13th Annual Peking Opera Festival at NYU Skirball Center Set for 4/28

Qi Shu Fang Peking Opera Company (Qi Shu Fang, President & Ding Mei Kui, Artistic Director), recipient of National Heritage Fellowship for the Arts, will present the 13th Annual Peking Opera Festival featuring Qi Shu Fang and the Company for one performances only on Sunday, April 28th at 3:00 PM at NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts (566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square South). This performance is part of the World Stage Series presented by NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.

To celebrate the Year of Snake, Qi Shu Fang Peking Opera Company presents the 13th Annual Peking Opera Festival with the Legend of White Snake. It is a rarely seen full-length Peking Opera Classic. The performance featuring the Peking Opera Master, Qi Shu Fang along with several other renowned performers from China. The performance provides a spectacular evening of music, mime, costumes, amazing martial arts, acrobatics, and traditional Chinese orchestra. Combining singing and dialogue with acrobatic tumbling and kung?fu fighting, the Qi Shu Fang Peking Opera Company stages an unforgettable glimpse into ancient China. The performance will be in Chinese with English subtitles.

The 13th Annual Peking Opera Festival is Sunday, April 28th at 3:00 PM at NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts (part of the World Stage Series). Tickets are priced at $38. Students and group discounts are available. To purchase tickets by phone please call (212) 352-3101 or (866) 811-4111. To purchase tickets online visit www.nyuskirball.org and to purchase tickets in person please visit the Skirball Center Box Office at 566 LaGuardia Place (at Washington Square South) open Tuesday - Saturday 12NOON-6:00PM and two hours prior to performances. For more information, please visit www.qishufang.com.

SYNOPSIS
The Legend of the White Snake
Once upon a time in the Mountain E-Mei, there were White Snake and Blue Snake. White Snake transforms into a very beautiful woman named Bai Su-Zhen. Blue Snake also transforms a very lovely girl, named Xiao Qing. They came to West Lake of Hang Zhou for a visit, Bai saw a young man named Xu Xiao. Bai immediately falls into an unrequited love. To help her sister, Xiao Qing set various magic tricks to entice Xu Xian to reciprocate the love and suggests that he marries Bai. Meanwhile the Abbot Fa Hai of a remote Buddhist temple in Golden Mountain senses the unusualness and pledges to capture the White Snake.
After the couple getting married, Bai, Xu and Xiao Qing moved to a city near the Yangtse River where Bai provided her husband with a medicine shop. She used her magical powers so that all medicines became especially potent, and the business in consequence prospered exceedingly. Fa Hai found Xu Xian and warms him that his wife is a snake. He Suggests Xu to find her real identity by giving her a glass of wine. On the momentous day, Xiao Qing goes to Mountain E-Mei and leaving Bai by herself. Xu Xian brings the festival wine and drinks with Bai. Bai unsuspectingly reveals her true form as a large white snake after drinking the wine and Xu Xian dies of shock after seeing that his wife is not human. Bai Su-Zhen and Xiao Qing travel to Mount E-Mei, where they brave danger to steal a magical herb that restores Xu Xian to life.
After coming back to life, Xu still maintains his love for Bai despite knowing her true identity. Fa Hai tries to separate them again so he captures Xu and imprisons him in Jinshan Temple. Bai and Xiao Qing fight with Fa Hai to rescue Xu, and Bai uses her powers to flood the temple. In the end, Fa Hai is not able to defeat Bai, Xu Xian is happily to return home with Bai.