Chinese musical chronicles life of composer Wang Luobin

A new version of the Chinese musical, The Past Ballad, which chronicles the life of Chinese composer Wang Luobin (1913-96), was staged at Tianqiao Performing Arts Center in Beijing on April 15 and 16.

The musical, which premiered at Beijing Normal University in 2019, was updated into a new version in March, and was staged at the university with 10 performances.

Wang (1913-96), a household name in China, enrolled in Beijing Normal University in 1931 to study music with Russian and German teachers. He fell in love with Chinese folk music after traveling to the country's northwest to study folk songs in 1938. Wang's classic songs such as At a Faraway Place, which Wang wrote in Qinghai province in 1939; The Girl From Daban City,which was inspired by the music of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region; and A Lovely Rose in 1938 that Wang adapted from a Kazak folk song, were featured in the musical.

Xiao Xiangrong, a renowned dancer-choreographer and dean of the university's dance department, said that the musical focused on Wang's youth and how those days inspired him musically.