Langue and Parole Analysis on Aesthetic Setting of ‘The Last Emperor of Tang Dynasty’ Musical Theatre

A theatrical performance on a large-scale open stage needs a sound visual appearance in all its scenography elements such as the backdrop, costume, lighting and props. Due to its distance between the audience and stage is quite far, strong aesthetic elements with profound symbolic meaning are needed to ease the audience to understand and engage with the story. ‘The last Emperor of Tang Dynasty’ is a musical theatre performed daily in Xi’an recites the historical tragedy between Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and her favourite concubine, Yang Guifei. It is staged at Huaqing Hill, the original site of the ancient palace built in 723rd c. The backdrop includes the actual hill at the back of the stage, a large screen in the middle that displays different montage for different scenes. In front of the stage that acts as the middle stage shows the depth and scale of the castle, whereby the pool in front is also used as a ‘wet’ stage. The wet stage represents the bathing ground for the concubine and sometimes used as water curtain during scene change replacing curtains. In this study, the researcher will analyse the aesthetic elements displayed throughout the show that contain semiotic meanings of langue and parole in its design elements like colours and form. As the theatre performance has limited time to present the details of each character or events, it is vital to represent emotions or scene using impactful visuals to assist audience’s understanding about the story or characters. Thus, this study is made to analyse on how these elements works as the langue and parole to emphasize the two. The combination of langue and parole derived from other cultures had enhanced the storyline and enhanced the audience understanding towards the whole performance. The deviation of meaning from the original context in Chinese culture to universal parole of visual language evident the acceptance of Chinese culture to other visual langue and parole which had elevated the musical theatre to a higher level.