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The Rising Dragon
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The Escort |
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Yuan, Yucheng |
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The Rising Dragon : The Escort
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"The Escort" tells a tale of high chivalry and subtle romance in
the early life of Zhao Kuangying, before he annihilated the Five
Dynasties and Ten King¬doms, unified China and became the first
emperor of the Song Dynasty (960¬1280). It is one of the few
love stories about emperors before they ascended to the throne
in Chinese culture.
A virile young man with ambition and a mind for justice, Zhao
Kuang¬ring killed a local tyrant in the metropolitan city of
Bianliang (Kaifeng today) in his defense of some innocent
citizen against injustice. Now a wanted man, Zhao decides to
flee to the remote western part of China to. start over. Our
scene opens when on his flight he comes across Zhao Jingniang
who, on her way to visit her ancestors' tomb site, fell prey to
the hijack scheme of two bandits.
Kuangying rescues Jingniang and fights off the bandits.
Furthermore, Kuangying consents to escort her home. Before long,
Jingniang finds herself deeply attracted to her brave and
gallant escort. On his part, Kuangying feels something tender
toward her, but is determined not to let himself get
roman¬tically involved at this point in his life. The episode
closes with the two arriv¬ing at her home and the two
star-crossed lovers wistfully bidding farewell to each other.
Through extended singing, dexterous dancing, acrobatic movement
and acting, both joys and hardships during their encounter and
the ensuing trip, and the tender emotions between the two leads
are elaborately displayed on stage. A dramatic as well as
physical challenge to actors who portray Kuang¬ring, set to the
bravura male painted-face role type, and Jingniang, set to the
delicate but exuberant young woman role type. "The Escort" is a
Kunqu opera rarely performed in or out of China, which makes
this performance all the more precious and exhilarating. |
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