Masterly skills in Chinese operawere presented Thursday to the Hong Kong audience, the first of a total of four performances arranged upon last year's success.

Seven opera genres, Kun, Peking, Pu, Jin, Yu, Longjiang and Ji Operas, were selected for the performance. Of the excerpts chosen were the most remarkable masterly skills to give interpretations of the characters' internal as well as emotional states.

Sponsored by the Hong Kong Leisure and Cultural Services Department, the show is part of the Chinese Operatic Art Series.

According to the department, even though the excerpts that contain the masterly skills do not reflect all that Chinese operatic art has to offer, they represent the perfect moment of concentration when all attention is on one masterly stroke in the entire performance.

In this year's showcase, five winners of the China Drama Plum Blossom Award, namely Bai Shuxian, Wu Lingyun, Zhang Jidie, Guo Zemin, Wang Hongli, were invited to perform for the Hong Kong audience.

The annual award, founded in 1984 and sponsored by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Chinese Dramatists Association, goes to players of traditional Chinese operas and dramas.

The performance is scheduled to be staged at the Ko Shan Theatre on July 25, Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall on July 26 and 27, and at Yuen Long Theatre Auditorium on July 28 respectively.

( Peopel's Daily July 26, 2002 )