(edit) Hey-hey, I found the childhood performance pictured below, 9 min long and very lovable.

弹词开篇《新木兰辞》Tanci opening Xin Mulan Ci (New Ballad of Mulan)  [DOWNLOAD] 18MB

…..

Earlier we briefly mentioned Wang Peiyu’s childhood career as a Suzhou pingtan performer. Now and then you still can hear her singing ballads, I bet the audience at conferences or lectures is always asking her to do so.

On the snapshot below you can see her 9 years old self. Isn’t she adorable?

(Picture is from  this short documentary, it’s not the newest edition but you can peep into Peiyu’s gardrobe and have a look at her collection of neckties. :P)

Recently I found a tolerable copy of the 2001 CCTV jingju competition finals (check it out here), in that she performs a popular pingtan piece, Qing Tan. (I knew I already wrote a summary to this story.)
To be sincere, I don’t like her look. Evening gown and her short hair create an unpleasant contrast. In this article, published two days ago, Peiyu mentions that her mother always wanted her to be more girly, feminine off-stage, masculine on-stage, just like Meng Xiaodong. Maybe she wanted to favor her mom with this outfit. :)

Unlike when bearded, she’s singing with the appropriate local accent. I adore people who can speak more accents… When I try to sing or pronounce Chinese words, the result is always the same: Hungarian accent. >< Distinctive yet ridiculous.

苏州评弹《情探》Suzhou Pingtan Qing Tan (Exploring Emotions) [DOWNLOAD] 8MB
Performed by Wang Peiyu (王珮瑜).

狠老虎不喂‘s new photos of Li Baochun’s Vengeance in a Black Pot are really spectacular. His version is titled《奇冤报》Qi Yuan Bao (Weird Revenge for Injustice), it’s the same play as 《乌盆记》Wu Pen Ji (Story of the Black Pot), check out the story on the Storylines page.

The character is a ghost, and usually appears as an ordinary jingju spirit, with a black gauze on his head, standing still. Li Baochun’s reform-ghost is dancing on the stage, twisting and twirling his extra long watersleeves.

“Even those who don’t understand drama, will have a good time watching it.”, said Li Baochun.

Main cast:
Li Shichang: Li Baochun (李宝春)
Zhang Biegu: Sun Zhengyang (孙正阳)
Zhao Da: Chang Guixiang (常贵祥)
Judge Bao: Dong Hongsong (董洪松)

More pictures zipped: [DOWNLOAD] 13MB

“Take this freaky pot!”

Pot ghost

Damn, this is the underworld…

Sleeves!

Sleeeeves!

A talking pot! (And a cute edition Judge Bao.)

The Lantern Festival Chinese Opera Gala yesterday offered a memorable oddity…

Wang Ping sings an excerpt from red opera Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, accompanied by a vocal ensemble.  [DOWNLOAD] 19MB

I added the download links of the “reversed” Long Feng Cheng Xiang to the program list post (5th dragon) – I was laughing my pants off!
I hoarded some great stage- and backstage photos too, [DOWNLOAD] (40MB) and enjoy them!

The play was following the original script, just some funny lines and props were added.

Jin Xiquan expressed his worries lately that he slowly gets too old for massively acrobatic roles, jingju profession severely lacks wuxiaosheng performers and theaters don’t intend to stage plays like Ba Da Chui - at least in this half-comedy version of this classic he could show he’s still in good condition.

Fu Xiru as Sun Shangxiang deliberately falls out of his role for the sake of a joke:

“Aren’t you Jin Xiquan by chance?”

An Ping looks and sings as qingyi much better than I thought!

Wang Peiyu removes her weaponry: big halberd, plastic laser sword, space gun… and answers “his” sweetheart’s call. (The phone call is cited from an iconic sketch of famous comedian Zhao Benshan, thus much more funny for Chinese audience.)

“Hello! Meal’s ready? ‘kay, I tell the Empress I killed Liu Bei, brb Honey!”

This imperial court was to my liking: all palace maids were boys. Chen Lin and Hao Shuai are both .

Wang Xilong, Lan Tian, Chen Lin, Hao Shuai, Hao Jie, Chen Shengjie, Wang Dun, Zhu Heji

No chance to recognize: young and pretty wudan Yang Yanan.

Yan Qinggu is pro in any role…

Have you seen such a beautiful Zhou Yu before?

Photos: 秦钟wzl, 刘骏, 卢雯2011, 蕙蕙83, 乌托邦帮

京剧反串版《龙凤呈祥》- Reversed roles edition jingju Long Feng Cheng Xiang (Harmony Through a Royal Marriage)

Location: Shanghai Jingju Theater
Date: 27 January 2012 (CCTV11 live broadcast)
Description:  In this edition no-one will play his/her usual role. This play with many characters is excellent material for a totally mixed-up setup. An Ping as laodan last week wasn’t enough? Now you can see him as qingyi! I bet the lovely Tian Hui as military mastermind Zhuge Liang will be unforgettable as well.

Cast:

乔玄：严庆谷
Qiao Xuan (laosheng): Yan Qinggu (chou)

刘备：胡璇、隋晓庆、杨楠
Liu Bei (laosheng): Hu Xuan (laodan), Sui Xiaoqing (qingyi), Yang Nan (xiaosheng)

孙尚香：安平、李军、傅希如
Sun Shangxiang (qingyi): An Ping (jing), Li Jun (laosheng), Fu Xiru (laosheng)

吴国太：范永亮
Empress Dowager of Wu (laodan): Fan Yongliang (laosheng)

孙权：何澍
Sun Quan (jing): He Shu (laosheng)

周瑜：熊明霞
Zhou Yu (xiaosheng): Xiong Mingxia (huadan)

Xiong Mingxia has household instructor, this is a frequent role of her husband:

I can’t wait to hear this hysterical laugh from her.

赵云：冯蕴、高红梅
Zhao Yun (wusheng): Feng Yun (wudan), Gao Hongmei (qingyi, daoma)

Hao Shuai instructing Gao Hongmei:

He himself will be… a pretty palace maid!

And here is Feng Yun in the same role:

Photos: 蕙蕙83

张飞：金喜全
Zhang Fei (jing): Jin Xiquan (xiaosheng)

Changing pink costume to black: can you imagine Jin Xiquan as the character below?

乔福：杨亚男
Qiao Fu (chou): Yang Yanan (wudan)

贾化：王珮瑜
Jia Hua (chou): Wang Peiyu (girl laosheng)

Just as a reminder, Wang Peiyu will play this character:

As everyone else in this season, she’s rehearsing the role in winter coat and snow boots. I wonder how long would Western opera stars of the same popularity endure before indignantly calling their manager…

鲁肃：赵欢
Lu Su (laosheng): Zhao Huan (qingyi)

诸葛亮：田慧
Zhuge Liang (laosheng): Tian Hui (qingyi)

吕范：董洪松
Lü Fan (laosheng): Dong Hongsong (jing)

Symphonic White Snake, anyone? Sound only, 73min. (SONY PCM-D50 REC MODE:44.10KHz 16bit) Despite the chatter in the background now and then it’s a good recording!
I promise you’ve never heard something like this. Courtesy of 庭庭清风.

交响·京剧·多媒体《白娘子·爱情四季》Bainiangzi·Aiqing Siji (Miss White Snake – Romance of Four Seasons)
 [DOWNLOAD] 71MB

Staged yesterday evening in Hangzhou.
I’ve never heard Jin Xiquan singing like this. Somewhere between xiaosheng and laosheng.
Dong Hongsong, who played the kind-hearted “Quasimodo” in the Notre Dame adaptation, now portrays the evil Fahai. How can someone so young and sweet-looking produce such sounds? :P
Shi Yihong’s acrobatic action was surely spectacular. Seems that I like her better in these reform-plays.
And the choir – you’ll see. Really, really, REALLY interesting production!

Cast:
Miss White Snake: Shi Yihong (史依弘)
Xiaoqing: Zha Sina (查思娜)
Xu Xian: Jin Xiquan (金喜全)
Monk Fahai: Dong Hongsong (董洪松)

Source: Hangzhou News
Photos: hitan_bri, 秦钟wzl

Quoting myself again:

Oh haha, all my wishes come true so easily.

Actually I thought they were performing the complete operas but this was just one act. [...] I wanted to see Wang Peiyu tying up the son.

I was lamenting that the previously mentioned Child Abandoned at the Mulberry Garden by Wang Peiyu was “just” a highlights edition. I even had a conversation with Bertrand about the possibility of Wang Peiyu carrying a child on his back.

Now I’ve seen this poster below, announcing Wang Peiyu performing two “old school” Beijing operas,《桑园寄子》Child Abandoned at the Mulberry Garden and《琼林宴》Qiong Lin Yan in Mei Lanfang Grand Theater on 9-10 December, in the latter the dead body of the main character is stuffed into a trunk, and later when the trunk is opened he resurrects – I want to see Wang Peiyu coming out of the box. Also I would like to see her carrying the boy.
I asked and both are whole editions –  chance of a live broadcast is high.

Wang Peiyu is very popular right now, a few days ago she held a public lecture in Shanghai’s Jing-Kun Art Center, and masses of young people attended, even those who never listened to Beijing opera before. Currently she’s the most capable person to recruit young audiences, she’s fashionable and cool, however, her main intention is to make youngsters realize that her main foundation lies in traditional art.
That’s why she choose these two above mentioned age-old and somewhat extinct traditional plays, both representative works of her school.

Info: CRIOnline

Hey, I’ve been hunting for this for a while!

I’ve seen in CCTV news before that at this year’s Meet in Beijing Arts Festival on 27 April, besides Yu Kuizhi, Li Shengsu, Meng Guanglu and other “must-be-there” artists Jin Xiquan also occupied the stage for a few minutes. That’s just natural I wanted to know what was he singing!

Well, he was performing Xiao Yan, “The Small Dinner” from Lü Bu and Diaochan, a scene that starts to become his “trademark excerpt”. I found the video a few days ago, but I was so excited about downloading it quickly that I forgot where it was. It sounds so different (and strange) with Western instruments!

→ 京剧《小宴》Xiao Yan (The Small Dinner)  [DOWNLOAD] 40MB
Performed by Jin Xiquan.

Additionally, check out the short news video about the festival. I love Yu Kuizhi interviewed.

→ CCTV News – “Meet In Beijing 2011″  [DOWNLOAD] 22MB

“I love Western opera.” 

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

While I was browsing blogs today, I came across a very cute sound file. Although it serves only entertaining purposes, I think it’s important to save such recordings.

Beijing Opera masters Zhang Junqiu and Zhou Xinfang are entertaining their audience with the jingju version of a children’s game song, the Chinese variation of Duck, Duck, Goose. Both of them sing in their own, unique style of course.
Zhang Junqiu is announcing Zhou Xinfang at 01:18 – audience is happy. :)

→ Children’s song《丢手绢》Drop the Handkerchief  [MP3]

丢，丢，丢手绢，Lost, lost, lost the handkerchief,
轻轻地放在小朋友的后面，Gently dropped behind the back of a child.
大家不要告诉他，Don’t tell it to him,
快点快点捉住他，Hurry up, hurry up, let’s catch him!
快点快点捉住他。
快点快点捉住他。

Source: tudou.com