applause than the opening.
When the last dance was over and all the members of the art troupe came to the stage to call the curtain, many audience members were shocked. 100 minutes passed by so quickly, so that many audience members did not leave immediately, but tried to go to the backstage for a close encounter with the audience. The dancers who just brought themselves a visual feast communicated face-to-face.
Although most of the people who tried to do so were stopped, there were still some lucky ones with strong connections who made it through.
Michael Morton, the resident drama critic of The New York Times, is one of them, and it was Joseph Volpe, general manager of the Metropolitan Theatre, who personally led him and some other special guests in, causing him to sit in the The young couple behind Morton, who also wanted to go backstage after the performance, felt envious.
"First of all, congratulations, Joseph, haven't you always wanted to reform the theater? This performance will definitely be a sensation."
Everyone went backstage together, and Joseph Volpe smiled bitterly when he heard what Michael Morton said: "You should know, Mike, this is just a special case. Frankly speaking, it was a success, and the next show should be the same. Popular, otherwise, well, I really don't know what to say."
Mainly because a certain young tycoon is really messed up.
Just insisting on a substantial increase in ticket prices, Joseph Volpe was very opposed to it at the beginning, but unfortunately he was only a professional manager after all, and his arms could not twist his thighs.
The result is good.
Even Joseph Volpe certainly hopes this will bring about some changes.
You must know that the operas mainly staged by the Metropolitan Opera House are actually similar to Chinese Peking Opera. They are all at the 'national quintessence' level. The overseas tourists who came to see a New York tour are a large number of silver-haired people, and there are very few young people.
Tonight's show, because of a young tycoon, was an exception.
Before the performance, Joseph Volpe quietly observed that there were nearly 4,000 spectators at the scene, and most of the young audience came here.
If this situation can continue, that is, the ticket price will increase by 50%, and the audience will continue to follow, Joseph Volpe can wake up with a smile from his dreams.
It's a pity that these can only be imagined in a dream.
As far as this performance is concerned, the plan is only to increase by 9 performances in the most popular two months from December to January next year. This is actually more than 200 performances by the Metropolitan Opera every year. Evenly divided into 20 or 30 series The average level, but, after the end, it can be said that it was a good start, but it came to an abrupt end. Because Joseph Volpe couldn't find a replacement program at all, and a young tycoon had no plans to make the team permanent, the opera house could only return to tradition.
All in all, it's a flash in the pan.
Everyone chatted and entered the backstage, and found that it was busy but not chaotic. A large number of staff were helping to remove makeup and arrange various props for the dancers in an orderly manner.
Some media people who followed into the backstage were originally very interested in the various Chinese musical instruments used in this performance, but they found that all musical instruments were put into a professional storage box for the first time, and it was impossible to experience it. Joseph Volpe, the general manager, can only explain with a wry smile again.
The answer is simple: expensive.
Not only the musical instruments, but also the dancers' costumes and jewelry, as well as the props used in some dances, are so expensive that the Guofeng Art Troupe does not even worry about the help of the theater staff, so they arrange it themselves.
Joseph Volp personally even had some envy and hatred for this.
You know, as a theater manager, Joseph is also responsible for the preparation of some operas. This season, because he invested 190,000 US dollars in props and scenery expenses for an original new opera, Joseph was questioned by the board of directors, thinking that it was too wasteful, And the various props used by the dancers in this performance... well, just one of the guqins, which is said to be a real Chinese antique, is worth more than $300,000.
This alone shows how much manpower and material resources were spent behind the performance. It is a strange thing to pursue perfection regardless of the cost, and the result is not a sensation.
There was no surprise at all. The next day, the news about the performance of the Guofeng Art Troupe spread rapidly.
Michael Morton, in his New York Times column, hailed the show as "a visual feast of perfection, mastery, captivation, and elegance."
In addition, New York's "New York Post", "New York Daily", "Daily News" and other important newspapers around the East Coast such as "The Boston Globe" have successively reported on the performance. There is even a Broadway drama critic who has accumulated a large number of fans on Facebook and directly posted a blog post, claiming that he is 'full of envy for Simon Westeros to have such a dance team', which is regarded as breaking the national style art. The background of the troupe, and this blog post was not only not restricted, but also promoted, and the Guofeng Art Troupe became more well-known for a while.
Immediately afterwards, the news also spread back to China.
The news that Guofeng Art Troupe's "Book of Songs" theme performance caused a sensation at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York was directly published in one of the biggest newspapers and attracted the attention of CCTV. This time, it was different from Chen Qing's quiet operation of Jane In the interview with Xin and the two women, CCTV took the initiative to express interest and asked the reporters stationed in New York to follow up.
As the fame of the show spread rapidly, tickets for subsequent shows became more difficult to get, and even became a popular hype among Broadway ticket dealers.