Videos of the trunk sealing performance, aired yesterday, appeared online surprisingly fast.

Downloads:
CNTV: [1] | [2]
ed2k: [COPY]

(1)《戏迷家庭六》Sixth edition of the Family of Theater Fans show.

Year of the Dragon is close, so the theme was Long Feng Cheng Xiang (The Auspicious Dragon and Phoenix). Last year Wang Yan was playing the flute in bunny mask, this year we could enjoy Zhu Qiang as Empress Dowager.

An interesting part is at 11:28, Zhu Shihui (朱世慧), famous chou is singing Qi school excerpt, I liked that. At 15:12, Xu Mengke is doing the same – well, obviously Zhu Shihui has much more stage experience.

Zhu Shihui excels, but the Dowager falls asleep

Wusheng Chang Dong’s (常东) scene starting at 19:25 was entertaining. After the strict security check, he’s informing the Dowager about the happenings by performing some spectacular spear action.

An Ping and Li Hong’s Chisangzhen in reversed setup was interesting, however, I’m happy both of them stick to their original profession. By the way, if it weren’t written there, I would have never figured out it’s Li Hong under the Bao make-up.

Snatching the wig of an elderly lady isn’t a good idea whatsoever

After Song Xiaochuan and Bao Fei’s Tale of the White Snake excerpt Shi Yihong was singing Shaoxing opera Prince of the Desert – she surely won’t be a rival for Wang Junan or Zhao Zhigang, but wasn’t bad at all.

This show always has a “guest star”, last year Ye Shaolan was invited, this year Zhang Xuejin came surrounded by disciples. Their little “orchestra” was really cute, Zhang Xuejin and Song Haoyu were playing qin, Mu Yu debuted as drummer, Gao Tong and Zhao Hua as gong and cymbal players. They accompanied Mei school qingyis Zhang Xinyue and Wang Yi, who performed a Ma school laosheng excerpt: I liked them both! (Starts around 44:35.)

Zhang Xuejin is still handsome. Mu Yu gained weight (again).

Scene of the “five laosheng Sun Shangxiang” was a real surprise.
I thought that Fu Xiru, who has a comparatively high pitched voice, will excel, but actually he was the weakest link with his shot at Cheng school singing.
Du Zhe wasn’t feminine in his movement, but his singing was very nice, stylish.
I liked Yang Shaopeng too! Without costume, there’s nothing in that boy that even shallowly resembles a girl, yet he was a pretty Shangxiang with a really good voice.

My favorite of the five was undoubtedly Ling Ke! Delicate, beautiful, subtle.

Tianjin’s young laosheng Ling Ke - pretty!

After one hour, Shang Changrong made his appearance with giant calligraphy brush. After painting a scroll he performed an excerpt from one of his childhood favorites, Liu Baoquan’s (刘宝全) jingyun dagu Da Xixiang (大西厢).
As a special highlight, Ouyang Zhongshi appeared on the screen and painted a traditional “dragon” character live.

龍

After some happy audience singing, the show ends.

(2) 京剧《大白水滩》Big White Water Beach

Next program was the long edition of jingju White Water Beach, with lots of martial action and handsome wusheng boys. Everything goes in order until 58:30 (second video)…. I don’t want to spoil the fun, so I just tell you if you’re fond of Latino rhythms, you surely will like the next two minutes.

Supersexy Feng Yun seduces the attractive executioner…

Today’s Theater in the Air will be extra fine, and starts in 10 minutes. You can watch it on CBox if you wish, but I surely will upload it later.

Mei Lanfang Grand Theater, Beijing
2011/11/26

京剧《扈家庄》 冯蕴、徐孟珂 - Hu Jia Zhuang (Manor of the Hu Family) (Feng Yun, Xu Mengke)
京剧《樊江关》 常秋月、丁晓君 – Fanjiang Guan (Fanjiang Pass) (Chang Qiuyue, Ding Xiaojun)
京剧《游龙戏凤》 董圆圆、朱强 – You Long Xi Feng (Emperor Zhengde Meets Li Feng) (Dong Yuanyuan, Zhu Qiang)

You can watch an audience recording of the full You Long Xi Feng here, it was highly entertaining! I was laughing my pants off at these two. Very lovely, cute play. I promise I’ll write a detailed summary to this one.

Photos: [MLF20111126_youlongxifeng.rar] | [MLF20111126_hujiazhuang.rar]

“Lookie, I’m the Emperor in disguise!”   “Wheee…”

Feng Yun – Check the photo set. Beautiful.

Feng Yun really likes pumps.

Xu Mengke has a few faces. He appears as a little clownish-looking figure here, three days later he plays Mei Xiang in The Unicorn Purse…

Bertrand found this article lately about the upcoming changes in the names of CNPOC and Peking Opera Theater of Beijing. Though even many Chinese aren’t fascinated by the idea, the change seems to be unavoidable, so I went through all my posts and corrected the names in advance. It was so boring that I decided to post a little fun stuff today.

On New Year’s Eve, jingju performers entertain the audience with unusual (and often funny) performances. I edited my favorite ones from the 4th Theater Enthusiasts Show (2010) into this clip, not a terrific quality but I hope you’ll like it.

→《京剧戏迷家庭四》Family of Jingju Fans (4)  [DOWNLOAD] 140MB

The hosts, as always, are Bao Fei and Song Xiaochuan, in fancy outfits. I found a picture of them somewhere, wearing the same garments:

Qiu Yun, who usually performs in hualian roles, sings huadan role in an excerpt from modern opera The Red Lantern.

Tan Zhengyan and Fang Xu, who’ll never grow up I’m afraid, came with a parody sketch again. Apparently Fang Xu invented a magical braid that enables Tan Zhengyan to sing laodan role from Silang Visits His Mother – of course the vocal abilities have nothing to do with the braid, Fang Xu is singing under the table.

Xu Mengke is the living proof that the old saying is true: No chou, no play. First he’s singing the xiaosheng role of Yang Zongbao, but at 06:58 he gets a pen, and switches to laosheng role. At 08:10 Zhu Qiang is hanging a beard on Xu Mengke’s face, who immediately starts to sing in Zhou Xinfang style. At 08:37 a red beard arrives… and do you still remember “You and Me” and Jingjing?

Yuan Huiqin sings the simple and very popular song 《潇洒走一回》 - definitely not Beijing Opera. Look at Song Xiaochuan’s “Hips Don’t Lie” move at 10:46, priceless…

The next one is the oddest performance I’ve ever seen: Wang Rongrong in strange gown, accompanied by his husband, Du Peng on violin and by another musician on… accordion.

Would you guess that female laosheng Wang Peiyu is under the mask of Gao Deng? Funny highlight at 18:08 before she’s galloping away. I love this girl!

Finally the MCs show their talent in Cheng, Shang and Xun school dan roles. These two seem to be on good terms in real life too.

I hope you had fun and forgot about the boring weekdays for a couple of minutes.