Peking Opera Singer Always Seeks New Roles Peking opera singer Kuo Hsiao-chuang is challenging herself by putting on a new face for an annual play, the semi-comedy “Meng Li-chun.” Kuo has played the chivalrous heroine, Liang Hung-yu, who battled against the Tunguistic Chin troops in “Madame Han,” Yo in the “The Third Daughter of the Yo Family” and the virtuous Liu Lan-chih, destined to be ruined by her miserable marriage in “The Peacocks Fly to the Southeast.” “Through these reflections of me, which I cannot deny, I am seeking to awaken the public to something long lost in the past and also protesting against the destiny of human beings and the secular world,” said the young Kuo. “I have to abandon the shy and nervous part of my character to undertake more things, trifles though they may be, and shoulder more responsibilities,” the pale, slim actress said. Kuo was born to a family of Peking opera lovers. She has inherited her mother’s good looks and her father’s ambition to be a Peking opera singer. According to Kuo’s father, a Honan native, patience is his daughter’s great asset, which has contributed to her success. Since her childhood Kuo has grown accustomed to rigorous training. Even now, long hours of rehearsing are nothing to her. “The only thing I am scared of is the feeling of emptiness, which strikes me when the play is over, the viewers are gone and the backstage staff begins to tear down the settings." “The only way out, you know, is planning my next move,” she said. Although she has played uncountable tragic characters in her life, the frontrunner of Peking opera is never pessimistic. The opera, “Meng Li-chun,” backed up with a star-studded team, was staged from July 3-6 at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei, and will be staged July 12 at the Taichung Chung Hsing Hall and July 13 at the Tainan Municipal Cultural Center. |
