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German-born Maestro Fritzsch has been a conductor for 25 years and is the chief conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. He is also the chief conductor of the Philharmonisches Orchester Graz and Grazer Oper in Austria.
“It was lovely, it was beautiful,” Mr. Fritzsch said of the show. “Very well paced and very well put together. I found the flow of the show very good.”
He said he most liked the Plum Blossom dance, which depicts bare plum trees bursting into blossom at the end of Winter. He also liked Herding on the Grasslands depicting Mongolian horsemen galloping beneath blue skies.
Mr. Fritzsch said the Shen Yun Orchestra, which combines Chinese and Western instruments, was “excellent.”
“It was very, very good playing,” he said.
He liked the digital backdrops that transport the audience to another world amidst blossoming landscapes, deep forests, Mongolian prairies, or celestial paradises.
“It was extremely well timed, so precise with the stage and with the music.
“We have three daughters and they would have loved this, the costumes, the colour,” he said.
Susan Collins was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal for “contribution to Australian society through opera and ballet”. She has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and has performed as recitalist throughout Australia and the USA, and in Europe. She currently lectures at the University of Newcastle Conservatorium.
“The sound of the orchestra was wonderful,” Ms. Collins said. “Even the sound of the strings wasn’t what you would expect for a normal Western orchestra. It was so immaculate.”
“I have heard Chinese instruments, but never mixed with Western instruments before.
“It was very precise, we were really taken by the timing of everything. Everything was put together so well.
“They had incredible strength—these dancers were leaping so high then landing with no noise.”
They were surprised how little they knew about some of the show’s contemporary themes, such as the courage of practitioners of the meditation discipline Falun Dafa in mainland China.
“What was extraordinary to us is that we knew so little about it before,” Ms. Collins said.
“I actually read up quite a bit before the show. I think it was very beautifully and naively put, very simply, the message, and it was beautiful.”
Reporting by SOH radio network and Ethan Yang.
Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company will perform at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre through to Feb. 23. Next stop is Melbourne, March 1-6. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
