HWA SHENG CHINESE OPERA CLUB

July 16, 2016:  A 50th anniversary celebration of Hwa Sheng Chinese Opera Club in Seattle, showcased five popular excerpts taken from the rich repertory and enduring tradition of Beijing Opera. 

In this production, five excerpts from four plays will be presented, divided by one 15-minute intermission. Each piece either contains a single aria of less than fifteen minutes or depicts a complete dramatic situation lasting for nearly an hour. “Scholar Matchmaker” focuses on one famous aria of a princess, who sings about her romantic feelings toward a young general. “In the Palace” and “Patrolling the Battlefield” come from the same play The Fourth Son Visits His Mother. “In the Palace” depicts the intense confrontation between a husband and a wife before the revelation of a long-held secret, a piece generally celebrated for the beauty of aria for each character and the intricate portrayal of human conflict between emotions and familial obligations. “Patrolling the Battlefield” is a much shorter episode with a young general singing about his youth and valor in the face of fierce enemies.

 

After the intermission, “Jade Bracelet” will start the second half with a delicious movement piece highlighting Chinese opera’s masterful use of pantomime on an empty stage. The piece opens with a young girl’s daily chores and her chance encounter with a young man, and ends with her picking up a jade bracelet as a pledge of marriage. Finally, the afternoon’s program will end with a much larger and more complicated piece “Accession to the Throne,” in which multiple characters of various role types are brought together to show the unpredictability of fate and perseverance of character. A poor beggar’s accession to the throne is celebrated along with the just punishment of evildoers and the happy union of his two wives, one a traditional Confucian lady and another a free-spirited woman general from the northern territories.   

 

Although grown out of clamorous traditional teahouses, Chinese Opera is now comfortably presented on Westernized stage with warm, theatrical lighting.  The auditorium of Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue will easily transport you to the ancient world of Chinese culture, with Chinese subtitles and English translations of the sung lyrics projected next to the stage to facilitate understanding and appreciation of the pieces.