[Life] Beyond the Melancholy Tune! Yang Yixiu's New Album Reimagines Taiwanese Opera

A study abroad trip to Vienna during his university years made Yang Yixiu, who was originally studying finance, realize how unfamiliar he was with traditional Taiwanese music. Upon returning to Taiwan, he immersed himself in the world of Nanguan, Beiguan, and Taiwanese opera, and after 10 years of exploration, he finally completed his new album, "Wild Stage Language." He invited six female singers to combine Taiwanese opera with popular music, hoping to spark more people's interest in Taiwanese opera with the most contemporary sound. #Reported by Radio Taiwan International (RTI) correspondent Chiang Chao-lun# Music creator Yang Yixiu has released a new concept album, "Wild Stage Language," featuring six female singers: Yu Pei-chen, Hsueh Yi-tan, Wu Jing-yi, You Yi-ting, Chou Yi-wen, and Hsu Chao-tzu. The album extracts elements from Taiwanese opera and blends them with popular, jazz, and world music. All songs on the album were composed by Yang Yixiu himself, and most of the lyrics were also written by him. They explore modern life themes such as friendship, love, family, and life and death, singing about the emotions and struggles of people over 30. #Song Excerpt# However, this album is, in a way, Yang Yixiu's response to himself from 10 years ago. Originally a finance major, he studied Western classical music from a young age and went on an exchange program to the University of Vienna before graduating. While interacting with European friends, he was surprised to find that they could all talk extensively about their own country's folk music and historical context, while his knowledge of traditional Taiwanese music was limited. So, after returning to Taiwan, he began learning Nanguan and Beiguan in 2016 and delved into Taiwanese opera in 2021. In an interview with Radio Taiwan International (RTI), Yang Yixiu stated that Taiwanese opera attracted him because it inherently possesses a cross-disciplinary gene. He explained that Taiwanese opera has historically been adept at absorbing popular songs and folk tunes from every era, like a sponge, adapting with the times, making it easily applicable to cross-disciplinary projects. This inclusivity has become the core spirit of "Wild Stage Language." The album was in development for four years and received NT$700,000 in subsidies from the Ministry of Culture, but the overall production cost has already exceeded one million NT dollars. Yang Yixiu not only enlisted Taiwanese opera musician Ke Ming-feng as a consultant but also invited popular musician Huang Chung-yue and jazz pianist Hsu Yu-ying to participate in the performance. He even incorporated world instruments such as Balinese gamelan, Vietnamese dan bau, Middle Eastern oud, and Mongolian Morin khuur, aiming to create a soundscape that is both familiar and unfamiliar. In his view, interdisciplinarity is about finding a way that both parties can accept. Yang Yixiu: "(Original sound) I hope that for general audiences who haven't been exposed to Taiwanese opera, I hope to make them feel that traditional opera is not something distant. This is for the popular music side; for audiences who are more accustomed to traditional Taiwanese opera and watching performances, I hope that through this approach, they will know that Taiwanese opera has many possibilities in the present moment. That is, if they want to use my newly composed melodies, it's a very convenient format. So, it's like I hope both sides can gain something." Yang Yixiu believes that many listeners may not initially know which elements come from Taiwanese opera, but as long as they find it enjoyable and are willing to learn more, that is enough. The main goal of "Wild Stage Language" is not to teach everyone about Taiwanese opera, but rather to use popular songs to reopen the door for people to approach Taiwanese opera and to spark more interest in this traditional art form.