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This Yue Opera double bill brings two legendary tales to the stage on different nights. Lu Wenlong tells the story of loyalty, betrayal, and forbidden love during the Song–Jin wars, with breathtaking martial artistry and heartbreaking tragedy. The Cat Replaces the Prince unfolds as a palace intrigue of jealousy, deception, and ultimate justice, one of the most enduring classics in Chinese opera.
(A legendary warrior discovers his true parentage and turns against the Jin, torn between loyalty, love, and vengeance)

During the Southern Song dynasty, as the Song and Jin forces clash, the Jin general Wuzhu sends his adopted son Lu Wenlong to battle. Wielding his twin spears, Lu defeats four of the Song army’s top generals. Tricked into believing his father was killed by Yue Fei, Lu secretly learns his true identity as the son of the Southern Song commander Lu Deng. Torn between loyalty and blood, he eventually breaks with Wuzhu, suffers the tragic loss of his sworn sister Qiongfeng, and in grief and fury slaughters Jin soldiers before returning to the Song camp.


(A royal intrigue of betrayal and deception ends in justice as a lost prince reunites with his mother and ascends the throne.)

Consort Li of Emperor Zhenzong of Song gives birth to a prince, sparking the jealousy of Consort Liu. Liu conspires with eunuch Guo Huai to replace the infant with a skinned wildcat and orders the baby to be cast into the river. The child is secretly rescued and raised in Prince Eight’s household, while Consort Li is banished to the Cold Palace on charges of bearing a monster. Years later, after twists of fate, the truth is revealed: the prince ascends the throne, mother and son are reunited, and Consort Liu and her conspirators are brought to justice.







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