| Snow.Wolf.Lake 雪狼湖 |
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|---|---|
| Music | Guo Sai Cheung, Dick Lee, Iskandar Ismail, Lam Ming Yeung |
| Lyrics | Lam, Jang Keung, Albert Leung, Choo, Sin Man, Jacky Cheung |
| Productions | 1997 Hong Kong Singapore 2004 World Tour |
Snow.Wolf.Lake (Chinese: 雪狼湖) is Hong Kong's first modern musical. Jacky Cheung, a cantopop artist, was the artistic director of the show. He also played the leading character of the musical. The show time of the whole musical lasts for about three hours. Snow. Wolf.Lake has two different versions; one in Cantonese, the other in Mandarin. The title combines the Chinese name of the two main characters; "Wolf" in the title refers to the main male protagonist, and "Snow" refers to the main female protagonist. The "lake" refers to a plot related element.
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Snow.Wolf.Lake had its first showing in Hong Kong Coliseum on 28 March 1997 for a total of 42 shows. The original version of the musical is in Cantonese. Every showing was sold out. Snow. Wolf.Lake then headed to Singapore and also received critical success there, breaking records of audience and number of showings. From 2004 to 2006, the revised Pǔtōnghuà version of the musical went on a world tour for a total of 53 shows. The last showing of Snow. Wolf.Lake was on January 7, 2006 in the Beijing's Capital Gymnasium. Snow. Wolf.Lake totals at 102 performances.
Traditional musical has a main cast, which perform regularly, but will occasionally allow the alternate performers to play the lead roles. This is to allow rest for the performers and for other practical purposes. Regarding the cast, Snow.Wolf.Lake was more rigid. The cast of the canto-pop musical remains unchanged for the majority of the time. There was no alternate performer for the same role. Occasionally, a performer would leave the cast, and another performer takes over, but the replacement will have to remain in that role for all the subsequence performances. Jacky Cheung remains in the role of Wu Long (胡狼) for every performance of the musical's existence.
Cantonese version
Mandarin Version
This is not to reveal the complete story, but a brief introduction of each act. Important plot elements are left out on purpose.
Act one: The main characters of the story are introduced. Wu's introverted character seems to prevent him from making friends with anyone except flowers. Unexpectedly, Wu's gentle nature attracted the attention of both the daughters of the Ling house which Wu works for. Jing Shu's outgoing nature makes it easy for her to get close to Wu, leaving the rather introverted Yuk-Fung watching the two from a distance. One night, Wu and Shu gazed up at the sky and saw a shooting-star; naturally they started exchanging their wishes for the future. Shu wants to be a violinist, and Wu wants to nurture a unique brand of flower that can be a true embodiment of love. Scene changes to another night, when Wu and Shu meets on a boat sailing on a lake. Shu tells Wu that there is a musical school by a lake in Vienna, which is the school Shu wishes to study at; Wu says that he will go wherever she wishes to go and nurture by the lake his special brand of flower that he names the "Snow of tranquility" (which is the meaning carried by Shu's name—宁静雪).
On Valentine's Day, Wu was tricked by Leung Jik to set on fire the Valentine's carnival...
Act two: A long time has passed since the conclusion of act one. This part deals with what has happened after that fateful night at the Valentine's carnival. The relationship of Wu and Fung is explored further in this act, in which we see that Fung has been patiently waiting for Wu, despite the fact that she knows Wu will never forget Shu.
On Silent Night, Wu sees Shu from a distance on a street of Vienna, but fails to catch up with her. The next morning, news has filled the streets of Vienna that a famous violinist, Ling Jing-Shu has died, her body sinks to the bottom of a lake...
There is no known live recording or live video of Snow. Wolf.Lake being sold in the market. Only audio recording is available. Due to property right problems, the recording of Snow. Wolf.Lake does not include any singing of Sandy Lam. Instead, Carol Chan, a HK local voice talent, takes over the role of Ling Jing-Shu (宁静雪) in the audio recording. In 2006 Cheung was nominated for Best Mandarin Male Singer at the 17th Golden Melody Awards for his work on the original soundtrack album (雪狼湖創意音樂劇).[1]
Xu Shiyun participated in Snow.Wolf.Lake and was inspired to produce her own musical Rose Lake in which she is both the director and leading actress.[2]