《Forbidden Love》

The opera is based on the Legend of the White Snake, which is one of the four best-known folk legends in China. It is the first opera that integrates the traditional Chinese folktale with international humanistic concepts to highlight human beings’ common pursuit of love, kindness, harmony,and other spiritual values, and tells the story about the plaintive but beautiful and steadfast love between the leading characters from a more profound humanistic perspective. That’s why the opera can arouse resonance among the audience in different countries and with different cultural backgrounds.

Famous scriptwriter Zou Jingzhi scripted the opera, and well-known stage show producer Cao Xiaoning worked as the chief director. The production team also includes: Gao Mukun, well-known director for Peking operas; Gao Liting, art director; Zhu Shaoyu, authoritative designer of music for voices in Peking operas; Zheng Bing, well-known composer; Kwan Kit Mok, costume designer who won the Golden Horse Awards of Taiwan; Li Qingjiong, choreographer; Dai Wei, famous TV program director. The opera was produced to cater for the aesthetic taste of the global target audience. It is a pioneer work that applies the structure and rhythm of musicals and integrates a variety of elements, including multimedia images, Chinese classical and folk dances, acrobatics and symphony, into the comprehensive performance of the traditional Peking opera based on singing, dialogue, acting and acrobatic combat, aiming to create a new and artistic opera form, namely the musical Peking opera.

The Forbidden Love is a “high-end export-oriented cultural product” produced for the tourism market of Beijing. It has been staged for 150 times at the Cultural Palace of Nationalities in Beijing and won warm applause from foreign audience and the young people.