| large-scale Peking opera and symphonic poem "Mei Lanfang"
Night of July.3rd and 4th will be precious nights for Hangzhou Peking Opera lovers. Symphonic poem "Mei Lanfang" will be performed in Hangzhou Grand Theatre
The highly-anticipated opera focuses on Mei Lanfang's courage during the anti-Japanese war in the 1940s.
It depicts the star in daily life and brings some of his celebrated characters to the stage.
The opera also adopts a symphony orchestra of classical western instruments in an effort to appeal to a wider audience, including the youth market.
Mei Lanfang
Mei Lanfang was born in 1894 into a family of Peking Opera performers. He began his stage debut at 11. In his 50-year stage career, he maintained strong continuity while always working on new techniques. His most famous roles were those of female characters; skillful portrayal of women won him international acclaim, and his smooth, perfectly timed, poised style has come to be known in opera circles as the ¡°Mei School.¡±
Mr. Mei was the first artist to spread Peking Opera to foreign countries, participating in cultural exchanges with Japan, the United States and other regions.
After 1949 he once served as director of China Peking Opera Theater, director of the Chinese Opera Research Institute, and vice-chairman of China Federation of Literary and Art Circles. Besides his autobiography, Forty Years of Life on the Stage, Several of his articles and essays have been published in The Collected Works of Mei Lanfang. His well-known performing items have been published in A Selection of Peking Operas Performed by Mei Lanfang. |
