Peking Opera

As I said earlier in this blog, we saw the Children's Cantonese Opera perform a scene from "The Legend of White Snake" while we were in Hong Kong. We also attended two performances by the Peking Opera Company in Beijing. Again in Beijing, it was just scenes because a full Chinese opera can take 3 hours per section and several evenings to perform a whole story. Still, it was both entertaining and educational to see these scenes preceded by an introduction by an emcee and a demonstration of the musical instruments.
Traditonal Chinese opera is a feast for the eyes if at times a surprise to untrained Western ears. It is characterized by brilliantly colored costumes often with elaborate embroidery, symbolic gestures and a symbolic use of props. Sometimes the actors wear costumes with very long sleeves that they hold and move in symbolic ways. There is little if any scenery onstage, and the actors describe through song and movement where they are. The actors sing with such elongated vowels that even the Chinese need a libretto. Nowadays the libretto is projected on screens above or beside the stage. Many plays include impressively choreographed fight scenes using a variety of martial arts techniques.
Photos without a flash are allowed and even encouraged both outside and during the performance. There are tables in the front of the house near the stage and regular seating farther back. The tables have food on them, and I recall that in many forms of Asian theatre the audience eats throughout the show. A waiter with a long-spouted teapot entertains the incoming spectators by juggling the pot around like a performance bartender before pouring. There are translation devices available, but I find it too distracting during the performance and give it up.

We were surprised to see the actors putting on their makeup when we entered the foyer. The makeup colors and patterns often identify the characterand have clues to their personality. Black means integrity and loyalty, red means a fiery personality, full white-face means cold hearted and mean, gold indicates immortality. Imagine a Broadway star putting on her/his face in full view of the audience! I've seen this willingness to instruct in performances of Japanese traditional theatre too however. There's a respect for history and a need to pass on the knowledge here.
On the first night we saw scenes from "Surveying the Battle Array" and "Green Snake robs the National Bank". The first was a story from the Three Kingdom Wars, I think. Two warriors are in disguise fleeing an evil general. They hold tasseled sticks out indicating that they are on horseback. They wear platform shoes, and one of them balances and slowly twirls on one foot as he looks for their enemies. We both wished that we could have seen more of this opera. We wanted to see what became of these two characters.
The second half of the bill was a humorous excerpt from my favorite tale, Legend of White Snake." White Snake has sent her faithful servant, Green Snake, to rob the bank to give money to help her create an herbal medicine shop to help the poor. Green Snake and her spirit assistants outwit two clown characters and defeat the greedy banker. They fly off with the loot to the delight of the audience.