The Guangzhou Culture Week is set to be launched in October jointly by the Hong Kong Leisure and Cultural Services Department and the Guangzhou bureau of culture, radio, television and tourism.

As one of the event's highlights, the new historical Cantonese Opera Princess Wencheng is scheduled to be staged by Guangzhou Cantonese Opera Theater, based in Guangzhou's Tianhe district, at the Sha Tin Town Hall in Hong Kong on Oct 22 and 23.

A stage photo of the Cantonese Opera Princess Wencheng. [Photo/Yangcheng Evening News]

The opera tells the story of Tang Dynasty (618-907) Princess Wencheng, who traveled from Chang'an (today's city of Xi'an, Shaanxi province) to marry Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo, highlighting the connection between the Han and the Tibetan ethnic groups.

The opera cast includes Ou Kaiming (as Songtsen Gambo) and Li Jiayi (as Princess Wencheng), both winners of the highest theater award in the China Plum Blossom Prize.

The opera, which debuted in 2022, has won the second prize in opera at the 15th Guangdong Arts Festival and the Guangdong Lu Xun Literature and Art Award.

Additionally, a program of the fourth Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Culture and Arts Festival in October, the opera is set to be a vivid manifestation of the cultural integration and exchanges among the Greater Bay Area. This is expected to further promote the construction of a cultural Bay Area and inject new vitality into cultural exchanges and cooperation in the Greater Bay Area.