The history of Chinese opera can be said to be a history of exchange and mutual influence between different folk traditions and styles. Many Chinese opera genres share similar development trajectories: absorbing the strengths from other genres, establishing its own distinctive characteristics and then gaining popularity. Three genres of Chinese opera: Peking Opera, Kunqu Opera and Cantonese Opera will be showcased in the programme. Their enduring charm lies partly in their ability to evolve and learn from other opera genres, testament to their status as vibrant, living arts forms.

The Chinese opera exchange project also marks the first-time collaboration between GuoGuang Opera Company of Taiwan and Lung Fei Cantonese Opera Troupe of Hong Kong. With Peking and Kunqu operas ringing up the curtain, Taiwanese audiences will be led from their familiar genres to the whole new world of Cantonese Opera. With a star-cast appearance, audiences are certainly treated to a feast for the eyes and the ears.

Renowned Hong Kong Cantonese Opera veterans Lee Lung and Sun Kim-long lead the troupe with emerging performers, while GuoGuang will be represented by the leading actor Wen Yu-hang, leading actress Chu Sheng-li, laosheng (elderly male role) Tsou Tzu-ai, Wang Ying-hua and actress Chu Ming-yue. Together, they will share the stage to exchange, collaborate and demonstrate the legacies of their representing genres of Chinese opera.

Cantonese Opera belongs to the pihuang system in Chinese traditional theatre. In the transitional years between Ming and Qing dynasties in early 17^th century, opera troupes arriving in Guangdong from other provinces, known as waijiangban (or ‘troupes from beyond the Pearl River’), had popularised vocal styles such as Yiyang qiang, Kun qiang, Hui diao, Han diao and Qin qiang. Between 1723 and 1821, a union of Cantonese Opera artists – Pat Wo Wui Kun – was formed. It brought together artists of the genre to write libretti for performance, which marked the emergent trend of local troupes performing in the local vernacular.

By early 20th century, local theatre had been almost completely dominated by local opera troupes. They had amassed enough performing experience to reinvent and localize the repertory, dialect, and the performing and singing styles of the waijiangban. In particular, they created new beat patterns other than the bangzi-erhuang and banqiang modes, and their male singers broke free from the traditional use of the falsetto to utilising more frequently their chest voices. The libretti were also often rewritten using the Cantonese vernacular.

By the 1910s, the staging also underwent drastic changes. A wider variety of costumes were permitted onstage, ranging from contemporary Chinese to Western, and even Qing style costumes. The Cantonese vernacular, local folk tunes and local narrative singing were freely incorporated into performances. These developments signified the emergence of Cantonese Opera as a truly local art form closely connected with the people.