Jiangxi Ganju Opera Company had recently produced a large-scale modern opera titled "The Centennial Love" (等你一百年). Though I have yet to seen the performance in full, but having watched an excerpt of it over CCTV-11 made me long for it.
"The Centennial Love" is based on a true story that happened in Jiangxi province in the 1930s. It told the story of a child-bride Dujuan who ran away from marriage to elope with her childhood bosom friend Yongsheng. Unfortunately, Yongsheng was already been recruited into the Red Army, and on the night of their wedding, Yongsheng was brought away by his comrades. Before he left, Yongsheng asked Dujuan to wait for him return, but he never did. Dujuan waited for her husband in vain and passed away in grieve in 2005, at the age 94.
Ganju is a very old form of folk opera. It's predecessor was the "Yiyang melody" (弋阳腔), which is one of the 4 oldest form of vocal styles in China. The tunes of Ganju are melodious, but also one of the highest-pitched. Ganju opera singing features lots of backup vocals, especially at the end of each verse, giving it a very resounding character, unlikes its more "gentle" siblings like the Kunqu opera or Liyuanxi opera.
The excerpt I've seen of this show was the part showing the young couple who are about to be separated on the night of their wedding. It featured quite a lot of dance movements, showing the young lovers' affection for one another, but at the same time sad that they'd be separated soon, without knowing when they would reunite again. Being very observant of minute details, there was a particular gesture which made me fell for this show: before the young man was about to leave, Dujuan brought out a pair of canvas shoes which she had made herself and put them on for Yongsheng. This may seemed like a very negligible gesture on stage, but it actually tells a lot of story; one could almost feel all the love, care and well-wishes being put into the ordinary-looking pair of shoes. I'm sure the show in its full length is as good as this excerpt, and hopefully there'll be a VCD or DVD release of this show soon.
