Hello, everyone!
The world-known soprano Maria Callas has ever said:
“An opera begins long before the curtain goes up
and ends long after it has come down.”
It shows how fascinating opera is .
So in this session,
we are gonna compare Peking opera
and western opera,
paying special attention
to their distinctive artistic features.
It was during the reign of Emperor Qianlong
that Peking opera emerged.
It is the most influential opera in China
with a history of almost 200 years.
Even till today,
Peking opera presents the audience with different aspects
of Chinese culture,
as well as unfolding stories,
beautiful paintings,
exquisite costumes,
graceful gestures and martial arts.
Opera in Italian means “work” or “labour”,
and western opera has a history of more than 400 years.
It is a comprehensive art form,
requiring the skills of solo,
choral singing, declamation, acting and dancing.
That’s to say performers need to be excellent musicians,
vocal technicians and brilliant actors.
Comparatively,
Peking opera tends to be symbolic and suggestive
while western opera is more realistic and grand.
In Peking opera,
backdrops and stage props are very simple:
often a table and two chairs in front of a big curtain.
The table could be functioned as a bed
when an actor acts sleep or a city gate tower
if the actor stands on the table
and looks into the distance.
Simply put,
changes in the stage setting follow the performance
of the actors.
The performers use gestures and body language
to represent their actions.
When an actor walks in a circle,
it means that he has been on a journey;
An actor takes an oar shows he is rowing a boat;
Two actors can portray groping
or fighting in the dark through dance and acrobatics
on the stage;
Four generals and four soldiers represent an army.
The virtual settings and virtual movements in Peking opera
provide limitless room for the performances of actors;
and in turn,
the audience can feel the rich connotations of the opera
and its infinite appeal.
More appealingly,
the facial makeup in Peking opera
is extremely symbolic,
telling different personalities of different characters.
For example,
Cao Cao has a white face,
showing that he is untrustworthy and cunning;
Guan Yu has a red face,
representing his bravery and loyalty;
Judge Bao has a black face,
telling us that he is straightforward and impartial.
By having different symbolic facial makeup,
performers present the audience
with a world of images full of appealing wit.
And Peking opera has made it possible
to transform a small stage
into the whole universe.
Quite differently,
western opera is more realistic and breathtaking in scale
with large and elaborate stage.
For example,
the story of Cats takes place in a garbage processing field.
Yak wool and human hair are used to make the paws,
hair and tails of the cat.
The cats of different personalities
and appearances have come on stage:
the naive young white cat,
the naughty cat,
the jokey one,
the evil one,
the magical cat and so on.
Finally, a shabby old grey cat stumbles out,
emotionally singing that classic song Memory.
It is undeniable that the stage design,
the grand scenes and intense dramatic plots
largely impress the audience.
You may also notice that the ways of singing and acting
are different in these two operas.
The singing in Peking opera is highly stylized,
but its variations of rhythm and pitch
enable the actors and actresses
to express their thoughts and emotions
in different situations.
Acting in Peking opera includes
a set of movements,
gestures and expressions.
Every movement or pose,
such as stroking a beard,
swinging a sleeve or lifting a foot,
has its own formula or pattern.
That is to say performers learn standardized movements
and expressions for certain character types.
However, the singing in western opera is more flexible.
Usually,
it has two types of singing:
recitative and aria.
The former is narrative talk-singing with spoken lines
put to a simple,
one-note repeated melody.
The latter is a reflective song,
emphasizing the feelings and expressions of the character.
But these two types could expand to chorus,
solo ensembles,
and descriptive instrumental passages.
And the orchestra
plays a vital role in providing harmonic depth
and variety to accompaniments.
Among those great opera composers,
Mozart is specially famous for his flexible creation
and a variety of styles and languages.
We can see that
he has used music to specifically define his characters
and plots,
choosing specific keys,
composing individual vocal lines
in solo ensembles,
and creating
ingenious orchestration to “paint” emotions.
It is even more interesting to notice
the decisive elements of the roles in these two operas
are quite different.
In western opera,
performers' voice ranges determine their roles,
such as soprano, tenor, mezzo-soprano and alto.
For instance,
Bellini’s Norma demands a soprano
with dramatic skills;
Donizetti's La fille du régiment
requires both a brilliant soprano and a tenor
with limitless high C's;
Mozart’s
The Marriage of Figaro requires
such an exhausting variety of moods
and techniques that very few of the greatest sopranos
have ever mastered the role.
But in Peking opera,
there are four major roles:
sheng, dan, jing and chou.
Sheng roles can be subdivided into laosheng
who represents decisive and honest old men
with artificial beards,
xiaosheng who represents clean-shaven
and attractive young men
and wusheng who represents young generals
skilled in martial arts.
Usually,
laosheng is given priority in many programs
and xiaosheng is relatively obscure.
It is quite different from western operas
where the young hero is very important
and is played by highly acclaimed actors.
Female roles are called dan,
which is further divided into laodan—
the elderly and dignified women;
huadan are the young maidservants;
daoma dan can be horsewomen or warriors;
qingyi are usually
aristocratic ladies in elegant costumes.
Historically,
due to the long-distance traveling of the opera troupes,
the dan role used to be performed by male actors,
which was rarely seen in western operas.
For instance,
Mei Lanfang
has created various images of ancient Chinese women
and expressed their tenderness,elegance and subtlety.
More importantly,
Mei Lanfang has composed many new melodies
and made innovations to the facial makeup,
hairstyles and costumes.
He has even created various dances,
such as the silk dance,
sword dance,
sleeve dance and duster dance.
His appearance, costumes, singing, dancing
and movements onstage are all extremely striking.
His performance has fully demonstrated Chinese classical beauty
with everlasting allure.
Jing is the most vigorous
and exaggerated role in Peking opera,
which can be divided into wenjing and wujing
also known as hualian.
“No chou, no play”
has long been a popular saying in China.
The chou actors can be
easily recognized by their facial design
a patch of white around their eyes and noses,
sometimes outlined in black.
For centuries,mythology, fairy tales,
historic events and folk stories
have inspired opera composers.
Both Peking opera and Western opera
reach beyond geographical and cultural boundaries
as one of the most attractive
and creative performing arts.
Possibly the following two questions
can help you better understand these two operas.