A Cheng school actress whose Unicorn Purse I like better than Bertrand does. 

Title:《秋色茜香分外艳》京剧程派新秀张茜专场 - Fragrant Rubia* in the Splendid Colors of Autumn: New Cheng school talent Zhang Qian special performance
Date and place: 2012/10/09, 19:15 (China time), Tianchan Yifu Theater
Details: Two Beijing Opera highlights will be staged starring Zhang Qian (张茜), under the personal guidance of Zhao Rongchen’s disciple, Professor Li Wenmin (李文敏):《三击掌》San Jizhang (Clapping Hands Three Times) and《三娘教子》San Niang Jiao Zi (How the Third Wife Was Teaching the Son). In both, Zhang’s partner will be Fan Yongliang (范永亮) on special invitation. In between: 《金沙滩》Jinshatan (Golden Sand Beach) with Lü Shaoyang (吕绍阳), Jiang Zhisen (姜智森), Chen Zhipeng (陈志鹏) and more.
Tickets: Click here.

* Because “Qian” means “Indian madder”. I hate to translate these titles. ><

《京剧之星：刘桂娟》
Peking Opera Stars: Liu Guijuan
ISBN: 9787799910628
ISRC: CNA010400270

If you liked it you can buy this CD here. (Only a few left.)

1. 《镇麟囊》Suo Lin Nang (The Unicorn Purse) – 春秋亭外风雨暴 [MP3]
2. 《镇麟囊》Suo Lin Nang (The Unicorn Purse) - 当日里好风光忽觉转变 [MP3]
3. 《六月雪》Liuyue Xue (Snowfall In June) - 未开言思往事心中惆怅 [MP3]
4. 《陈三两》Chen Sanliang - 陈三两在大堂把话云 [MP3]
5. 《陈三两》Chen Sanliang - 家住山东在临清 [MP3]
6. 《六月雪》Liuyue Xue (Snowfall In June) – 提起了吴宫心惆怅 [MP3]

I wanted to post these two little videos with Liu Guijuan before but somehow I never got there.

Although I’ve listened to the first clip at least hundred and twenty times, I can’t get bored with it. Liu Guijuan’s relatively high-pitched and crystal-clear voice combined with the characteristics of Cheng-style singing is a very unique phenomenon, speaking of this aria, I like her version the most.

Unfortunately I’ve never heard this excerpt from Zhang Huoding. Bertrand provided me with a wide variety of audio and video recordings, and I searched far and wide on the net, but when it comes to Wenji, Zhang Huoding always sings the other famous excerpt.

→ 京剧《文姬归汉》Wenji Gui Han (Wenji Returns to her Homeland)  [DOWNLOAD] 32MB
Liu Guijuan (刘桂娟) as Cai Yan.

The second video is a very interesting semi-symphonic Dream in a Girl’s Room, with unique visuals. Bertrand just mentioned that the “room” in the title of this opera actually translates as “boudoir”, but we both decided to use “room” or “chamber” instead. Now this clip has a picture that deserves the “Joyful Boudoir Dream” translation, see the third screenshot.

→ 京剧《春闺梦》Chun Gui Meng (Dream in a Girl’s Chamber)  [DOWNLOAD] 35MB
Liu Guijuan (刘桂娟) as Miss Zhang, Song Xiaochuan (宋小川) as Wang Hui.

Liu Guijuan as the young bride

Good-looking (and still single…) Song Xiaochuan as the groom

Boudoir dream

A bit off-topic, but you know I like fun stuff and Liu Guijuan has a good sense of humor. The captions she writes to her photos are always hilarious:

“These two in the state of half-dementia and the two on the stage, full of energy, seem to be different persons…”
(Du Zhenjie, Li Hongtu)

“Xi Zhonglu didn’t know what a blog is. Me and Zhu Qiang were explaining it to him for quite a while, but he still didn’t seem to get it. When he understood that he can post the photo of his dad on Weibo, he immediately let me take a joint photo, here it is.”
(Liu Guijuan, Xi Zhonglu)

Liu Guijuan as chou. Isn’t she lovely? 

(originally published on Feb 20, 2012 @ 22:13, updated with new item)

Today on Weibo everyone was showing off his used-up ticket collection (just to annoy me), and I caught sight of this photo:

The poster and the pink ticket to the right reveals that in the PRC 60th anniversary celebration series, besides the NACTA edition Long Feng Cheng Xiang (see below), Zhang Huoding starred in The Unicorn Purse too. So:

建国60周年献礼演出 张火丁京剧专场《锁麟囊》Zhang Huoding Special Suo Lin Nang (The Unicorn Purse)
Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of PRC, Chang’an Grand Theater, 2009-10-18.
[Thing #4 Bertrand has to find.]

By the way, I knew I’ve already seen this poster somewhere. Here.

…..

Bonus:
Massive Multistar Unicorn Purse from 2003.
Main cast: Li Haiyan, Li Peihong, Zhang Huoding, Liu Guijuan, Chi Xiaoqiu
 [DOWNLOAD] 506MB (p2p link)

…..

I recommend to everyone to rush to operabeijing.com and download the latest findings of Bertrand, in case you haven’t done so already . If you’re a fan of Cheng school, it’s not just recommended but obligatory. :P

Two new Zhang Huoding files were discovered:

1. The Broken Bridge (Duan Qiao) scene of Tale of the White Snake, from the 10th anniversary report-back highlights performance of postgraduate students, featuring a delicate Zhang Huoding and a cute Song Xiaochuan (2007-12-15, Chang’an Grand Theater)

2. A much bigger and better version of the audience recording of The Great Enthronement (Da Deng Dian) from the 2006 Red-maned Fiery Horse (Hongzong Liema), featuring Zhang Huoding, Li Chongshan, Zhao Baoxiu and Chang Qiuyue. (2006-11-25,  Chang’an Grand Theater)
Just a moment ago, I found this same recording in mkv format at CTdisk.com (374.5 MB), and took the liberty to upload it to operabeijing.com as an alternative copy.

In the above mentioned Hongzong Liema Zhang Huoding had one more act, The Wujia Slope (Wujiapo) with Du Zhenjie. Bertrand is a collector so I bet it bugs the hell out of him too that the single copy of this that we found so far is the less fabulous video at tudou.com. If there was a better Da Deng Dian, must be a better Wujiapo as well. [Thing #1 Bertrand has to find.] 
I have a namipan link that sits massively at 0% for a long time, I’m not even sure namipan still works, try your luck with NamiRobot if you wish so.

(update 2 hours later) Bertrand accomplished the first task in record time! Actually he already was uploading the file when I compiled this “task list”. So everyone go and download the new, fabulous video!

Another production that didn’t let me sleep is Zhang Huoding’s Long Feng Cheng Xiang, The Auspicious Dragon and Phoenix, or Harmony Through a Royal Marriage if you prefer the more descriptive title.

I knew it exists but I’ve seen only photos so far. Yesterday I found a copy of the above mentioned opera, in which Zhang Huoding plays the role of Sun Shangxiang in one act. However, hours later I found a few short audience videos of another Long Feng Cheng Xiang, with Zhang Huoding in two acts, including the ending “chariot driving” scene.
It took some time to figure out which is which, but finally the blog articles of “Cheng school Fanatic” and amateur singer “Xuezi” shed light on the topic.

So here are the details and the low quality video files of these two performances:

1. 中国戏曲学院新版《龙凤呈祥》NACTA new edition Long Feng Cheng Xiang, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the PRC.
Performed by professors and junior teachers of The National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts in Chang’an Grand Theater, 2009-10-16.
Main cast: Chen Lincang, Zhou Long, Du Peng, Zhang Huoding, Zhang Yao, Shu Tong, Zhang Jing, Li Liping, Jia Jinsong, Jiao Jingge, Yi Lin (陈霖苍、周龙、杜鹏、张火丁、张尧、舒桐、张晶、李丽萍、贾劲松、焦敬阁、衣麟)

High quality video: [Thing #2 Bertrand has to find.]
Crappy video, sound is fine (aired on BTV):  [DOWNLOAD] 360MB

2. 京剧《龙凤呈祥》Long Feng Cheng Xiang
2002-09-17-18
Qiao Xuan, Lu Su: Zhang Jianguo (张建国)
Liu Bei: Du Zhenjie (杜镇杰)
Empress Dowager Wu: Li Mingyan (李鸣岩)
Sun Shangxiang: Zhang Huoding 张火丁, Wen Ruhua (温如华)
Zhao Yun: Huang Qifeng (黄齐峰), Wang Ping (王平)
Zhou Yu: Ye Shaolan (叶少兰)
Sun Quan, Zhang Fei: Wu Yuzhang (吴钰璋)

High quality video: [Thing #3 Bertrand has to find.]  Face-lifted version @operabejing.com!
Medium quality video:  [DOWNLOAD] 315MB

And now you get a solemn looking Wang Ping because I’m a jerk :P.

OK, I’m not THAT much of a jerk. Here is Zhang Huoding as well:

Tianjin Jingju Theater’s contribution to the 6th China Peking Opera Art Festival was a new edition of Qin Xianglian, titled《香莲案》Xianglian An (Case of Xianglian).

I didn’t watch it yet, but the costumes are different than usual. Lü Yang (吕洋) plays Qin Xianglian, Ling Ke (凌珂) Chen Shimei, Wang Jiaqing (王嘉庆) Judge Bao and Wang Zhigang (王志钢) Han Qi.
I like Wang Zhigang. I just read a “review” on Wang Jiaqing (scroll down for example video), commenter said he “already surpassed Meng Guanglu and runs An Ping close”, so let’s see!

Download:
CCTV: [1-3] [2-3] [3-3] [int.]

Interview is included, Wang Ping mentions as particularly interesting thing about the play that it’s featuring many schools, some of them differ from to the usual setup, i.e. Lü Yang: Cheng school, Ling Ke: Yu school, Wang Zhigang: Qi school. Besides this I understood only the conjunctions, but check out Mr. Wang’s necktie and Lü Yang’s bun.

Photos: 戏剧像素

I really like when random surfing is leading to something interesting. I was after a certain picture of Cheng Yanqiu (found some really stunning photos btw.), and I met a play I didn’t know before, 《红拂传》Hong Fu Zhuan (The Legend of Hong Fu). Interestingly, every Google hit about the jingju version was leading to audio recordings from the 20-30s.

“Is this play extinct or what?”, I thought.

Wikipedia is providing some insight into the story of Hong Fu Nü, the Lady in Red, but the main point of interest for me was that the jingju play based on this story is one of Cheng Yanqiu’s representative works from his early years. After that, it wasn’t staged until the 80s, and then it disappeared again until present day. Fortunately Cheng Yanqiu passed on this play to Wang Yinqiu in the 40s.

Cheng Yanqiu in Hong Fu Zhuan

→ 京剧《红拂传》Hong Fu Zhuan (The Legend of Hong Fu) – double sword dance  [DOWNLOAD] 36MB
Performed by Chi Xiaoqiu.

After 30 years, Hong Fu Zhuan was staged by the Beijing Xicheng District Cultural Center in Mei Lanfang Grand Theater on 10 August 2011.

BTV News 2011-08-11: Lost classic returns to stage [DOWNLOAD]
I found Xue Chao’s wrist movement at 0:55 kinda impressive. :)

Hong Fu Zhuan

Xue Chao (薛超) in the leading role was performing this drama for the first time. He learnt the play from his teacher, famous Cheng school artist Wang Yinqiu (王吟秋), direct disciple of Cheng Yanqiu, also the master of well-known Cheng school actress Chi Xiaoqiu.

Xue Chao, Yang Naiqing

This production was also starring Yang Naiqing (杨乃庆) as general Li Jing, Jing Lianlian (景琏琏) as Zhang Zhongjian (aka. Qiu Ranke), and the role of Liu Wenjing was given to female laosheng Men Shuting (门书婷).

Yang Naiqing, Jing Lianlian

And why is this opera so neglected? The answer is simple: the play is hard. Also, the single teacher who knew it, Wang Yinqiu, is not with us any more. (He was murdered in 2001 in his apartment, that’s a nasty story, I won’t elaborate here.)

Sources: chinahexie.org.cn, YNET.com Entertainment, mask9.com, tieba.baidu.com, Beijing Xicheng News, dongdongqiang.com

(originally posted on Jul 16, 2011 @ 15:21, updated with pictures and cast on Aug 23, 2011 @ 11:55, finally updated with the full opera)

Shi Yihong, Mei school qingyi of Shanghai Jingju Troupe stirred up quite a fuzz when announced in Beijing that she’ll perform Suo Lin Nang (The Unicorn Purse) in Mei Lanfang Grand Theater on the 21st and 22nd of May this year.

Of course her maiden stage role as Xue Xiangling in this massively Cheng school ruled opera was a tremendous challenge for Shi Yihong, therefore she turned to Li Wenmin (李文敏) for instructions, also Shi’s good friend, Zhang Huoding helped out. Li Wenmin’s advice was not to fully imitate the singing style, speech and movement of Cheng school, but to combine it with her own voice conditions and special characteristics, otherwise her performance will seem artificial to the audience.
The Shanghai actress accepted the challenge to put herself to the test before Beijing audience, and finally the performance got favorable criticism, and became a huge box office hit.
Present day’s most popular Cheng school actress, Zhang Huoding couldn’t come to see the play, but she sent white lilies to Shi Yihong to congratulate. Huoding isn’t on good terms with computers, but now came online to find a video of the performance. She said Yihong’s watersleeves were extremely beautiful, natural, elegant and nimble.

When 22 years old, Shi Yihong was profoundly influenced by a performance of The Unicorn Purse, with Cheng school artist Li Shiji (李世济) in the leading role. Her friends suggested she should try to sing Xue Xiangling, but Shi thought her voice doesn’t fit the role. Later she has seen a “cross-genre” staging in Taiwan, and finally got determined to make this step.
Shi Yihong said,

“Master Mei Lanfang said, ‘Learn from me and live, imitate me and die.’¹ All schools are continuously assimilating each other’s stuff, by clinging obstinately to one school, the path you can walk on becomes narrower and narrower.”

¹You have to master a subject through a comprehensive study of surrounding areas, it’s useless to imitate someone even to the point that people can’t tell the difference if you fail to grasp the main point.

Browsing forums I found that people’s reactions were exactly as expected: some welcome innovations and “crossing the borders”, some think it’s the sin of sins… From my part, I sit somewhere in-between with my opinions. I don’t think that any school should monopolize any play or any role, though some characters simply fit a certain singing style better. What do you think? :)

Shi Yihong said repeatedly:

I have no intention to alter Cheng school, or make Zhang Huoding second. I just love this play and wanted to perform it myself.

→ 京剧《锁麟囊》春秋亭 Suo Lin Nang·Chunqiu Ting (The Unicorn Purse − Spring and Autumn Pavilion) [DOWNLOAD] 5MB
Performed by Shi Yihong (史依弘). (Handycam recorded by a spectator.)

(update1)
Recently found these very nice photos of the 22 May performance, aired in CCTV’s “Theater In the Sky” program on 08 June.
[PICTURES]
I found interesting that both maid servants are played by older male performers, greathly contributing to the funny aspect of those characters. Lü Kunshan is playing Mei Xiang this time, in a staging with Zhang Huoding he played the role of Biyu instead. You can download that full version at operabeijing.com [HERE].

(update2)
Bertrand posted the full opera recently, [CLICK HERE] to download it!

Cast:
Xue Xiangling (薛湘灵): Shi Yihong (史依弘)
Zhao Shouzhen (赵守贞): Yan Haiying (严海鹰)
Zhao Luhan (赵禄寒): Qi Baoyu (齐宝玉)
Xue Liang (薛良): Zhang Jianquan (张鉴泉)
Mei Xiang (梅香): Lü Kunshan (吕昆山)
Lu Tianlin (卢天麟): Bi Xixi (毕玺玺)
Biyu (碧玉): Yu Wei (虞伟)
Mother Hu (胡婆): Jin Xihua (金锡华)

Source: CRIonline, Beijing Evening News 16/05, Beijing Evening News 21/05

In midst of the massive Shaoxing opera updates, I compiled this post especially for Bert, who’s continuously providing the Western world with essential pieces of Beijing opera.

I posted a short documentary about Zhang Huoding earlier and promised that I’ll attempt to translate some parts when she’s speaking. There was only one topic she was talking a bit longer about, her relationship to her teacher, Zhao Rongchen. Below is the result of my efforts with translation, really crappy but hopefully it makes some sense:

“By teacher Xu Liweng’s recommendation I started to study Cheng school art in 1993. Later I officially became the disciple of Professor Zhao Rongchen at The National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts. Learning as the last disciple of Mr. Zhao was really an exceptional honour for me, I can thank to him that I was able to truly understand the art of Cheng school.

Soon after I formally became an apprentice of my master, Mr. Zhao returned to the United States. At that time I was going to perform in a play, San Niang Jiaozi (How Third Wife Taught the Son). Without my teacher on my side, what will I do? I remember I wrote him a letter, and in a short time teacher Zhao sent me back an audio tape. It contained an explanation of the opera’s vocal music, about postures on stage, acting and so on.

In 1996 my master, Zhao Rongchen passed away due to illness. At those times I felt I’m in an extreme artistic crisis. There were still so many plays I haven’t learnt, without guidance how will I be able to advance? It was a really paralysing feeling.

At that time Cantonese opera artist Hong Xiannü from Guangdong happened to come to Beijing to perform. No, not to perform, she came for a meeting. Fortunately I was just performing Suo Lin Nang in Beijing. After seeing the play she seemed to be in quite a cheerful mood. Our director led her to the stage to meet me, and she invited me to her residence the next day.
We had a discussion, she’s been talking about her impressions about my performance, gave me a few ideas and such. To my questions she answered that we need our master, but cannot entirely rely on him. You may try to transplant some parts of the repertoire according to your natural disposition, just give it a go.

I was thinking about her advice, it had a very significant effect on me. Later I started to innovate, bringing forth new ideas and transplanting them into the plays.”

Following videos are featuring several actresses of Cheng school, including Zhang Huoding, Li Haiyan, Li Peihong and Chi Xiaoqiu, but it would be utterly impolite to start without the master, Cheng Yanqiu himself. The first video is the best one I can come up with. It’s a 1956 recording, two years later he died at the tragically young age of 54.

→ 京剧 《荒山泪》Huang Shan Lei (Tears of Barren Hill)
 [DOWNLOAD] 51MB
Cheng Yanqiu (程砚秋) as Zhang Huizhu.

→ 京剧 《嫦娥奔月》Chang E Ben Yue (Chang’e Flies to the Moon)
 [DOWNLOAD] 31MB
Zhang Huoding (张火丁) as Chang’e, ”the lady in the moon”.
Not the best quality video, but this song isn’t a typical piece of her repertoire, also her appearance is unusual. I like how the old man is raving in the audience at 1:20.

→ 京剧 《大登殿》Da Deng Dian (The Great Enthronement)
 [DOWNLOAD] 18MB
Zhang Huoding as Wang Baochuan.
The same applies to this one. I’ve never seen her in Da Deng Dian.

→ 京剧 《春闺梦》Chun Gui Meng (Dream in a Girl’s Room)
 [DOWNLOAD] 31MB
Zhang Huoding as Mrs. Zhang, Song Xiaochuan (宋小川) as Wang Hui.

→ 京剧《武家坡》Wujia Po (The Wujia Slope)
[DOWNLOAD] 20MB
Zhang Huoding as Wang Baochuan, Ye Furun (叶复润) as Xue Pinggui.
Ye Furun is a Taiwanese actor.

→ 京剧 《春闺梦》Chun Gui Meng (Dream in a Girl’s Room)
 [DOWNLOAD] 45MB
Li Peihong (李佩红) as Mrs. Zhang.

→ 京剧《锁麟囊》Suo Lin Nang (The Unicorn Purse)

1. Li Haiyan (李海燕), Chi Xiaoqiu (迟小秋)
   [DOWNLOAD] 34MB
2. Chi Xiaoqiu, Lü Yang (吕洋), Zhou Jing (周婧)
   [DOWNLOAD] 40MB
3. Lü Yang (吕洋), Guo Wei (郭伟)
   [DOWNLOAD] 73MB
4. Liu Guijuan (刘桂娟), Chi Xiaoqiu, Guo Wei, Lü Yang,
   Zhao Huan (赵欢), Jiang Zhi (江汁)
   [DOWNLOAD] 71MB

I updated this post with a new video and a bit more detailed biography.

Liu Guijuan (刘桂娟), Cheng school qingyi with an impressive repertoire was born in 1965 and graduated at the Tianjin Chinese Opera Academy in 1981, where she learnt hua and daoma dan simultaneously. From 1986 she accepted Li Shiji (李世济) as teacher. She got first prize in China Ministry of Culture’s National Competition of Outstanding Young Jingju Performers in 2000, prize in the National TV Contest of Young Jingju Performers for best performance in 2001 and the Plum Blossom Award in 2009.
Liu Guijuan is excellent in voice and expression, her voice is smooth and sweet, her stage appearance is lovely. She’s especially good in conveying the emotions and inner feelings of different characters with a strong artistic appeal. (That truly can be seen from the snapshots below.)

→ 京剧 《碧玉簪》 Biyu Zan (Jade Hairpin)  [DOWNLOAD] 66MB

→ 京剧《锁麟囊》Suo Lin Nang (The Unicorn Purse)  [DOWNLOAD] 66MB

→ 京剧《陈三两爬堂》Chen Sanliang Pa Tang (Chen Sanliang Appeals at the Court)
 [DOWNLOAD] 37MB

Five Zhang Huoding videos in this post.
I also updated this post with files smaller in size but bigger in resolution.

I found this nice documentary via zhanghuoding.com (thank you Bertrand!) – it’s in Chinese so I don’t understand a word, but I promise I’ll come up with some kind of translation for the parts that have subtitles, fortunately Zhang Huoding’s words are subtitled.

→ Cheng Pai Chuanren (Cheng school disciple) Zhang Huoding  [DOWNLOAD] 56MB

Following video is a Spring Festival performance before audience, she’s beautiful.

→ 京剧《白蛇传》Bai She Zhuan (Tale of the White Snake) (2006)  [DOWNLOAD] 53MB

The next one is her opening performance at the show commemorating Cheng Yanqiu’s 100th birthday in 2004. I was kinda surprised at 4:40.

→ 群英竞秀  [DOWNLOAD] 23MB

Another excerpt from the well-known play Dream in a Girl’s Room.

→ 京剧 《春闺梦》Chun Gui Meng (Dream in a Girl’s Chamber)  [DOWNLOAD] 37MB

Aria 《步香闺仍现我女儿风仪》from Liang and Zhu.

→ 京剧《梁祝》Liang Zhu (Liang and Zhu) (2007)  [DOWNLOAD] 49MB