Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai

The poster of Kuayue expresses its integration of Chinese opera with jazz.

The State Ministry of Culture has designated a unique musical style integrating traditional Chinese opera and contemporary jazz a cultural innovation reflecting the spirit of the Belt & Road Initiative.

Called Kuayue, which means a cross of Chinese opera with jazz, the Xiangzhou cultural program and its music was named to the 2018 list of key projects in Belt & Road cultural trade and investment.

According to an announcement on Dec 20 last year, it was the only Zhuhai project appearing on the list and was one of two Guangdong entries. Thousands of applicants from around the country were screened to only 40. The result came out of two years' of discussions and strict evaluation in cultural departments at all levels.

The first stop of Kuayue's world performance tour is in Zhuhai last May.

Zhuhai Golden Jazz Cultural Industry Management inaugurated the project in 2016 by bringing together leading jazz and folk musicians to reimage traditional Peking, Shaanxi, Wuju, and Cantonese operas. Chief among them was Drew Zaremba, a famous composer, conductor, and saxophonist from the United States.

Drew said that the inclusive style comes from professional arrangement of opera extracts to make them compatible with harmonic jazz. The process requires expert insight and modern techniques.

The result is of high academic merit and constitutes a leapfrog development in musical texture of high communication value, according to an expert.

Site photos from the world tour are proof of a big success. [Photos courtesy WeChat account: zhxiangzhou]

The program began a world tour at the Mozart Music Hall of the Zhuhai Huafa & CPAA Grand Theatre in May 2017 with its hit adaptation of Susan Under Police Escort (Susan Qijie), one of the most famous Beijing operas.  

Producer Zhou Jing said Kuayue is letting the world hear a different kind of Chinese opera, and jazz is exactly what's needed to decode the music.