The Main Features of Beijing Opera - Case Study Example

1.1 Introduction During the 55th year of Emperor Qianlong’s rule, famous theatrical troupes from Anhui, a province in China made an arrival in Beijing without knowledge of their future success that would develop into one of China’s biggest cultural attractions. Among the world’s finest combinations of music, literature, martial arts, fine art and dance reside in Beijing Opera. This paper seeks to extensively discuss the main features of Beijing Opera and also explain why it is so popular to its general audience. It also extends the discussion to the special interaction between members of the audience and actors on stage during opera performances. 1.2 Origin of Chinese Theatre Chinese drama can be traced back to as far as 12BC. During this time, the Chinese entertained their gods with Sacred Play. Dances like Mu (witch dance) were performed as an offering to the gods. Emperor Ming Huang (762AD) composed music and loved the stage too so he set up the Imperial Drama College known as Li Yuan Jiao Fan. The actors were referred to as the Emperor’s Pear Garden pupils. Xi is Chinese for ‘play’ while Ju means to make sport of literally. 1.3 Beginning of Beijing Opera Tomei (2004, p.5) clearly articulates that Beijing Opera has been in existence for over 200 years and is widely regarded as the highest form of expression of Chinese culture. It is arguably northern China’s most popular form of theatrical entertainment. Beijing Opera is also referred to as Peking Opera, Jingju, Pingju, Guoju, Jinqi or Pihuang which is derived from Xipi and Er-huang. It is really interesting to watch because it actively engages both the performers and the audience. It traces its origin from the provinces of Anhui and Hubei. Four troupes from Anhui namely Sanqing, Chungtai, Sixi and Hechun brought their act to Beijing at the Qing court on invitation to perform at the Emperor’s 80th birthday celebration. Empress Dowager Cixi especially was a big fan and even built a three storey theater in the Summer Palace. This made it popular to the common folk. Nowadays, Peking Opera is performed in Beijing and in Tianjin in the north and Shanghai in the south. It has spread to other countries like United States and Japan. The dialects used in the play are Beijing but the subtitles are available in English due to the growing and diverse audience. 2.0 Main features of Beijing Opera 2.1Roles in Beijing Opera According to a publication by University Musical Society, (2008, p. 29) there are four main roles in Beijing Opera: Sheng (male role), Dan (female role), Jing (painted face male role) and Chou (clown role). All these roles including Dan (female) role were played by males until recently. This is because traditionally, women were not allowed in theatre performances. These roles were further classified by profession and age. It takes about 8 to 10 years of study to perform in Beijing Opera and many actors start at an early age. In 1966 to 1976, Beijing Opera was said to be feudalistic. It suffered along with other Chinese theatrical forms of art and was not allowed to be shown till 1978. Many of its fans are older people who were young at the time it was at its peak. Though it may have lost almost a generational fan base, it’s still trying to be revived by the Chinese Cultural institutions and the Chinese government. The students who go through this opera go on to be actors or singers. 2.2 Repertoire Beijing Opera is a like a Chinese cultural encyclopedia meaning it contains multiple items. It is inclusive of tragedies, farces, historical plays and comedies. They plays adapt many historical events and presented through the various expressions by the actors. The traditional repertoire of Beijing Opera had 1000 items with 200 of which are still performed today. Some of the repertoires still performed include Da yu sha jia (The Fisherman’s Revenge), Kong cheng ji (The Empty City Ruse), Shi zi po (At the Crossroads), Qun ying hui (Gathering of Heroes) and Nao tian gong (Havoc in Heaven). 2.3 Costumes, facial masks and makeup The Beijing opera had elaborate costumes with embroidered patterns that signified the difference in status of the characters. Beijing opera costumes draw inspiration from Ming Dynasty fashion. They also borrow from Tang, Qing, Song and Yuan dynasties and also modern times. These costumes are just as diverse as the roles. They vary from male to female and military to civil to mention but a few. Since traditional Peking opera drew it’s inspiration from events in history, it reflected life in the different dynasties and still individualized the characters from common people to empresses. Military women for instance wore armor; elderly higher status women wore ceremonial dresses with a python on them while younger women wore simple but fitting dresses. The costumes came mainly in primary colours red, blue and green. The opera was accompanied with beautiful paintings. Facial makeup and masks were used to create characters. Sun (2005, p.2) states that facial makeup was used to show characters’ role types and their personalities. Colours and patterns were used to identify the characters. Negative or treacherous characters were painted either white or yellow whereas valiant or positive characters were painted red. A character whose face was painted with lines or patterns which were asymmetrical showed a villain or a wounded person. The makeup on the characters’ faces was elaborate with a lot of exaggeration to create emphasis. 2.4 Songs and music Traditional Chinese orchestral and percussion instruments were employed. The percussion consisted drums, cymbals, gongs, castanets and bells. The drums and gongs came in different sizes and shapes. The clappers were made of bamboo or hardwood. The orchestra was mainly woodwind instruments and string instruments. The main string instrument was the Beijing fiddle (jinghu) that was accompanied by erhu (second fiddle). Stringed instruments that were plucked included the moon-shaped mandolin (yueqin), xianzi which is a three-stringed lute and pipa, a four-stringed lute. They would occasionally add a Chinese flute of a suona horn. A drummer leads the orchestra and uses bamboo sticks to create powerful sounds. At times the sounds are soft, sometimes loud, or even exciting and strong to bring out the character’s emotions. Orchestras also varied from one show to the other. There were orchestras for gentle shows known as wenchang and those for acrobatic shows known as wuchang. Wertz (2011, pp. 4) mentions that music in Beijing Opera utilizes Xipi from Anhui province and Er_huang from Hubei. Xipi tunes expressed moods like agitation, happiness or anger. Er_huang tunes expressed moods such as melancholy or being lost in thought. Peking Opera also uses tunes of much older Kunqu opera from the South and some folk arias which are popular in the North. There’s no known composer for music in Peking Opera because the tunes are based on traditional codifies sets. 2.5 Acrobatics and martial arts Acrobatic and martial art skills are employed in Beijing Opera. Most of these acrobatics are performed by the Jing role. Martial plays feature a lot of combat and usually the highlight. Peking Opera training is intense and traditionally students would be sent from home to school for training because they needed to learn how to sing, act and do acrobatics. Today, students are first taught martial arts then singing and acting. Face to face teaching is required because skills in Beijing Opera need to be perfected for performance. Students that excelled in acrobatics and acting were given the main role while those who found the course challenging were assigned roles as musicians. Martial arts displayed in the plays are also choreographed. Ideas and feelings were expressed through symbolic motions. The martial arts combine hard and soft elements with the principles of Yin and Yang. Performers are able to juggle umbrellas on their feet and also juggle straw hats. Balancing acts and bicycle stunts are also part of the acrobatics show in Beijing Opera. Battle stances and leg stretches are involved in martial skill training and the choreography is shown after the basics are learnt and well mastered. There are actors who are renowned for their martial prowess in Beijing Opera. Among the famous actors who have played Dan roles include Mei Lanfang, Shang Xiaoyun, Cheng Yanqiu and Xun Huisheng. Mei Lanfang’s dances are still commemorated and employed in performances to date. 2.6 Recitation Recitation referred to as nian in Chinese is used to narrate the story. Liu (2010, p.3) clearly mentions that poetic dialogues and monologues featured in Beijing Opera. These recitations used words, sound and rhythm to convey messages in the plays. Mastering recitation is way difficult than singing in Beijing opera. Dialect used in recitation is standardized Chinese dialect. Traditionally, archaic dialects were used because the troupes originated from different parts of China. 3.0 Interaction with the audience As mentioned before, the Beijing opera is very demanding. Not everything is laid out for the audience to watch but to comprehend; they are required to follow through. The acrobatics, songs and recitations within the opera are what make the Beijing Opera so different. The audience is wooed and swayed through the entire theatrical performance with significant levels of entertainment from the costuming to the staging plus the actors actions. The actors’ movements as they perform are symbolic and suggestive rather than realistic hence the audience needs to be very attentive. Performers use certain movements to show certain action is the play like rowing a boat, drinking or eating. Therefore, the delivery of the performance is reliant on the audience as much as the actors themselves. A great ‘hao’ meaning good is hurled by the audience when a movement is greatly executed. The distancing effect is a technique considered unique to Beijing Opera. Instead of the actors performance appealing to the audience’s subconscious it is interactive with the audience allowing them to feature consciously with the actions on stage. 3.1 Stage design Traditionally, the props in a play were a table and two chairs. This allowed the audience great room for their imagination. The traditional table and two chairs were arranged differently to convey different meanings. Objects and tools such as trays, boxes and whips are used in modern plays. These objects are used to signify abstract concepts or concrete things depending on stage positioning and actor interaction with the objects. Holding a whip with tassels for instance represents riding a horse. Imaginary props are also used but the movements of the actors are what help the audience to understand what is being demonstrated. Symbolism, exaggeration and simulation are artistic features used in Beijing Opera to keep the audience engaged. The audience could identify characters’ sex and status according to the way the dressed. This in turn helped them establish and identify the various characters as the plays unfolded. To further increase their audience, there are up to 300 performances of Peking Opera all year round. Conclusion In fact all classical Chinese theatre conforms to fundamentally similar principles of production and performance, irrespective of the literary content of the plays. The audience enjoys the skill of the performance rather than following the story plot. Beijing opera attained a supreme popularity as it transposed and adapted the essence from other regional styles. The leading actors in each troupe become the effective instruments of any possible new change so as to shape Beijing Opera through several epochs. They had a multiple tasks of combining all script writing, directing, composing, choreograph and acting into one. 4.0 References Tomei, F. (2004) Beijing Opera Presents All Facets of Chinese. Chinese Opera News [online], available: http://www.fduarts.org/images_artfields/cgd/dtp/2004FA_LinJin_news.pdf [accesed 20 May, 2014] Liu, Y. (2010) Peking Opera and Growotski’s Concept of “Poor Theatre”, Purdue University [online], available: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1578&context=clcweb [accessed 20 May 2014] University Musical Society (2008) Shen Wei Dance Arts: Second Visit to the Empress, University of Michigan [online], available: http://ums.org/assets/Shen_Wei_Study_Guide.pdf [accessed 19 May, 2014] Wertz, R. R. (2011) Beijing Opera [online], available: http://www.ibiblio.org/chineseculture/contents/entr/p-entr-c01s02.html [accessed on 19 May, 2014] Bernstein, R. (2010) Beijing Opera, a Historical Treasure in Fragile Condition [online], available: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/world/asia/30iht-bernstein.html?_r=1& [accessed 19 May, 2014] Sun, A. (2005) Peking Opera [online], available: http://www.ceibs.edu/link/latest/images/20050701/1379.pdf [accessed 20 May, 2014] Read More