Peking Opera on the World Stage

When Weng Guosheng was appointed Director of Zhejiang Peking Opera Troupe in 2004， it was apparently not the best time for the time-honored Chinese art genre. Shortly after taking the post， he set out with the troupe on a road show in southern Zhejiang Province， where operas regional or national still have a huge market and appeal to rural fans.

Weng knew it was not just a matter of survival of the troupe， but he could not help but wonder if he could lead the troupe onto prosperity and how the troupe could find a way out? He needed creative and original ideas.

Weng is an original and creative man. Today， the Zhejiang Peking Opera Troupe is enjoying a very good time under Weng’s steer and it is probably the best time the troupe has ever seen since its founding. The troupe has staged more than 700 performances of “Lotus Lantern”， a Peking Opera play based a well known Chinese folk tale. It stars Weng Guosheng as the hero and it is one of the best 30 plays chosen by the government.

Moreover， the troupe has staged its plays successfully in countries such as France， Japan， United Arab Emirates， India， Spain， and USA.

In March， 2008， the troupe was invited to appear for an entertainment show at United Arab Emirates. It was a royal occasion attended by the royal houses in United Arab Emirates and more than 6，000 guests from all over the world. The Peking Opera show they were to stage was “Monkey King”， a hero of Chinese classics. The artists from Zhejiang ran into extreme weather conditions in rehearses. The fire spewing out of the mouth literally backfired under the impact of huge desert wind. The monkey king’s weapon， once thrown high into the air， posed a real challenge to the actor trying to get it back. Weng Guosheng and his colleagues improvised and figured out ways to prevent the wind from disrupting their performance. The unexpected real challenge came just moments before the start of the performance. For the reasons of security， the actors were forbidden to carry the theatrical weapons onto the stage and they were not to spit fire from the mouth as VIP guests sat only a meter away from the stage. Weng Guosheng rose up to the challenge and showed his real kongfu. The show was a sensational success. Before the New Year’s Day in 2010， Weng received an invitation to stage shows in United Arab Emirates again in 2010. Weng regards the invitation a great appreciation of Peking Opera and masters.

After successfully staging traditional Chinese shows abroad， Weng Guosheng began to wonder whether Peking Opera could interpret western drama in an oriental way. He chose Oedipus， a well known Greek tragedy. The tragedy was adapted to Peking Opera. It resorts to many Peking Opera performance skills and methods. The beauty of Peking Opera is that it has stereotypes for a great variety of characters and each stereotype has a set of performance routines. These set routines and performance skills are ingeniously absorbed to show a Greek hero in the way of Peking Opera. For example， the three stages of Oedipus’s fate are best presented in three different sets of routines originally designed for three character types in Peking Opera.

In 2008， Peking Opera version of Oedipus was staged at a drama festival in Barcelona. It was the only performance from China. The successful combination of the West and the East set fire on the imagination of the audience. The most thrilling moment was when Oedipus stabbed his eyes. The blind king on the stage suddenly threw 3-meter-long sleeves out， red color of the sleeves suggesting blood. Dancing with the blood-stained super-long sleeves and singing， the king bared his emotions and lamented his fate. This unexpected stunt wowed the audience.

Because of the brilliant oriental representation of Oedipus in Barcelona， Zhejiang Peking Opera Troupe later was invited to stage the show in New York. At a lecture attended by students and scholars before the show， Weng Guosheng talked about the charms of Peking Opera. He mentioned symbolic ways on a small stage to indicate things in a much larger world. He demonstrated how in Chinese opera a few actors act out as invisible armies and how actors climb invisible mountains.

In 1997， Weng Guosheng， a fledgling director at that time， jointly directed a play with a prominent Japanese dramatist for a musical in Japan. Golden Phoenix， the musical show， was staged for three nights in a row in Gifu， a sisterly city twinned with Hangzhou. The performance was so sensational that musicians and Kabuki actors flocked in from Tokyo and Nagoya to watch the show.

In 2008， Weng Guosheng was invited to repeat the success in partnership with the Japanese dramatist for the city of Mino City at its art festival.

The 2008 version of Golden Phoenix was something between musical and Peking Opera. Some characters were dressed in costumes of well known modern myths in Japanese animation movies. Weng Guosheng introduced elements of kongfu of Peking Opera into the show. The show was a great success. At the art festival， Zhejiang Peking Opera Troupe also staged some highlights from Peking Opera repertoire.

The artists from the troupe did more than shows. They were also individually invited to homes of Japanese citizens across the city. Weng Guosheng was invited to the home of a mid-age couple with a lovely daughter. Weng Guosheng has a daughter in senior high school. So daughters became the topic. The two daughters have been friends since 2008. Recently the mayor came to Hangzhou carrying some gifts from the daughter to Weng’s daughter.

Weng Guosheng was moved by the friendship. A show in Japan has forged friendship between directors， between actors and audiences， and young people of the next generation. Weng plans to visit Japan with his wife and daughter in this upcoming Spring Festival to meet the couple and their daughter in Mino.

Today， Weng Guosheng no longer worries if the troupe can survive. He understands there are always opportunities and hopes on the stage just as there are always opportunities and hopes in the world. After all， the stage is a big world and the world is a big stage. □