英文摘要
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Tradition and Innovation are significant issues in contemporary musical theatres. ”Innovation rooted in tradition” was a well-known slogan in the last decade. However, there are few discourses on the definition and connotation of so-called ”tradition”. Che Tzu (extracts refined out of the complete set of a play), for example, had become formalized and evolved into the ”Chien-Jia Tradition” of the Kungu Opera for centuries. On the other hand, theaters nowadays have reconstructed the traditional Chinese opera in a creative and innovative way. In terms of Kungu Opera, there were more than a dozen of formalized extracts and reconstructed editions to perform The Peony Pavilion. Therefore, the adapters and performers' manners and attitudes toward tradition had direct impact on the styles and features of their presentations. In my opinion, there exist fine adjustments and modifications to reconstruct a contemporary meaning of Kungu Opera. Take The Peony Pavilion for example, many popular extracts such as Quest for the Garden Saunter and the Interrupted Dream, Finding the Portrait and Calling to the Portrait are too classic to make significant modifications. The tedious and superfluous parts in some unimportant extracts, such as The Schoolroom, Infernal judgment, Encouraging Agriculture, and Asking for Directions may be deleted. Some of the missing extracts such as Painting a Portrait and The Soul Departs can be regenerated based on the traditional performance style. As long as the purport of intense sentiment and true love is well managed, and the conflict of sense and sensibility is plotted, we would expect a reconstructed edition of The Peony Pavilion that embraces meaningful connotations and artistic values.
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