Opera Singer: Shen Yun Shows a ‘Beautiful, Completely Different World’
Dec 30, 2022
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Dresden opera singer Christof Bodenstein with his family at Shen Yun in Berlin, on Dec. 28, 2022. (The Epoch Times)
BERLIN—With three curtain calls and cheering applause, the Berlin audience welcomed the artists of Shen Yun Performing Arts. The premiere of the new European tour was deemed a success.
On Dec. 28, the curtain rose on the opening night of the Shen Yun European Tour 2023 in Berlin. The Theater am Potsdamer Platz thus once again played host to the artistic group from New York, whose mission is to revive China’s traditional culture.
The total number of performances in Europe will include at least 13 countries and more than 20 cities. From January to May, the artists will perform in countries including Germany, Great Britain, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Spain, and Italy.
Visitors to the nearly sold-out premiere in Berlin were enthusiastic and praised the performance to the fullest.
Christof Bodenstein, the solo tenor at the famous Semper Opera in Dresden, spoke afterward of a “beautiful, completely different world” that he had experienced that evening. His wife Eva Maria agreed with him. She found it “unforgettable, really wonderful.”
The singing was something “completely different” for Bodenstein than when he sang Wagner or Mozart; the texts harbored a “different philosophy” for him.
His wife particularly admired the dancers‘ body control and artistry. “It’s great, brilliant,” she said. The interaction between the artists and the digital stage background was like “in a fairy tale” for her.
“It makes you want to be weightless and fly along,” Mrs. Bodenstein said.
What they both took away from the evening, she said, was the “joie de vivre” that the performance left them with.
‘Incomparably Beautiful’
Mariusz Poczatenko, a Polish painter and artist living in Germany, came to the theater that evening with his wife Bärbel Schwenzer and his mother. He had brought his mother from Krakow, especially for the performance. Here you don’t have to speak a particular language, just “look and listen,” he said.
Ms. Schwenzer was impressed with the flexibility and agility of the dancers, the colors used, and the production’s staging.
Mr. Poczatenko, currently exhibiting in Frankfut/Oder, felt inspired for his painting. He uses many colors himself, Mr. Poczatenko explained, and the unique combinations of colors he saw in one of the costumes would become part of his next painting.
“Everyone should come to see the performance because it is incomparably beautiful,” he said.
Painter Mariusz Poczatenko with his wife Bärbel Schwenzer and his mother at the Theater am Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Dec. 28, 2022. (The Epoch Times)
Maureen Viktoria Fritsch found the performance on Dec. 28 “wonderful, absolutely wonderful. I am totally thrilled. It was a dream for me to come here.”
She spoke of stories told through dance that moved her, through tragedy and redemption. She said one scene alluded to the zero COVID policy in China today, topical and very moving.
Ms. Fritsch is a psychotherapist with her own practice near Berlin. She also offers psychotherapy for children and adolescents in a clinic network.
Maureen Viktoria Fritsch was thrilled by Shen Yun in Berlin. (NTD)
The reappearance of traditional Chinese myths and legends on the Shen Yun stage gave Ms. Fritsch a wonderful feeling: “I think the fairies are graceful and moving, and I especially like fairies in Chinese mythology.” Seeing them on stage made her very happy, she said, and felt a very strong connection to them.
She mentioned that she felt a close connection to the fairy legends of the Celtic peoples of Europe. “From this point of view, there may be similarities between fairies in Chinese culture and fairies in Europe, but they are not exactly the same. They are both very beautiful.”
The message she took away from the evening was “that people should stick together again, that people should reconnect with each other and not leave each other alone in times of need. I think the pandemic also showed us quite well that that’s important, that groups simply get through something like that better.” She would also want to emphasize “love for each other and compassion for each other.”
