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Beijing Opera or commonly known in the west as Peking opera, is China’s national form of artistic shows. It demonstrates China’s long lived culture through creative music, diverse form of colorful costumes and graceful dance productions and martial arts.
Peking opera is a 200 years old art form that is being observed in China up to these days. It is regarded that Beijing opera was born when the Four great Anhui troups came to Beijing in 1790. The form was extremely popular during the Qing dynasty under the reign of Emperor Qianlong and Empress Dowager Cixi. Although Peking Opera is commonly known as Beijing opera, it did not start out in Beijing. The first Peking opera presentations were seen in the provinces of Anhui and Hubei. Peking opera has two main melodies the Xipi and Erhuang, which have different banshi modes. It could be the Yuanban (original mode), Manban (largo), Kuaisanyan (allegro), Sanban (lyrical and loose mode) or Yaoban (swing mode) Peking Opera has four main characters, the Sheng or the Male Role, the Dan or the Female Role, the Jing or the Painted Face and the Chou or the clown role. The female role is called Dan which means “rare” while the male role is called Sheng which means “masculine”. Peking opera stories are usually taken from historical novels and traditional stories, so this opera is a good way to learn the Chinese culture. Nowadays, modern productions of Peking opera are also in English so tourists can get a better grasp of the storyline. The music of Peking opera has harmonious rhythms and is pleasing to the ears. The dance productions are accompanied by tunes played on percussions, wind instruments and stringed instruments. The costumes worn in a Peking opera are artistically elegant, mostly made in handicraft embroidery. One of the most unique ensembles in a Peking Opera is the Face painting; it’s a solid evidence of the true artistry of Chinese people. A red face usually represents bravery or courage, the white ones represents betrayal and cleverness and green faces represents stubbornness. The different paint patterns in an actors face represent different information. |
