My “short prayer” was answered, no, not by some supernatural being but Lu Wen again. Besides the awesome pictures, she made a ca.8 min long video of Sitting in the Palace, that contains the most interesting part.

Video quality is superb, 1920×1080.
The audience is a bit noisy, yelling most loudly during Wang Ping’s gadiao (that ending “screamy” sound in “jiao xiao fan”), and someone is shouting “Woo-hoo!” afterwards, but it doesn’t really bother me.

Cheng school fans will like this video too, since it’s featuring Tianjin’s young promise, Lü Yang.

→ 京剧《四郎探母·坐宫》Silang Tan Mu·Zuo Gong (Silang Visits His Mother- Sitting in the Palace)
 [DOWNLOAD] 188MB
Performed by Lü Yang (吕洋), Wang Ping (王平).
Shanghai, 2012-05-05

Another goodie is a 4-5 minutes long recording from the same source, Lu Wen’s tudou videos. Xiong Mingxia and Jin Xiquan held a lecture in the Shanghai Library (ref) on the 29th last month, and they performed a short part from Jin Yunu, the scene when Yunu finds the hungry scholar in the snow.

→ 《戏演人生鉴古今》@tudou.com [HERE] 110MB
Jin Yunu snippet by Xiong Mingxia (熊明霞) and Jin Xiquan (金喜全).
Shanghai, 2012-04-29

Picture of the happy Jin family from here.

And, aaand CCTV11 will air a concert on the 23rd (this Wednesday), reliable source (himself) confirmes that Jin Xiquan also participated in this production, with the boating scene from Tale of the White Snake.
Do you remember I was whining I don’t have a nice copy of that? I’m afraid after this many good news something bad will happen to me…

Can you believe that I’ve never seen a Jin-Xiong edition Jin Yunu? I have numerous pictures from several performances, but I’ve never seen a video.
The douzhi bowl part is one of my favorite opera scenes, so funny! I can’t get bored of those face expressions.

The photos below were made on the 13th in Yifu Theater by music_photo and 退休人好快活. Beware, long post! And very full of Xiquan. :P

We all know about the jingju crisis. But this is just heart-wrenching.

Really, really, really only these many people were interested in Jin Xiquan and Xiong Mingxia’s awesome Baimenlou yesterday??? The old gentleman on the third picture represents the average spectator I guess…

Check out the audience video (recorded by 蕴衷liuxycsu, spiced up with spectator humming happily):

→ 京剧《白门楼》Bai Men Lou (White Gate Tower)
Aria “见貂蝉不由我心如烈火” – Now that I see Diaochan, my heart is raging with fire
 [DOWNLOAD] 130MB
Performed by Jin Xiquan (金喜全).

These beautiful photos were also made by her:

Thank you Shanghai Troupe!

During the 粉墨嘉年华, “White Powder and Black Ink Stick Carnival” (don’t ask me to provide better translation :S), Shanghai Arts Center of Beijing and Kun Opera (上海京昆艺术中心的博客) staged an independent performance in Shanghai Grand Theater on 19 November 2010,  – featuring my favorite “Golden Boy”, Jin Xiquan.
As a child, Jin Xiquan fostered the dream to learn dahualian (leading painted face) role. But he was too tall and good-looking, also his voice didn’t fit and he ended up as xiaosheng. For my greatest pleasure.
(I just don’t get why people get freaked out on the subway when they hear my Zhuang Bie ringtone…)

The above mentioned performance consisted of three acts:

(1) Jingju《小宴》Xiao Yan (The Small Dinner)

 [SNIPPET] 29MB

Part of the play Lü Bu and Diaochan《吕布与貂蝉》. In order to eliminate top general Dong Zhuo, Wang Yun wants to lure the romantic general Lü Bu into a sex trap. He invites Lü Bu to a dinner, but the meals are very poor, there aren’t chopsticks on the table either, just wine glasses. Wang Yun excuses himself and leaves Lü Bu alone with the beautiful Diaochan. As expected, Lü Bu starts courting…

“Mmmm… pretty.”

(2) Kunqu《惊梦》Jing Meng (Awaken From a Dream)

Part of Kun opera Mudan Ting (Peony Pavilion),  love story of Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei.
Jin Xiquan’s partner in this one was his wife, “Jade Girl” Xiong Mingxia.

 [SNIPPET 1] 33MB ·  [SNIPPET 2] 26MB

They were performing this same act in CCTV’s Theater in the Sky on 8 January 2011, the video doesn’t load at CCTV’s website, but MrOperahouse kindly uploaded it to YouTube. Grab it while you can. Gorgeous photos are available in the CCTV forum.

(Hit F5 if it doesn’t load)

昆曲《牡丹亭·惊梦》Mudan Ting·Jing Meng (Peony Pavilion – Awaken From a Dream)

Peony Pavilion rehearsals

 
Some dressing room pictures

Being man and wife in real life comes handy in this play I guess

(3) Historical drama 《兰陵王》 Lanling Wang (Prince of Lanling)

The story of Northern Qi general Gao Changgong. The play was written and directed by Jin Xiquan himself. Though reviews are mixed, it was a really spirited performance.

 [SNIPPET] 19MB

According to Wikipedia,

Gao Changgong had a beautiful face thus he always wore a terrible mask when he fought in battles.

A fitting role for Mr. Jin.

Lanling Wang rehearsals

The ferocious mask

Xiong Mingxia was shedding real tears

Curtain call

Jin Xiquan’s little daughter is handing over bouquet to mommy and daddy

Sources: Dongdongqiang, bbs.xijucn.com, Shanghai Jing-Kun Art Center [article1], [article2], [article3], Wikipedia

I have to quote myself here:

What’s more interesting than opera celebrities love stories?

I was watching this episode of the “Married Couples of the Pear Garden” show (OK I admit I religiously download these…), featuring Jin Xiquan and Xiong Mingxia, and already knew I won’t be able to resist and will make a fangirl post again, with excessive amount of screenshots.

These two talented jingju performers are often referred to as Jintong Yunü (Golden Boy and Jade Girl) – a term for the innocent little attendants of celestial immortals. Sounds definitely better than Brangelina…

Wedding photo…

…and kiddo revealed!

After the performance of Lanling Wang (discussed in the next post), Jin Yuxin (金宇欣) was asked: “Who did you like better on stage?”
The answer was: “Mommy.”
Poor Xiquan.

These dressing room pictures were taken before a performance of The Peony Pavilion, a kunqu play that also will be discussed in the next post.

Jin Xiquan shaving eyebrows…

applying make-up…

wired in…

asking for the advice of his master…

and very carefully drinking tea, not to smudge lipstick.

Xiquan’s favorite food is fried noodles in soy sauce. Mingxia got it right in the “love test”. As a noodle freak myself, I highly approve his taste.

And here they hurriedly stuff those noodles into their mouths in the theater.^^ If I would eat that much of these as Mingxia has in her box, I would be hippo sized in a week.

Finally a separate snapshot of Xiong Mingxia on stage, singing from the The Red Lantern. I go for boys but I think she’s hot!

One of the things I like about my crush, Jin Xiquan, is his high entertainment value. At least I’m always fascinated by his eye and face expressions, especially when portraying some innocent character.

Following easy-to-digest one-hour play is a shorter version of the opera Xiang Luo Dai, performed by the artists of Shanghai Jingju Troupe at Changrong Beijing Opera Theater in Jiangsu.
You can find some amazing pictures shot at a staging of the full opera with the same main cast in Tianchan Yifu Theater here.

→ 京剧《香罗带》Xiang Luo Dai (The Silk Belt)  [part1.rar] | [part2.rar] 297MB

Cast:
Lin Huiniang (林慧娘): Xiong Mingxia (熊明霞)
Tang Tong (唐通): Qi Baoyu (齐宝玉)
Liu Shike (陆世科): Jin Xiquan (金喜全)
Tang Zhi (唐芝): Huang Yaling (黄雅玲)
Chun Ying (春莺): Guo Xiaojie (郭晓婕)

Summary:
The story is set during the Ming dynasty in Wucheng, Zhejiang. Tang Tong, soldier on garrison duty is ordered to go to Hangzhou, so he’s leaving his wife, Lin Huiniang and his son, Tang Zhi at home.
Tang Zhi’s teacher, Liu Shike is catching a bad cold, trembling at home. Tang Zhi pities him and takes his mother’s quilt, ties it up with her silk belt and covering Liu Shike to warm him up.
Returning home, Tang Tong is visiting Liu Shike, sees the belt of his wife and starts to doubt Lin Huiniang’s chastity. To see whether his adultery charges are true or false, he’s forcing Lin Huiniang to knock at the door of Liu Shike in the middle of the night and say embarrassing, explicit things.
Of course Liu Shike is shocked, reprimands Lin Huiniang and refuses to open the door.
Now Tang Tong already regrets that he humiliated his wife for no reason, and asks for pardon, but Lin Huiniang is offended badly and refuses. Finally Tang Tong has to kneel down before his wife together with his son, pleading for her forgiveness. Finally Lin Huiniang pardons him and the couple gets reconciled.

First post of the “Xiong Mingxia – Jin Xiquan Weekend”.

Xiong Mingxia (熊明霞), first-class huadan actress of Shanghai Jingju Troupe was born on January 15, 1976 in Yichang, Hubei.
Her parents were Beijing opera fans, thus they had drawers full of opera records at home, no wonder the little girl decided to learn Beijing opera at the age of 12.
Since she had a suitable voice, Xiong Mingxia was trained for qingyi role as a child, but she refused to accept this as final choice. She didn’t want to sing only literati roles like Cui Yingying and Dou E, but also acrobatic and military roles like Hua Mulan or Liang Hongyu, and she was shilly-shallying at the practice hall all day long.
In 1989, she learned her first standard play, Farewell my Concubine from Sun Ronghui, and The Broken Bridge from Li Rongwei (李荣威) in the second semester. Learning the daomadan role of Mu Guiying from Li Shufang was a crucial point in her art career. The school didn’t have a military drama department at those times; Li Shufang let Xiong Mingxia to put on the dakao (full military costume with the four flags), practicing the spear tricks over and over again. For this role, she got the Peach and Plum Cup (桃李杯), a provincial award of art schools.

Xiong Mingxia graduated from the Hubei Art Academy in 1993, and joined the Yichang Beijing Opera Theater, but was longing to enter herself for an examination at The National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts.
It was a real challenge, but she was very confident. She barely took ten extra literature and language lessons, yet was the first to answer the exam questions and left the exam room. She came out with such a self-confident smile, that her family members thought: “Our daughter surely got extremely good grades!”
The unexpectedly good results surprised Xiong Mingxia herself, since she was barely familiar with the 26 letters of the English alphabet. “It surely was the Will of Heaven, I just had to walk on the path of Beijing opera art!”, she said.
Studying in the Fourth Class of Outstanding Young Jingju Performers, she finally got really wide-ranging and deep education, learning from great teachers like Bai Yuling, Chen Qi,Yu Yuheng and Liu Xiurong.

Xiong Mingxia entered the Shanghai Jingju Troupe in 1998 as a rookie, and very soon she was allowed the perform in a new historical play, Cao Cao and Yang Xiu. Later she could show her real natural talents in a leading production of the theater, Pansidong (盘丝洞). After this, the company leadership decided that Xiong Mingxia should change profession, and she started to work as huadan since then. She became the student of famous artists Song Changrong (宋长荣) and Sun Yumin (孙毓敏), both direct disciples of Xun Huisheng (荀慧生), learning the plays Hong Niang and Douzhiji.
In the Nationwide Youth Beijing Opera Actors Great TV Competition she got outstanding performance award for Hong Niang in 2001, same year she won second prize in the National Competition of Outstanding Young Jingju Performers. In 2005 she scored the first prize in CCTV’s National TV Contest of Middle-aged Jingju Performers.

From 2002 she was cooperating frequently with Jin Xiquan in plays like Romance of the West Chamber, Lü Bu and Diaochan, Yu Tangchun, no surprise they finally got married in December 24, 2005, and they make a harmonious couple since then.
On August 24, 2007 Xiong Mingxia gave birth to a little girl. Jin Xiquan was afraid that Mingxia will get worn out if staying up all night, also worried that her fine hands will be ruined while doing housework, so he took up the duty of late night childcare, feeding and diapering the baby, moreover he mastered the skills of washing laundry, patching clothes and cooking meals.
Xiong Mingxia’s mother-in-law, seeing the affectionate attitude of her husband, couldn’t resist to say with a sigh: “It happened so fast, yesterday Xiquan was just a child in our eyes, and today he’s acting like a father… For so many years, I haven’t seen this careful side of him!”

On this picture, during a performance of Qipanshan Jin Xiquan is examining the headdress of her wife again and again to fit perfectly:

Xiong Mingxia is a very lucky woman indeed.

Sources: Shui Guniang’s blog, Hudong Wiki
Photo: Stage and  backstage photos from Qi Pan Shan, commemorating Xun Huisheng’s 110th birthday anniversary. (2010, Tianjin)

I swear I’m not stalking the young man, he just always comes to me nowadays.
Jin Xiquan has already shown in Xi Xiang Ji that he has a talent in comedy. The following 2 hour play has quite a lot of funny scenes.
Lu Kunjie’s role was often played by Ye Shenglan, then by his son Ye Shaolan who now directed this opera with his student, Jin Xiquan in the leading role.

If already at the topic of passing down knowledge, here’s a little English readable.
→ Family business as usual (PDF) - 09/Jan/2008 edition of China Daily
Ye Shaolan is speaking about his father, his grandfather and the hardships of Beijing opera training.

→ 京剧《得意缘》De Yi Yuan (A Desirable Match)
 [part1.rar] [part2.rar] [part3.rar] 523MB
Directed by Ye Shaolan (叶少兰) and Liu Changyu (刘长瑜).

Cast:
Lu Kunjie (卢昆杰): Jin Xiquan (金喜全)
Di Yunluan (狄云鸾): Xiong Mingxia (熊明霞)
Mother Di: Jin Xihua (金锡华)
Lang Xiayu (郎霞玉): Zhou Baisui (周百穗)
Servant maid: Yu Wei (虞伟)
Di Longkang (狄龙康): Dong Hongsong (董洪松)
Lang Feibao (郎飞豹): Yang Donghu (杨东虎)
Lang Feihu (郎飞虎): Yu Hui (于辉)
Di’s wife: Yan Haiying (严海鹰)
Di Yingluan (狄英鸾): Ge Xiangru (葛香汝)

Summary:
Lu Kunjie from Shangdong, nephew of the Sichuan governor general falls on hard times and wanders in destitute, finally he becomes a traveling entertainer. In Hukou he marries Di Yunluan, the second daughter of the chivalrous bandit, Di Longkang. Later, when Lu finds out that his father-in-law is a bandit-chief, he decides to escape with his wife who is willing to accompany him. But it’s easier to enter the mountain stronghold then to go out… Man and wife try to break through the gate of the stockade, but they are continuously defeated by Yunluan’s kin. Finally they arrive to the main gate of the stronghold that is guarded by Yunluan’s paternal grandmother. Di Yunluan knows she’s no match for her granny, so entreats piteously for releasing them. Finally her granny lets them to go downhill and flee.