Peking opera | An introduction (Hello China #13)
Peking opera, also known as Beijing opera, is a complicated Chinese stage art which combines performances, acrobatics, music, arias, gongs, drums, facial paintings and many other features.
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The video is part of our “Hello China” series, a selection of 100 Chinese words that represent the essence of traditional Chinese culture, reflect its extensive and profound nature from different angles, and help people overseas better understand China and Chinese culture.
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One day at the Beijing opera Zheng Yici (正乙祠戏楼)
Beijing in 1996. The city is starting to transform. The people also. To illustrate these transformations, we are in a 400 years old tea-house that is eventually going to be demolished. The staff tries to keep the house and the jobs to maintain the tradition of the Beijing Opera. At 8am, the workers start cleaning the building, at 2pm the musicians and the actors start preparing the performance, but at 8pm no one knows if the audience will come.
CHINA: PEKING OPERA COMPANY MAKES A COMEBACK
Mandarin/Nat
Despite being considered the most complete form of art in China, the Peking Opera was once on the verge of disappearing.
But thanks to the generosity of a Beijing businessman and a new government initiative to promote the company, the opera is making a comeback.
The Peking Opera combines many forms of art into one grand performance.
The players must combine skills in singing, dancing, martial arts, makeup and costuming to bring the show to life.
Developed with a national style only 200 years ago, the opera was threatened with extinction following the Cultural Revolution in the 60s and 70s.
But steps to return the opera to its past glory started with a local businessman's interest in the building in which it is performed - the Zheng Yi Ci Theatre.
The theatre was originally built as a temple under the Ming Dynasty 300 years ago but has housed the opera since the early 18th century.
Waning interest during Mao's era led the theatre to deteriorate until Wang Yu Ming, manager of a private firm in Beijing, invested five (m) million yuen (600-thousand U-S dollars) to have it renovated.
SOUNDBITE: (Mandarin)
The beginning of Chinese ancient theatres was at approximately the same age of those of Shakespeare. As far as I know, a rebuilding project of a Shakespeare theatre is underway in London. Today, one of China's oldest theatres has already been built ahead of them. This proves that we Chinese have very good wishes and confidence in restoring our traditional art and cultural forms.
SUPER CAPTION: Wang Yu Ming, Director, Zheng Yi Ci Theatre
Beside the interest Mr Wang expressed by rebuilding the theatre, there has been a renewed enthusiasm for the performances.
In the city of Tianjin, where the streets have been decorated with huge masks of opera characters, the first Peking Opera Festival opened on Friday for a week-long run.
Opera officials have been encouraged by the public's response.
SOUNDBITE: (Mandarin)
The opening ceremony of the festival last night received an outstanding response in the city of Tianjin and through broadcasters. It was also warmly received throughout the country.
SUPER CAPTION: Ma Shao Bo, Vice Director, Peking Opera Foundation
These officials watch the public's response with a concerned eye as the government has spent more than 20 (m) million yuen (over 2.5 (m) million U-S dollars) over the last five years to support the opera.
This comes after many years of neglect when the government was more concerned with keeping other cultures out of China than nurturing its own.
Most of the Peking Opera's stories are inspired by classic Chinese stories.
There is no written script and most of the singing and dancing is taught by a master to his students.
Performing tonight is the Soldier's Peking Opera Troupe from the Beijing military area.
Actors believe changes coupled with tradition will help to keep the art form popular.
SOUNDBITE: (Mandarin)
Because it is our national traditional art with a long history and a lot of excellent dramas, as long as actors and actresses do their best to perform operas of good quality I believe more and more people will come back to the theatre.
SUPER CAPTION: Lin Jinquan, actor, Soldier's Peking Opera Troupe
The audience is diverse, drawing from factory workers, military, old patrons, young couples and even a few curious foreigners.
They were treated to a performance those in the cast hope will keep them coming back for years to come.
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Mei Lanfang Classics Beijing Opera 正乙祠古戏楼版京剧梅兰芳华 2.
The Mei Lanfang Classics Beijing Opera performance holds every weekend at 8:00pm, Zheng-yi Ci Beijing Opera House.
１） 。《梅兰芳华》是于北京600年老戏院 正乙祠演出的梅兰芳折子戏精粹
Beijing Opera at a traditional Chinese Tea House in Beijing, China
This is Beijing Opera. Both performers are men.
중극 티안진 경극단 시카고 공연 Tianjin Peking Opera Company
A Night at the Peking Opera - University of Chicago Performance highlight
Beijing Opera - Columbus Ethnic Expo
New Chinese Opera:Cooking A Dream【新国剧】《黄粱一梦》
It takes a minute to recite a fair Tang poem,
An hour to cook a pot to tasty millet,
A century to experience a mixed life,
And a millennium to conceive a Chinese philosophy
Performance Experience
7-31 July 2011, Le Festival d'Avignon
9-11 September 2011, National Center for the Performing Arts
23 November to 4 December 2011, the Zheng Yi Ci Temple Theatre
11-12 May 2012 Wu Mei Theatre in Tai Bei
20-21 Feb 2013 Huayi Chinese Festival of Singapore
黄盈工作室
Full Show Lane Studio
制作统筹
Producer
安莹 Ann
Mobil:+8613001181609
mail: layman0183@sina.com
add:中国 北京市 东城区 安德里北街 湖景苑 1-902（100011）
1-902 Hu Jing Yuan Xiao Qu, An De Li Bei Jie Street, Dong Cheng, Beijing, China(100011)
Summery
Cooking a Dream, originated from a legendary novel of the Tang Dynasty, A Story of a Dream, has a history of over 1,200 years.
Lu, a scholar who lived by farming, came across in a hostel an old Taoist priest, Lv. While they were waiting for the innkeeper to cook millet, Lv gave the young man a magical pillow, on which the latter fell asleep immediately. In his dream, he experienced a whole life, whereas woke up only to find that the millet was not cooked yet.
The idiom of a pipe dream has now become wildly known around China, but the story still remained unfamiliar to most people. It will be the very first time for this drama version to be shown in the Chinese theatre.
The simplest story and the straightest manner; the most oriental thought and the most Chinese technique—Cooking a Dream proves to be a bold attempt at internationalizing Chinese theatre. Not long before, it debuted at Le Festival d'Avignon and ran for 24 performances, well received by audiences and deemed as the most Chinese play of the festival.
Playwrights & Director: Huang Ying
As the most pioneering youth playwright and director in Asia, Huang Ying not only owns a broad international vision, but also a solid foundation in Chinese traditional art. His theatre style varies greatly: from the Shakespearean Series to the Beijing Trilogy; from physical theatre to Broadway-style musicals; from environmental theatre to unplugged open-air performances; from the adoption of elements from Chinese opera to the introduction of mask in ancient Greek drama...Each of Huang's works presents a review of and revolution against the previous one, thus he has earned a reputation of one play, one pattern in the Chinese theatrical circles.
Mei Lanfang Classics Beijing Opera 正乙祠古戏楼版京剧梅兰芳华 1.
The Mei Lanfang Classics Beijing Opera performance holds every weekend at 8:00pm, Zheng-yi Ci Beijing Opera House.
１） 。《梅兰芳华》是于北京600年老戏院 正乙祠演出的梅兰芳折子戏精粹。
Peking opera
The actors putting on their makeup
Beijing Opera by Wang Jia 王洁at Eastwood Chinese Seniors Club
王洁老師在依士活高齡會表演 [貴妃醉酒]
The Chinese Opera (Part Three)
Beijing Opera Workshop #1
Ghaffar Pouzar and assistant Malan teach the fundamentals of Beijing Opera
Preparations for appearance. Beijing opera.
Jul 29th. 2009. Liyuan theatre. Qianmen Jianguo Hotel.Beijing.
Mou Yuandi
Co-presented with the Confucius Institute at UCLA
4/1/2014 --- Through song, speech, stylized movement, makeup, and costume, the nandan artists of the Chinese opera have transformed themselves into maidens, dowagers, prostitutes, and women warriors. Shanghai artist Mou Yuandi, one of the last nandan in China, speaks of his life as a female impersonator and demonstrates his art of transformation.
Lucy Zhao Pipa Lady Zhaojun Goes beyond the Frontier
Pipa (琵琶) : chinese classic music Instrument
Lady Zhaojun Goes beyond the Frontier (昭君出塞): a chinese traditional piece
Solo concert by Lucy Zhao (赵路曦) in Zhengyici Peking Opera Theatre on June 23, 2015