Hu Wenge is known for his performance in Peking Opera piece Farewell My Concubine. (Zou Hong/For China Daily)
In 1790, four opera troupes from Anhui province performed for the 80th birthday of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and later stayed on in Beijing to develop their performance style.
Almost exactly a year later in Vienna, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart conducted the premiere performance of the opera The Magic Flute, about 10 weeks before he died at the age of 35.
Just as The Magic Flute went on to become one of Mozart's most famous operas, the musical style of the Anhui troupes also flourished, eventually becoming the Peking Opera, which is now regarded as a national treasure.
This Chinese opera will be combined with Western music in one show at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing on Aug 25, in a concert marking the 70th anniversary of victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45).
Those performing will include Peking Opera masters Hu Wenge, Zhang Xinyue and Lin Zhenjie, from opera troupes in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, and they will be accompanied by the center's symphony orchestra and chorus conducted by Hu Yongyan.
"In English the same word, 'opera', is used to denote these two musical forms, but in fact they are totally different," says Hu Yongyan, 59, a renowned Chinese-American conductor, who studied at Yale University and Juilliard School in New York and is now president of the EOS Orchestra of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.
"Looking back, the two art forms began to flourish about the same time. ... Both were first staged at royal court before becoming popular among the masses."
Under Hu Yongyan's baton, the orchestra and chorus will interpret traditional and contemporary Peking Opera works, such as Farewell My Concubine, The Red Lantern and Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy.
"I have spent a lifetime researching and playing Western classical music," the conductor says.
"The combination of Western classical music and Peking Opera is a challenge for me."
Peking Opera shows are accompanied by a small group of musicians, playing instruments such as the jinghu, a high-pitched, two-stringed fiddle, and various percussion instruments, which produces an intimate feeling, he adds.
"A symphony orchestra and a chorus consisting of hundreds of people produces a different atmosphere."
Reflecting the changes in audiences, all members of the NCPA's symphony orchestra and chorus are no older than 25.
According to Hu Yongyan, the concert will likely offer not just a new perspective from which Peking Opera and Western classical music can be appreciated, but it will also stimulate younger people to look back on the history of the two forms.
The theme of the works chosen for the concert is peace and the patriotic spirit, says the concert's artistic director Yang Nailin, who teaches composition at the Central Conservatory of Music.
"Chinese musicians have long looked for ways to keep the traditions of Peking Opera alive and at the same time bring a creative spirit to this old art form," Yang says.
The Western classical forms in the show will include chamber music and choruses.
Yang says The Red Lantern, a contemporary Peking Opera work, is based on a true story about a patriotic Communist and his family during the Japanese occupation in 1939. Peking Opera actresses Zhang and Yuan Huiqin will sing the work accompanied by pianist Tan Xiaotang.
Hu Wenge, 47, will open the concert by playing Beauty Yu, the leading female character in Farewell My Concubine.
"Farewell My Concubine is one of the most famous Peking Opera pieces, and even those unfamiliar with the genre know the work," says Hu Wenge, the only nan dan (a man who plays a female role) apprentice of Peking Opera master Mei Baojiu, son of the famous late actor Mei Lanfang.
"Apart from his considerable artistic achievements, Mei Lanfang has achieved the status of a patriotic hero, having refused to sing for the Japanese army when Beijing was occupied in 1937. He didn't sing until the war ended in 1945."
Other features of the show will be extracts from three original productions of Peking Opera by the NCPA.
If you go
7:30 pm, Aug 25. NCPA Concert Hall, 2 West Chang'an Avenue, Xicheng district, Beijing. 010-6655-0000.
