Polyglot Malaysian singer and performer Peny Chan seeks to highlight the cultural traditions as well as the transformations within the Peking opera’s style of singing. Her project aims to deconstruct the opera’s original structure and reconstruct it into a new experimental genre of singing. Working together with musician and vocalist Rully Shabara on producing the work, Chan will use south-east Asian languages and dialects to read and sing traditional Chinese opera librettos, and push the envelope on the accepted sounds within it.
Her goal is not to undo but rather to innovate the genre’s historic conventions, in order to carve out space for contemporary impulses. Shabara said: “Peny Chan is inspired by singing techniques and styles of Peking Opera to create a modern piece that is more fitting to her new path as an experimental solo vocalist. I choose to further my mentorship with Chan and accompany her explorations for a piece that would be more focused on developing and crafting a voice which is uniquely hers.”
