SAN JOSE, Calif.—Mr. and Mrs. Herb attended Shen Yun’s matinee performance on Jan. 4 at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. Maggie Herb found herself in tears listening to the soprano soloist serenade the audience with an original piece about hope and salvation.
“It’s amazing, maybe I’m crying when the solo... it’s amazing, it’s [an] amazing show,” she said. “I’m from Egypt, but I feel it’s beautiful.”
According to the Shen Yun website, “The primary trait that distinguishes the singers of Shen Yun is their use of bel canto technique to sing Chinese text.”
It goes on to state, “Brimming with philosophical reflection about human life and containing deep layers of meaning, the texts go beyond the boundaries of nation, race, and culture.”
“Its just an amazing production,” said Hans Herb, owner of the Law Offices of Hans W. Herb.
“I can tell a lot of time and a lot of effort goes into this,” he said. “We go to live events almost every week, and this is clearly first rate. Just a lot of attention to detail. Amazing performance.”
In a rather fortuitous turn, Mr. Herb and his wife had a trip to China already planned for next month.
“It’s interesting, we’re learning about China at the same time we’re seeing the show,” he said.
He said it was funny that they‘d been thinking of going to see Shen Yun for two years. “Now I’m mad we’ve missed the show for two years! If I would’ve gone before, two years ago, we’d have been at every show since.”
Mr. Herb feels he learned a lot about Chinese culture from the show.
“A lot of people don’t know about a lot of things in the world,” he said. “The message comes across in a positive way. I felt like I learned a lot. I probably would’ve never listened, except it came through an art form that I was very interested in.”
Mr. Herb was also surprised by the scale of Shen Yun’s orchestra.
“That’s a much bigger orchestra than I would’ve expected—it’s amazing. I love that kind of music, the orchestra—live orchestra—and you don’t see that very often in many places. The quality of everything is just incredible.”
Reporting by Gary Wang and Chun Lee
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
