Beijing Opera

Beijing Opera, also called "Eastern Opera," is a principle tradition in Chinese culture. It is called Beijing Opera because it is formed in Beijing. Beijing Opera has a history of 200 years in which its fountainhead can be dated back to old local operas, especially Anhui Opera, which was very popular in northern China in the 18th century. In 1790, the first Anhui Opera performance was held in Beijing to celebrate the Emperor's birthday. Later, some other Anhui Opera troupes went on to perform in Beijing. Anhui Opera was easy to move and good at absorbing the acting styles of other types of operas. Beijing accumulated many local operas, which made Anhui Opera improve quickly.At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, after merging for 10 years, Beijing Opera finally formed, and became the biggest of all operas in China.Beijing Opera has a rich list of plays, artists, troupes, audiences, and wide influences, making it the foremost opera in China.Beijing Opera is a comprehensive acting art. It blends singing, reading, acting, fighting, and dancing together by using acting methods to narrate stories and depict characters. The roles in Beijing Opera include the male, female, painted-face, and comedic roles. Besides, there are other supporting roles as well. In addition, the types of facial make-up,especially concerning the color, are the most particular art in Beijing Opera, because they can symbolize the personalities, characteristics, and fates of the roles.It is widely acknowledged that the end of the 18th century was the most flourishing period in the development of Beijing Opera. During this time, there were lots of performances not only in folk places, but also in the palace. The noble class loved Beijing Opera; the superior elements in the palace played a positive role in the performances, make-up, and stage setting. The mutual influence between palace and non-government places promoted Beijing Opera's development.From the 1920's to the 1940's of last century was the second flourishing period of Beijing Opera. The symbol of this period was the emergence of lots of sects of the opera. The four most famous were "Mei" (Mei Lanfang 1884-1961), "Shang" (Shang Xiaoyun 1900-1976), "Cheng" (Cheng Yanqiu 1904-1958), and "Xun" (Xun Huisheng 1900-1968). Every sect had its groups of actors and actresses. Furthermore, they were extremely active on the stage in Beijing, Shanghai, and so on. The art of Beijing Opera was very popular at that time.Mei Lanfang was one of the most prominent Beijing Opera artists in the international world. He studied opera when he was 8, and began to perform on the stage when he was 11. In his more than 50 years ofperforming, Mei created and developed many acting phases, such as dancing, singing, make-up, and costumes, all of which helped him form his own style. In 1919, Mei led the opera troupe to Japan, which was the first time that China began to spread the art of Beijing opera overseas. In 1930, Mei Lanfang led a troupe to the United States and gained great success and significant recognition. In 1934, he was invited to visit Europe, and was given much attention by the European opera world. Later, other places in the world considered Beijing Opera as the performing sect of China.After the reform and opening-up policy, Beijing Opera had new development. Especially as the traditional quintessence of China, Beijing Opera got great support from the government. Today, the BeijingChang'an Opera House holds international competitions every year that attract many people from various countries. Beijing Opera is also the reserved program for the communication between Chinese and many foreign cultures.P eking opera of China is a national treasure with a history of 200 years. In the 55th year of the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty(1790) ,the four big Huiban opera Troupes entered the capital and combined with Kunqu opera, Yiyang opera, Hanju opera and Luantan in Beijing's thearetical circle of the time. Through a period of more than halfa century of combination and integration of various kinds of opera there evolved the present Peking opera, the biggest kind of opera in China, whose richness of repertoire, great number of artists of performance and of audiences, and profound influence are incomparable in China.Peking opera is a synthesis of stylized action, singing, dialogue and mime, acrobatic fighting and dancing to represent a story or depict different characters and their feelings of gladness, anger, sorrow, happiness, surprise, fear and sadness. In Peking opera there are four main types of roles: sheng (male) dan (young female), jing( painted face,male), and chou (clown, male or female). The characters may be loyal or treacherous, beautiful or ugly, good or bad, their images being vividly manifested. The repertoire of Peking opera is mainly engaged in fairy tales of preceding dynasties, important historical events, emperors, ministers and generals, geniuses and great beauties, from the ancient times to Yao, Shun, Yu, the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States Period and the dynasties of Qin, Han, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing.The music of Peking opera is that of the "plate and cavity style".Its melody with harmonious rhythms is graceful and pleasing to the ears. The melody may be classified into two groups: "Xipi" and "erhong", guiding pattern, original pattern, slow pattern, quick pattern, desultary pattern being their chief patterns. The performance is accompanied by a tune played on wind instruments, percussion instruments and stringedinstruments, the chief musical instruments being jinghu (a two-stringed bowed instrument with a high register), yueqin( a four-stringed plucked instrument with a full-moon-shaped sound box), Sanxian( a three-stringed plucked instrument), suona horn, flute drum, big-gong, cymbals, small-gong, etc.The costumes in Peking opera are graceful, magnificent, elegant and brilliant, most of which are made in handicraft embroidery. As the traditional Chinese pattern are adopted, the costumes are of a high aesthetic value.The types of facial make-ups in Peking opera are rich and various, depicting different characters and remarkable images, therefore they are highly appreciated. Moreover there are numerous fixed editions of facial make-up.Since Mei Lanfang, the grand master of Peking opera, visited Japan in 1919, Peking opera has become more and more popular with people all over the world, and it has made an excellent contribution to cultural exchange between China and the West, to friendly association and to improvement of solidarity.Peking Opera house of Beijing has been invited to perform in U.S.A., England, France, Germany, Italy (three times), Australia, Japan( four times), Brazil, Turkey, Singapore, South korea and Hongkong (five times). The performances have made an outstanding contribution to Sino-foreigncultural exchange and to the promotion of friendly association of peoples in the world, and were highly appreciated by foreign audiences.In 1993 Peking Opera House of Beijing as a big Peking opera troupe made a performance visit to Taiwan, pushing the cultural exchange to a new height.Peking Opera house of Beijing is willing to participate in activities of international cultural exchange and of commercial performances and sincerely hopes that friends in various countries will make contacts with us about cultural exchange and performances.Peking opera or Beijing opera(simplified Chinese: 京剧; traditional Chinese: 京劇; pinyin: Jīngjù) is a form of traditional Chinese theatre which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance, and acrobatics. It arose in the late 18th century and became fully developed and recognized by the mid-19th century.[1] The form was extremely popular in the Qing Dynasty court and has come to be regarded as one of the cultural treasures of China.[2] Major performance troupes are based in Beijing and Tianjin in the north, and Shanghai in the south.[3]The art form is also preserved in Taiwan, where it is known as Guoju (國劇; pinyin: Guójù). It has also spread to other countries such as the United States and Japan.[4] Peking opera features four main types of performers. Performing troupes often have several of each variety, as well as numerous secondary andtertiary performers. With their elaborate and colorful costumes, performers are the only focal points on Peking opera's characteristically sparse stage. They utilize the skills of speech, song, dance, and combat in movements that are symbolic and suggestive, rather than realistic. Above all else, the skill of performers is evaluated according to the beauty of their movements. Performers also adhere to a variety of stylistic conventions that help audiences navigate the plot of the production.[5] The layers of meaning within each movement must be expressed in time with music. The music of Peking opera can be divided into the Xipi (西皮) and Erhuang (二黄) styles. Melodies include arias, fixed-tune melodies, and percussion patterns.[6] The repertoire of Peking opera includes over 1,400 works, which are based on Chinese history, folklore, and, increasingly, contemporary life.[7]Peking opera was denounced as 'feudalistic' and 'bourgeois' during the Cultural Revolution, and replaced with the eight revolutionary model operas as a means of propaganda and indoctrination.[8] After the Cultural Revolution, these transformations were largely undone. In recent years, Peking opera has attempted numerous reforms in response to sagging audience numbers. These reforms, which include improving performance quality, adapting new performance elements, and performing new and original plays, have met with mixed success.。