Festival ORIENT
Year of Chinese Music in Estonia

PEKING OPERA (China):
Female Generals of Yang Family

Thu, May 28th at 7 pm
Nordea Concert Hall, Tallinn

 Conference        Concerts in Tallinn        Peking Opera        Workshops

 Bazar         Orient Flavours         Other

The world-famous Beijing Opera or China National Peking Opera Company is a high-level theatre under the Ministry of Culture of the PRC, founded in 1955 by an esteemed expert on the ancient art of Peking Opera gingyi or master-actor Mei Lanfang (1894−1961) who was also its first leader. The theatre is comprised of three troupes and a drama studio. It includes artists, directors, playwrights and composers of different schools, among others world-famous actors like Li Shaochun, Yuan Shihai, Ye Shenglan and Du Jinfang, director A Jia, playwrights Weng Ouhong and Fan Junhong.
During its 60 years of existence the theatre has staged over 600 plays from chinese traditional opera to contemporary drama, some of them with spectacularly modern stage design.
Plays like Wild Boar, Three Attacks on the Village of Zhu, Legend of the White Snake, Harbour of the Jiujiang River, Commander-in-Chief Mu Guiying, The Heroine of the Yang Family, Red Lantern, Battle of Plain, Red Female Soldiers, The Death of Lian Hua, Sister Jiang, Princess Turandot, The Lushui River and Yishan Mountain  Princess Wencheng have gathered wide accolades from the audience and reviewers alike.

The Chinese traditional opera, unlike its Western namesake, is a stylized synthesis of singing, acting, dialogues, dance, acrobatics, martial arts, colourful costumes and symbolic face paintings. The events of the Peking traditional opera performance Female Generals of the Yang Family take place in the early history of Northern China when the country was governed by the Song dynasty (960−1279). The plot is based on old legends about the widowed women of the Yang family, loyal to Emperor Rezong, where the ladies step into the places of their dead husbands in the battlefield. Though the legends allegedly are mostly fiction, some of their protagonists are actual historical figures.

Download high-resolution photo: Female Generals of the Yang Family (Peking Opera, jpg, RGB, 300 dpi, 11.9 MB)

Watch a fragment of the opera on YouTube (17 min 3 sec, 480 p)
Watch advertizing video-clip (20 sek, HD 720 p)

Press resonance

Traditsioonitruu rituaalsuse tunnetuslik tõde. /…/ Mind ei võlunud ega intrigeerinud “Yangide naiskindralite” puhul mitte niivõrd viis, kuidas lavastus sidus veenval moel omavahel muusikat, laulu, sõnateatrit, pantomiimi, tantsu, akrobaatikat ja võitluskunste ning oli oma paraadlikes misanstseenides ning kostüümi- ja meigilahendustes tseremoniaalselt väljapeetud, vaid eelkõige hoopis nähtu rituaalne vorm − esteetilise tunnetuse printsiip, millel see tugines, tegijate usk sellesse. /…/ Midagi sellist meie väga noores, märkimisväärse ajaloo ja ajaloolise mäluta kadaklikus kodukultuuris ei leidu, pole kunagi leidunud ega hakkagi ilmselt leiduma. (Aivar Loog, Postimees, 01.06.15, whole article)

Lavastusega “Yangide naiskindralid” täna Tallinnas esinevad Pekingi ooperi legendid Li Shengsu ja Yu Kuizhi ütlevad, et hiinlaste kultuuriline valgustustöö Euroopas on vilja kandnud: tuleb ette, et lääne publiku käest võib teenida marulisemagi aplausi kui kodumaal. (Postimees, 28.05.15, whole article)

… pakkus just esimene vaatus, kui tegelastele tehti eri situatsioonides teatavaks traagilised sündmused sõjaväljal, võrratut sissevaadet nende reaktsioonile ja psühholoogilistele heitlustele. See oli kahtlemata väga mõjus. Eesti kuulajale ehk pisut harjumatud, kuid sellele stiilile iseloomuliku nasaalse ja terava tämbriga vokaalpartiid olid esitatud küll väga meisterlikult… (Raho Langsepp, Lilian Langsepp, Sirp, 12.06.15, Estonia, whole article)

See also: Festival Orient, Orient 2013, Orient 2011, Orient presents in 2010, Orient 2009, Orient presents in 2008, Orient 2007, Orient presents in 2006, Orient 2005, Festival archives Orient in Palmyra (Voices from the Stars Above the Desert), The Path to the Heart of Asia (CD recorded with featuring musicians of Orient 1992)

Additional info: Wikipedia in English and Estonian

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Special thanks: EAS, Alar Metsson, Eesti Kontsert, Madis Kolk, Hedi Palipea, Meliisa Marianne Palipea