Beijing Opera House

With a history of 200 years, the Beijing Opera has been elevated to the status of "national treasure" in China. In the 55th year of Qing Dynasty Qianlong's reign (1790), four Anhui operas (the Huiban) came to Beijing to perform, and eventually combined their repertoire with those of several operas of the city (operas of Kunqu, Yiyang, Hanju and Luantan).

It took more than half a century for this association of several opera styles to take shape, and to give birth to what is now called the Peking Opera, which has become the most important of all Chinese operas, both by the richness of its repertory, the number of its artists and the extent of its audience. All of these elements explain his major influence throughout China and his fundamental role in Chinese culture.
Peking opera is both a stylized game, songs, dialogues, mime, acrobatic fights and dances, all of which combine to represent a story, or depict different characters and their feelings - joy , anger, pain, happiness, surprise, fear or sadness. The characters, loyal or traitors, beautiful or ugly, good or bad, are distinguished by their very expressive faces.

The repertory of the Beijing Opera consists mainly of tales dating from the imperial period and in historical narratives. They depict emperors, ministers and generals, geniuses and women of great beauty, covering periods as diverse as the ancient times of Yao, Shun and Yu the Great, the Spring and Autumn Periods, Kingdoms, as well as the Qin, Han, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Some pieces of the repertoire are also adapted from literary works (especially classical novels). Although they are less reliable from a historical point of view, they are just as much appreciated by the public. Here are some of the historical pieces in the repertory of the Peking Opera: The Zhao Family Orphan, trap of the empty city, The legend of the white snake, The concubine drunk,

The music of the Peking Opera is characterized by its rhythmic vocal system (banqiangti 板 腔 体), with harmonious melodic lines, pleasing to the ear. There are two distinct styles: the "xipi" and the "erhuang", resulting in a variety of variants: ruling mode and original mode, slow mode and fast mode, disjointed mode ... The tunes are played by wind instruments , percussions and string instruments, the main ones being jinghu (京胡, two-string violin playing in an acute register), yueqin (月琴, a four-stringed instrument with a rounded moon-shaped body), the sanxian (三弦, three-stringed guitar), suona (唢呐, a kind of trumpet), flat drums, gongs (small and big) and cymbals.

The costumes of the Peking Opera are splendid, both elegant and sparkling. Most are embellished with handcrafted embroidery, representing motifs inspired by traditional Chinese culture, which further enhances their aesthetic value.

There are a wide variety of styles of facial makeup in Beijing Opera. Very appreciated, they allow to represent different characters and emotions.

Since Mei Lanfang, one of the most famous artists of the Beijing Opera, visited Japan in 1919, the fame of this art has grown throughout the world, and he has could contribute to the development of cultural exchanges between China and the West, fostering the development of friendship and solidarity between peoples.

The scene : In most Chinese theaters, the scenes consisted of square platforms, open to the public on three sides (sometimes even on the four sides, which made it possible to watch the show from behind). An embroidered curtain, the shoujiu, was often suspended so as to divide the platform into two parts: the stage properly so called, and the backstage.

The actors : Actor and musician were formerly professions located at the bottom of the social scale. The actress profession of the Beijing opera being forbidden to women, all the roles were played by men.