Metropolitan Opera House on the Upper West Side.

After the last rehearsal in the morning, time soon came to the evening.

The theme performance of the "Book of Songs" by the National Style Art Troupe starts at 7 o'clock in the evening, and there are more than ten minutes left before the opening. The theater is almost full. Many viewers are taking advantage of the last time before the opening to read the exquisitely bound program manual with the tickets. The Chinese and English are bilingual and the Chinese style ink and wash background, and detailed the historical status of the "Book of Songs" in Chinese and English ink and painting and the general content of the total 12 dances tonight.

Michael Morton, a drama critic who is based in the cultural edition of the New York Times, sat in a seat with excellent view in the central hall. While flipping through the program manual in front of him, he listened to the bickering of a young couple behind him.

"I really don't understand why you are looking at this, Winnie, and I've asked about it. The ticket price is much higher than before. I know that the rumor is that this dance team was created by Simon Westeros himself, but, classical dances from China, tsk, are they going to perform kung fu on stage?"

"Jack, what else do you know about China besides Kung Fu?"

“Chinese food is pretty good.”

"I feel more and more like you have been deceived, so I shouldn't marry you."

"Hey, it's too late."

"Well, I know Simon is enough to make all of you men feel inferior, so, you just shut up."

"Anyway, even if you like Westeros, you won't have the chance to be the second Jennifer Brie. Speaking of which, that little person is so lucky. It's a miracle to chase a net worth of more than $400 million."

"Shut up!"

“OK.”

Michael Morton never looked back, but at least he was in the media circle and was very familiar with a lot of gossip. When he heard some words from the man among the young couple behind him, he couldn't help but think that the chance was quite high, or the chance of getting married was even greater. After all, some of Westeros's hobbies towards women are not a secret.

This slightly joking thought just flashed by, and Morton's attention was soon put on tonight's performance.

Compared to the young couple who probably don't watch operas often behind him, Michael Morton felt the ticket price of this performance more appropriately. It is indeed very expensive. Compared with the previous ticket price, it is at least 50% higher, which is definitely beyond the package of the included manual, which is good but far from reaching the extra fare.

And this time it was his own money.

If it weren't for the singing and dancing team created by Simon Westeros, Michael wouldn't have come to watch this classic Chinese dance that he had no interest in at all. After all, like many Westerners, the Chinese in his impression, besides kung fu and Chinese food, is probably poor and backward.

As a well-known drama critic in the circle, since he rarely paid for his pocket this time, if the next performance cannot satisfy him, even if Simon Westeros involves Simon Westeros, there will definitely be no good things in his commentary article tomorrow.

However, after carefully considering the details of the ticket price, Michael Morton felt that no matter how sharp the criticism was, a young tycoon might not care.

Thinking of this, it was soon 7 o'clock.

The lights in the theater were dim, and after a moment, the curtain rose. The background of the stage was a row of erected bamboo slips, filled with beautiful ancient seal characters.

The simple and elegant music sounded.

Unlike Western symphony, most audience members heard this sound like tinging metal for the first time. Only when the audience in the upper box overlooked the orchestra pool in front of the stage could they see an oriental woman in Chinese costume pounding a row of chimes.

Immediately, accompanied by the singing of a woman like nature, two rows of women in ancient costumes with dignified and beautiful clothes slowly came on stage.

Even though there are two completely different cultures, listening to the music and chanting in my ears, looking at the elegant and ancient woman in hardcover on the stage, Michael Morton's most intuitive feeling is only one word: beauty.

Or, the nearly 4,000 audiences who have been curious about this performance have basically felt this way.

Some things many years later have repeatedly proved that "XX has no borders" is a joke, but at this moment, even though it is completely different in cultural background, this cultural beauty accumulated by a nation for thousands of years still hits people's hearts.

Theater backstage.

The other girls who were ready to go listened to the music coming from the front desk and raised their hearts high, and they were inevitably lacking a little confidence.

In fact, everyone thinks that in addition to the manual given with the ticket, there should be more annotations for the audience. Some people also propose to recite the corresponding poems before each dance during the planning stage. After all, these ordinary Americans are not as familiar with Chinese culture as a man. As a result, similar suggestions were directly rejected by someone and no explanation was given.

I obviously don't care much about the success or failure of this performance.

There is also the ticket for this time. When we learn that someone personally increased the average ticket price of the theater for this show by 50%, we even felt that someone might want them to fail.

In front of the dressing table, Wei Chancha stood obediently like a little wood, spreading his hands slightly and asked Teacher Wang beside him to check his makeup. Wang Dongyue looked at the girl's nervous look and comforted him: "Relax a little, wait for you to just dance in groups. It's not good to wait for your "Jian Jia" to dance alone."

"It's just nervous," Wei Chancai said, and took the initiative to try to get around the topic to relax and said, "By the way, Teacher Wang, during the day, Simon said that we can return to China during the New Year."

Wang Dongyue nodded slightly and nodded softly.

Wei Huachao, who is very good with several teachers, noticed that Teacher Wang was not in a high mood after hearing what he said, and roughly knew why: "Teacher Wang, aren't you going to get your green card soon? When you get your green card, you should be able to pick up your uncle and your child to the United States, right?"

Wang Dongyue paused, looked at the girl in front of her and said, "Discount, I think... can you help me to ask about it in front of Mr. Westeros?"

When Wei Panchao heard this, he immediately remembered the man's reaction when he talked to him about Feng Caisu in the morning. He was very cold. However, with a little hesitation, she said: "Okay, Teacher Wang, but I can't guarantee anything."

Wang Dongyue hurriedly said, "You just need to help bring it up."

After all, it's still about immigration abroad.

Unlike the Chinese Style Art Troupe, which only needs to take care of its young girls, a group of female teachers who came with them half a year ago basically had a family and a house. Compared to many of the seagoers who thought they were paradise and found to be hell after going abroad, the salary and benefits provided by the Chinese style art Troupe are completely in line with the expectations of the Chinese people for the West in this era, and they are even more than that. Therefore, these teachers inevitably think about going a step further and letting their families come together.

However, the Guofeng Art Troupe has not reached this level of charity. To do this, they basically need to operate it themselves.

This is not easy.

After breaking this topic and changing his mind a little, Wei Chancai also relaxed. Hearing that the first "Guanju" on the front desk ended, the warm applause made Wei Chancai feel more confident. You must know that "Guanju" is one of the 12 dances tonight. The reason why it is used as the beginning is because "Guanju" is the beginning of "The Book of Songs", and the more exciting ones are at the back.

To use the original words of a certain man, this is called getting better.

Now, since the first dance can attract warm applause, the audience's response should only be better next.

The facts are also like Wei Huqiu's judgment.

The final final length of this performance is 100 minutes, with a total of 12 dances, which correspond to the twelve poems in the Book of Songs.

When the opening was quite successful, Wei's uneven solo dance "Jian Jia" and several dances such as "Cai Wei" choreographed by Simon himself all aroused more warm applause than the opening.

When the last dance ended, all the members of the art troupe came to the stage and ended. Many viewers realized that they left quickly in 100 minutes without realizing it. So many viewers did not leave immediately, but tried to go to the backstage to communicate in person with the dancers who had just brought him a visual feast.

Although most of the people who tried this way were stopped, there were still some lucky people with strong relationships who were able to pass the level.

Michael Morton, who is a permanent drama critic of the New York Times, is one of them, and Joseph Walp, general manager of the Metropolitan Theater, personally led him to enter with some other special guests, which made the young couple who had previously sat behind Morton who also wanted to enter the backstage after the performance was over.

"First of all, I want to congratulate you, Joseph, have you always wanted to make some reforms to the theater? This performance will definitely make a sensation."

Everyone walked backstage together, and when Joseph Walp heard Michael Morton say this, he smiled bitterly: "You should know, Mike, this is just an exception. To be honest, it was a success, and the next game should be very popular, otherwise, well, I really don't know what to say."

The main reason is that a young tycoon is really messing around.

Joseph Walp was very opposed to the fact that he insisted on significantly increasing the ticket price. Unfortunately, he was just a professional manager after all, and his arm could not twist his thighs.

The result was finally good.

Even Joseph Walp certainly hopes this will bring about some changes.

You should know that the operas performed by the Metropolitan Opera are actually similar to Chinese Peking Opera, and are all "national quintessence", but they cannot escape the fate of becoming increasingly high and low. At this stage, most of the audiences who watch operas, except for overseas tourists who come to New York to visit a tour, are a large number of silver-haired people, and there are very few young people.

This performance tonight is an exception because of a young tycoon.

Before the show started, Joseph Walp quietly observed that there were nearly 4,000 viewers on the scene, and most of the young audiences came here.

If this situation can continue, that is, the ticket price will increase by 50%, and the audience will have successors, and Joseph Walp can wake up in a laugh in his dream.

Unfortunately, all these can only be thought of in my dreams.

Just talking about this performance, the plan is to rise by only 9 shows in two months from the hottest December to January next year. This is actually the average level of more than 200 performances in the Metropolitan Opera House each year. However, after the end, it can be said that this is a good start, but it ended abruptly. Because Joseph Walp could not find a program that could be replaced, and a young tycoon had no intention of letting this team stay permanently, and the opera house could only return to tradition.

Anyway, it's just a flash in the pan.

Everyone talked about it and had already entered the backstage. They found that it was busy and not messy. A large number of staff were helping the dancers remove makeup and organize various props in an orderly manner.

Some media people who followed into the backstage were originally interested in the various Chinese instruments used in this performance, but found that all the instruments were immediately put into professional storage boxes. It was impossible to experience them. As the general manager, Joseph Walp could only explain with a wry smile again.

The answer is simple: expensive.

Not only musical instruments, but also the dancers' costumes and jewelry, and even the props used in some dances are very expensive, so the National Style Art Troupe is not even worried about the staff of the theater helping him, and they all sorted it out by themselves.

Joseph Walp is even a little envious, jealous and hateful about this.

You should know that as the theater manager, Joseph is also responsible for the preparation of some operas. This performance season, because he invested $190,000 in props and set expenses for an original opera, Joseph was questioned by the board of directors, thinking that it was too wasteful, and the various props used by the dancers of this performance... Well, just say that one of the guqins is said to be a real Chinese antique, worth more than $300,000.

With this alone, we can see how much manpower and material resources are spent behind this performance, and it is strange that we only pursue perfection regardless of the cost. The result is not a sensation.

There was no surprise at all. The next day, news about the performance of the National Style Art Troupe was launched quickly.

Michael Morton praised the show as a "perfect, superb, charming, elegant visual feast" in his New York Times column.

In addition, New York's New York Post, New York Daily News, Daily News and other important newspapers around the East Coast such as the Boston Globe have reported on the performance one after another. There was even a Broadway drama critic who had accumulated a large number of fans on Facebook and directly posted a blog post claiming that he was "full of jealousy about Simon Westeros having such a dancer team", which pointed out the background of the Chinese Style Art Troupe. This blog post was not only not restricted, but also promoted, and for a time, the Chinese Style Art Troupe became more well-known.

Immediately afterwards, the news came back to China.

The theme performance of the "Book of Songs" by the National Style Art Troupe caused a sensation at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. It directly appeared in a newspaper with the biggest headlines and received the attention of CCTV. This time, unlike the interview between Jian Xin and two women who were quietly operating in Chen Qing, CCTV took the initiative to express interest and asked reporters stationed in New York to follow up.
Chapter completed!