China National Traditional Orchestra to stage new musical drama
The China National Traditional Orchestra will bring new Chinese musical drama Xuanzang’s Pilgrimage: A Chinese Concert in Drama to the Tianqiao Performing Arts Centre July 7- 12, the orchestra’s director Xi Qiang announced on Tuesday in Beijing.
Billed as the “world’s first traditional Chinese musical instrument drama,” the upcoming performance will present the story of Tang Dynasty ( 618- 907) Buddhist monk Xuanzang’s pilgrimage to India with music performed by an orchestra comprised of various traditional Chinese musical instruments.
According to Jiang Ying, the musical drama’s director, the show will use stage design and multimedia technology to bring the orchestra front and center during the performance of the musical drama.
Following in the footsteps of its popular Impression Chinese Music and Rebirth of National Music, this is the China National Traditional Orchestra’s third major performance.
“This time, we decided to move beyond a pure concert performance by presenting a story accompanied by traditional Chinese music,” Jiang told the Global Times on Tuesday, noting that the show will combine music from China’s Han, Uyghur, Kazak and Tajik ethnic groups.
“It was a great challenge for us to tell a story with traditional musical instruments. Xuanzang is an epic figure that has been presented in various ways in terms of history, culture and religion,” she said, explaining that the script for the two- hour show took two years of research to complete.