CRI听力:Classic Peking Opera Wows British Audience

The Warrior Women of Yang and Farewell My Concubine are two of the most famous productions by the China National Peking Opera Company. Their debut at London's Sadler's Wells last week met with remarkable enthusiasm by more than 1000 audiences.

The Chinese opera company was headed by Yu Kuizhi and Li Shengsu, both are very well known for their career as opera performers. Yu was also the Vice President and Artistic Director of the company. He said in an interview before the performance that to accustom to western theatre tradition, the company has made several adjustments which include adding Chinese and English subtitles to the performances and reducing the length of the productions.

"British plays usually have an interval, which is about 20 minutes, and originally our play is 3 hours and a half, counting in the interval, it might be too long for British audiences' taste. So after careful adaptation, we have kept the essence of the play and left out the less important bits."

Yu's colleague, Li Shengsu was with the company when they toured the UK ten years ago. Returning as the leading role in The Warrior Women of Yang, she felt that British audiences have a much better understanding of traditional Chinese culture and in particular Peking Opera.

"For instance, when we performed in Liverpool, I can clearly hear British audiences joining the Chinese fans cheering for us, and they know exactly when to give us their applauses, it feels almost like we are performing at home in China."

The Chinese opera company was also hailed by British theatre critics. Christopher Curtis writes reviews for Bachtrack.com, the world's largest online guide for classical music, opera and dance shows.

"I would probably rate this show four stars out of five. As you can hear from the audience, there is a very mixed audience tonight with people who are familiar with Peking Opera and people who are very new to it, and they loved the performance."

Curtis admits that the buoyant opera music may sound a bit odd to western ears but the storyline is what reaches out to the audiences.

"The story is all set up in the first half, and the acrobat bit in the second half is just spectacular. I love the movements, the richness of the costumes, but the story is really powerful. It's a story about family and honor and that communicates very well between cultures I think."

The Chinese opera company's UK visit was also part of a series of programmes to mark the Year of China-UK cultural exchange.

For CRI, I'm Duan Xuelian in London.