BERLIN — As part of its ambitious European tour, the Divine Performing Arts Chinese Spectacular is currently playing a four-show run at Berlin's International Congress Centre.
Astrid Janzen, a biology laboratory assistant, attended Friday's opening show with her mother, Margaritha.
"It was wonderful — it was totally fantastic," said Astrid.
"The music was something really special. It was not just Chinese because I also heard some German instruments in the music. Often you have those screaming high tones [in other shows] but this was very far from that. I really enjoyed this."
Ms. Astrid Janzen wasn't expecting such a unique expecting something very different when she thought of a Chinese cultural show.
"I only knew what you hear on television, just when they offer you something [such as] Peking Opera, that is often with very high tones. And that is not — there were some instruments extra here and that was very nice."
She got an unexpected surprise.
"From what you hear from different people I had an idea about Chinese culture and what I saw agreed with that. But they also brought it into connection with the dance and I found a beautiful example. Chinese history in connection with dance I found really beautiful. Every one was nice —especially the first one [Yue Fei]."
Astrid's mother expressed a similar opinion.
"Actually I loved everything. Every single thing was beautiful. Wonderful. I have never seen something so beautiful."
She also discovered a different Chinese culture. "I learned it [Chinese culture] in a different way; the tones didn't agree with me. But this is really wonderful. The other thing is more like screaming — too high; I didn't think that was good. But this... I didn't know that there was such wonderful music in Chinese."
Another audience member, Margaretha, appreciated how the show embodied the virtues that the Chinese people lived by in the dynastic era and her husband appreciated the modern aspects.
"I think it was very good. It was colorful and I was very surprised about how good it was. We didn't expect too much. One very good one was the modern part with the three words on the sign [Truthfulness Compassion Forbearance]. I think this was the best. All were very good, but this was very good." I think nowadays it is a bit of a difficult political situation in China and I think this shows a bit of it."
For information about upcoming Divine Performing Arts shows, please visit: www.DivinePerformingArts.org.
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