The performance of Chinese Peking Opera Female Generals of the Yang Family was warmly welcomed by Lithuanian audience on Thursday.
The famous story illustrated in the form of Peking Opera was not very familiar to Lithuanian people. But the opera itself and the delegation led by influential artists have attracted many audiences.
"The tickets were sold out within two weeks, and today there were about 1300 people coming for this performance," Danas Skramtai, senior concert manager of Lithuania's national philharmonic society, told Xinhua.
Besides some temporarily added seats, many people were standing on the aisles for this show.
"I think this performance is very interesting. It's my first time to watch Peking Opera in theater, though I studied in China for a few years. So I'm really happy to watch this performance in Lithuania," Aizhana, a woman from Kyrgyzstan who has a Lithuanian husband and lives in the Baltic country currently, told Xinhua in fluent Chinese.
"I was really touched by the story, I don't even know how to express my feeling," she added, referring to the story of Female Generals of the Yang Family.
"I think today's performance has a very high level. When I was studying in China, I used to watch Peking Opera on TV, but surprisingly I'm watching this high level performance in Lithuania today," said Edmundas, a local audience, also in mandarin Chinese.
"History is very important. Through this performance, we can see part of China's history, and it's very important," he added.
Edmundas said that many Lithuanian people don't know Chinese culture very well, but "they really like it when I introduce Chinese culture to them, though we have different culture and histories."
Roberta, a local university student, came to watch the performance for the first time. She said it was "very amazing and spectacular."
She clearly told the stories of the first part to Xinhua during the break of performance, and predicted that the female generals would successfully defeat the enemies in the second part of the performance.
"The opera is very interesting to me, and new," she added.
"Before we came to the Baltic countries, we were a little worried about the feedbacks from local audiences who are more familiar with western operas," Yu Kuizhi, a well-known Peking Opera artist as well as head of the delegation, told Xinhua.
"But our shows in Estonia and Latvia were both very successful which got rid of our worries," he said.
"Both Estonian and Latvian audiences were very warm and they stood up with big applauses after our show. All our performers, including myself, were really touched by that," Yu added. They were warmly received in Lithuania.
"I think it's true that art doesn't have borders, and it's very memorable for us in our lives to perform in the Baltic countries," Yu added.
"I think Lithuanian audience are not only expecting the performance, but also will enjoy it today," Yu told Xinhua before the performance.
