Renowned theater director Lin Zhaohua says his chamber-edition of The Peony Pavilion (Mudan Ting) will revive the original performance form and elegance of Kunqu, the traditional Chinese opera that originated in Kunshan of East China's Jiangsu Province.

Lin Zhaohua aims to revive the original performance form and elegance of Kunqu with his chamber-edition of The Peony Pavilion.

Since this new production of The Peony Pavilion will be put on at the Imperial Granary of Beijing, which has a capacity of only 60 people, the audience will sit close enough to see every subtle expression of the actors and hear the acoustics of all the singing and instruments without the help of any microphone, just like in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

At the same time, Lin also assures that modern technique will make the performance more alluring than its original form over four centuries ago. For example, flower petals and rain will fall in the room during the performance, to recreate the atmosphere of the Jiangnan area (the area south to the Yangtze River, encompassing Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and Shanghai).

"We hope this work will bring the audience an aesthetic that is both old and fresh," said Lin, artistic director of the chamber-edition of The Peony Pavilion.

The play will debut on Friday, the 6th anniversary of UNESCO's listing of Kunqu as a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity. There will be 10 shows for the first round, but the plan is to make it a constant performance.

"You watch Italian opera in Rome, kabuki in Kyoto, and you can't miss Kunqu when you are in Beijing," claims the promotion materials.

Starting from the late Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and early Ming Dynasty, Kunqu Opera is one of the most ancient Chinese operas still practiced. An integration of literature, drama, performance, music, dance, and art, Kunqu Opera is considered a national treasure and founder of all Chinese operas.

Written by Tang Xianzu (1550-1616), The Peony Pavilion is the most popular play from the Ming Dynasty and a masterpiece of Kunqu opera. Set in Lin'an, now Hangzhou of East China's Zhejiang Province, it tells the story of two lovers.

Du Liniang is the daughter of an important official. Her maid encourages her to abandon her dull studies and take a walk in the garden, where she falls asleep.

She dreams of her lover Liu Mengmei, whom in real life she has never met, before being awoken by falling petals. Unable to recover the enchantment of her dream, she wastes away and dies.

In hell, the underworld judge determines that her marriage with Liu was predestined, and that she cannot be retained. Instead, she is sent to haunt him, who now inhabits the garden where they had their dream. Recognizing the girl he had seen in his dreams, Liu agrees to exhume her.

Du asks him to go to tell her father the news of her resurrection, but Du's father treats Liu as a grave robber and impostor. In the end, Liu is only saved from a tortuous death by the announcement of the results of the imperial exams. He tops the list; the emperor pardons all.

In this production of The Peony Pavilion, 19-year-old Hu Zhexing from the Suzhou Kunqu School will play the heroine Du, and 24-year-old Zeng Jie from the Suzhou Kunqu Theater will play the hero Liu.

"The Peony Pavilion is a story of love, life and death," said established Kunqu artist Wang Shiyu, director of the production. "It is already 400 years old, and its value will be permanent."

The full play of The Peony Pavilion will last more than 20 hours. The production at the Imperial Granary will be a condensed version that contains some of the most important parts of the play.

Hu Zhexing from the Suzhou Kunqu School plays the heroine Du Liniang, and Zeng Jie from the Suzhou Kunqu Theater plays the hero Liu Mengmei.   

"It's a perfect combination of tangible and intangible heritages for the 600-year-old Kunqu performed at the 600-year-old Imperial Granary," said Wang Xiang, CEO of the Polo Arts Company, which is presenting the play.

The construction of the Imperial Granary started in 1409, 10 years earlier than the Forbidden City. With walls 1.5 meters thick and 9.9 meters tall, this granary of the Ming and Qing (1368-1911) dynasties has been adapted into a performance venue recently.

Since only 60 people will be admitted for every show, the tickets will be higher than common performances, ranging from 580 yuan ($75) to 1980 yuan ($257), including a buffet before the show.

"I expect the main audience to be people from the circles of commerce and culture, as well as travelers," said Jiang Ling, president of the China International Culture and Arts Company, which is agent for The Peony Pavilion's tickets-selling. "Individuals and groups will probably each make-up half of the audience."

(China Daily May 17, 2007)