FULL The Power of Belief – Making of the opera Long March (YIN Qing) Documentary Beijing 2017

The Long March, which premiered on July 1^st, 2016, is an opera commission commissioned by the NCPA in memory of the 80^th anniversary of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army’s victory in the Long March, the 50^th opera produced by the NCPA in the last 13 years since its opening, and the 11^th Chinese opera commission of national classic subject matter after Xishi, The Chinese Orphan, Visitors on the Snow Mountain, and FANG Zhimin. The opera, adapted from the true history of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army’s Long March, faithfully recreates the hardships that were suffered by the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army on the Long March by realism. The events on important nodes of the Long March are held together based on the perspectives and experiences of common Red Army soldiers and people, evoking the “miserable glory,” eulogizing the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army’s lofty ideals to fight and sacrifice for their faith, in honour of the Long March, a great wonder in human history. Until now, various Long March-based literary and artistic works have been produced, of which films and TV dramas and stage plays alone are more than one hundred in number. The Red Army’s Long March, which is one of the greatest events of the last century, is a magnificent feat that has changed history. The NCPA opera The Long March is acted out this great event, which influenced the process of Chinese revolution, in the form of an opera.

The whole opera has six acts of nine scenes in total, with over 30 dramatic personages and the chorus of hundreds of people. The great history of Long March ensures our today’s peaceful life, and each note of the spirit of the Long March contains the era factor and has the inspiring and shocking spiritual strength. Let’s walk into NCPA and review this period of sufferings and glory through the artistic charm of the opera.