# Chinese opera - any experts here?



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

I have just arrived home from a performance of a Chinese dance company, BeijingDanse/LDTX (the acronym stands for Lei Dong Tian Xia, which means Thunder Rumbles Under Heaven). I really liked it.

But what I want to talk about, is Chinese opera. Part of today's performance was an excerpt of an opera in the Beijing and Guangdong styles. Apparently there are more than 100 styles. I found it very beautiful.

My only exposure to Chinese opera comes from a couple of scenes in movies, and today's performance which only had some 10-15 minutes of this opera excerpt, the remainder of the performance had other things.

Does anybody here have knowledge of Chinese opera and can tell us more about it? Science, maybe?


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## jurianbai (Nov 23, 2008)

I can't be an expert on Chinese Opera, but I have watched it (intended or unintended since it quite common in my tv channel...) over the year. Surely a lot of styles around (by region or dialects), but what I only interested is a Sichuan style, which is incorporated with an attraction called Bianlian (face changing). (my internet is slow on daytime, can't find suitable youtube sample to post here).

For 'top ten' of chinese opera are the Butterfly Lovers, and basically most of Chinese popular folktales and literatures have its opera version, eg. excerpt of Romance of Three Kingdoms, the Red Pavillion (some 21+...), Water margin, the Monkey King etc.

Then the western fusion as in Tan Dun's opera (Marco polo).


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

I read somewhere there is a Chinese opera that takes two days to perform? Yes, Chinese opera appears fascinating. Culturally unique, as it appears to folks who don't understand it well, like me.


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