An English-dubbed Peking Opera, recounting the Chinese fairy tale
Legend of the White Snake, was staged for an audience of
hundreds of foreigners Saturday night in the auditorium of the
China Drama Institute.
It
is the first time that a performance of Peking Opera was
simultaneously interpreted into English in different roles.
With earphones on his head, Fred Edwards, a Canadian working in
China, said that although he has been an enthusiastic Peking Opera
goer, he has never gotten so immersed in a performance until
then.
On
the choice of the repertoire for the first try at using this kind
of dubbed opera, producer Cui Xiangrong said that Legend of the
White Snake is one of the plays that can fully demonstrate all
the expressions of artistry used in Peking Opera.
"Romantic love stories and the fight between good and evil are
always appealing to audiences, besides, the original scenario
written by renowned Chinese playwright Tian Han is of high literary
value," said Cui.
"Peking Opera, which enjoys international reputations, would see a
lot more foreign audiences, if the language barrier can be smoothed
out," he said.
The endeavor of removing the language barrier over the art is not
new. Over two decades ago, Elizabeth Wichmann-Walczak, professor of
Asian Theater at the University of Hawaii in the United States,
created an English-version Peking Opera. She performed an imperial
concubine of Tang Dynasty singing in English.
Opera houses in Beijing also tried using English subtitles to help
foreign audiences comprehend the plays.
Cui believed that a dubbed opera can preserve the authentic flavor
of the art, while making it understandable to foreign
audiences.
The new attempt seems to work. The audience was deeply moved by the
romantic love story, and gave a thundering applause at the end of
each episode.
The 200-year-old Peking Opera with its trademark mixture of
lavishly embroidered costumes, florid facial make-up, high-pitched
singing, and romantic dances is considered the best expression of
China's art.
Ghaffar Pourazar, who dubs the role of Xu Xian for those
English-speakers in the audience, is a fan of Peking Opera. After
five years of training, Pourazar, who is British, has now become a
professional opera player.
Foreign audiences are easily attracted by some elements in the art,
such as the costumes, singing, actors' somersaulting and juggling,
he said. However, most of them cannot go deeper into the art.
But they do now. Denise Henry from the United States said she was
amazed by such romantic scenes as Xu Xian and the fairy boating on
the West Lake and fairies using magical power to submerge the
Jinshan Temple to rescue Xu Xian. They are so wonderfully adapted
on the opera stage, she said.
Pourazar considers the English version basically equivalent to the
original play and sounds poetic.
As
China's first Peking Opera artist to open a company for promoting
dubbed opera performances, Cui Xiangrong said that he came up with
the idea six years ago, and founded the Onetone Culture Exchange
Co. last year to make it his career.
He
believed that dubbed Peking Opera will have a huge market. "Some
two million overseas tourists visit Beijing every year, and my
market research suggests that many of them would like to go to
opera houses as part of a must-see tourist stop. Dubbed Peking
Opera is sure to become hot," he said.
(Xinhua 04/21/2001)