SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Aix-En-Provence Musicians Applaud Shen Yun’s Orchestra

Jan 14, 2025

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France—Aix-En-Provence is the first of 12 cities in France that Shen Performing Arts will be performing in this season. On Jan. 6, two outstanding musicians were sitting in the audience.

“I think the orchestration is really magnificent,” said Jean-Loup Cataldo, a composer.

The music of New York-based Shen Yun is composed by D.F., Shen Yun’s artistic director, and Shen Yun’s resident composers. Each piece of music is arranged to fit perfectly with its corresponding dance.

“Musically speaking, it’s well done, meaning it’s not overdone, it doesn’t overwhelm—it’s just right. It’s very well-balanced. It goes very well with the dance,” said Mr. Cataldo.

As someone who has worked on Broadway, Mr. Cataldo is an expert in theater music.

“I’ve worked on ballets on Broadway. I’ve done music, I’ve directed troupes, so I can say that the level is excellent here,” he said.

Shen Yun’s digital backdrop is patented. The animation allows the artists to change scenes in the blink of an eye.

“The backgrounds are really well done. The fact that the artists suddenly find themselves lost in the water or in the mountain and then reappear from underneath,” said Mr. Cataldo.

China was once known as the land of the divine. Mr. Cataldo recognized Shen Yun’s splendid efforts in portraying the divine side of China to the audience.

“The sort of infinite side of Chinese religion—the harmony with the cosmos and this distance we’re trying to obtain from the cosmos—I think it’s well captured. We have this extension towards the cosmos,” he said.

Mr. Cataldo has a good understanding of communism and he heard through Shen Yun’s songs, the evil nature of communism.

He shared that when following the text sung by the soprano, he thought of how “the communist party has annihilated all forms of Chinese culture.”

Aude Puccetti at the Shen Yun Performing Arts performance at Grand Theatre de Provence on Jan. 6, 2025. (Sheng Ming/The Epoch Times) — Aude Puccetti at the Shen Yun Performing Arts performance at Grand Theatre de Provence on Jan. 6, 2025. Sheng Ming/The Epoch Times

Aude Puccetti, a musician, was also at the Grand Theatre de Provence to see Shen Yun. She had invited her in-laws to see Shen Yun four years ago, but the outing was canceled due to the pandemic.

“So here we are for the holidays. [We] regretted not having been able to attend the show. Well, this year we did,” shared Ms. Puccetti.

She was pleased to see that Shen Yun was upholding the tradition of using live orchestras.

“I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was an orchestra. I’m a musician myself. It’s all the more touching to see that a show takes that into consideration—to have the musicians perform,” said Ms. Puccetti.

Shen Yun has eight companies touring the world simultaneously and each company includes a live orchestra. While many large opera companies still use a live orchestra, it would be difficult to find another company like Shen Yun that travels around the world for five months each year with its own orchestra.

“It touches me all the more to see a show that is not using a recording,” said Ms. Puccetti.

Shen Yun’s mission is to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, and Ms. Puccetti brought her family here to see just that.

“It’s an opportunity to go on a family outing with my in-laws and discover an aspect of Chinese culture that I’m not familiar with,” said Ms. Puccetti.

Reporting by Sheng Ming and Maria Han.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.