Beijing Letter: A moving performance at the city’s 300-year-old wooden theatre
The Peony Pavilion is the most famous work of Kunqu opera by the Ming Dynasty playwright Tang Xianzu. Photograph: Pedro Martin González Castillo/Getty ImagesThe stage was empty as a single figure moved across it, dressed in a full-length, pale green robe with white sleeves long enough to reach the floor.
“You have to identify with the female character Du Liniang, otherwise you won’t get it,” my friend told me over a hotpot before the show. Sponsored by the imperial court, Peking opera often focused on public morality, serving almost as an educational tool in the emperor’s interest. Kunqu opera, on the other hand, was more concerned with human relationships and the interior life of the individual.
Kunqu combines song, dance, gesture and the spoken word delivered in a falsetto recitative. The arias are sung to a limited number of traditional melodies, accompanied by an intricate pattern of stylised gestures and dance movements. When she meets him, they spend some time together as lovers but they cannot fulfil their destiny as long as she remains a ghost. So Lei Mengmei digs up her body, opens up her coffin and she comes back to life so that they can live happily ever after.
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