The Chinese Opera

Earlier this month our university took us to the Chinese opera, "The Peony Pavilion" performed in Hangzhou. As you will see the costumes, makeup and stage sets are fantastic. So beautiful and exotic and truly the picture that many westerners have in their mind of what Chinese plays might look like. The story line is also very Chinese as you will find out.

The play was a love story. Du dies in her quest for the lover in her dream. A scholar, Liu, expresses his admiration for Du's beauty and her spirit is invoked. They become a couple despite the rift between the worlds of the living and the dead. But no sooner do they begin their new married life than they again have to separate. Liu is treated as a tomb raider by Du's father and is tortured and beaten. The couple reunite after Liu comes first in the national civil examination.

Kunqu (pronounced kwin chu) is one of the oldest and most refined style of traditional Chinese theatre performed today. It is a synthesis of drama, opera, ballet, poetry recital, and musical recital, which also draws on earlier forms of Chinese theatrical performances such as mime, farce, acrobatics, ballad recital, and medley, some of which go back to the third century B.C. or even earlier. To learn even more about this art form you can look it up at this website: www.wtrgreenkunqu.org



That being said we both want to express our own feelings about the Chinese opera -- Michael: The colors and costumns were incredibule and the stage sets were simple and elegant. It made me think of traditional and historical China. The acrobatic and martial art moves obviously took a lifetime to develop and I'm sure that many of the performers in Cirque de Sole came from this background. I felt honored to be able to go backstage before the performance to meet the actors and see them put on their make-up and costumns.

-- Cindy: I saw this type of opera when I was here back in 1983 with my mother. This time around I still thought the colors, costumns, sets and acrobatics were amazing but I remembered that I disliked the singing so I brought the iPod and listened to Western music. The other foreign teachers kind of scared me a little as they eyed me with desire! This last picture was a real hoot and at first, the performer was taken aback when she suddenly turned around and saw this big dude standing over her, then, she just giggled.