Xiqu

First Troupe of the China National Peking Opera Company made their debut at the Chinese Opera Festival in 2012 and attracted wide public acclaim. This year, they are returning with a spectacular selection of performances. Renowned Peking Opera laosheng (old male) artist Yu Kuizhi will lead in the emotively grand All Red Is the River and perform a fervent sad song. Li Shengsu, representative bearer of the Mei Lanfang style will perform Ladies of the Great Yang Family, an opera that has passed down four generations within the troupe; showing both her civil and martial styles in this repertoire. Guest artist Yang Chi, the Director of the Dalian Peking Opera Theatre and renowned hualian (painted face) artist studied with hualian master Yuan Shihai, inherited the quintessence of the Yuan style. He will put on a sensational show of the classic hualian masterpiece At the Mouth of Jiujiang River. In the popular piece The Incarceration of Su San, the heroine has been played by the four great dan (female) artists. The fine young actors of the company will combine the art of the four great dan artists Mei Lanfang, Cheng Yanqiu, Xun Huisheng and Zhang Junqiu to perform the repertoire. The grace and depth of the Mei style; the subtlety and profoundness of the Cheng style; the organic and unpretentious elegance of the Xun style and the bold yet enchanting traits of the Zhang style would all be demonstrated in one performance. Yu Kuizhi will conclude the programme on a high note by performing Vengeance in a Black Pot – his most popular title and a laosheng classic with brilliant singing pieces.