Yue Opera is a popular Chinese opera genre that features women in all roles. For Hangzhou Butterfly Theatre’s successful premier of My Grand View Garden the audio team chose to invest in a DiGiCo Quantum 225, supplied by Rightway Audio Consultant (RAC) to deliver the required clarity and immersive experience that is amazing and delighting audiences. The Zhejiang Xiaobaihua Yue Opera Theatre have enjoyed extraordinary success over the last decade, engaging new and younger audiences in the classic Yue Opera genre. Founded in 1984, the troupe is dedicated to modernizing, innovating and raising awareness of the art-form. A key feature of the genre is articulation and pronunciation, the predominate dialect is the traditional Wu, rather than modern Mandarin, so the choice of audio equipment is very important.
The theatre utilises the Quantum 225 and an L-Acoustics L-ISA system to draw the audience into this lyrical story. Engineers appreciate the benefit of the powerful Quantum features in a compact console, managing high numbers of sound effects and scene changes with ease. Supporting the audio team were System Engineer, Wang Jianghua, and Hao Fange, Project Engineer. The pair supported the onsite engineers and liaised with DiGiCo to ensure everything was perfect for the performances. “Yue Theatre has a proud heritage and a strong fan-base, so we want everything to go well,” Jianghua explains. “The Quantum 225 is the perfect fit, and not just because of its compact footprint. The ability to utilise all the Quantum features, plus additional benefits like multiple DMI cards and USB Madi, make it endlessly adaptable and perfect for a busy theatre like the Hangzhou Butterfly.”
My Grand View Garden is a masterpiece of Yue theatre, delicately portraying the story of Jia Baoyu, played by Chen Lijun, as he grows up under the trials and tribulations of society and his family. Based on the 18th century classic of Chinese literature, Dream of the Red Chamber, the story observes the world of the ‘Red Chamber’ from Jia Baoyu’s point of view, digging deep into the core connotations and cultural values of the rise and fall of a high society family.
A story this epic requires the very best equipment and the pairing of the DiGiCo Quantum console and L-Acoustic L-ISA system leaves the audience fully immersed in the plot, as Fange concludes.“This Yue opera masterpiece interprets all kinds of life stories. The superior acting skills of Chen Lijun and other actors, together with the application of an impeccable audio system, make people unconsciously immersed in the plot, sharing the sorrows and joys with the characters,” he finishes. “The Quantum 225 delivers the control required to ride the emotions of the performance, and the intuitive workflow was undoubtedly a massive bonus for the engineers.”
