There are few people who take backups as seriously as I do. I believe in redundancy and taking a copy of my data off site.

Why?

Because I am so spectacularly inept at times, I awe myself. Yesterday I bought tickets to the Toronto Zoo for this summer to see the pandas lent by China last month, received the bar-coded tickets to be printed by email. And then accidentally reformatted the hard drive. I reformat a lot at work you see, and instead of /dev/sdc I should have typed /dev/sdd and formatted the other thingie.

Um…

I blame it on lack of rest and my monkey ancestry.

Anyhow, I am glad to say the author of one of the emails I have lost in a previous blunder has written back. Here is what he has to say:

Tommi Ojanperä from Finland writes:

“Hello fellow Chinese opera enthusiast!
 
(Hopefully you still remember who I am…)
 
I just came across a wonderful piece of recent news, and I thought I’d share it with you:
The 18 month restoration of the Grand Theater in the Summer Palace is now complete!
Well, to be precise, they’ve restored the entire Deheyuan section, but the Grand Theater (Daxilou) is of course the main attraction there. To celebrate this reopening, they’ve put together a Peking opera exhibit by bringing out 128 items from the vaults of the Forbidden City!
For more information, including a video clip from CCTV News, go here:
http://beijing.china.org.cn/2013-04/28/content_28678854.htm
 
By the way, I’ve recently posted some of my own photos taken in China (mainly Beijing) to this website:
http://picuna.com/tojan76/albums
In the album titled “Daxilou (Yiheyuan, Beijing)” you will find my photos of the Grand Theater in the Summer Palace. All the photos were taken in summer 2010, just a few months before Deheyuan was closed for restoration.
 
P.S. This coming summer I will be spending 22 days in Beijing. Oh joy! Needless to say, the Grand Theater is very high on my list of places to visit.
 
P.P.S. Please feel free to edit and share any/all of this info on the operabeijing.com website for the benefit of our fellow xiqu-fanatics!
 
Tommi Ojanperä
 <tojan@elisanet.fi>”

Thanks Tommi, and could you please sent me your previous email I managed to lose?

(Must focus better, must… )

Fern wrote: “Hello, I found this via Greg’s Facebook group, I think it’s worth a post.”

Last night we were invited for supper and my 9 year old son was not in exemplary behavior mode. Fern sent me this link today:

http://www.chncpa.org/ens/jmsc/ycjmxx/2011-04-22/65150.shtml

My reaction: how do those jingju directors manage this?!

(link corrected 2013-05-13)

I resume presenting this series of Beijing Opera showcases featuring famous female roles. The performers are generally younger and less well known, so there can be real surprises along the way. (Update 2013-04-21) The real surprise is how many mistakes I made in this post. Fortunately, Fern was there to correct me. Corrections forthcoming shortly!

Recorded on 2012-04-20 at the Chang’an Grand Theater in Beijing, China, the original title of these files are:

《CCTV空中剧院》 20120420 第五届青研班毕业汇报演出 京剧旦角经典折子戏专场 1/2
《CCTV空中剧院》 20120420 第五届青研班毕业汇报演出 京剧旦角经典折子戏专场 2/2

Fern provided the original download links and cast list on her web site here.

Part One of the video begins with 京剧《桃花村》 Peach Blossom Village – Chen Yuan (陈媛),  Sun Lei (孙磊), Xu Peiwen (许佩文), Shao Hailong (邵海龙), Rui Zhenqi (芮振起); Ding Sheng (丁胜), Jia Zenghui (贾增辉).

Talented Sun Lei in a huadan role is the focus here playing a comedic servant, with a rather modern twist. She would be at ease in any kind of theatrical performance, I think, she’s fun to watch. It’s redundant to say a huadan is vivacious, because that’s the essence of the role, and in this case it is obvious. Emphasis is on movement and dialogue rather than singing.

京剧《红娘》 Hong Niang – Zhang Jiachun (张佳春), Song Xiaochuan (宋小川), Zi Rui (訾睿), Bi Xiaoyang (毕小洋); Wang Xi (王曦), Wang Jihui (王继辉)

Graduate of the Fifth class (2009-2012) of Outstanding Young Jingju Performers, Zhang Jiaochun sounds Mei school to me. Her partner Song Xiaochuan is, of course, another Zhang’s regular partner. Every time there is a close-up, there is a different embroidery to marvel at on her costume.

Part Two of the video begins with 京剧《红楼二尤》The Two You Sisters of the Red Chamber – Chen Jing (陈静), Du Zhe (杜喆), Tan Yuan (谈元), Zhang Bing (张兵), Zhang Zexin (张泽心), Zhang Xueyan (张雪岩), Jin Zhiqi (靳智棋); Wang Xi (王曦), Wang Jihui (王继辉)

京剧《百花赠剑》 Princess Baihua Gifting a Sword – Chen Yang (陈阳), Zhang Bing (张兵), Yang Yanan (杨亚男); Shi Desheng (石德胜), Ma Jun (马军)

京剧《对花枪》 The Matching Spears – Guo Yaoyao (郭瑶瑶), Feng Guanbo (冯冠博), Ma Lei (马磊), Guo Mingyue (郭明月); Li Zhonghua (李中华), Gao Junhao (高俊浩)

Look out! Female warrior!

Download Part One of the video here

Download Part Two of the video here

Enjoy!

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,

I attached a few pictures of Beijing’s Huguang Huiguan 北京湖广会馆. The girl in the funny top is Liao Ning 辽宁, amateur girl laosheng, the other one is Zhang Shujing 张淑景, daomadan of the Beijing Jingju Theater. She graduated in the “talented” class, she was really good. The others I don’t know.

I recommend to also check out Lu Wen’s photos of the same place, she did a much better job:
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4892368f01015s2m.html
Cheers,
Nora

Hello,

Today (on Feb 15) I will try to go to bed early, because tomorrow’s program starts at 8am…

Today we saw the Summer Palace (the new one), it’s huge, I especially liked Suzhou Street.

I attached a few photos with the Beijing Opera masks hanging on the walls, a shop that sells opera related souvenirs, a Chinese unicorn (qilin) and the Copper Pavilion (Tongting 铜亭). (click to view photos bigger)

Not a statue of Poco:

(Bertrand) “Mmm mmm.”

I was already half dead at 1 pm, so I said no, I don’t want to go to the zoo today… But I’ll definitely check out the pandas later.

If I got it right, tomorrow in the morning we go to the Huguang Guild Hall 湖广会馆 and to Prince Gong’s Mansion in the afternoon.

I have no pictures of today’s three bowls of noodles…

Cheers,
Fern

Hello,

Here is the list of performers of the second concert on February 11th. Surprisingly, there was only a single laodan I didn’t know.

Zhang Kai
Zhu Hong
Mu Yu
Zheng Xiao
Li Xiaopei (This time she didn’t wear the Judge Bao blouse, you remember that right? She was wearing a pretty dress.)
Zhang Yun
Tan Zhengyan
Wang Yi
Qiu Jirong (May Qiu Shengrong throw down a lightning bolt at me from heaven, but I liked Fang Xu better.)
Du Zhe (He was supposed to sing the famous Wildboar Forest aria, but he performed Shang Tiantai instead. I think he was very good, but maybe I’m just biased.)
Jiang Yishan (Beijing audience loves her, finally she sang three excerpts.)
Zhang Jianfeng
Shen Wenli 沈文莉 (She’s the laodan I didn’t know.)
Yang Shaopeng
Bao Fei
Zhang Huifang
Du Zhenjie (Now this was a strange story. You know how good voice he has,he’s singing in Yang-style and that fits him well. Now for some reason he sang three arias in Ma style, he even announced it, with less success. What a pity.)
Yan Guixiang
Tan Xiaozeng
Li Haotian (Li Shaochun’s son was a special ad-hoc guest, and now it became obvious why Du Zhe’s Wildboar Forest was cancelled…)
Chi Xiaoqiu (I think she was just like on videos.)

The concert photo I made isn’t too splendid, only these few performers left for the curtain call, and Li Xiaopei changed dress: she’s the one in blue training clothes with high heels.

Jiang Yishan was accepted as disciple by Xue Yaping in 2000, thus entered Zhang school. In 2008, she was also accepted by Mei Baojiu, thus she entered Mei school. So what’s her status, hell knows. Btw., you and me are not the only ones baffled. From my part, I think nowadays she sounds like Mei school, but she can sing Zhang school too. She’s a pretty cheerful personality, has many fans, as host she was funny and lively.

Bao Fei never was my favorite as performer (as a private person he’s funny, kind, open-hearted, I like him), in the concert he was singing from Silang Visits his Mother, for me, it was a mild disappointment.

Mu Yu I like from the start, he has a good voice, his tone of voice also fits Ma school, and he’s really taking it seriously. Loyal to his teacher, striving hard, he surely won’t mess up Zhang Xuejin’s legacy. I’m not a great expert but even I can hear that year by year he gets better. I especially liked him in this concert.

On the 12th, I went to see the Bai Yun (White Cloud) Temple 白云观. I thought it will be like  the Fayuansi the day before, but no, here were crowds of people: visitors, incense sellers, policemen. There’s a huge underground parking lot. I saw four tourists, including myself. Almost everyone came to pray and burn incense in front of a daoist deity, there was a dozen of little shrines. It wasn’t allowed to make photos of the deities, I respected that, but now and then I couldn’t resist to zoom in a little.

For a moment I was wondering whether I should buy one of those red ribbons you write names on, and tie it to the tree, but came to the conclusion that I don’t believe in such things so won’t spend any money on this. I made a photo that I really like, attached that (daoist monk in the window.) I also had a good shot of a Firo Extigui shor Box.

On the 13th, we went to the tumultuous temple fair at the Longtan Lake 龙潭庙会, there were many, many, many food stalls and game stalls where nobody can win the giant stuffed panda plush. I saw drum show, juggling show, ate a spicy Hui speciality, chunks of meat on a stick (it was unavoidable), but refused to eat the chunk of fat in between.

Conclusion: Bertrand loves fried squid, Fern does not.

Hello,

I promised to get back with a more detailed report, it’s also important for myself, I tend to forget what happened on a given day.

02.10.

At 2pm, we  saw the Beijing Opera “Ma Gu Offers a Birthday Present” at the Chang’an Theater. It’s a funny Mei school play. The story: Ma Gu is a smaller goddess, and wants to gift magical wine to Wangmu. No-one believes she will succeed, the eight immortals don’t help her, but finally she gets the wine and Wangmu promotes her.

My favorite from this performance was Goddess Taohua (Peach Flower), played by huadan Suo Mingfang.

Photos were not allowed, but I tried to make a few several times, but none of those worked out. The lighting was so intense that I simply couldn’t get a decent shot, although my camera is not bad at all. Compact digital cameras have limits.

Everyone who had a ticket got a pretty 2013 calendar featuring Zhang Xinyue (Ma Gu.)

After the performance we had a table reserved at the Yuxin Restaurant, which is located right in the theater. The Yuxin won the CNNGO Best Eats first prize in the “Spicy food” category.

Up until now, I thought I could eat anything spicy with ease, a sandwich with raw habanero peppers in no problem for me. I always said jalapeños are for the weak. But this Sichuan food… I ate from those jelly-strips the link mentions, the chili sauce was incredibly hot. I took a photo: take a look at the amount of big chili peppers on the biggest plate!

The soup-like thing was a very tasty, sweet smelling mushrooms and with a green vegetable I couldn’t identify (believe me, I’m good at veggies) in hot sauce. The strips are on the smallest plate. Actually I had a hard time because there was nothing you could cool down your mouth with, since the Chinese drink hot water. (Later we ordered plain cooked rice, but that was hot too.) When I burnt my tongue with the hot water, I really wanted to cry.

After dinner, there was plenty of time left before the concert, we checked out the program at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, but unfortunately no Chinese opera performance during my stay.

Here I am with the “Bird’s Egg”.

Had a walk in Zhongshan Park before the next concert began.

The hosts were Liu Mingzhe and Wang Yueling (a huadan I’ve never heard of).

It was the concert of the Beijing Jingju Theater, and because it was a special New Year’s performance, the tickets cost 1280 yuan, horrible. I got mine for free.

First was Yan Shouping 燕守平 famous jinghu master and some of his disciples performed some “springtime” jinghu music, it was very entertaining. Mr. Yan was wearing black trousers, black shoes, and bright red socks.

Here and there the program changed compared to the printed material. Performers were  in order:
Sha Fei 沙霏 (a Cheng school qingyi, absolutely unknown to me)
Fang Xu
Wang Yueling
Liu Mingzhe
Ding Guiling 丁桂玲
Zhang Shu 张澍
Han Juming (instead of Wang Pan)
Han Juming, Zhang Shu with Taking Tiger Mountain
Wang Yige (her dress and hairstyle was original again…)
Zhang Jianfeng (who was milestones better than in Red Cliff, now I could hear him correctly, also he could sing something that fits his school.)
Zhai Mo (laodan, I like her very much)
Yang Shaopeng (I think he was the tiniest in the whole bunch, but his Elvis-hairdo gets higher and higher each time I see him.)
Shang Wei (wife of Gao Tong- once she was a shining beauty, now she’s a bit, erm, not so shining.)
Gao Tong (Zhang Xuejin’s disciple, he’s not my big favorite.)
Shang Wei and Gao Tong also performed the famous segment from The White-haired Girl, it was entertaining.
Chen Junjie (who was performing in Ma Gu this afternoon – what a busy schedule!)
Ma Xiaoman 马小蔓 (Ma Lianliang’s daughter, works as qingyi.)
Du Peng
Wang Rongrong (She was the star of the evening.)
Li Chongshan 李崇善 (Veteran laosheng)

The concert ended around 22:30.

Next day, I had a full-day sightseeing extravaganza, I took a long walk in hutongs while munching mahua 麻花, saw a few shabby looking “houses” with the sign “Protected historical site of such-and-such district” and the legendary Zhengyici Theater 正乙祠戏楼 (it was closed); checked out the corso at the Arrow Tower, it was the most colorful thing I’ve ever seen; walked down Liulichang Street 琉璃厂路. After petting a few dogs I took the bus to the Niujie (Ox Street) Mosque. It really is beautiful. Not a single tourist was there, just local Muslims, I just walked in when an all-smiley guy started to wave a ticket, I bought that (10 yuan).

After that I still had the energy to see the oldest buddhist temple in Beijing, the Fayuansi 法源寺. Tourists: zero, locals: ca. 3 people. Actually you have to buy a ticket here, but it was too cold and nobody was in the mood to open the window just to sell a 10 yuan ticket! It was utterly peaceful, I spent lots of time there. Then I ran home, made tea, rushed to the Zhongshan Garden, I was late, but got there in time for the second concert.

Those performers I’ll list in the next mail, Bao Fei and Jiang Yishan were the hosts. The best in show for me was Mu Yu 穆雨, he’s better than Gao Tong, Zhao Hua. Learning pays off.

(above Mu Yu, swiped from here)