OTTAWA—Attending the Divine Performing Arts Chinese New Year Spectacular tonight at Ottawa's National Arts Center (NAC), former Opéra de Montréal singer Paulette Scheme remarked that it was "especially lovely" to hear the Chinese singers.
"I particularly enjoyed the alto, the beautiful, rich voice. It's interesting even to hear the language spoken, even more than the singing, because it's so singable," she said. She called Chinese "a very musical language."
Another aspect that stood out for her was the combination of Chinese and Western instruments and compositions. Although there is that modern component, the flavour of Chinese music is retained, she said.
"I'm finding it so beautiful, ethereal, relaxing, all the colours … Even more than that, it's the tranquility of the music and the spirit that comes across."
The Spectacular shows are emceed by multilingual hosts Mr. Leeshai Lemish and Ms. Mei Zhou. The two delighted the audience with their light-hearted, playful exchanges while at the same time graciously providing interpretations of the deeper meaning of each performance in both English and Mandarin Chinese.
Paulette Scheme came to the Monday evening show with her husband Frank Scheme, a former business development executive who currently acts as Parliamentary Relations Coordinator for Amnesty International Canada.
The couple frequently attends shows at the NAC.
"Just fantastic," Mr. Scheme said of the show. As a former jazz drummer, he said he liked the drumming part very much, as well as the subtlety of the dances.
He also enjoyed "the focus on the spiritual side of the person," he said. "It's not on the physical side that you are strong. It's what you are inside, the spiritual side of you."
His wife echoed his sentiments. She noticed the moral dimension portrayed in the stories, and enjoyed "seeing how beautiful it is that we didn't see a different China, the one that we hear about politically and so forth."
"The spirit and the heart of the people are good and pure, fighting all the things that are wrong, and yet in such a beautiful way," said Mrs. Scheme. "It's very present in all the moral stories, and even the songs chosen by the soloists have this beautiful message of hope and of society working in the background against oppression."
The Spectacular , the organizers explain, is a show that tries to convey the authentic traditional Chinese arts and culture without any elements of communist culture.
Mr. Scheme said this is what impressed him about the show. "What I like is that you are not focusing anything on the politics. You are talking about the human being and spirit."
It's "extremely important" to maintain the traditional arts without the communist political influence," said Mrs. Scheme. This is because "that's where the beauty of the soul comes through, because if you don't have that, you don't have real art. When you take the soul away from people, you lose the art."
"What came across for me was the wonderful serenity and the peacefulness. You don't have that in chaos, so if you are able to maintain that as a society and a culture, you will survive, and you will come out on top," she said.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Divine Performing Arts shows that will perform in over 60 cities worldwide in 2008. To find a show near you, please visit www.bestchineseshows.com.
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