Beijing Opera
Theater Arts - Beijing Opera
During the 18th-19th century Peking opera or more commonly known as Beijing Opera, become highly popular in the Qing Dynasty. The Beijing Opera had reached such levels that it was the height of entertainment, specific to the royal court and later was made accessible to public. Native to the Anhui and Hubei province this art later became the cultural jewel of Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. Throughout several decades its fame crossed the Great Wall of China and reached into countries like Taiwan, Japan and America.
The movements of the talented dancers are very graceful and beautiful. Dialogues, music, song, dance and combat are used to the fullest extent to illustrate a storyline which majorly revolves around Chinese age old folklore and history. Performers in the Beijing opera often wear bright colored outfits to be the center of attraction on moderately decorated stage. The type of dialogue presented and used is archaic dialect. Because of it tremendous historical value the actors work tirelessly to respect and carry on the tradition. Actors often begin training for the opera, at a very early age and it can lasts for several years, the age they began was totally depending on the permission from the parents. The student was expected to pay back to the teacher by the future performances. Daily routine consisted of early rise followed by training in acting, acrobatics, and combat. The senior students were allowed to perform during the evening theaters shows. If an unfortunate student made a mistake, then the group of students associated with them were punished with bamboo cane but methods in training became less painful during the 1900s. The opera schools were shut down during the Japanese invasion in 1931 but again reestablished in 1952. The renowned schools popular in this art are the Ma Lianliang school, the Qi Lintong school and the Cheng Yanqiu school.
In the late 1700s, the Four Anhui Troupes was responsible for the beginnings of the Beijing opera. In the early 1800s they were eventually joined by the Hubei tropes and it then came to its complete form in mid 1800s. They made some changes in the art of actually creating a mixture of various unique dance forms and music. There are four leading characters in Beijing opera. The Sheng is the male lead role with subtype Laosheng, old and wise version, Xiaosheng, the younger version and Wusheng, the warrior version. This character is gentle and sophisticated and the costumes worn by them are more subtle. The God of Wars is the Laosheng character is further categorized as Guan Gong and Zhao Kuang-yin, is the first emperor of the Song Dynasty. Xiaosheng sings in a loud and shrill voice.
In the later years, the male actors began painting their faces. Along with this new tradition, the characters began being known as Jing. Because they were often the supporting characters to the lead male role, they had to have strong, heavy voice and had to use over exaggerated expressions as they performed. Dan is the female lead and is divided into five types. Laodan was played by aged ladies, Wudan was played by middle aged women depicting married women, Daomadan were brave female warriors, Qingyi were righteous women and Huadan were young and innocent girls. The role Qingyi and Huadan together is known as Huashan.
The male clown role was known as Chou. He has a minor role but adds some humor relief during some of the more somber scenes. Chou is the character that will barely have the part of singing, if you compare them to the Kunqu opera which was its inspiration. On the whole this art form cut down on the voice and singing .Acrobatics came to its full form in Beijing opera. Therefore the actors that did not do much singing and were highly talented in acrobatics, were eagerly welcomed into the performing troupe.
Each play scene is always accompanied with music. The two different styles of music being played are Xipi, created by the Anhui tropes and Erhuang, created by the Hubei tropes. Based on this music, the earliest name of Beijing opera was Pihuang which changed according to geographical location and time. The melodies can be classified as arias, fixed and percussion. In Taiwan, it carries the name of: Guoju.
The Anhui troupe became more wide-spread in popularity after the forming Beijing opera and received invitations to perform in various kingdoms. Empress Dowager Cixi encouraged this art and became a great admirer of it. Qianlong Emperor had banned female actors, so the performing troupes consisted of only males at first. However, it was in the 1870s, that Li Maoer, a former Beijing opera performer, began a troupe of female actresses in the art, which persuaded others to take the lead and finally the ban was lifted in 1912.
Beijing opera productions today, are basically identical to those performed by troupes prior to the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949.
Before and during the Cultural Revolution, Beijing opera was used as a vehicle for providing information, teachings, and political ideology; today it is predominantly a form of entertainment, as it was in the past.
Tags: beijing, beijing opera, characters in beijing opera, opera, operas, theater arts
