On the evening of June 25, the large-scale modern Huangmei opera Ballad of Huai Hua, the excellent exhibition performance of the First Jingchu Culture Festival which is co-created by Huanggang Arts School and National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts, was performed at Kaile Theatre.

Honorary Chairman Hongguang Shen of Hubei Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles,also a playwright, Secretary Zhi Yang of Jingzhou Municipal Party Committee, also the Director of the Standing Committee of Jingzhou Municipal People's Congress,Mayor Yonghui Cui, Member Zhaoan Wu of the Standing Committee of Jingzhou Municipal Party Committee and Director of the Department of Propaganda, Member Shouxiong Lu of the Standing Committee of Jingzhou Municipal Party Committeeand Political Commissar of Jingzhou Military Subarea, Vice Mayor Yuqiu Sun, and Vice Chairman Youyuan Wu of Huanggang Municipal Political Consultative Conference watched the performance.

By taking the life-to-death romance between Huai Hua and Chun Niu as the main plot,Huangmei opera Ballad of Huai Hua reflects the tremendous sacrifices of people in Dabie Mountain of Hubei-Henan-Anhui-Jiangsu Area to the Revolution through the touching story that Huai Hua saved her lover, Chun Niu, who joined the RedArmy with her life and honor. It eulogizes the royalty of people in DabieMountain to the Communist Party, their firm belief to the Revolution, as wellas their sincere feelings of staying true to the original self to Communists.

At the same time, this opera, witheast Hubei’s folk songs including “A Locust Tree in Front of My Sister’s House”,“Lovers during the Revolution”, and “Red Bellyband” throughout, integrates red culture, traditional Chinese opera culture, and folk culture with distinguished features to bring a brand new audio and visual experience to audiences in Jingzhou.

In this opera, the two leading actors, Huai Hua and Chun Niu were acted by theexcellent young actor Siqin Xie, and Gang Wang from Hubei Provincial Huangmei Opera Theatre while the villain Shouren Zheng was acted by Hui Zhang, a performingartist of Huangmei Opera and also the winner of “PlumBlossom Prize”. With the outstanding performance of these actors, the whole story with thrilling plot, emotional performance, and plangent singing, won a lot of applause.

It is saidthat, Ballad of Huai Hua is writed by famous playwright WenxiangXiong and Boliang Xie, whohad read the novel, A Locust Tree inFront of My Sister’s House, created by famous writer Cunzhong He for reference. This opera is a large-scale stage project that obtained the NationalArts Foundation in 2017 as well as the major opera of cultural and artscreation themed with “Red Party Flag in Huanggang”. Since last year, it has been performed for more than 10 times, receiving wide acclaim.