To be fully appreciated kunqu required a deep knowledge of literature. Because the poetic scripts were usually performed from the beginning to the end, the plays were often very long. As stated already, kun operas employ southern melodies as well as sophisticated and complex poetry. There are, however, also clear differences between these two styles. In the process of constructing the new Peking Opera, many elements were adopted from the former “national style”, the kunqu. Peking Opera is still today the most widely studied and performed traditional form of theatre in China.
Soon Peking Opera troupes were also visiting the United States and Russia, taking this art form to within reach of western audiences and theatre reformers, such as Brecht, Stanislavsky, Craig etc. In 1919 Peking Opera was performed for the first time outside China, in Japan. It spread around the country and thus gained its status as a “national style”. In the 1860s mobile troupes of performers also started to perform Peking Opera outside the capital area. In the beginning this new style was known only in the capital, where it gained great favour in the reign of the Empress Dowager Cixi (Tz’û-hsi) (1835–1908). In the West it is known as the Peking Opera. After an evolution spanning decades the fusion process led to a new form of opera, called jingju (ching-chü) or “ theatre of the capital”. One very important person in this process was the bangzi actor Cheng Changgeng (Ch’eng Ch’ang-keng), who, in his performances, combined elements from, among others, the kunqu and the clapper opera. Over a period of time they began to adapt the technical characteristics of other local styles. The snake sprits wander on earth in human form. White Snake was originally written for kun opera but is also often performed as a Peking opera. They performed at the Emperor’s eightieth-birthday celebrations, but their performances proved so successful that the troupes stayed on, becoming increasingly popular. The opera-loving Emperor Qianlong (Ch’ien-lung) (who ruled 1736–1795) invited troupes from the province of Anhui to the capital to perform their local style, the bangzi opera or the clapper opera, which has already been discussed above. Many regional opera styles from different parts of the country gained popularity in Peking at the beginning of the new dynasty.
There, audiences preferred their own regional styles with familiar dialects, stories and melodies. It was still admired by the educated elite, but its southern dialect and complicated lyrics made it difficult to be appreciated in North China. The popularity of the sophisticated southern kunqu or kun opera was already declining.
This one is in the Summer Palace, near Beijing. The largest and technically most complex stage structures in China are usually the imperial stages.
0 kommentar(er)
