Beijing Opera

This past weekend, we went to the Beijing Opera (above). The music utilizes a different scale from ours, and the singing sounds a bit screechy, but the instrumental parts are lovely, and the dancing and acting glorious. It's a lot like ballet. Beijing or Peking opera-- I hear it called both -- is performed at several theaters and is of course government subsidized.

We had very good seats near the front of the auditorium, where we were served tea, cakes and fruit-- a performance in and of itself. Before the opera begins, the actors apply their makeup publicly, in a little vestibule adjacent the auditorium. It's a very different practice from Western Theater, where actors enjoy the privacy of individual dressing rooms and any such observation by spectators is thought to detract from the atmosphere surrounding performance.































Above: an actor transforming himself into the "Monkey King."
Second Above: The Monkey King in performance.

Below: Actor, Musicians, and the tea ceremony performer