01.11.2017

Peking Opera at the Mariinsky Theatre: from Vladivostok to St Petersburg

In November the Chinese State Peking Opera Company will be on tour at two Mariinsky Theatre venues – on 4 and 5 November for the first time at the Primorsky Stage (Vladivostok) and on 8 and 9 November at the historic Mariinsky Theatre (St Petersburg).

On 4 and 5 November at the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre the legendary Chinese ensemble will present one of its most famous productions in the genre of Peking opera The Legend of the White Snake, based on ancient Chinese myths. The authenticity of the production is highlighted by the vivid make-up of the performers, the beautifully embellished costumes, the dances and the inventive acrobatics.

Following the appearances in Vladivostok, the Chinese State Peking Opera Company will depart for St Petersburg. At the historic Mariinsky Theatre the performers will appear twice in The Warrior Women of Yang, which is a reference to the martial genre of "wuxi", in which the principal action involves acrobatics and elements of the martial arts (8 and 9 November).

Peking Opera (Jinan) is a unique genre of traditional Chinese art, included by UNESCO in its List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It has a rich two-hundred-year history (the official "date of birth" of Peking Opera is considered to be 1790) and over that time it has transformed into a complex mixture of different music and theatre techniques, blending national music and unique vocal techniques, a carefully thought-out language of gestures, dance, acrobatics and elements of martial arts. The performers wear bright costumes on the stage with massive head decorations weighing up to ten kilograms, and it involves the use of complex make-up which takes several hours to put on. Initially it was just male actors who were allowed to perform Peking Opera, and it was only in the 1870s that women began to appear on the stage, though even after that men were widely employed in the female roles of "dans".

The Chinese State Peking Opera was founded in 1955. The theatre's first director was the acclaimed actor and theatre reformer Mei Lanfang. In its sixty-year existence the theatre has staged over five hundred Perking Opera productions – classical and innovative, revived and restaged. More than fifty of them, just like their many performers and designers, have won national and international awards.

Today the Chinese State Peking Opera is home to three companies – the Peking Opera, the Theatre Centre and the Mei Lanfang Grand Theatre. The theatre appears throughout the world and has toured to more than fifty countries, winning internatinal renown. The ensemble's first visit to St Petersburg took place in 2014 to mark one hundred and twenty years since the birth of Mei Lanfang. Atthat time, the Mariinsky Theatre hosted performances of the productions The Legend of the White Snake and Mu Guiying Takes Command.

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