NEW YORK—As a performing arts touring manager, Mr. Muñoz has seen many performances across the country throughout his professional life. It is with that experience that he praised the large-scale production of Divine Performing Arts’ Chinese New Year Splendor which played at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday.
“It’s highly organized and very well-produced. You can tell there is a lot of value in the production.”
“It’s very unique, you don’t see this kind of thing touring around the country, and I work with a lot of tours,” he said.
Mr. Muñoz emphasized that the live orchestra enhances the performance and adds a distinctive aspect to the Divine Performing Arts production.
“It has a live orchestra, that is very interesting, something you don’t see a lot of today. So it’s very unique, I think, in the world of arts.”
He said he enjoyed this aspect of the show very much and said the performance was very “uplifting.”
“You know, more [have] gone away from a big production like this. This is a very expensive production, obviously, and I think that they’re doing it here in New York is a very strong message that … there’s a strong market. There’s a strong audience for this.”
Mr. Muñoz, was also impressed by the dances, describing them as “soothing.”
“It’s very diverse because of the fact it has music and dance and vocal, all three elements and it gives sort of a well-rounded picture of Chinese culture,” he said, adding that this combination is “missing in a lot of the other types of performances.”
He said there are educational aspects in the show as well, adding further value to the performance.
“We learned a little about Chinese instruments that I didn’t know and I just thought that the overall production value was very high.”
Mr. Muñoz’s associate, Ms. Morris, who also watched the performance, and said the show was on a “grand scale.”
“It was very well-produced, it was very expensive. The costumes were beautiful, it’s a large group of people, everybody worked in sync, worked well together,” she said.
She likewise endorsed the live orchestra, and said “it was nice to have the live music that was actually real musicians.”
“Really nice live orchestra, which nowadays you tend to see a lot smaller orchestras,” she added.
Ms. Morris said another aspect that adds to the uniqueness of the DPA performance is that the show is cultural and educational.
“It was a presentation of the culture and more educational; it was more educational than a typical show would be.”
“I thought it was a very good mix.”
“The grandeur, the color, the splendor, the organization, many, many people working in sync, which I think is something that we in the West think of in China, as large numbers of people working for a common goal,” she said.
Referring to the state-of-the-art animated digital back drop that sets up the background scenery for each piece, she said “I think the screens in the back kind of had that mix between the cinematic style with the flying which is very common sort of a Chinese thing.”
Ms. Morris said the show also covered contemporary issues in China.
“I just thought it was a nice representation of the history to now.”
“I think for anyone who has an appreciation of music, culture, dance, they would really like it,” Ms. Morris concluded.
For more information visit DivinePerformingArts.org
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