...The audience showed the visitors their deep-felt appreciation for an evening of exquisite music. The Aroha String Quartet made the evening unforgettable. (16 April 2013)...
(Audience Member, Palmerston North)
Zhu Jian-Er & Shi Yong-Kang: The Whitehaired Girl
10:00

The White-Haired Girl (Chinese: 白毛女; pinyin: Bái Máo Nǚ)
The White-Haired Girl is an opera based on legends from the border region of Shanxi, Chahar and Hebei, describing the misery suffered by local peasantry, particularly the misery of the female members. It is based on the real life stories of a group of women from different periods in Chinese history, from the late Qing Dynasty to 1920's or 1930's. The subject matter made it a useful vehicle for communist propaganda, the most obvious examples being the happy ending, and the protagonists joining the communist forces, which did not happen in real life. It was first performed in its operatic form in 1945 and has also been adapted as a ballet and made into a film. Along with Red Detachment of Women, the ballet is regarded as one of the classics of revolutionary China, and its music is familiar to almost everyone who grew up there during the 1960s. [Notes: Berys Cuncannon]