culture
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hen the new edition of the classic opera Farewell My Concubine, a masterpiece made famous by China’s biggest opera star Mei Lanfang (1894 – 1961) and popularized by Chen Kaige’s film of the same name, premiered in late February, it shook opera-loving conservatives to their core. What had been an hours-long original tale of a defeated ancient general bidding a tearful and protracted farewell to his concubine before breaking through the enemy lines had been compressed to 50 minutes. Handmaidens surrounding the general dressed in elegant ancient costumes eschewed the rigid contortions of Peking Opera in favor of looser, more contemporary forms. Pipa (Chinese lute) players were arranged in the aisles to give a more “stereo” accompaniment. Fighting between soldiers supplanted stylized stage fighting with modern kung fu. A 3D screen provided vivid and lightning-quick scene changes. Finally, a live war horse was even brought on stage. While performers stuck to the (abridged) script, “the structure and form are closer to today’s audience,” according to Chen Shizheng, the opera’s New York-based director. Diehard fans of traditional opera, however, reported the opposite sensation – feeling alienated. In the western-style theatre, audience members were reluctant to cry “hao!” – “bravo!” after particularly stirring recitations. Cheering a good performance is par for the course in the often raucous atmosphere of a traditional Chinese opera house. However, for the new production of Farewell My Concubine, the auditorium remained eerily silent. “We are considering hiring some ‘applause leaders,’” said producer Wang Xiang. The company is going to great lengths to secure a global and domestic market position. Local Peking opera stars Meng Guanglu and Ding Xiaojun have been given leading roles in a cast and crew largely comprised of members from Germany, America, England and Italy. After the opera’s debut in Beijing on February 28, the company was signed for performances during Chinese Culture Week in the run-up to the London Olympics in July and August.
Gaining Access
Few modern Chinese can understand tra-
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The general and his concubine display their new color scheme
ditional opera lyrics by ear alone. The gorgeous makeup and costume, the hallmark of the genre, has remained as unchanging as the lyrics of most classical operas. While TV, movies, popular music and the Internet have continued to be the nation’s preferred forms of entertainment, Chinese opera has struggled to find a place, even with widespread promotion through its own dedicated State TV channel, and in several patriotic movies. “This project needs to be seen as brand new. Otherwise it’s not worthy of production. [The old style] has lost its vitality,” said Chen Shi-zheng in October 2010 during a roundtable with production companies and other key industry figures. In 2010, Wang Xiang proposed a list of directors to investor Yan Bin, chairman of the board of Reignwood Group, who planned to stage a Peking opera in the group’s dedicated theater in Beijing. As one of the most wellconnected advocates of Chinese opera, Wang Xiang has successfully produced “traditional” versions of classical Kunqu opera The Peony Pavilion and the more populist Peking opera compilation Mei Lanfang Classics (see: “Road to Rebirth,” NewsChina 042, January 2012). Chen Shi-zheng, who has directed a fulllength 20-hour long stage production of The Peony Pavilion as well as China’s first “rockopera” Journey to the West was the obvious person to place at the helm. “Chen has a broader international vision and esthetic. He might help this opera enter
A real horse is brought on stage
the international market,” said Wang Xiang. “He’s also more likely to be innovative, as he hasn’t worked previously with the Peking opera genre.” Both Chen and Wang were united in their desire to stage a completely new version of Farewell My Concubine. They deemed that producing a “copy of the past” was “meaningless.” In November 2010, Chen’s international team, with foreign staff largely restricted to costume design, multimedia and visual effects, started work. However, the international staff, most of whom had cut their teeth in avant-garde drama, found Peking opera difficult to access. According to Chen, NEWSCHINA I May 2012