Opera turns a new page

Adaptation of award-winning novel examines core issues with fresh techniques, Chen Nan reports.

'This is the life that you are most familiar with, the tables, the chairs and the facial masks hanging up there. You are living your lives and the only difference is that it's being staged in front of the audience," says director Zhang Manjun.

Standing on the stage inside the Mei Lanfang Theatre in Beijing, where classic Peking Operas are performed almost every day, Zhang, who is also a veteran Huangmeixi Opera actress, was in the middle of rehearsals for a new production, titled Leading Role, by the China National Peking Opera Company. Huangmeixi is a regional Chinese opera, popular in the areas of Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces.

Based on the novel with the same name by Chinese writer Chen Yan, which won the 10th Mao Dun Literature Prize, China's top literature award, Leading Role premiered at the Mei Lanfang Theatre this week.

The novel tells the life story of a famous Qinqiang Opera actress, Yi Qin'e, who spent more than four decades learning and performing the ancient art form. Qinqiang Opera is known for its high-pitched singing and dramatic performing style, and is a genre of traditional Chinese folk opera popular in Shaanxi province. Chen's novel, set against the backdrop of China from 1976 to 2016, reflects the changes of the country as well as the ups and downs of the opera.

The award-winning novel was adapted into a play by Shaanxi People's Art Theater, premiered last year. In June, Tencent Video announced a 40-episode TV drama, also based on the same novel.

When the China National Peking Opera Company decided to adapt the novel into a Peking Opera production, the creative team, including Zhang, scriptwriter Xu Xinhua and Wang Yong, head of the company, transformed the story so it could be performed by a Peking Opera troupe.

"Though the novel is about a Qinqiang Opera troupe — not a Peking Opera troupe — we share the similar experience of learning the old art form as a child and preserving it. It's not just a career for us but also a lifelong pursuit," says Zhang.