"Heard that Director Li has left the company: Leaving a Suitcase in the Opera”
Music was a luxury in a world without streaming platforms. As a child, M would cherish the hard-to-come-by sheet music, savoring it carefully; to him, the notes were like words. Sheet music is, in fact, a creation of extreme rationality and structure, with all the emotional elements placed in expression and interpretation. This is similar to M's theater—how can one perceive the structure of his collage? Sometimes, it's not just about logic but also the musicality of language. M's musical taste and his past dedication to classical music allowed him to direct operas despite not having a formal music background. Sometimes, the collision of different fields can distill truly meaningful symbols. Princess Turandot is about to pose her riddles; how did M solve these difficult problems to avoid being beheaded?
Wang Jun-jieh
New media artist Jun-Jieh Wang graduated from the HdK Art Academy in Berlin. He is one of Taiwan’s few noted media art’s pioneer. He had received the Hsiung-Shih New Artists Award (1984), the Kunstförderpreis Berliner Fernsehturm, Germany (1996) and the Taishin Arts Award (2009). His invitations to major international exhibitions came from, among others, the Gwangju Biennale, the Venice Biennale, the Asia-Pacific Triennial, European Media Art Festival and the Taipei Biennial. Wang’s work in interdisciplinary theatre in recent years includes: directing Puccini’s Turandot with Deutsche Oper am Rhein in 2015 and Sin City in 2013, co-directing the technological media theatre work L’Après-midi de la Gravité with Chia-Ming Wang in 2010, serving as Staging Visual Director for the Taiwan premiere of Wagner’s complete opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen in collaboration with the National Symphony Orchestra in 2006. Wang is currently Director of the Department of New Media Art, TNUA.
CHIEN Wen-pin
CHIEN Wen-pin, General and Artistic Director of the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying), was born in 1967, graduated from the National Taiwan Academy of Arts and awarded with Master degree at the National University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Chien joined the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Dusseldorf/Duisburg, Germany) in 1996 and served as “Kapellmeister” for 22 years. 1998-2004 he was Resident Conductor of the Pacific Music Festival (Sapporo, Japan), 2001-2007 he was Music Director of National Symphony Orchestra (Taiwan Philharmonic), 2014-2016 Chien was Artistic Advisor of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra. In September 2018 he became the first General and Artistic Director of the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying). 2014 Chien was winner of the „National Award for Arts“.
Charlene Lin
Charlene Lin is Manager of the Department of Production Department at Taipei Performing Arts Center, also an acclaimed music critic and radio host . In her professional career, she at first served as Senior Reporter for the Culture Division in China Times. She is the author of Carpe Diem: A Comprehensive Interpretation of Music Ecology, as well as co-author on several books, including The Complete Guide: 40 Years of Taiwan Contemporary Theatre.
