Yuju Opera production set for Avignon Festival stage
China DailyThree works to be presented at event will highlight discipline and grace of format to international audiences, Cheng Yuezhu reports. As an award-winning performer of Yuju Opera, a style of traditional Chinese opera prevalent in Henan province, Wu Suzhen specializes in the role of qingyi — dignified female characters who often exude elegance and maturity. Now an inheritor of the Chen School, Wu Suzhen, who in 2019 won the Plum Performance Award, China's top honor for traditional Chinese theatrical art, is soon to bring her Suzhen Theater, based in Kaifeng, Henan province, to this year's Avignon Festival in France. Yuzhou Feng is one of three Yuju Opera productions to be staged at the festival, along with Shi Yuzhuo, and Fanwang Gong. "These performances are very meaningful in that they center on Yuju Opera, a specific style of traditional Chinese opera, and almost span the entirety of the Avignon Festival," says Wang Lu, general manager of the China Performing Arts Agency, a co-organizer of the performances.