Opera · Shanghai Opera (Huju) · SE10151
The Luohan Coin
Adapted from Zhao Shuli's story The Registration; won a script award at the 1952 national opera festival
In a southern water-town teahouse a female role sits singing behind a table, a musician beside her plays the bamboo-tube erhu, tea drinkers listen quietly over their cups, and a small wooden boat is moored on the creek outside the window.
Introduction
The Luohan Coin is a newly written modern Shanghai opera adapted from Zhao Shuli's short story The Registration, with its story set in the Jinzhong area of Shanxi. In 1952 the Shanghai People's Shanghai Opera Troupe, forerunner of the Shanghai Shanghai Opera Theatre, took it to the first national opera festival, where it won awards for the script, the production and the actors. The script printed in 1959 is credited to the collective of the editing office of the Shanghai Bureau of Culture and written out by Zong Hua, Wen Mu and Xing Zhi, while the score printed in 1958 names the same three as lyricists and Liu Ruzeng as composer. Ding Shi'e played the role of Little Flying Moth. An opera film of the play appeared in 1956, and its aria Yanyan the Matchmaker was sung across the country. The national heritage listing for Shanghai opera names The Luohan Coin among its new modern plays.
A work in copyright: facts only.