Held in 2013 is the fifth Taiwan International Festival of Arts (TIFA). Although it’s a festival with a short history, as its host, we have already detected the enthusiasm and anticipation accumulated for the festival from audiences. The anticipation is not just local, but also from overseas. In other words, TIFA has become a significant platform for Taiwan’s performing arts to be showcased internationally. With the well-acclaimed European tour of YogeeTi, the annual production in the choreography of TIFA 2012, we will definitely continue fulfilling our task in producing masterpieces and bringing them to audiences over the world.
TIFA 2013 will be held from February 15 to March 31. With the theme of “Newly Launched Masterpieces Sail on Accolades Overseas”, it will present masterpieces by contemporary masters and other new creations. Eighteen outstanding pieces from Taiwan and overseas will take turns being on display in forty-nine performances at stages of the NTCH.
After the enthusiastic reception of YogeeTi, the annual production of 2012, the NTCH has invited the internationally renowned composer Christian Jost and prestigious Taiwanese composer Yiu-Kwong Chung to collaborate with the well-known director of theatre Huan-Hsiung Li in producing a musical-theatre work Fall for Eileen Chang, based on the writings of Eileen Chang, in order to unveil the poetic beauty and gloomy inner world hidden in the texts of this legendary talented female. Eileen Chang’s writings have been often adapted into works for theatre and cinema. However, Fall for Eileen Chang produced by the NTCH in 2013 will be the first work for music. Based on her poetry Love of the Fluttering Autumn Leaf, and short stories The Heart Sutra and Love in a Fallen City, the image of Eileen Chang will be constructed bit by bit through musical notes and visual elements. In addition, the NTCH and Esplanade- Theatres on the Bay in Singapore have co-commissioned Japanese choreographer Hiroaki Umeda’s Temporal Pattern, a work presenting body languages across different cultures.
The programs from abroad are comprised by plenty of widely-praised masterpieces and new works. In the genre of theatre, it has Der Spieler (The Gambler), great Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s masterpiece produced by the prestigious director Frank Castorf from the Volksbühne, Berlin, the original classical tragedy Prometheus Bound by the Attis Theatre from Greece, and dreamy Los Peces No Vuelan (Fishes Don’t Fly) by Compañía de Teatro La Mona Ilustre from Chile. For the genre of music, it has Voyages by Salamandrum & NSO, a collaboration by the renowned percussion duet “Salamandrum” from Israel and the NSO from Taiwan, and Vincent Peirani & François Salque, a crossover duet of accordion and cello from France. As for the genre of dance, it has Rooster, a new production of Barak Marshall Dance Theatre, Israel’s pride in the contemporary choreographic scene, Café Müller& Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring), two representative works for Bausch’s style of Tanztheater produced by the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch from Germany, and Songs of the Wanderers featuring the first joint collaboration in Taiwan of the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan & Ensemble Rustavi of Georgia. All of these programs are attention catching and worth anticipating.
The programs produced by Taiwan’s well-known troupes include several new creations. They are Flowing Sleeves and Rouge, a work blending the elements of Western theatre, Kunqu Opera, and Beijing opera, produced by the Guoguang Opera Company, Taiwan Literature Theater Episode 2: Temperature of a Single Man, an adaptation of Ding-Jun Wang’s short fictions by the Greenray Theatre, La Disparition – rêverie sous l’arbre de mille ans, a piece specially tailored for both adults and children by the Flying-Group Theatre and L’Est et l’Ouest, two concerts produced by the NSO, one features the renowned clarinet soloist Sabine Meyer, and Verdi’s Requiem, collaborated with Taipei Philharmonic Chorus, and Moon in Your Eyes by the Gang-a-tsui Theater, winner of the Taishin Arts Award. And last but not least, Shang-Chi Sun, a Taiwanese choreographer residing in Germany, will debut his new work.
The NTCH invite you to join us in celebrating the fifth anniversary of TIFA. Let’s enjoy the everlasting masterpieces and their innovated vigor!
