Are you ready for the lunar new year?
The Chinese community has been making dumplings, sprucing up dragon masks, buying flowers, prepping fireworks, and sweeping up in anticipation of this big, tradition-filled holiday. While the world of Western classical music doesn’t have a lot of overlap with these particular traditions, we’ve “adopted” an adorable mascot for the occasion: meet Kumquat, who will be the Listerhood’s irresistible supermodel-for-a-day to celebrate the Year of the Dog.
Hopefully, this celebration can be more than just cultural tourism for our own operatic and song-focused community: arts pundits in recent years have commented on the intriguing potential that may lie in further collaboration with the burgeoning interest in Western opera and other musical arts in China. If opera’s future lies to the East, this is a good chance to learn a thing or two, and watch out for the next chance to make some new friends.
That said, don’t mix it up too much: we’re not quite sure if singing from underneath one of those amazing masks is really worth the effort. But the dancing sure looks like fun!
Originally published in Next 7 — Vocal events through 2/22/18
