Vienna's Largest Venue Welcomes Shen Yun
Vienna's Wiener Stadthalle hosted the Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company and the Shen Yun Touring Company Orchestra for the second show on the same day on April 17, a beautiful sunny Saturday.Vienna has a long tradition of art and culture, and the locals and visitors can chose between theater, opera, classical music, fine arts, a multitude of museums, and visiting the many and most beautiful old castles.
The Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna opened its doors for the first time in 1958. It was designed by the architect Roland Rainer and can seat about 16,000 people.
Welcoming Shen Yun
The audience showed the artists their appreciation of having brought their show to Vienna through loud applause and loud calls of 'bravo.'
With the opening and closing performance on the same day, Shen Yun dazzled the audience for many hours that particular day with stories from Chna's 5,000-year history.
There were stories from ancient and the present day China that told of glory and sad times and many a tear fell out of the eyes of audience members. The ancient stories were handed down through folklore and the artists let it be known that they wanted to breathe new life into traditional Chinese culture.
Most welcome were the two bi-lingual emcees that introduced each scene, helping the audience understand what was to come.
The state-of-the-art backdrops brought Chinese landscapes that harmonized with all the scenes, and also showed translations of the songs sung in Chinese, to help the audience hear the story the singers were telling.
The orchestra, with its Eastern and Western instruments, underlined the Shen Yun's foreign influence and gave it that mystic the audience was looking for.
Learning about Chinese Culture
Manfred Lang, an entrepreneur who travels frequently to Japan, and his wife, Helga Lang, were looking forward to seeing Shen Yun and hoped that they would truly see what the advertisements promised. They wanted to learn more about Chinese culture.
"We actually gave this a try because we wanted to learn more about Chinese culture, and I must say, we loved the show," said Mr. Lang.
The scene Wu Song Battles the Tiger, a scene from one of China's most beloved novels, tackles the danger and demise of a man-eating tiger. When hunters are unsuccessful and another villager gets killed, Wu Song staggers off after drinking three bowls of alcohol and goes to save the day.
Mr. Lang said, "The rendition of the tiger story was fabulous. The choreography was impressive and the dance was particular outstanding."
They loved the dazzling costumes and Mr. Lange spoke of their admiration of what they had seen, "the costumes harmonized with everything, especially in combination with the dance and the backdrop. We can only say that everything was in harmony."
'Show very fascinating'
Television correspondent Susanne Glass and her husband attended the show as well.
"It found the show very fascinating," she said.
"I will recommend this show because it widens the horizon for the Western person, because their understanding of China is very limited."
http://www.shenzhoufilm.com/sz/en/2010/04/20/a10123.html 2010-4-20 01:31