Traditional Chinese opera, with its 700-year history, will be revolutionised come April 4 by the NUS Theatre Studies Programme at the University Cultural Centre.

As part of the annual graduation production, this year’s staging of the chuanqi opera, “The West Wing,” will be given a modern twist as it is performed to contemporary popular music.

Audiences can expect to hear evergreen tunes such as the Broadway favourite, “Memory,” and the thumping club number, “Don’t Cha,” played “live” by a five-piece band.

The line between the production’s period and contemporary era is further blurred when the actors sing these modern hits while performing traditional operatic gestures.

Grant Shen, associate professor and director of the opera, said, “The music in this opera is contemporary to our time. It’s like a pop concert.”

Shen, a specialist in Asian theatre, added, “This would satisfy people who would rather go for a more modern performance.”

What if a modern pop concert does not go down well with the purists?

Student and assistant director, Thong Pei Qin, said, “Chinese opera in all its history was never sung to original composed music but the popular tunes of its time.”

Such a contrary mix of past and present in the staging this time is to provide the audience an authentic experience of Chinese opera in its prime.

Grace Khoo, assistant director, said, “What we wish to do is simply to revive the Chinese operatic genre and show that Chinese opera isn’t all that highbrow, but can be and was enjoyed by the general public during its time.”

“The West Wing” is considered by scholars to be the best piece of Chinese opera. It was initially banned in China during the period of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties because of its risqué sexual and liberal political content.

Translated from classical Chinese to modern English by bilingual poet Leong Liew Geok and Shen, this abridged version of the opera was originally to be performed and produced by students from the Theatre Studies Programme as part of their graduating year curriculum in NUS.

However, not all the performers this year are from the theatre studies programme.

The production was open to all students in the university, regardless of faculty due to the scale of this project. This resulted in the lead roles being played by a Canadian exchange student, Michael Hodgson, and an Indian Theatre Studies major, Anjana Srinivasan.

It was the director’s decision to choose Hodgson and Srinivasan as the two leads, even though it was difficult reconciling the idea of a traditional opera with non-Chinese actors.

But this was also to demonstrate the appeal of appearing in “The West Wing.”

Khoo said, “It only goes to show Singapore’s multiculturalism and multicultural talent. Whoever is able to meet the expectations, gets the job at the end of the day.

“Plus, Anjana and Michael have such great voices and acting ability.”

Another challenge for “The West Wing” is the incorporation of classical, jazz and hip-hop dance routines into the intercultural hodgepodge that will only be performed once during the 3 p.m. matinee show on April 5.

Joey Feng, publicity manager and final-year theatre studies major, said, “Producing an opera on this professional level is not easy considering we are all students with studies to cope with.”

Although staging the production is a painstaking process, it is expected to be worthwhile for the performers as they get to work with Shen.

Shen’s fascination with and extensive knowledge of Asian theatre has seen him helm other groundbreaking works. They include the Japanese kabuki play, "Sukeroku, Flower of Edo” and the Indian Sanskrit dance-drama, “Shakuntala of the Mahbharata.”

His novel and unprecedented performances has also landed him in the “Who’s Who in the World” for his outstanding achievement in Asian theatre. His work has also been discussed by the revered theatre critic and director, Richard Schechner in “The Drama Review.”

Hu Xiao Le, a second-year science major and female lead of the dance version, said, “I have enjoyed my time very much.

“I would definitely do it all over again.”

Tickets for the performance are available at www.sistic.com.sg.