Edmonton's Jubilee Auditorium welcomed the Spectacular on Monday night and honored the performers with a standing ovation.

Iola Bots and Ruth Linecker attended the show together. Bots, who formerly worked in the retail industry, thought it was "absolutely incredible."

"Fabulous, it was absolutely wonderful. The colors were vibrant and it was beautiful, so well done," said Bots.

"Beautiful people, too," said Linecker, a piano teacher.

"We just came back from China two weeks ago so we wanted to come experience this here, and it was very, very good," said Bots.

Regarding her favourite parts of the show, Bots said, "I think the costumes and the singers, the tenor/singer. I liked the songs."

Tenor Hong Ming sang 'Rest in Knowing', accompanied by a pianist who Bots thought was "wonderful."

"The accompanist was wonderful. She was just wonderful, lovely. Enjoyed it. I heard more of the western instruments I thought, but they were wonderful. I enjoyed every minute of it."

The Divine Performing Arts orchestra is the only one in the world to blend Eastern and Western instruments.

"I thought it was very professional. I like the themes of some of the stuff they brought forward, the social justice themes and stuff like that," Bots said.

The New York-based Divine Performing Arts is winding up the Canadian leg of its international with three shows Edmonton from May 5-7.

In its 2008 tour, the Divine Performing Arts staged 220 shows in over 14 countries on four continents, reaching a total live audience of about 650,000.

For information about upcoming Divine Performing Arts shows, please visit:
www.BestChineseShows.com.