Peking Opera Introduced

An art form with roughly 200 years of history, Peking opera is widely considered a Chinese national treasure. It is a synthesis of stylized action, singing, dialogue and mime, acrobatic fighting and dancing that has won hordes of passionate fans, not only in China, but among foreigners as well. Even those who do not care for Peking opera's strange movements and loud, claning sounds admit it is a thoroughly unique and fascinating form of entertainment
Peking opera was born in the 55th year (1790) of the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty , when four big Huiban opera troupes entered Beijing and began to adopt elements of the Kunqu, Yiyang, Hanju and Luantan operatic forms already popular in capital's thearetical circles at the time. During a period of more than half a century, the troupes combined and integrated stories and methods from the various popular opera styles they encountered, eventually creating an entirely new tradition. The evolutionary process resulted in a style of opera whose richness of repertoire, large casts and immense popularity have left a profound imprint on Chinese culture.

Peking opera In Peking opera actors typically play one of four main types of roles: sheng (plain 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 characters vividly manifested in the paint on their faces.

Peking opera concentrates mostly on retelling fairy tales from preceding dynasties, important historical events, the life stories of emperors, ministers and generals, geniuses and great beauties, from before the Spring and Autumn Period (770-475BC), up through the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911AD).

Chinese people describe the music of Peking opera as belonging to the "plate and cavity style" -- a combination of cymbals, gongs and string instruments that creates a love-it-or-hate-it sound many natives claim is pleasing to the ears. The chief musical instruments used to accompany performances are the 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, and small-gong.

The costumes in Peking opera are considered by the majority of people to be magnificent, elegant and brilliant. Most pieces are a combination of silk with hand embroidery of traditional Chinese patterns selected for their high aesthetic value.

Perhaps the most striking element of Peking Opera, however, is the make-up. Each character wears a painted "mask," the constrasting colors and patters of which serve to identify him and reveal his tendencies and temperament..

Since Mei Lanfang, the grand master of Peking opera, visited Japan in 1919, the art form has become increasingly popular on stages around the world, making significant contributions to cultural exchanges between China and the West.

The Peking Opera House of Beijing has been invited to perform in the United States, England, France, Germany, Italy (three times), Australia, Japan( four times), Brazil, Turkey, Singapore, South Korea and Hongkong (five times).

Costumes

Peking opera costumes are called xingtou or, more popularly, xiyi in Chinese. The origins of Peking Opera costumes can be traced back to the mid-14th century, when operatic precursor traditions first began experimenting with large, ornate articles of clothing. Over the past few hundred years, those garments evolved into a costume tradition that generally follows the following rules:

(1) Anachronisms are allowable. A performer's costume primarily designates his or her role on the stage no matter when or where the action takes place. Characters, whether they are ancients of the mythical Shang or Zhou eras or their descendants in pre-modern China, appear on the Chinese opera stage wearing costumes suitable to their roles. Lately, in the course of theatrical development, a few items of Manchu-style apparel -- for instance, the archer's dress (jianyi) and the mandarin's jacket (magua) -- have been introduced into Peking Opera costume rack.

(2) Regardless of which season is being depicted in performance, the opera costume is the same. Weather is described in every scene and must be made clear by the actor's movements, rather than his clothing. For example, the young scholar Zhang Junrui in "Romance of the Western Chamber" wears the same silk gown both on his February visit to Pujiu (Save-All) Monastery and when he takes leave of his beloved, Cui Yingying, at a farewell party in the fall.

(3) Peking Opera costumes must enable the audience to distinguish a character's sex and status at first glance. In terms of symbolism, Peking Opera costumes may be regarded as having the primary function of marking people according to social hierarchy -- noble or humble, civilian or military, official or private citizen.

(4) By means of a subtle difference, opera costumes often give expression to sharp distinctions between good and evil or, preferably, loyal and wicked characters. Wings (chizi) attached to a gauze hat indicate a loyal official if they are oblongish trapezoidal ones. In contrast, a corrupt official, is made to wear a gauze hat with rhomboidal wings.

(5) Accessories, though apparently of little or no account as compared with such principal items as crowns and robes, may nevertheless function to bring about more dramatic effects on the stage. For instance, the wings attached to a hat, the plumes (lingzi) pinned to a helmet and the cascading sleeves (shuixiu) sewn to a garment accentuate movement even if they have little practical use.

Evolution of the stage set-up

In the past, stages in most Chinese theaters were square platforms exposed to the audience on three, sometimes four, sides. In the case of a fully exposed stage, performances could be watched from the back as well as sides and front. An embroidered curtain known as a shoujiu was hung above the platform, dividing into two parts: the back stage and the stage.

In front of the curtain was placed a table on which were laid various musical instruments to be used during the performance. Musicians were seated nearby. That table, together with musicians, occupied a part of the facade of the stage and could be seen by the audience. For this reason, Peking Opera orchestras have traditionally been known as changmian, which means stage set-up.

When Peking Opera began taking shape, songs were accompanied by only two flutes, known as shuangshoudi (dual flutes). Against this simple musical backdrop, actors often complained their singing was rather strenuous and lacked flexibility. In response to these compliants, a musician named Wang Xiaoshao who was associated with the Sixi Troupe proposed using the stringed huqin as a substitute for the shuangshoudi. Wang became soon the opera's first huqin player. A period of practice allowed actors of the troupe to feel that, supported by the huqin, the singing becamce full of vigor and more harmonious. The instrument became widely popular.

Gradually, dizi were replaced by the huqin, used only occassionally when melodious and elegant qupai (tunes) were needed to accompany dress-changes or provide background for set changes.

The huqin used by Wang Xiaoshao was a soft-bowed fiddle. Another Peking opera musician named Li Si (Li the Fourth, also known as Li Chunquan) later pioneered use of the hard-bowed huqin, which was easier to manipulate and created a more suitable sound. As a result, the soft-bowed huqin soon followed the shuangshoudi into obscurity.

Peking opera requires a tremendous amount of versatility from its musicians. Drummers must be able to pace all manner of scenes, whether dominated by singing, acting or acrobatic fighting; and huqin players must able to give voice to all roles whether sheng, dan or jing.

The original Peking Opera accompaniment did not include the erhu (a two-stringed fiddle), which was not introduced until Mei Lanfang first staged his new opera, "Xishi, the Beauty" in the 1930s. Mei felt that the combined sounds of the jinghu, yueqin and xianzi were too weak and monotonous for the singing in his new opera. He had his private player, a man named Xu, fashion a new two-stringed fiddle after the erhu used in a local opera he saw in east China. When played together with the jinghu, the new fiddle produced a very sweet and mellow sound, thus winning Mei Lanfang's immediate appreciation and approval and cementing its place in opera tradition.

The newly-created jingerhu (the "jing-" comes from Beijing) was for a period known as the Mei-style erhu. Its role in Peking Opera has become ever more conspicuous and it is now an indispensable instrument at least for accompanying the singing of qingyi.