Beijing Opera

What is it? 

Beijing Opera is a combination of stylized action, singing, dialogue, mime, acrobatic fighting and dancing to portray a story or represent different characters and their feeling of happiness, anger, sadness, surprise, and fear. The characters range from being loyal or disloyal, beautiful or unattractive, good or bad. Their portrayal is always vividly displayed in bright costumes that show the styles of ancient China. It is regarded as the quintessence of China. 




Means of artistic presentation: 

Beijing Opera demonstrates dramatic performances and figures solely by combining 4 artistic methods: Singing, Dialogue, Dancing and Martial arts. Singing is used to intensify the appeal of the art form through distinct tones. Dialogue is the accessory of singing which is full of musical and rhythmic sensation. Dancing is the epitome of body movements requiring professional performing skills. Martial arts is the synthesis and transformation of traditional Chinese combat activities with danced.


The history of Beijing Opera:

Beijing Opera has a history of nearly 200 years, it developed from absorbing numerous other dramatic forms, mainly from the local drama 'Huiban', popular in South China during the 18th century.

In the 55th year when Emperor Qianlong was king, 4 major opera troupes from Anhui Province infiltrated the capital and integrated with Kungu, Yiyang, Hanju, and Luantan opera to create Beijing Opera.   

It is the most significant of all Chinese Operas, the traditional performances takes major credit for preserving Chinese culture for new generations.


Main roles in Beijing Opera: 

1. Sheng

• The male role 
• Composed of Lao Sheng and Xiao Sheng.
• Lao Sheng - Middle-aged man with a beard who acts as the decency figure
• Xiao Sheng means young man without a beard.

2. Dan 

• Female role 
• Divided into Zhengdan, Huadan, Laodan, Wudan
• Zhengdan refers to the strong-minded middle-aged woman who behaves elegantly
• Huadan refers to little girls who often live in the bottom of society
• Laodan refers to the senior woman
• Wudan indicates the female who is good at fighting

3. Jing 

• Painted face male characters with unique appearance or personality
• Baozheng and Caocao
• Chou is a comedic role or villainous character or righteous person 
• The actor's nose is painted by a piece of white powder, making them easily recognizable

Any of these roles can be the leading role in the performance, apart from Dan, the other three are for male characters. 

Repertoire of Beijing Opera:  

Traditional operas consist mainly of tales of previous dynasties, significant historical events, emperors and empresses, ministers and general, geniuses and special beauties. They symbolize stories from the ancient times to the Spring and Autumn Period, the the Warring States Period and certain dynasties. 

A few of the newer operas sprouted from literatures and classical novels during the rise of communism.    

Music of Beijing Opera: 

The melodies consist of harmonious rhythms that are graceful and pleasing to hear. The play is accompanied by tunes played on wind, percussion and stringed instruments. 

Costumes of Beijing Opera:

The most prominent feature of Beijing Opera, the costumes are elegant, graceful, and clever in color as well as design. They're mostly made using hand sewing and needlecraft. Traditional Chinese patterns are incorporated, making the costumes of high aesthetic value. 

Make-up of Beijing Opera: 

The colors are rich and portray different characters using symbolism of color, black usually represents intelligent characters, whereas white would indicate wickedness. Allows for their understanding and judgment of the roles in plays. By utilizing transformative and exaggerated figures, professional spectators would easily be able to figure out the characteristic of a role. There are specific formats of the facial painting when looking at color, type and shape. 

Beijing Opera Staging: 

Traditionally Chinese theaters were square platforms with the audience on three sides. Although at times stages would have the audience on all four sides and would have a central platform. Similar to the traditional stage curtains in the West, an sewn curtain known as a shoujiu was hung over the platform, which was divided into two parts: the back stage and the stage.