Chapter 1077

The Metropolitan Opera House on the upper west side of Manhattan.

After the last rehearsal in the morning, time soon came to the evening.

The theme performance of the book of songs by Guofeng Art Troupe starts at 7:00 p.m. with more than ten minutes to go before the opening. The theater is almost full. Many audiences are taking advantage of the last time before the opening to look through the beautifully bound program brochures attached with the tickets. In Chinese and English, combined with the ink background of Chinese style, this paper introduces in detail the historical status and present situation of the book of songs in Chinese culture There are 12 dances in the evening.

Michael Morton, who is resident in the cultural section of the New York Times, sits in the center of the hall with a good view, looking through the program manual in front of him while listening to the bickering of a young couple behind him.

"I don't understand why you came to see this, Winnie, and I've inquired that the ticket price is much higher than before. I know it's rumored that this dance team was created by Simon westero himself, but the classical dance from China, tut, do they want to perform Kung Fu on the stage? "

"Jack, what else do you know about China besides Kung Fu?"

"Chinese food is very good."

"Now I feel more and more cheated by you, so I shouldn't marry you."

"Hey, it's too late."

"Well, I know Simon is enough to make all of you men feel inferior, so just shut up."

"No matter how much you like westero, you don't have a chance to be one. However, after carefully pondering over the details of the ticket price, Michael Morton thinks that even if he criticizes westero harshly, some young tycoon may not care.

With that in mind, the time soon came to 7 o'clock.

In the theater, the lights are dim. A moment later, the curtain rises. The background of the stage is a row of bamboo slips with beautiful ancient seal characters.

The sound of simple and moderate music was heard.

Unlike western symphonies, most of the audience heard this kind of sound for the first time. Only when the audience in the upstairs box overlooks the orchestra pool in front of the stage can they see the Oriental women in ancient Chinese costume striking a row of chimes.

Then, accompanied by the sounds of nature like women singing, two rows of elegant clothing style of ancient women slowly on stage.

Even though they are two completely different cultures, listening to the music and singing in his ears and looking at the elegant ancient women on the stage, Michael Morton's most intuitive feeling is only one word: beauty.

Or, nearly 4000 audience members who have been curious about the performance for a long time feel this way.

Many years later, some things have repeatedly proved that "XX without borders" is a joke, but at this moment, even across a completely different cultural background, this kind of cultural beauty accumulated by a nation for thousands of years is still striking people's hearts.

Backstage of the theatre.

The other girls in full dress, listening to the music coming from the front desk, always lack a little confidence.

In fact, we all think that in addition to the manual presented with the ticket, more notes should be given to the audience. At the planning stage, some people proposed to recite the corresponding poems before each dance. After all, these ordinary Americans are not as familiar with Chinese culture as a man. As a result, similar suggestions were directly rejected by someone without any explanation.

Obviously I don't care much about the success or failure of the show.

There are also tickets for this time. When we learn that someone has personally increased the average ticket price of the theater for this performance by 50%, we feel that someone may still want them to fail.

In front of the dressing table, Wei Shen stood up like a little wood, and slightly spread out his hands to let Mr. Wang check his make-up. Wang Dongyue looked at the girl's nervous appearance and said, "relax. You're just dancing in groups. It's not good when you're dancing alone in Jianjia."

"It's just nervousness," Wei Shencha said, actively trying to bypass the topic and help him relax. "By the way, Mr. Wang, during the day, Simon said that we can go back to China in the new year."

Wang Dongyue nodded slightly and made a gentle hum.

Wei Chan, who usually gets along well with several teachers, realized that Mr. Wang was not in a high mood after listening to his words, and roughly knew why: "Mr. Wang, don't you want to get your green card down soon? When you get your green card, you should be able to pick up your uncle and children to come to the United States?"

After a pause, Wang Dongyue looked at the girl in front of her and hesitated. Then she said, "stagger, I think Can you help me to mention it to Mr. westrow? "

Wei Shencha smell speech, immediately think of his morning and he talked about Feng Caijuan things, the man's reaction, very cold kind, but, a little hesitant, she said: "OK, Mr. Wang, but, I can't guarantee anything."

Wang Dongyue even said: "you just need to help to mention it."

After all, it's still about emigration.

Different from Guofeng Art Troupe, they only need to consider their own young girls. A group of female teachers who came with them half a year ago basically have a home and a room. Compared with many overseas travelers who thought they were heaven before going abroad and found they were hell after going abroad, the salary offered by Guofeng Art Troupe is completely in line with the expectations of the Chinese people for the West in this era, even more so Teachers inevitably want to go further and let their families come together.However, Guofeng art troupe has not yet reached the level of charity. If they want to achieve this, they need to operate themselves.

It's not easy.

When Wei changed his mind a little, he also relaxed. When he heard that the first "Guanju" on the front desk was just over, the warm applause made him more confident. You know, "Guanju" is a more regular one in the 12 dances tonight. The reason why it is used as the opening is that "Guanju" is the opening of the book of songs The highlights are all in the back.

In a man's words, it's getting better.

Now, since the first dance can attract warm applause, the audience's response should only be better.

The fact is just like Wei's judgment.

The final total length of the performance is 100 minutes, a total of 12 dances, corresponding to 12 poems in the book of songs.

When the opening was quite successful, Wei's solo "Jianjia" and Simon's choreography "Caiwei" caused more applause than the opening.

When the last dance was over, all the members of the art troupe came on stage to take a curtain call, and many audiences were surprised. The 100 minutes went so fast that many audiences did not leave immediately. Instead, they tried to go back to the stage to communicate face to face with the dancers who had just brought them a visual feast.

Although most of the people who tried to do so were stopped, there were still some lucky people who had a good relationship.

Michael Morton, the resident critic of the New York Times, is one of them, and Joseph wolp, the general manager of the metropolitan theatre, personally led him in with some other special guests, which aroused the envy of the young couple who also wanted to enter the backstage after the performance.

"First of all, Congratulations, Joseph. Don't you always want to reform the theater? This performance will definitely make a sensation. "

As we walked backstage, Joseph Wolpe heard Michael Morton say it with a wry smile: "you should know, Mike, this is just a special case. Frankly speaking, it's a success, and the next show should be very popular, otherwise, well, I really don't know how to say it

The main reason is that some young tycoon is really in a mess.

Joseph wolp was very opposed to insisting on a substantial increase in ticket prices at the beginning, but he was only a professional manager after all.

It turned out to be good.

Even Joseph wolp, of course, hopes that this will bring about some change.

You know, the major operas performed by the Metropolitan Opera House are similar to Chinese Peking Opera. They are all "quintessence of Chinese culture", but they can't escape the fate of becoming more and more aloof. At this stage, most of the audience who watch operas, except for the overseas tourists who come to new York to see one by the way, are a large number of silver haired people with few young people.

Tonight's performance, because of some young tycoon, is an exception.

Before the performance, Joseph wolp quietly observed that there were nearly 4000 people in the audience, but most of them were young people.

If this situation can continue, that is, 50% increase in ticket prices, and there are successors in the audience, Joseph wolp will be able to wake up in his dreams.

Unfortunately, these can only be thought about in a dream.

Let's say that this performance is only planned to go up nine shows in two months from the hottest December to January next year. This is actually the average level of more than 200 performances of the Metropolitan Opera House each year, with an average of 20 or 30 episodes. However, after the end, it can be said that this is a good start, but it will come to an abrupt end. Because Joseph wolp couldn't find a replacement program at all, and a young tycoon had no plan to let the team stay, the opera house could only return to the tradition.

In short, it's a flash in the pan.

Everyone chatting has entered the backstage, found here busy but not chaotic, a large number of staff are in order to help the dancer makeup and tidy up all kinds of props.

Some media people who came backstage were very interested in all kinds of Chinese musical instruments used in the performance. They found that all the musical instruments were put into the professional storage box for the first time. It was impossible to experience them. Joseph wolp, as the general manager, could only explain this with a bitter smile again.

The answer is simple: expensive.

Not only the musical instruments, the costumes and jewelry of the dancers, but also the props used in some dances are so expensive that the Guofeng Art Troupe is not even confident that the staff of the theater will help, and they will sort them out by themselves.

Joseph wolp was even envious of it.

You know, as a theater manager, Joseph has to be responsible for the preparation of some operas. This season, because he spent $190000 on props for a new original opera, Joseph was heckled by the board of directors. He thought it was too wasteful, and all kinds of props used by the dancers in this performance Well, just one of the guqin, which is said to be a real Chinese antique, is worth more than 300000 US dollars.This shows how much manpower and material resources have been spent behind the performance. It is strange that the performance only pursues perfection regardless of cost, and the result is not sensational.

There was no accident. The next day, news about the performance of Guofeng Art Troupe spread rapidly.

In his New York Times column, Michael Morton praised the performance as "a perfect, exquisite, charming and elegant visual feast".

In addition, the New York Post, the New York Daily, the daily news and other important newspapers around the east coast, such as the Boston Globe, reported on the show one after another. There is even a Broadway drama critic who has accumulated a large number of fans on Facebook who has directly posted a blog, claiming that he is "full of jealousy for Simon westero to have such a team of dancers", which is to point out the background of Guofeng Art Troupe. This blog is not only unrestricted, but also promoted, and Guofeng art troupe has become more well-known for a while.

Then the news came back to China.

The news that the theme performance of the book of songs by Guofeng Art Troupe caused a sensation in the Metropolitan Opera House of New York directly appeared in one of the biggest newspapers and got the attention of CCTV. This time, it was different from the interview of Jian Xin and her two daughters, which Chen Qing quietly operated. Instead, CCTV took the initiative to express its interest and asked the reporters in New York to follow up.

With the popularity of the show spreading rapidly, the tickets for subsequent shows become more difficult to obtain, and even become a hot topic for Broadway ticket dealers.