Chinese traditional opera, Greek drama and Indian Sanskrit opera
are considered as the world's three ancient operas. China alone
boasts more than 300 kinds of local opera, mainly using singing and
dancing to express the plot. At present, hundreds of plays are
staged every year, adding variety to people's cultural life. The
Plum Blossom Award set up in 1983 is China's highest prize for
opera performers of young and middle age. To date, the prestigious
award has gone to 460 actors and actresses of 47 types of opera,
hailing from 29 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities
directly under the central government, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
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Peking Opera
Peking Opera (evolved from kunqu Opera, a much older type of
drama) is the most popular and influential opera form. It took
shape in early 19th century Beijing, and combines singing, music,
chanting, dancing and martial arts. Over the last 200 years, the
Peking Opera has developed a repertoire of more than 1,000 plays,
as well as sets of musical modes and stylized performance
movements. Following in the footsteps of such stars as Mei Lanfang,
Cheng Yanqiu, Ma Lianliang, Zhou Xinfang and Du Jinfang, the
emergence of new artistes has continued to breathe new life into
Peking Opera.
In the past few years, the bold experiment by the Peking Opera
Theater of China of combining Western symphony with Peking Opera,
won high praise from fellow-professionals. Another important
achievement was the video recording of 355 classic operas, with
sound records sung by 47 late masters of Peking Opera between the
1940s and the 1960s collected and paired against performances of
today's outstanding young and middle-aged artists, in order to
preserve and transmit their art down the ages.
Local Operas
Whilst preserving their fine traditions, local operas have made
continuous reforms and innovations. Popular local operas include
yueju (from Shaoxing in Zhejiang), huangmeixi (Anhui), chuanju
(Sichuan), yuju (Henan) and yueju (Guangdong). Bold, unconstrained
and unique, Tibetan opera is imbued with religious and Tibetan
ethnic flavor.
Theater
Modern drama was introduced from abroad in the early 20th century,
realistic and expressionistic plays being staged for the first time
in the 1920s. Chinese drama came of age in the 1930s, a period in
which the great dramatist Cao Yu wrote three plays DThunderstorm,
Sunrise and The Wilderness D whose depth of meaning and maturity of
style made them classics of Chinese theater. Today these plays are
still staged and have been adapted into movies and TV dramas many
times.
The works of the Beijing People's Art Theater, founded in 1952,
represent the high point of Chinese theater. Teahouse and Dragon
Beard Ditch have become famous both at home and abroad. Over the
past two decades, the theater has staged some 80 new dramas and 12
repertory plays, many of which have become evergreen dramas booked
out for every performance.
Avant-garde drama has won quite a large following amongst young
people. This genre, often performed in small venues and using
modern expressive techniques, mainly focuses on themes of modern
life. Director Meng Jinghui is the leading exponent of such
drama.