WorkPlace Snippets

Tag: 今夜月明

  • Beijing Olympics 2008 – Closing Ceremony – The Moon is Bright Tonight


    Photo courtesy of 赤子之心

    It has only been 4 months since the Beijing Olympics 2008, but for some reason it seems to have happened so very long ago. Perhaps it’s because of the credit crunch and lots of real life things happening, but my online activity has really dwindled. This includes the continuation of the series on the Closing Ceremony, where this post has been in ‘draft’ for far too long without actually having ever been written up.

    Above is a photo of the 7 sopranos who serenaded us all with their rendition of the Chinese folk song 今夜月明 or The Moon is Bright Tonight. Out of all the performances that night, I have to say this sweet love song was my absolute favourite performance of the evening (more photos of some of the other performances can be found at the end of this post) Their voices (and their outfits) were absolutely gorgeous!

    This is the list of the soprano performers:

    張也, 湯燦, 張燕, 陳思思, 雷佳, 王麗達,哈輝

    The original plan was to introduce all of the singers individually, but I think it’s safe to say that they are all very accomplished sopranos and perhaps it will be fine to leave it at that, since on a personal level, the actual song and their rendition of this particular arrangement was the most wonderful part.

    I have actually recorded the song from the BBC broadcast of the Closing Ceremony, and find it so very uplifting to listen to. The song is sung by a girl to a boy in the mountains, and she sings about the magnificently bright moon that has risen, which reminds her of the one she is missing. And as the wind sweeps up to the hills, she asks if he can hear her calling to him.

    At least, that’s my interpretation of the original lyrics, although CRI Online has helpfully provided the names of the people who brought us this arrangement (卞留念、趙兆、孟可 and 尹宜公) I have decided to edit the original lyrics and post what the sopranos actually sang here:

    (恩噠恩噠 哩羅來哩羅來)
    (恩噠恩噠 哩羅來哩羅來)
    月亮出來亮旺旺亮旺旺 （哪呀咿哪呀咿也 哪呀咿哪呀咿也)
    想起我的阿哥
    在深山 (噠 噠 哩羅來哩羅來）
    (哪呀咿 哪呀咿也 哪呀咿呦呀咿也)
    哥想月亮天上走天上走 哥 (哪呀咿哪呀咿也)
    哥哥啊 (來啦哩 來啦哩 來啦哩 來啦哩羅來哩羅來）
    山下小河淌水
    清悠悠 (哪呀咿哪呀咿也 啊呦呀呦 咿也)

    月亮出來亮旺旺 亮旺旺 月亮出來亮旺旺 亮旺旺
    亮旺 亮旺 亮旺 亮旺……
    月亮出來亮旺旺

    一陣清風 吹上坡 吹上坡 哥啊 哥啊 哥啊
    你可聽見阿妹叫阿哥……
    阿哥 月亮出來 月亮 月亮

    It is a little shorter than the original, and the words that you can see within brackets interweaves between the actual lyrics, and are nonsense if taken literally, but musically they are a perfect accompaniment for the song.

    If you would like to be reminded why this song is so good, feel free to listen to the mp3 recording that I mentioned earlier from the BBC broadcast below. Alternatively, you can also download The Moon is Bright Tonight for your own enjoyment as well. It is really something worth listening , especially in the winter months, in my humble opinion, and it would be great to find out if you thought the same too!

    Download the mp3 recording of The Moon is Bright Tonight from the BBC‘s broadcast of the Beijing Olympics Closing Ceremony or click on the ‘play’ button above to listen to the mp3 on the site!

    Unless I get round to writing about the Handover to London, this may be the last post on the Olympics 2008 for the time being. But I think, as the BBC’s Matt Slater summed up so eloquently in his blog post:

    The closing ceremony was absolutely in keeping with everything I have seen in Beijing over the last three and a bit weeks: staggering in scale, perfectly choreographed, visually stunning and absolutely on time.

    p/s: Some of the other photos we promised at the start of this post from the Beijing Olympics 2008 Closing Ceremony including Jackie Chan, Karen Mok, Andy Lau, Joey Yung and other really big name (old-skool) celebrities singing 遠方的客人請你留下來 or Please stay, Guests from Afar.


    Photo courtesy of 赤子之心

    And some of the 75 acrobats mimicking flames as they performed on the 25-metre tall Memory Tower.


    Photo courtesy of azzurri_nr1

    Last but not least, Placido Domingo and 宋祖英 (Song Zuying) singing the duet of 愛的火焰 or Flames of Love together.


    Photo courtesy of 赤子之心

  • Beijing Olympics 2008 – Closing Ceremony – Introduction

    And so the Beijing Olympics 2008 have officially drawn to a close with the handover to London for 2012. I’m sure many many people dropped what they were doing to watch as much of the closing ceremony as possible, I know I did. So, what did you think of the Closing Ceremony?

    It wasn’t quite on the same scale as the Opening Ceremony – a mere 200 drum performers and 1,100 silver bell dancer for the first ‘Reunion’-themed part, compared to the 2,008 drummers at the start of the Opening Ceremony. In all, 7,000 performers took part in the Closing Ceremony and they didn’t even get a chance to rehearse in the stadium in the past few days because of the Athletics.


    Photo courtesy of One Ben K

    It was also a very modern performance compared to how the Olympics were introduced, and the underlying message was to ‘greet and welcome guests’. The music was gorgeous – delicate and upbeat in parts, contemplative the next. The cinematic effect was beautiful, as expected of Zhang Yimou, the director. At this point, I was impressed by the 60 light wheels that ‘rolled’ into the darkened stadium, traveling along path of lights formed by the dancers, which reminded me a little of the Wall of China (even if it wasn’t intended)


    Photo courtesy of rich115

    As the formation changed, they were joined by followed by 200 bouncing and flying performers, which were supposed to reflect the more modern and extreme sports in the Olympics (according to the on-going BBC commentary) and finally, the opening of the closing ceremony ended as the dancers formed four passages to greet the incoming flag bearers of each country, and then the athletes.


    Photo courtesy of 赤子之心

    In contrast to the formal entrance of the athletes at the Opening Ceremony, everyone was allowed to run in freely. Needless to say everyone pretty much looked ecstatic and cheered at the camera 😉 This was followed by the award ceremony for the winners of the Men’s Marathon event (a new world record was set by the gold medalist WANSIRU Samuel Kamau!) and a big thank you was given to all the representatives of all the volunteers who had worked so hard to support the games.

    So much more followed, that I think it would be appropriate to split this post into a few sections and write about the individual performances that really stood out for me, such as the London Handover and the musical rendition of The Moon is Bright Tonight. Please stay tuned for the next part of this series! 🙂