Kunqu at the Lanyuan theatre

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I've asked round my students, and they all seem to be of the opinion that Chinese opera is about as meaningful and relevant to their lives as... well, they have pretty much the same opinion that your average engineering student has of Western opera in the UK, I suppose. But they all tell me that their grandparents are really into it.


Certainly there's a whole state TV channel- CCTV 11- devoted to Chinese opera in its many forms, and when we were once shown around a community centre (we were part of a tour swarm of about 200 foreign 'experts' being shown the choicest tourist hotspots of Wuxi district) there was indeed an entire hall of benches and chairs, full of ranks of elderly Chinese with tea flasks wall watching a simply enormous flat-screen TV at one end tuned to that very channel.


On TV it didn't make much sense. The music is not the major focus of Chinese opera, as far as I can tell. The music that is there doesn't make a great deal of sense to an ear attuned to Western sounds. Everything is very high-pitched- including the singers- and kind of meanders about instead of holding to any recognisable pattern.


But in Suzhou we saw a little excerpt done live in a traditional setting. And it somehow came into focus for me. So we decided to investigate the local form of Chinese opera, Kunqu, at the Lanyuan theatre in Nanjing.


I've come to the conclusion that I absolutely love it. If you ever get the chance to see some then I recommend it. But if it doesn't have subtitles then save your money, because the script's the thing. The Lanyuan theatre troupe, I have read, is lucky to have inspired the voluntary services of an opera-fond ex-Harvard student of Chinese and who has lovingly translated the beautiful poetry of the original score into English which, if it doesn't do it the justice that it's impossible to do in translation, must surely come pretty close.


The script, and the acting. Well, not so much acting as choreography. Every last movement of an actor has to be exactly just so. Every fan wave, every frown, every everything. Watching trainees practicing side by side is like watching little wind-up puppets all let go at the same time. Very Chinese.


I've laughed, I've been chilled, I've sat forward in my seat holding my breath to see the how the fight scene ends, I've not actually cried because I'm not that easy, but I've certainly sniffed slightly.


I'm trying to drink up all I can while I'm out here, because it's a rare thing to see any outside the country. I understand some's coming to London this summer or autumn, though. They're planning to stage an entire opera, rather than the usual selection of scenes, and so the performance will be staged over several evenings. Yes, Kunqu originated at a time when any entertainment worth its salt had to last alllll daaaay.

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Photos

Our first scene
At the gardens in Suzhou- the first opera we saw live. It was night-time which is why the photo's rather fuzzy. The lady and her servant have come out to enjoy spring in the beautiful garden, but it reminds them of the freedom they can never have due to the rules of the society they live in.

Chris
On the bridge over the road from the theatre.

Singing in the garden
by the light of the moon. He's come out for a moon-light walk, and hears her practicing her harp in the garden.

You play me something
They play tunes with each other, and flirt deliately while doing so. Hands 'accidentally' brush sleeves while swapping places to take a turn.

Departure aria
He's leaving for the big city to take the imperial examinations. She's afraid he won't come back but is afraid even to voice it. We protests he loves her, will write always, and return as soon as possible. Alas, we all know he won't live up to himself.

Ghost story
The third act of the first night we went to the opera, and the best. She's the ghost of his former lover who has come back to entice him to join her in the netherworld. He hears a knocking at the door and plays a guessing game to find out who it is.

She's got him
She claims not to have come for his soul, but then winds him up in recollections of the happy times they had together until he, totally under her spell, volunteers to come with her to the netherworld. The look of cold triumph on her face was terrible.

Musicians
The orchestra

Restaurant over the road
Possibly the nicest restaurant I've come across in China so far. Expensive (for China) but well worth it. Does a wonderful pre-opera dinner.

Singing by the pond
This one had us in stitches. From an opera called 'the lion's roar' after the voice of the male lead's wife. She finds out he's been carousing with concubines and has come home still drunk, and sets him to kneel repentant at the pond side until she lets him up. He has a drunken conversation with the frogs, until his friend creeps up behind him...

Beard
The beards are marvellous. I hope the photo is high-res enough to see.

Fight!
The second scene. Ah, doesn't he post well? He's off to destroy his nemesis.

Fight! Fight!
And he does!

No, Luke, I
The son's found out that the man he thought all his life was his father is actually a famous bandit who terribly wounded his birth-father and stole him away when he was a baby. As an imperial whassname, he's got a duty to hand him over for trial and exectution. But on the other hand, the man's been his father for 18 years and has been really good to him. What can he do? I could tell you, but I wouldn't want to spoil the plot.