Friday, October 26, 2007
Breathing New Life into 600-Year-Old Opera
TIME: "Kunqu, China's oldest known operatic form, enjoyed its peak of popularity in the 18th century, when the best performers were adored by hundreds of thousands of fans. But by the 1940s there were virtually no dedicated Kunqu theaters left. With its archaic lyrics, sluggish melodies and tedious narratives, the 600-year-old genre — a precursor to the better known Peking opera — was all but dead and understandably so. The Peony Pavilion, one of the most famous Kunqu works, consists of 55 scenes, and a performance can last more than 20 hours. Witnesses to such a grandiose relic should worry less about falling asleep and more about slipping into a coma. When, in 2001, UNESCO declared Kunqu a 'masterpiece' of the world's 'intangible heritage' it seemed less like an honor and more like an epitaph."
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Although I am a kind of Chinese, I have to admit I don't quite understand Kunqu. I only saw it once in my life time. Unlike some plays of Beijing Opera having the exciting fight scene, Kunqu has lots of singing and it really gets the audience in coma as this article mentioned.
This article also makes me think of that news about Pittsburgh Ballet. At present, the traditional performing forms face the big challenge of how to greet the modern audience's taste. But, sometimes I am thinking and not sure if it is good to add the modern theatrical elements into the traditional performing forms.
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