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5 - Chinese Opera

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2021

Michael Church
Affiliation:
Classical music and opera critic, The Independent/i
Dwight Reynolds
Affiliation:
Professor of Arabic Language and Literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara
Scott DeVeaux
Affiliation:
Professor in the McIntire Department of Music at the University of Virginia
Ivan Hewett
Affiliation:
Classical music critic for the Daily Telegraph, broadcaster on BBC Radio 3, and teacher at the Royal College of Music.
David Hughes
Affiliation:
Research Associate, University of London
Jonathan Katz
Affiliation:
Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford
Frank Kouwenhoven
Affiliation:
University of Leiden Founder and Secretary-Treasurer of CHIME
Roderic Knight
Affiliation:
Professor of Ethnomusicology Emeritus, Oberlin College, Conservatory of Music
Robert Labaree
Affiliation:
Member of the Musicology faculty at the New England Conservatory in Boston
Scott Marcus
Affiliation:
Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Santa Barbara
Terry E. Miller
Affiliation:
Professor Emeritus of Ethnomusicology at Kent State University, Ohio
Will Sumits
Affiliation:
University of Central Asia Research Fellow in Humanities
Neil Sorrell
Affiliation:
Senior Lecturer in Music, University of York
Richard Widdess
Affiliation:
Professor of Musicology in the Department of Music, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Ameneh Youssefzadeh
Affiliation:
Visiting scholar at the City University of New York Graduate Center
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Summary

The curtain opens to reveal a table flanked by two wooden chairs in front of a dark red backcloth. With two strident oboes and a mighty roar of percussion, the instrumental ensemble – out of view stage-left – announces the start of the play. A general with a long beard, high wooden shoes, brilliantly-patterned painted face and a strikingly-coloured costume that makes him look like a giant, arrives by ‘chariot’, attended by six young soldiers plus a staff of military officers. The fiddle begins a nasal riff garnished with swoops and slides which is punctuated by drum, cymbals and gongs; the general begins to sing in a declamatory manner, with broad gestures and contorted expressions to suggest anger. The brilliant clashes of the unblended instrumental sounds combined with the intensity of the singing – much of it in the upper register, to contrast with the hoarse outbursts of the rougher characters – create an exhilarating effect, as do the events of the story, which concerns two rival generals, the rougher of them fighting for a pretender to the emperor's throne. None of the actors or musicians at this opera school is over twenty, yet all are highly accomplished.

IN technologically-advanced modern urban China, why would a young teenager wish to join the archaic world of Beijing Opera? For most Chinese it is a difficult art to accept, but for some it remains irresistibly fascinating, and both in the People's Republic and among expatriate Chinese it has a small but fiercely loyal following. While neophytes may respond to its visual exoticism, connoisseurs, like Western opera buffs, will already be familiar with their favourite operas and performers, savouring every gesture and eye movement, every syllable whether spoken or sung, and every twist and turn in the stories.

English lacks a good translation for what the Chinese call xiju. Customarily we translate this as ‘opera’, but that term carries inappropriate baggage from European tradition. Calling it ‘theatre’ suggests spoken drama, and calling it ‘musical theatre’ evokes images from Gilbert and Sullivan or the Broadway musical. None conveys the essence, because Chinese xiju is an amalgam of acting, singing, acrobatics, the visual arts and theatre. Lacking an alternative, we will follow convention in calling it ‘opera’.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Other Classical Musics
Fifteen Great Traditions
, pp. 126 - 137
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2015

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