荒山泪 张火丁

A really old performance of “Tears on Barren Hill” starring Zhang Huoding is offered up by Tony Zheng at Youtube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n0OeT4-CZo

Sound is quite listenable even if picture quality is pretty awful.

Youtube videos can be downloaded using the Firefox add-on Video Downloadhelper http://www.downloadhelper.net/

Hello, today I am presenting a full-length Beijing Opera,《秦香莲》Qin Xianglian, originally performed in 2011/04/24 at the Mei Lanfang Grand Theater in Beijing.

It stars Wang Yige 王奕戈, Chen Junjie 陈俊杰, Zhu Qiang 朱强, and Han Shengcun 韩胜存, a very talented crew indeed.

The story, repeated from Fern’s storylines web page here:

An ambitious scholar, Chen Shimei is going to the capital to take the imperial examinations. He obtains top scores as the number one scholar, then advances his career even further when he marries into the imperial family and becomes the consort of the Emperor’s daughter. However, he forgets to mention that he already has a wife and two children who he left behind in a distant village.

Meanwhile Chen’s old parents die of starvation, and his wife Qin Xianglian finally comes to Kaifeng with the two kids, to obtain news about Chen Shimei.

In the capital, Chen claims not to know them, then he orders his bodyguard Han Qi to kill his wife and both children. However, moved by Qin Xianglian’s sad story, Han Qi is unable to slaughter a woman and two children, and kills himself instead.

Chen Shimei meets his fate when Qin Xianglian’s case is investigated by Judge Bao Zheng. Bao makes arrangements to confront Chen and her wife, but Chen Shimei refuses to admit his fault.

In court, Bao sentences him to death by decapitation, even though the Empress dowager and the princess pleads against the verdict.

I posted a full-length version of this opera before, starring Wang Rongrong, over two years ago. I try not to repeat operas in my posts, but this video was so nice it swayed me. It stars Wang Yige, a seldom seen qingyi performer who came in 5th in this year’s exhilarating 7th CCTV jingju competition (China’s answer to American Idol for Beijing Opera).

Physically, Wang Yige looks strong, with a straight nose that belongs on an ancient Greek statue. She moves very gracefully, especially in hand, arm and head gestures. Sometimes the camera pulls back a bit and you can see her full-length “floating” from side to side like a mechanical doll. Few actresses do it this well.

Her voice has a crystalline quality at times when she hits high notes (an example at 18:15). She also has impressive volume, which occasionally overpowers the microphone. I had not seen her this well before, which is a shame, because she is top notch.

Fern set me straight for the rest of the cast.

Han Shengcun, not Zhu Qiang as I said here initially, splendidly plays the dastardly Chen. His sustained double take at 14:00 is just delicious. He sings very well to his own children pleading at his feet then kicks them away at 28:00. He does the same to his wife (rather well executed too, I thought) at 30:00. Truly a bad guy you love to hate! A story this juicy is hard to make up, and sure enough when I checked, was based on actual events. Today, “Chen Shimei” is a byword for men who betrayed their love in China. (I wonder if that applies to “Internet widows” as well).

Zhu Qiang, whom Fern just met in Sicily, plays the benevolent Wang Yanling, who arranges the banquet where Qin Xianglian sings about her woes.

Chen Junjie plays the implacable Judge Bao.

The Dowager was Kang Jing (康静), and the almost-assassin with a heart of gold Han Qi was Wang Xueqing (王雪清).

A Chinese web page about the performance where I swiped the Wang Yige close-up above can be found here.

Fern added that because of conventions, Qin Xianglian is often played by a Zhang school actress, such as Wang Yige, while Wang Yanling is often Ma school. In the 1964 classic movie of the same title,  Zhang Junqiu and Ma Lianliang play these roles themselves.

I found the narrative of this version of the opera somehow swifter and much clearer to follow. The acting is very fresh, Wang Yige and the rest of the cast do not cease to surprise.

All in all, a joy to watch!

Click here to download the video

File format is .mkv; file size is 1.1 GB

Let me know what you think.

Cheers!

Hello again,

A shorter post this time perhaps, but a wonderful opera nonetheless: here is another Kunqu classic, “The Palace of Eternal Youth”.

(from wikipedia) “The Palace of Eternal Life (长生殿), also translated as The Palace of Eternal Youth is a play written by Hong Sheng (洪升) (1645-1704) in the 27th year of Emperor Kangxi’s reign (1688), during  the Qing Dynasty. He absorbed certain material from the long narrative poems The Song of Everlasting Sorrow (长恨歌) written by Bai Juyi and Zaju (杂剧) Chinese Parasol Tree Rain (梧桐雨) written by Bai Pu. The Palace of Eternal Life is acclaimed as one of the China’s “Four Great Classical Dramas”, along with The Peony Pavilion, The Peach Blossom Fan and the The Story of the Western Wing. The performance is focused on the everlasting love story of Emperor Ming of the Tang Dynasty (唐明皇) and his favorite consort Lady Yang (杨贵妃).”

As we saw in the Kunqu documentary two posts ago, the author was frustrated with his imperial duties and wrote his court experiences into the story. (wikipedia) “(The play) combines frank political realism with metaphysics, Confucian ideals of state with Taoistic ideals of the soul.”

The story:

Based on historical facts, it tells the love story between the emperor and his concubine who wished to be “two love-birds flying wing to wing, and on earth two trees with branches twined from spring to spring,” interlacing reality and dream. At the same time, the work also reflects the complicated contradictions and clashes within and outside the court, giving a historical picture of the joys and sorrows of the people and the rise and fall of a dynasty.

This performance by the Jiangsu Kunqu Troupe is full of colourful costumes and exquisite moves. It is also very pleasant to western ears!

Click here download part 1 of the video

Click here download part 2 of the video

A word of warning, the sound is very loud, bring down the volume before playing the video.

Enjoy!

Last post, we had a comprehensive introduction to Kunqu Opera through the 10 part CCTV documentary video series. Today we present a lavish production of the Kunqu Opera classic, “The Peony Pavilion”. I’ve mentioned before that I do not add an “Among our top picks” category to as post lightly. My thinking is that this category should be the starting point of discovery on this web site for someone unfamiliar with Chinese Opera. It’s the “Just show me the incredibly good stuff” category. Well, here’s one that absolutely belongs among the very best.

(from wikipedia) “The Peony Pavilion (Chinese: 牡丹亭; pinyin: mǔdāntíng) is a play written by Tang Xianzu (1550-1616) in the Ming Dynasty, and first performed in 1598. It is by far the most popular play of the Ming Dynasty, (1368-1644), China’s artistic golden age, and is the primary showcase of the guimendan (闺门旦/閨門旦) role type (young, unmarried girl).” The Peony Pavilion is considered a literary masterpiece in China, in which the main theme is love, or more precisely, a love so perfect it overrides even time and death.

As explained in the documentary from last post, this was originally conceived as a 20 hour opera and written in a musical notation that did not include rhythm and tempo information. Musical instruments used at the time have changed, disappeared or evolved a great deal since the opera was conceived much like the harpsichord was replaced by the piano in western opera. Further, the original play was revised even in the author’s lifetime to adhere more strictly to the definitions then of the structural rules that a Kunqu opera should follow. All modern presentations of this play are to a large extent adaptations which are viewed as more or less “traditional”.

There have been several productions of this opera in the past decade, this is the “2007 Young Lovers’ Edition” which toured worldwide. (from wikipedia again) “Bai Xianyong’s adaptation of The Peony Pavilion that premiered in 2004 helped rejuvenate the tradition. Bai, a Chinese scholar at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his colleagues – scholars and performers, some brought back from retirement – spent five months editing Tang’s script. Working out of the Jiangsu Suzhou Kunqu Theater, the group condensed and adapted the original fifty-five scenes to twenty-seven scenes, and twenty hours of performance time to nine. Bai, who had chosen The Peony Pavilion because of its universal message of love, hoped that his rendition would attract youth to Kunqu. In fact, in its tour of China’s top universities, the show was marketed as the Youth Edition of Peony Pavilion. (The production also toured in Taipei, Hong Kong, Macau, seven cities in mainland China, and the Zellerbach Theater in Berkeley, California.) According to Bai, the goal of this youth-oriented production was to “give new life to the art form, cultivate a new generation of Kunqu aficionados, and offer respect to playwright Tang and all the master artists that came before.” His production of The Peony Pavilion was his way of doing so.” The UCLA still have a website for this production dating back a few years here.

This version of the play is therefore quite long — 9 hours, or three parts each roughly 3 hours in length and performed over three days. And contrary to “epic” productions we have seen in the past from China such as “Hongzongliema”, there is no cast rotation — the same actors play in all three parts.

Lead performers:
Du Liniang 杜丽娘 by Shen Fengying 沈丰英
Liu Mengmei 柳梦梅 by Yu Jiulin 俞玖林

“Shen Fengying is an outstanding young artist of the Suzhou Kunqu Opera Theatre of Jiangsu. She was trained in the guimendan (young unmarried lady) roles and coached by the famous Kunqu artists. Zhang Jiqing and Liu Jiyan. She won the Performance Award at the first Kunqu Arts Festival in China, and the Silver Award at the Accreditation Showcase for Young to Middle-aged Performers in Professional Companies in Suzhou. Yu Jiulin was trained in the jinsheng (young scholar) roles at the Suzhou Kun Opera Theater of Jiangsu Province. A talented, young artist, he was coached by the famous Kunqu artists. Wang Shiyu and Shi Xiaomei. He won the Performance Award at the first Kunqu Arts Festival in China, and the Gold Award at the Accreditation Showcase for Young to Middle-aged Performers in Professional Companies in Suzhou.” (ref here)

At the end of part 3, complete credits are provided in both Chinese and English for the production cast, all the performers, as well as (most rare in Chinese Opera) all the musicians.

The UCLA have a couple of PDFs that translate passages of this play into English. They include:

Excerpts from famous scenes (mirror)

Book 1 Script, part 1 (mirror)

Book 1 Script, part 2 (mirror)

A complete translation of the Peony Pavilion by Cyril Birch can be purchased on Amazon. The original Chinese version is available for your ebook reader for free here.

The story in brief:

Du Liniang, a sheltered, lonely girl of sixteen, dreams of meeting an imaginary, handsome young scholar near the Peony Pavilion. Over time, she dreams repeatedly of their imaginary romantic encounters. Eventually, saddened by her unrealised dreams, she wastes away. Before she dies, she paints a self-portrait and hides it in the garden. Three years later, the scholar of the girl’s dreams arrives at the Peony Pavilion in the flesh, his name is Liu Mengmei. He discovers the hidden panting, and falls in love with the girl in the portrait so completely that she springs back into life and they are united at last.

As indicated by wiki again, “This is only a broad outline of the plot of an opera which typically runs for 20 hours. The performance tradition has focused on the love story between Du Liniang (杜丽娘/杜麗娘) and Liu Mengmei (柳梦梅/柳夢梅), but its original text also contains sub-plots pertaining to the falling Song Dynasty’s defence against the aggression of the Jin Dynasty.

The widened plot is therefore:

It is the last days of the Southern Song Dynasty (960-1269). On a fine Spring day, a maid persuades Du Liniang, the sixteen year old daughter of an important official, Du Bao, to take a walk in the garden, where she falls asleep. In Du Liniang’s dream she encounters a young scholar, identified later in the play as Liu Mengmei, whom in real life she has never met. Liu’s bold advances starts off a flaming romance between the two and it flourishes rapidly. Du Liniang’s dream is interrupted by a flower petal falling on her, according to her soliloquy recounting the incident in a later act: (Reflection on the lost dream). Du Liniang, however, becomes preoccupied with her dream affair and her love sickness quickly consumes her. Unable to recover from her fixation, Du Liniang wastes away and dies. A demon, the president of the underworld, adjudicates that a marriage between Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei is predestined and Du Liniang must return to the earthly world. Du Liniang appears to Liu Mengmei in his dreams. He now inhabits the same garden where Du Liniang had her fatal dream. Once recognising that Du Bao’s deceased daughter is the lady who appears in his dreams, Liu agrees to exhume her upon her request and Du Liniang is brought back to life. Liu visits Du Bao and informs him of his daughter’s resurrection. However, Liu is imprisoned for being a grave robber and an impostor. The ending of the play follows the formula of many Chinese comedies. Liu Mengmei narrowly escapes death by torture thanks to the arrival of the results of the imperial examination in which Liu has topped the list. The emperor pardons all.”

The added grave robbing and underworld demons elements now in mind, the story of this version of the Peony Pavilion is, according to the UCLA web site:

“Part I: The Dream of Love
Du Liniang, a sheltered, lonely girl of sixteen, dreams of a handsome young scholar. Saddened that he was only a dream, she pines away. Before she dies, she paints a self-portrait and hides it in the garden. Her mother buries her under a plum tree, and a shrine is erected to her memory. Most of the singing and action in Part I is done by the female lead, in melismatic, haunting melodies.
 
Part II: Romance and Resurrection
Liu Mengmei, an impoverished scholar, dreams of a beautiful young woman under a plum tree who prophesies that only she will bring him happiness. Meanwhile,  Du Liniang‘s parents murn and the family mansion becomes derelict. The family’s gardener takes pity on the destitute Liu Mengmei and lets him stay in the secret pavilion. There, he finds Du Liniang’s portrait, and falls in love with the image. Liniang’s ghost appears. Convinced of Mengmei’s love, she reveals that she is a ghost, but that she can be revived. Braving his own fears, Mengmei decides to reopen her grave. Helped by Stone Sister, a Daoist abbess, Liu digs up the grave and Du Liniang returns to life.
 
Part III: Reunion and Triumph
The lively resolution to the story. Mengmei succeeds as a scholar, but not before being punished on suspicion of grave robbing. Liniang is reunited with her parents, but not before her stern father admits that love can conquer death. This final section contains some of the liveliest and most humorous episodes in all of Kunqu.”

Aesthetically, many theatrical conventions found in Beijing Opera today are the same here, such as costumes, props and pantomimes. This production is both traditionally sparse in its sets, but also resolutely modern in its lighting — an absolute treat, in my opinion. Acting is superlative and movement, especially, is divine.  To tell the truth, the physical acting coupled with the marvellous lighting is what makes this production really leap out at you.

The difference between this Kunqu Opera and modern Beijing opera lies mostly in the instrumentation and slower pace of the music. Gongs and percussion are less prominent and intrusive than in regular Beijing Opera. The information for these is simply missing from the original musical scores, so there is less of it, perhaps. Or it was decided that this is a sticking point for western audiences unused to them. Or both. Western strings are used, musicians playing a violin and cello are credited, but you won’t distinguish those instruments from the rest, they are used (I think) to chorus and sweeten the Chinese string instruments, rather than compete with them.

Western audiences unfamiliar with Chinese opera will enjoy the singing from this young cast, which is not at all high pitched as in Mei school Beijing Opera. The intended goal is to be as pleasant as (super)humanly possible here, not  to demonstrate vocal virtuosity, although it is said the original score by Tang Xianzu was decried for being very difficult to sing. Certainly that is not apparent here: the performers do not strain visibly to hit a high note. All is fluid.

In conclusion, only the very best box of Belgian chocolates comes anywhere close to being this good.

Click here to download Part 1 of the video (697 MB, .mkv format)

Click here to download Part 2 of the video (697 MB, .mkv format)

Click here to download Part 3 of the video (698 MB, .mkv format)

Click here the “making of” documentary video in Chinese (348 MB, .mkv format)

A video interview in Chinese by the UCLA with the author of this adaptation, Bai Xianyong, can be found here

A final technical note:

The video is subtitled in Chinese, but you might need to adjust your settings in VLC to see the subtitles correctly.

In menu Tools > Preferences > Subtitles and OSD > change the “Default encoding” to “Universal, Chinese” and select a Unicode font which includes Chinese characters. On my system, I used the following settings (click to enlarge):

Your font settings might need to be slightly different than mine, the list of available fonts will vary from operating system to operating system, but you get the idea.

Enjoy!

Hello,

This is a collaborative post between Bertrand and Fern, whose help was invaluable to get the facts straight. I also have to thank Géza again for forwarding me this video a couple of months ago via USB stick in the regular mail. I only got around to watching a couple of weekends ago and was bowled by the terrific performances. I emailed Géza to express my great enthusiasm for it and he replied, “Yes, the performance is superb. It is my all time favorite performance.”

According to the encyclopedia Fern, the cast for this show is Lü Yang, Wang Peiyu, Zhang Ke (I thought it was An Ping!), Wang Yan, Ma Jie, Li Hong, and Wei Yigang. It was filmed in 2000 at the Tianjin Binhu Theatre in Shanghai (武家坡+算军粮+银空山+大登殿).

The basic story of Wujia Po, or the Wujia Slope, is simple. Like Ulysses in the Odyssey, a husband (named Pinggui) who has been away for 18 years returns to find his wife (Baochuan) after making good. He finds her living humbly near a cave, unchanged. She does not recognise him and escapes into the cave. The husband decides to test her love by tempting her with silver and sweet promises to accompany him and leave on horseback. She firmly resists his many advances. Finally, he reveals his true identity and they are reunited.

Wujia Slope is part however of a larger epic, 《红鬃烈马》Hongzong Liema, (the red-maned fiery horse), which consists of numerous episodes. Fern has gathered synopses for each of the episodes here.

In the video presented here today, the husband and wife story takes up the first hour of the opera. It is a pretty bare bones Cheng school play with a simple costume for the female lead, few props and only two characters on stage.Everything depends on the delivery, a demanding task. I’ve posted a video of this before, performed by my favorite singer, Zhang Huoding, here.

After the first hour, there is an abrupt segue and the husband Pinggui  and wife Baochuan have returned to the imperial court. This story shift was a bit hard to figure out. Fern had to lay it all out for me.

First comes the the “stock-taking” scene which is rarely staged. Repeating from Fern’s storyline post:

《算军粮》Suan Jun Liang (Stock-taking the Army Provisions) - At Wang Yun’s birthday celebration, a fierce argument is going on between Wei Hu and Xue Pinggui, regarding the provisions of the last 18 years. After the death of the Tang emperor, Wang Yun seizes the throne and sends troops to capture Xue Pinggui.

(in the picture below,Wei Hu and Pinggui argue):

Following is the 《银空山》Yinkong Shan (Silver Sky Mountain) scene with Wang Yan as Princess Daizhan.  Eventually, with the help of Princess Daizhan, Pinggui (just like Ulysses), will wrest back the throne from usurpers. At the end of which the two losers are arrested by the foreigner furry soldiers of Daizhan and the emperor’s seal is taken back (symbolised by a brick covered in a yellow scarf).

Finally, the scene 《大登殿》Da Deng Dian (The Great Enthronement) closes the opera – Pinggui takes the throne and makes Baochuan Empress. He orders the execution of Wang Yun, but Wang Baochuan begs him to spare the life of her father. Pinggui gives in, and he even allows Mrs. Wang to live in the palace (everyone: peace and love, no hard feelings).

I posted a video of Zhang Huoding performing Da Deng Dian before here. That video begins with the arrest pictured above.

Zhang Huoding’s performances in the Wujia Slope scene often seems to my eyes to have become “the blueprint that must be followed” by younger Cheng school performers such as Lü Yang, Guo Wei and especially (just being a bit stern despite the fact she is my new crush) Zhao Huan. Fortunately, I am happy to say, in this video Lü Yang gives a very fresh performance, quite her own, playful and downright catty at times. Simply, her singing is the best I have heard her and her moves are the best I have seen her. She is so good during the five minutes that start at 10:45 that she is the only one startled when the audience member yells his approval at her exquisite gestures, and she cracks a thankful smile at 15:29 that is not in the script.

Wang Peiyu, another actress, plays the husband. This is perhaps not her most memorable role, but boy does she shine! Tremendous singing! It is clear that Lü Yang and Wang Peiyu clicked during this production.

The files Géza sent me were simply too big to post in .VOB format, so I used Daniusoft’s DVD ripper to reduce them to a format more adapted to the web. The source audio is not very loud and it has an audible hum, so to watch the video I recommend you do the same as I: in VLC, use the built-in pre-amplifier and graphic equaliser by going menu Tools > Effects and Filters > Audio Effects tab

My audio correction looked like this, but you might tweak to your own taste:

Click here to download Part 1 of the video

(mp4 format, file size 920 MB)

Click here to download Part 2 of the video

(mp4 format, file size 843 MB)

Enjoy!

I’ve been meaning to post this for two weeks, but I am a bit scatter-brained these days. Too much Easter chocolate! Too much dessert!

Today we have a video of the Beijing Opera version of Hamlet starring Fu Xiru (傅希如) and Zhao Huan (赵欢) as Hamlet and Ophelia respectively. I posted an excerpt from this opera shot from the audience recently, this time this is a TV production shot in Shanghai. A very interesting hybrid jingju opera leaning resolutely toward the traditional but with fun elements thrown in.

I guess this is the production Fern missed in Edinburgh, titled as “The Revenge of Prince Zidan”.

This is not the first Asian twist of Hamlet, according to wikipedia the play was adapted kabuki-style and presented in Japan over a century ago.

Fu Xiru is a favourite of Fern’s and she has blogged often about him. This was the first time I really discovered him. I thought he was just a local media darling who was a bit of a foolish trickster, but he is in fact a first-class actor who performs back breaking physical stunts at the drop of a hat. He is not as high pitched as Jin Xiquan, but he is charismatic with a good voice and is spectacularly acrobatic. Here he is holding his leg up:

Here he is crouching AND holding his leg up:

I tried this myself today in my living room… NOT! Saying he is “supple” is almost ridiculous in this context. Somersaults, sidestepping over long distances on one foot James Brown style, spectacular crashes to the floor, Fu can do! He will play Hamlet with quite a lot of swagger and arrogance. He barks at other actors often.

The opera opens with the cemetery scene where the ghost of Hamlet’s father will reveal to him that he was murdered. A bit confusing here: there are two painted faces, making it hard to figure out who was the ghost of the father. This one is “prince of the netherworld”:

And this is Hamlet’s dead father returned as a ghost:

Needless to say, my eyes were on Zhao Huan, the Cheng school marvel, wondering whether her part and her material would be memorable. Unfortunately in this opera, she is a secondary player and sings only briefly in Part One.

Her opening aria at 40 minutes is a bit marred by successive video glitches, but she displays noticeably good control between 41:00 and 42:00. The duet that follows is quite atypical for a Beijing opera. Normally everyone takes turns singing, they do not sing together. Fu Xiru’s microphone is a bit louder than hers at the onset.

Hamlet rails in anger, Ophelia loves him regardless. His shouting and pushing Ophelia down to the floor is also “definitely not Beijing Opera”. Still, the scene is very well acted and interesting to watch.

Follows the preparation for the “play within a play”, where Hamlet asks actors to re-enact in court as “fiction” an assassination identical to his father’s in order to see his uncle’s reaction. Part one of the video ends rather abruptly.

Part Two shows the play within the play, admirable in the way its actors imitate marionettes on a string, a wonderful find and a superb analogy. Naturally the new king flees in dread at the sight of his re-enacted crime.

There are a couple of odd moments. One that struck me was Hamlet hovering behind his uncle with sword raised, hesitating to do him in.

The queen gets a lengthy Mei style aria at around 15:00 in, followed by a confrontation with her son where he pretty much spits every word at her. The dwarf is done in. Hamlet talks to his father’s ghost and his mother thinks him mad. It’s a tragedy!

Ophelia returns to pick flowers, now mad with grief. Zhao Huan sings a beautiful acapella number that is all too brief. Follows the introduction of the henchman (Laertes) who is hired by the king to assassinate Hamlet, and Ophelia sings her farewell aria, Zhao Huan’s finest moment in this opera. At 37:27, she matter-of-factly does a neat trick of folding her water sleeve by whipping it up and stabbing into it.

Fu Xiru sings extremely well in turn and the gravedigger scene scene follows. “Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him well.”

Ophelia’s funeral procession arrives. She has drowned in mysterious circumstances. Queen Gertrude sprinkles flowers on her. “Sweets to the sweet. Farewell!”

Fern looked over my shoulder as I was slowly piecing this post together, reminding me that the rest of the cast for this play was:

Guo Ruiyue 郭睿玥 as Hamlet’s mom,

Chen Yu 陈宇 as the evil uncle (Claudius),

Yan Qinggu 严庆谷 as the dwarf (Polonius),

Liu Dake 刘大可 plays Pan Guan, the underworld judge (both Fern and I thought he was great),

Geng Lu 耿露 (who is a girl!) plays the ghost daddy (photo below):

I found this play very visual, with interesting sets, lighting and fog effects. Like I said it is experimental, quite  a bit western in feel at certain moments, and should be viewed as such. The story was a bit too familiar, which I think was a bit of a drawback. I find I am fascinated by Chinese Opera thinking and stories, and of course here we followed Shakespeare’s logic like a train on rails.

The volume on these videos is loud, be careful to lower it on your computer before starting. Overall sound and video are very good, except when there is fast movement, causing the video to blur a bit. The video also has occasional splicing glitches, but we’ve seen worse. Anyhow, if and when a better copy comes along, we’ll post it.

Meanwhile:

Click here to download Hamlet part 1

Click here to download Hamlet part 2

And (patent pending), enjoy!

I really like Li Haiyan, she is a magnificent singer.

My phone rang twice, my 8 year-old son came in to fetch a ruler for his homework (the drawing table is in the basement, I’m on the second floor), my wife interrupted as well, all that, still… Li Haiyan’s entrance in the spectacular and uncharacteristically lavish production of Wenji filmed on 2011-09-12 at the Mei Lanfang Theater in Beijing cannot be marred. This is a very nice audience recording with good sound (just don’t forget to turn down the volume a bit) and a great HD picture (also known as “HQ” in Hungary) shot on a tripod.

We just went over the story for this opera, the story of a kidnapped princess who bears her captor two sons. Then, years later, her ransom is finally paid and she has to decide if she will return to her own country and abandon all her loves behind.

This is a very well lit play, especially for Beijing Opera, with tasteful, lush set decorations, wonderful painted backdrops inspired to my eyes by the Canadian Group of Seven, all of which translates to a “hybrid play” of Beijing Opera, not for purists of the genre. If you saw this set’s furniture in a retail store, it would cost $7000 for the calligraphy table alone.

Li Haiyan enters wearing an absolutely gorgeous costume and headdress and sings rather quietly at first. She moves delicately, playing a creature of perfumed splendor with subtlety in a sumptuous production where everything is big and in your face.

Experimenting is bound to happen, and indeed, there is an odd moment of pre-recorded music at 45:00, with Li Haiyan standing looking stunned, followed by a (canned ?) serenade over dialogue. This sequence was not particularly successful I think, but is the exception overall.

There is perhaps too much dialogue by secondary players. The “boy” is shrill to my ears, played by a petite adult actress almost a head shorter than the other actors.

The end of Li Haiyan’s aria which begins at 52:00 segues into a nice but out of place orchestral sweep that begins at 54:00 which feels quite a bit “modern red”. This happens again during Song Xiaochuan’s next aria.

In part two, Li Hayan arrives “by chariot”. This should have been one of the highlights of the opera, but Li Haiyan is not entirely convincing. Bad miking? Strange arrangement? Sore throat? Music too loud and the performer can’t hear herself on stage without monitors? Or is her singing too subtle with some of it is lost in the 12th row?

Her best moments comes as her character visits the tomb (on her pilgrimage home or as a side trip before going home?) during the 7 minutes or so that begin at 28:00. She plays hesitation and indecision in a very low key fashion, no obvious pantomime or high drama.

The final farewell takes forever (I thought she was halfway home already?) I’m confused, the son stays with her at the end in this one?

In conclusion, a splendid show, despite a couple of off-kilter details.

It would have been nice to be been standing on stage right next to Li Haiyan in full costume as she was singing it.

Click here to download part 1

Click here to download part 2

Thank you to Fern who sent me the link to this admirable fan’s page at tudou.

Fern wrote me last week:

I’m pretty excited about this new finding: a nearly 3 hours long Long Feng
Cheng Xiang with double cast, Zhang Huoding is Lady Sun in the first half
of the opera.
(source was here)

Sound is fine, video is medium.

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)
张建国 杜镇杰 李鸣岩 张火丁 温如华 黄齐峰 王平 叶少兰 吴钰璋

I just got around to downloading this, after realising it is not the Great Enthronement (easy to confuse, the costumes are similar).

Fern just posted this opera with a different cast on her Ear Candy blog here, but because I can’t resist posting anything with Zhang Huoding in it, and since she is indeed this blog’s theme of the week, here is the video.

Watching this, when Zhang Huoding makes her entrance at 1:12 in imperial yellow, she hit a scratchy note straight off at 1:13:40 and I told myself, “Oh no! She is not in good voice!” Then at 1:14:06 she launched into a terrific 30 seconds that is simply fan-tas-tic. Okay, I know this is a fan talking, but… I would kill to see 1:14 to 1:22 in person.

I should note that although Zhang Huoding and Wen Ruhua play the same role, there is little chance you will confuse the two actors!

I used the Windows Vidown to download and automatically stitch the 20 or so video segments together. So far so good, but the resulting .flv file kept halting dead in VLC, so I converted it using Handbrake to an m4v file, which cannot be distingued from the flv and plays great in VLC. Just so I can remember what I did next time I run into this issue again, here are my Handbrake settings. (click to enlarge — say Fern, are your settings like these?)

File size is 695 MB

Click here to download the video

Thank you, Fern.

Sometimes, you just never know.

A want list item found! Here is a complete and quite watchable video of Zhang Huoding and Zhao Baoxiu in 大登殿 Da Deng Dian (The Great Enthronement) from 2006-11-25 .

It’s as good as it gets for an audience recorded video — good picture, good sound, and steady, professional quality camera work. In fact if the stage had been miked, all that would have been missing is the CCTV11 watermark.

This is a find, provided by a devoted fan on the zhanghuoding.com web site’s forum. God bless! To get hold of this , I managed to register in Chinese all by myself on 115.com, and to figure out what to click on to obtain a file (wasn’t easy).

The entire play is under 50 minutes and is quite low key. Zhang Huoding basically has to sit and stand a couple of times and that’s about as heady as it gets. On the other hand, this opera is quite big on actresses singing, and all three ladies here are in exceptional form. Zhang Huoding in 2006 could really sing, and here she has two superb arias to deliver. Zhao Baoxiu in a brief role gets her chance to shine as well. I third actress in this production, obviously Mei school, was in great voice too, but I was unable to identify her. Fern, of course, was 50 steps ahead of me and provided not only the cast list but the context in which this short production was presented. Basically, Zhang Huoding presented two plays in two days. Fern writes:

On 2006-11-25 there was a performance of Hongzong Liema, in which Zhang Huoding starred in the Wujia Po and the Da Deng Dian parts. (Special pleasure for me that the first part, Bie Yao, was played by Jin Xiquan and Xiong Mingxia. I must have this part! )

The full cast for these two days’ performances is as follows:

11/24

《武文华》 张火千 蔡景超 Wu Wenhua (Zhang Huoqian, Cai Jingchao)

《鸳鸯冢》 张火丁 宋小川 李崇善 寇春华 吕昆山 金立水 唐禾香 黄涛 Mandarin Duck Grave (Zhang Huoding, Song Xiaochuan, Li Chongshan, Kou Chunhua, Lü Kunshan, Jin Lishui)

 11/25

《红鬃烈马》 Red-maned Fiery Horse

《别窑》 金喜泉 熊明霞 Pinggui Leaves His Home (Jin Xiquan, Xiong Mingxia)

《武家坡》 张火丁 杜镇杰 Wujia Slope (Zhang Huoding, Du Zhenjie)

《银空山》 邓敏 宋小川 马翔飞 寇春华 吕昆山 黄文俊 陈真治 Silver Sky Mountain (Deng Min, Song Xiaochuan, Ma Xiangfei, Kou Chunhua, Lü Kunshan, Huang Wenjun, Chen Zhenzhi)

*《大登殿》 张火丁 李崇善 赵葆秀 常秋月 The Great Enthronement – Zhang Huoding (as Wang Baochuan), Li Chongshan (as Xue Pinggui), Zhao Baoxiu (as Mme Wang), Chang
Qiuyue, Xun school (as Princess Daizhan)

Thank you, Fern!

The audience on this video is very receptive, and the flowers just keep piling up when the performers take their bow.

You really shouldn’t start with this video if you are new to Beijing Opera, because of the video quality and the overall low excitement of the plot. But this is probably the only chance you’ll have to see one of the truly great Beijing opera actresses, and my favorite singer, in this opera in our lifetime. There will likely *never* be an HD version of this, *ever*.

The file format is old school Realaudio .ra, which fortunately can be played with VLC. File size is 360 MB.

Click here to download the video

(update)

Fern found a better quality version of this file, the video is slightly bigger and file format is a lot friendlier mkv. File size is 375 MB. Thank you Fern!

Click here to download Fern’s version of this video

And enjoy!

For this weekend I picked a two-in-one opera, thus we can get familiar with two classics in one go.

The script of Panic in Han Palace, fusing the traditional dramas《姚期 》Yao Qi and《打金砖》 Da Jinzhuan (Suicide at the Palace) was written by Zhu Bingxian, disciple of Ma Lianliang. The very first staging with Li Guang, Li Xin and Yuan Guolin was a huge success, and this play is considered original and innovative till present day.

You can download a live recording of this first version here as a wma file.

Li Guang (李光), who was fortunate enough to learn from teachers like Li Shaochun and Gai Jiaotian, gave directions to this particular performance as art advisor. He was guiding Du Zhe during the rehearsals of Wildboar Forest too, now I understand why that turned out so well.
Du Zhe appears as Emperor Guangwu this time, and proves that he choose wisely when he decided to go on with Tan style – fits him! I start to really like this boy.

So let the fun begin, enjoy the classic story with younger generation cast!

京剧《汉宫惊魂》 Han Gong Jinghun (Panic in Han Palace)

Click here to download the video.

Length: 2:39:39 File size: 0.99GB, 768×576 Extension: MKV
Chang’an Grand Theater, 2010-12-03

Cast:

Liu Xiu: Du Zhe (杜喆) (Beijing), Feng Guanbo (冯冠博) (Guizhou)
Yao Qi: Wang Yue (王越) (Shanxi)
Yao Gang: Liu Dake (刘大可) (China National Jingju Company)
Ma Wu: Yang Donghu (杨东虎) (Shanghai)
Lady Guo: Chen Ai (陈嫒) (Tianjin)
Mrs. Yao: Guo Yaoyao (郭瑶瑶) (CNJC)
Deng Yu: Ma Li (马力) (CNJC)
Guo Rong: Liu Kuikui (刘魁魁) (CNJC)

Summary:

Ma Wu arrives to Yao Qi with good news: Liu Xiu (aka. Han Emperor Guangwu) promoted his young son, Yao Gang for his achievements. Yao with wife and son heads to the imperial court.

Liu Xiu is very fond of Yao Qi, he’s a loyal minister and general since the start. The Emperor grants the hot-headed Yao Gang a prestigious title (“ferocious marquis”). Imperial tutor Guo Rong is burning in the fire of jealousy that such a “baby” got this title.

When Yao Gang is parading on horseback in the streets, Guo Rong blocks the gate of the official residence and doesn’t let him through. Yao Gang gets furious and accidentally beats Guo Rong to death. He doesn’t seem to be worried, but Yao Qi is very upset. Guo Rong was not only imperial tutor, but also imperial concubine Guo’s father.

Of course Lady Guo demands the Emperor to behead Yao Gang. Liu Xiu doesn’t order Yao Gang’s execution, but sends him away to a faraway army post to serve a penal sentence.

The notable aria you frequently hear in concerts starts around 1:22. The Emperor remembers the time they spent together with Yao Qi, Yao had three sons, now only one left. When Yao’s auntie hanged herself, Yao Qi cut down the usual three years of mourning to three months, then three days, then three hours, three quarter of hours, three minutes, finally he never wore mourning apparel, in order to be able to defend the Emperor.
No wonder Liu Xiu was reluctant to behead Yao Gang, all along in the play he calls Yao “brother”.

Three days, three hours, three minutes…

Once when Liu Xiu is drunk, Lady Guo with ulterior motive asks him to pardon Yao Gang. The Emperor orders Yao Qi to the palace, so that Yao can ask for the favor.
Guo spills the wine cup that Yao Qi offers, then deliberately drops the cup to the ground and says it was Yao’s insult.
The totally zonked Emperor orders Yao Qi to be executed.

I liked the way Chen Ai portrayed this little vixen, her moves missing all dignity, those shrewd face expressions… I really wanted to punch her in the face.
Yang Donghu’s short horseback scene around 1:47 is also pretty cool.

With a high hand, Lady Guo takes the imperial sword (practically a licence to kill), gives it to Deng Yu and orders him to behead Yao Qi, Ma Wu and two other generals. Deng Yu is concerned about politics, doesn’t want to kill four important pillars of the state, thus he takes a few criminals from the death row to substitute Yao, Ma and the others.

With the four heads in the buckets, Deng Yu goes back to the Emperor and returns the sword. Liu Xiu starts to sober up, and realizes what he has done. He collapses, as if he has lost his soul. In a miserable condition, he visits the  shrine of ancestors at the top of the palace to beg forgiveness. (I wonder who is the ancestor on the painting in the shrine?)

“Where’s my Aspirin? What happened? And where’s the sword of command?”

“Here it is, Your Majesty, Lady Guo gave it to me.” “Goodness Gracious!”

The final scene is the most interesting part of the play. Deng Yu calls back the four generals to explain the truth. They return to the palace at night, but Liu Xiu thinks they are all ghosts, of course he’s scared to death.

Feng Guanbo from 2:27 to 2:30 presents all most common and most spectacular acrobatic skills in 3 minutes. (I would like to write a summary about these some time, I’m currently working on the topic but information is hard to find. Either way, it’s easy to guess which one is called “stiff corpse”. )

It’s not easy to convince Liu Xiu that everyone is fine, but finally we get a happy ending: Yao Gang is ordered home, Yao Qi gets his title back, Concubine Guo is thrown into prison.

I read a bit in Wikipedia about Emperor Guangwu, according to that Empress Guo really lost the Emperors favor for her constant whining, and Guangwu made his childhood sweetheart, Yin Lihua empress. Awww. As far as I noticed, in China and Japan childhood love resulting in marriage is held in high esteem.

A final note: Where on earth is “suicide at the palace” in this play, you might ask. The traditional opera Da Jinzhuan (lit. Hit with the Golden Brick) has a more sinister ending: the angry Ma Wu hits the head of the crazed Emperor with a golden brick. Guangwu climbs up to the top of the shrine and jumps down from there.
Sad end.

Story, sound file: liyuan.xikao.com
Photos: 戏剧像素

You see? I can control myself. I didn’t say “I just love Ma Li.” Ooops…