衛武營國家藝術文化中心 Weiwuying National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts

The renowned Taipei Opera Theater, under the leadership of art director TSENG Dau-hsiang, has drawn from the absolute best of its 50 years of performances to create one encore opera show with different themes to share with music lovers in Taiwan.

Founded by TSENG in the 1970s, the Taipei Opera Theater has a long history of training outstanding domestic vocal talents on par with international opera troupes in order to put on first-class opera productions and performances through high-standard education. Since its first opera selections staged with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra in 1971, the Theater has performed more than 50 operas both domestically and internationally over the last half-century; these performances included the first Chinese-language operas (many of which premiered locally) as well as shorter runs of a number of rarer works to help expand the audience's appreciation of this unique art form. This year, to commemorate their fifty years on stage, the Taipei Opera Theater selected essential scenes from past performances to present Taiwan's music lovers with two separate shows in a true Opera Gala.

The first part is a dazzling retrospective of the German maestros, with signature works by the likes of MOZART, WEBER, WAGNER, and STRAUSS.

The second parts feature Italian, French, and Spanish operas including ROSSINI, VERDI, GOUNOD, MASSENET, and FALLA, topped with a finale performance of TSENG Dau-hsiang's own works.

  Pre-talk  

2022/6/5(Sun)13:50 Opera House 2nd Floor

  Program  

W. A. MOZART: Overture from Don Giovanni

W. A. MOZART : 'Notte e giorno fatica' from Don Giovanni 

W. A. MOZART : 'Godiam la pace & Netuno s'onori' from Idomeneo

W. A. MOZART : 'Ach Belmonte!' from Die Entführung aus dem Serial

W. A. MOZART : 'Zu Hülfe, zu Hülfe!' from Die Zauberflöte

C. M. WEBER : 'Jägerchor' from Der Freischütz 

R. STRAUSS: 'Aber der Richtiger' from Arabella

R. WAGNER : 'Freudig begrüssen wir die edle Halle' from Tannhäuser

G. VERDI : Overture from Nabucco

G. VERDI : 'Gli arredi festivi giù cadano infranti' from Nabucco

G. VERDI : 'Silenzio, Aida verso noi s'avanza' from Aida

G. VERDI : 'Mi si affanccia un pugnal' from Macbeth

G. ROSSINI: 'Questo e un nodo avviluppato' from La Cenerentola

J. MASSENET: 'Cest toi, mon père!' from Thais

M. FALLA: 'Spanish Dance' from La vida Breve

C. GOUNOD : 'Mon coeur est penetre d'epouvante' from Faust

TSENG Dau-hsiung: 'I am so thirsty that I must drink water!' from The maiden of Nagasaki 

TSENG Dau-hsiung: 'Time changes with seasons, lives flourish with wind' from A Vow to the Underworld Spring

  Creative and Production Team  

Conductor/Director｜TSENG Dau-hsiang

Orchestra: Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra

Chorus｜Taipei Opera Chorus

Soprano｜WANG Chia-ling、LIN Ying-min、Grace LIN, HSU Yu-chen、FU Meng-chien、Jeannie CHIANG、LO Hsin-ju、LO Ming-fang、LUO Hwei-jan

Mezzo-soprano｜WANG Yu-hsin 、WENG Jo-pei 、CHENG Hai-yun

Tenor｜Ezio KONG、Claude LIN、CHANG Yin-chi、LIU Cheng-hwa、HSIEH Chi-chou

Baritone｜JUNG Ilhun、Rios LI、WUBAI Yuhsi

Bass｜CHANG Kuen-yuan、HSIEH Ming-mou、Julian LO

Dancer｜HSUEH Yu-Sien

  Artists Introduction  

TSENG Dau-hsiang

Professor TSENG Dau-hsiang was born in Changhwa, Taiwan. After graduating from National Taichung University of Education (then Taichung Teacher's School), he went on to study at National Taiwan Normal University's Music Department and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid, where he majored in vocal music and minored in the piano and clarinet. He studied opera with Jan Popper at UCLA, and learned conducting under Franco Ferrara at his training camp in Siena, Italy. TSENG has been involved in opera education and performances in Taiwan and abroad for more than half a century, and has performed more than fifty operas. He served as the chair of the Music Department at National Taiwan Normal University and taught at Iowa State University in the United States. He has also lectured at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, in Belgium, and the Universities of Cambridge and Leeds, in England.

Over the years, TSENG Dau-hsiang has remained committed to introducing Taiwanese audiences to little-known but precious opera works. He himself wrote and composed the opera The Scarecrow and the Thief for teens, and Cheng Chuang Gong Crosses the River to Meet his Mother, which is based on a parable in Zuo Zhuan.

TSENG also composed the soprano solo and orchestral music for Nagasaki Girl, which premiered in Fukuoka, Japan and Taipei National University of the Arts in Guandu, as a renunciation of nuclear war and a prayer for world peace.

TSENG was selected to win a National Award for Arts in 2011 and has been named a Distinguished Graduate of National Taiwan Normal University.