Charlotte and I were both enthralled with the Peking Opera and spent the extra bucks for closer seats the next night.
We sat at a table where waiters fip a long spouted teapot around like a perfrmance bartender and had snacks to nibble on throughout the performance. To our right was a table of women from the Yucatan, and we shared our table with a lovely couple from Japan and a pair of schoolteachers who it turned out live right across the border from us in Hamilton, Ontario! You never know who you'll meet in Beijing! Last night, Charlotte bumped into Maxie from her class who was traveling with her mother as well!
The musicians are offstage during the performance, but they demonstrated their instruments beforehand.
We saw a heart-rending scene from "The Emperor bids farewell to his concubine" (remember the movie?) Charlotte cried - So did the guy playing the king. The Mexican ladies sitting to our right laughed at first because the singing sounded so peculiar to them. One of them was translating the English subtitles into Spanish for the others. During the Concubine's dance to entertain the king, I saw her slap one hand into the other, palms up and stamp one foot. This meant she had come to a major decision. She danced with swords - a none to subtle foreshadowing of her eventual suicide.
The uproariously funny "Monkey King wreaks havoc on the dragon palace". The Monkey King brought the house down. A few years ago, I directed a play that included this story. This was better! The Dragon King thinks he has outwitted the Monkey, but the Monkey King is just biding his time before stealing an unbeatable weapon.
Everybody loves the Monkey King. The actors bowed at the end by putting their left fist or fingertips into their right palms depending on the personality of their character.
The musicians are offstage during the performance, but they demonstrated their instruments beforehand.
We saw a heart-rending scene from "The Emperor bids farewell to his concubine" (remember the movie?) Charlotte cried - So did the guy playing the king. The Mexican ladies sitting to our right laughed at first because the singing sounded so peculiar to them. One of them was translating the English subtitles into Spanish for the others. During the Concubine's dance to entertain the king, I saw her slap one hand into the other, palms up and stamp one foot. This meant she had come to a major decision. She danced with swords - a none to subtle foreshadowing of her eventual suicide.
The uproariously funny "Monkey King wreaks havoc on the dragon palace". The Monkey King brought the house down. A few years ago, I directed a play that included this story. This was better! The Dragon King thinks he has outwitted the Monkey, but the Monkey King is just biding his time before stealing an unbeatable weapon.
Everybody loves the Monkey King. The actors bowed at the end by putting their left fist or fingertips into their right palms depending on the personality of their character.
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