Classic Huangmei operas* “The Woman of Huizhou” and “The Stories of Huizhou” are set to be staged at The Venetian Theatre of The Venetian Macao in Cotai later this month.
Presented by the Sands China Performing Arts Programme, the upcoming shows will feature award-winning legendary performer and representative heir to Huangmei opera Han Zaifen, according to a recent statement by Sands China.
The two shows will mark the first time that the opera, a national intangible cultural heritage, will be performed in Macau with a “full scale repertoire”, the statement noted, adding that the shows are part of both the “5th Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Chinese Theatre Cultural Festival” and “Anhui Huangmei Opera Culture Week in Macao”.
Elaborating on the operas, the statement said that the classic “The Woman of Huizhou”, which will be performed on May 23, has seen over 20 years of performances and portrays a Huizhou woman’s fate in four acts: Marriage, Longing, Lament, and Return.
“Stories of Huizhou”, meanwhile, will be presented on May 25 and is a story set in late Qing Dynasty Huizhou and follows “the tumultuous life of Shu Xiang, who went from being a devoted wife to becoming a fugitive”.
Both shows are supported by the China National Arts Fund and staged by the Anhui Zaifen Huangmei Opera Theatre and Anqing Normal University School of Huangmei Opera, the statement said.
Tickets are priced between 100 to 880 patacas and are available on Cotai Ticketing, Macau Ticket and Damai. Both performances start at 7:30 p.m.
* Huangmei Opera, according to AI chatbot Poe, is one of the five major traditional Chinese operas. It originates from Huangmei County in Anhui Province and is known for its “folk melodies, simple language, and themes of rural life”. Moreover, Wikipedia notes that the opera was selected for the first batch of China’s national intangible cultural heritage in 2006.
This undated handout photo provided by Sands China on Friday shows the performance of one of the two shows slated to take place at The Venetian Theatre later this month.
