Opera

Welcome to this edition of China Lifestyle Journeys, the series that brings you chats, discussions and insights on all aspects of Chinese living. We will cover festivals, food, traditions, customs and much, much more. I’m your host Jocelyn… and I’m Mat, just an English guy with lots of questions.

So, Mat, what’s your big question today?

(Mat)

Hello and welcome to another episode. Today, we’re going to be discussing an unusual topic – opera. Now you might not be an expert on opera, but I think it’s still an interesting theme to explore as it can help us to understand some interesting historical and cultural ideas with this quite unique medium. So for my first question, Jocelyn, tell me what is your general definition or experience of opera from a Chinese perspective?

(Jocelyn)

Well I’m not really an expert on Chinese or Western opera, but I’ve seen a few performances of both. I’d say that from a Chinese perspective, opera is a performing art form that combines singing, dancing, and acrobatics to tell a story. Obviously, the most common one that most people know is Beijing opera, and that originated in Beijing in the late 18th century. And performances are typically characterised by stylised singing and actions that symbolise the story. Each performer’s actions are an important way to tell the story, rather than just the singing. So it’s a visual performance, like acting, as well as a singing performance.

(Mat)

That’s interesting. Because from my experience of watching typical Western European opera (which is often but not always Italian), there’s a lot of powerful singing and emotional expression and this is central to the performance, and the actingis quite simple and life-like.And the stage setup for Western opera is usually quite elaborate, lots of vivid props and stage design. I’ve seen a couple of Beijing opera performances and I remember that the stage was very simple. So that’s my first question — why is the stage so simple, in a typical Beijingopera?

(Jocelyn)

In Beijing opera, the stage is normally a simple platform that only has one side exposed to the audience. And this is because the focus is more on the performers and their actions, rather than on the props or the stage design. It allows the audience to focus more on the story and the performers. In fact, the performers' costumes and make-up are more complex and detailed, with each character having their own distinct look and style. The make-up is thick and unnatural, with heavy colours that symbolise the character roles. I think this is quite different from Western opera where the make-up is closer to real life. The characters look real in Western opera, but I’m sure you’ll agree, in Chinese opera the singers often look quite unnatural – and this is because they symbolise an idea, an exaggerated character or role, it’s a performance, it’s like imaginary theatre, it’s not aiming to show real life.  

(Mat)

OK, that’s interesting. Now we’ve mentioned the singing styles, I think we can talk about that a little bit more. Now, I’m sure you’ll agree with me, when you listen to a Western opera performance, the singing is quite emotional, it can be warm, calm, sad, tragic, passionate or joyful and celebrating. But am I right in saying that in most Beijing opera, the singing is like… what it sounds kind of weird to me, not like a human singing, sometimes it sounds like a musical instrument, when they sing, their voices sound like some strange violin or something. And there must be a reason for this.

(Jocelyn)

Well, you’re right. The singing style in Beijing opera can seem quite unnatural and artificial to Western European ears. And this is because each role in Beijing opera requires a unique singing technique. And the style is very specific and often includes special tones, which make individual sounds much longer and drawn out, as you said, sometimes like a musical instrument and with very sharp changes in pitch and tone.And this technique is used to create a certain atmosphere and convey certain emotions. And it’s also used to differentiate between different roles and characters. For example, the emperor might have a very different singing style compared to a common person or a soldier. And these roles and characters are quite defined, for example, the Dan role (heroine) is characterised by a high-pitched, resonant singing voice that has a lot of vibrato. On the other hand, the Sheng role (hero) requires a loud, forceful, and clear singing voice. The singing style for each role is carefully crafted to convey the character’s personality and emotions.

(Mat)

Now my next question is quite obvious. In Western European opera, the female roles are performed by women, but when I’ve seen some Chinese opera performances, there are no women,the man play the female roles. Why is this?

(Jocelyn)

That’s a very good question. Now the simple answer is that throughout most of Chinese history, women have always performed in Chinese opera, but in the late 18th century, social values changed (especially in Beijing) and people thought it wasn’t appropriate for a woman to dress up in heavy make-up, singing and acting on stage, so men started to perform the female roles. But of course, society has changed again, so nowadays it’s more common to see women performing in Beijing opera or any other kind of Chinese opera.  

(Mat)

OK, so for my final question, what advice would you give to someone from Europe, who has only seen European opera, what’s the best way for them to enjoy their first experience of Chinese opera?

(Jocelyn)

I would recommend approaching Chinese opera with an open mind and paying attention to the symbolic actions of the performers. Also, read up a bit about the story and roles beforehand so that you can better appreciate the performance. Because you don’t know the story before you watch the performance, it would be a bit confusing. It will be much more enjoyable if you know who is who and what role they are playing in the story.