'The Ballad of Canal' celebrates its 10th anniversary

Back in 2012, the National Center for the Performing Arts premiered its first original Chinese opera using a folk style of singing, The Ballad of Canal, featuring sopranos Lei Jia and Wang Li and tenor Wang Hongwei.

Marking the opera's 10th anniversary of its premiere, the original cast members reunited and restaged the opera at the NCPA from April 14 to 17, as part of the ongoing NCPA Opera Festival 2022.

Composed by Yin Qing and conducted by Lyu Jia, the opera, set against the backdrop of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), follows the story of various people who lived along the Grand Canal, the 3,200-kilometer-long and 2,500-year-old waterway connecting Beijing and Hangzhou in what is now East China's Zhejiang province.

The Grand Canal is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the longest artificial waterway in the world. It consists of three sections built during different periods, unifying the powerful northern and the fertile southern regions of ancient China. The opera features elements of Chinese folk songs as well as traditional Chinese operas.