Opera
Peking Opera, originated in the late 18th century, is a synthesis of music, dance, art and acrobatics. It is the most influential and representative of all operas in China. Let's watch first.
From what we have watched, we can see that Peking opera is characterized by its symbolic actions, giving full play to the various artistic mediums of singing, acting, recitation and acrobatics accompanied by the rhythmic beats of gongs and drums. It has thus formed a perfect artistic system of its own. The following will present some of the characteristics of Peking Opera.
Range of Content
Peking opera is mainly engaged in fairy tales of preceding dynasties, important historical events, emperors, ministers and generals, geniuses and great beauties, from the ancient times to Yao, Shun, Yu, the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States Period and the dynasties of Qin, Han, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing.
Sheng: Sheng refers to male roles which can be divided into three categories: the old, the young and the martial arts expert.
Dan: Dan refers to female roles of all ages. It also includes young women of high degree and temptresses who use martial arts skills as well as operatic techniques.
Jing: Jing refers to painted face roles always played by frank and open-minded men with brightly colored faces.
Each role has its fixed singing
and acting styles.
The costumes in Peking opera are graceful, magnificent, elegant and brilliant, most of which are made in handicraft embroidery. As the traditional Chinese pattern are adopted, the costumes are of a high aesthetic value. Let's see how the roles are dressed.
The music of Peking opera is that of the "plate and cavity style".Its melody with harmonious rhythms is graceful and pleasing to the ears. The melody may be classified into two groups: "Xipi" and "erhong", guiding pattern, original pattern, slow pattern, quick pattern, delusory pattern being their chief patterns. The performance is accompanied by a tune played on wind instruments, percussion instruments and stringed instruments, the chief musical instruments being 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, small-gong, etc.
To listen to Peking Opera, please visit: http://www.chinapage.com/beijing-opera.html
Masks: Like the acting and singing, the makeup is stylized, inspired by the masks worn by dancers in Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties operas. The makeup highlights and exaggerates the principal features of the characters. For the painted face role, the color of their made-up faces can be an indication of their characters or personality. Red indicates uprightness and loyalty; white is craftiness and cunning. Blue indicates a vigorous, courageous and enterprising nature while yellow shows an intelligent character, but a less extroverted one. Black shows a sound and honest character while brown is often the symbol of a stubborn and obstinate character.
To watch the makeup of masks, please visit: http://www.cgc21.com/multimedia/makeup.mov
Reference and webistes for more information about Peking Opera:
http://www.chinapages.com/culture/jje.htm
http://www.chinapages.com/culture/jj_home.htm
http://www.sh.com/culture/opera/peking.htmhttp://library.thinkquest.org/20443/opera.html?tqskip=1
http://web.syr.edu/~xwang02/index0.html
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/star/2001/0531/fo6-2.html
http://www.calpoly.edu/~hspiller/324Fall2001/China%20Week%203%20Day%202/sld011.htm
Created by Ling Wang
Dec,2001