Traditional Chinese opera, or Xiqu, is a form of musical theatre in China with roots going back to the early periods in China. It is an amalgamation of various art forms that existed in ancient China, and evolved gradually over more than a thousand years, reaching its mature form in the 13th century, during the Song dynasty (960–1279). Early forms of Chinese theater are simple, but over time various art forms such as music, song and dance, martial arts, acrobatics, costume and make-up art, as well as literary art forms were incorporated to form traditional Chinese opera. Performers had to practice for many years to gain an understanding of the roles. Exaggerated features and colors made it easier for the audience to identify the roles portrayed.
The Shanghai Grand Theater is a complex located at the intersection of Central Boulevard and Huangpi Road South in the northern part of the People's Square in the Huangpu District of Shanghai. The building houses the Shanghai Opera House and other performing companies.
Shengqiang is a concept in Chinese opera which helps to categorize its hundreds of regional genres by the music played during arias. Classifying by the music, as opposed to the regional dialect, also helps to understand a genre's evolutionary history. For example, Peking opera and Cantonese opera have little in common as far as language or place of origin, but they belong to the same shengqiang system. Today, the four major shengqiang are Bangziqiang, Pihuangqiang, Kunqiang and Gaoqiang. Not all Chinese opera genres fall into one of these four shengqiang systems, and many genres can be classified into more than one system. Other shengqiang in history include Yuyaoqiang and Haiyanqiang.
Theatre of China has a long and complex history. Traditional Chinese theatre, generally in the form of Chinese opera, is musical in nature. Chinese theatre can trace its origin back a few millennia to ancient China, but the Chinese opera started to develop in the 12th century. Western forms like the spoken drama, western-style opera, and ballet did not arrive in China until the 20th century.
The National Theater and National Concert Hall are twin performing arts venues at Liberty Square in Zhongzheng District, Taipei, Taiwan. Completed in 1987, the landmarks stand on the south and north sides of the square with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall to the east. Together the venues are referred to by the abbreviation NTCH. The square itself sits near Ketagalan Boulevard, site of the Presidential Office Building, the National Central Library, the National Taiwan Museum, and the 228 Peace Memorial Park.
Beijing People's Art Theatre (北京人民艺术剧院/北京人民藝術劇院) is a theatre company that was founded in June 1952 by drama master Cao Yu. Since its founding, the company has produced nearly 300 dramas of different styles, from classic Chinese themes to adaptations of Molière. The company is based in the Capital Theatre in Beijing.
Madame White Snake is an opera with music by Zhou Long and libretto by Cerise Lim Jacobs, published by Oxford University Press. Awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Music, it was premiered on Feb. 26, 2010, by Opera Boston at the Cutler Majestic Theatre. It is based on the Legend of the White Snake and was created by Jacobs as a gift to her now late husband. The Pulitzer Committee described the opera as, "a deeply expressive opera that draws on a Chinese folk tale to blend the musical traditions of the East and the West." Zhou stated, "I have been working very hard to blend the East and the West for years." The opera was performed, in English, in Beijing in October 2010. In China Zhou's 2010 English-language opera shares the same title as the traditional Beijing opera version, Legend of the White Snake, Báishézhuàn, but is distinguished by the term "geju" rather than "jingju".
Mei Baojiu was a contemporary Peking opera artist, also a performer of the Dan role type in Peking Opera and Kunqu opera, the leader of Mei Lanfang Peking Opera troupe in Beijing Peking Opera Theatre. Mei's father Mei Lanfang was one of the most famous Peking opera performers. Mei Baojiu was the ninth and youngest child of Mei Lanfang. For this reason, he was called Baojiu, since in Chinese, jiu means nine. Mei Baojiu was the master of the second generation of Méi School descendant, he was also Mei Lanfang's only child who is now a performer of the Dan role of the Peking Opera.
Chinese contemporary classical opera is a musical art form drawing on western opera traditions - distinct from modern developments of traditional Chinese opera.
The China National Opera House (CNOH) or China Central Opera (中央歌剧院) is a State-run opera company based in Beijing, China, and under the Chinese Ministry of Culture. CNOH consists of an opera troupe, a choir, a symphony orchestra and a stagecraft, costume and scenery departments. It is affiliated, through common direction under the Ministry of Culture, with the Shanghai Opera House company and other geju companies around China.
The Shanghai Yue Opera Group is a theatre in Shanghai, China, founded in 1950 and dedicated to Yue opera.
Shanghai Opera House is the official government-funded western-style opera company of Shanghai, China, and the resident opera company at the new Shanghai Grand Theatre. Although the term "Opera House" is often applied to the building, both in English and Chinese texts, officially the building is not an opera house and the term "Shanghai Opera House" properly applies only to the performing company, not the building, as is also true for its senior sister company, the China National Opera House (CNOH) in Beijing. The reason for the distinction is found in that the Chinese character Yuan (院) applies primarily to a school or institute or dramatic troupe rather than the building in which a school, institute or dramatic company resides.
Li Shuzhen, better known by her stage name Li Yuru and also known as Li Xueying, was a Chinese opera singer and actress. Descended from Manchu nobility, she is remembered as "one of the great Beijing Opera performers" and played an important role in the acceptance of female singers in female roles (dan). Amid the Cultural Revolution, she was imprisoned from 1966 until the early 1970s. In 1979, she married Cao Yu, one of the most important 20th-century Chinese dramatists, and, following China's opening up under Deng Xiaoping, she ended her life respected as one of the few surviving masters of the dan roles.
Xiju, also known as Wuxi opera, is a genre of opera which originated in the southern region of the Yangtze River Delta in China. It evolved from "Tanhuang" (滩簧), a folk opera art in the region of Wuxi and Changzhou of Jiangsu province. As one of the main local operas in Jiangsu Province, Wuxi opera has been reputed as "a piece of plum flower in Taihu Lake", a title given to the three major operas in East China, alongside Yue opera and Huangmei opera.
Shi Yihong, known as Shi Min before 2002, is a Chinese Peking opera singer-actress who plays Dan roles. A Plum Blossom Prize winner, Shi Yihong is considered a Peking opera superstar who not only excels in both vocal and acrobatic roles, but is always experimenting and expanding her repertoire despite resistance from conservative elements. Shi Yihong is a member of the Shanghai Jingju Theatre Company, but she also established her own production company in 2016.
Sun Yumin, born Yang Yuemin, is a Chinese Peking opera artist who specializes in dan (female) roles. She is a disciple of Xun Huisheng. Born in Shanghai, Sun Yumin first rose to stardom in Beijing in the early 1960s.
Liu Housheng was a Chinese theatre director, critic, scholar, and playwright. As Vice President of the China Theatre Association, he co-founded the Plum Blossom Award in 1983. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the China Theater Awards in 2009.
Fu Lian Cheng, initially known as Xi Lian Cheng, was a Peking Opera school established in 1904 in Beijing, the capital of the Qing dynasty. It closed in 1948, during the Chinese Civil War. It was the Peking opera school with the longest history, the largest scale, and the greatest number of graduates.
The Jingju Theater Company of Beijing, formerly known as the Peking Opera Theater Company of Beijing, also known as the Beijing Peking Opera Company, is a theater company based in Beijing, and the largest jingju performing group in China. Its main venue is the Chang'an Grand Theater, and productions are often aired nationally on CCTV-11. Unestablished performers also hone their skills in smaller theaters.
Wang Yaoqing was a Chinese actor and singer noted for playing the role of a virtuous adult woman, or qingyi, the most important role in Peking opera. He was from Qingjiangpu District, Huai'an in eastern Jiangsu Province.
