Kunqu Opera, an old Chinese opera form with a history of more than 600 years, is set to win back audience, kicking off with three performances in Beijing from October 17 to 19.

For many years, the Kunqu Opera artists have devoted themselves to preserving and developing the old opera, which is famous for its poetic and refined dialogues and elegant and gentle movements, by producing new plays and also reviving old ones.

An indication of the importance of Kunqu Opera is that it was accorded the status of a "masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity" by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on May 18, 2001.

The Beijing-based Beifang Kunqu Opera Troupe is working on the play "The Noble Son Leading an Unmatched Life." Starting from Friday, it will give three performances at the Grand Chang'an Theatre in Beijing. Later, the play will tour Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, launching the Second Kunqu Opera Festival on November 15.

Ancient play

The biggest selling point of the play may be that it is one of the three oldest Nanxi (Southern Opera) plays called with a history of 800 years. The other two are "The No 1 Scholar Zhang Xie" and "Xiaosun Tu."

Nanxi, a relatively crude art form, features most of Chinese local opera's characteristics, telling a complicated story with singing, speech, acting and dancing. Exactly when Nanxi originated is a matter of some dispute, but it is widely agreed that Kunqu Opera developed from it.

Long feared lost, the scripts of the three plays were discovered by Chinese intellectual Ye Gongchuo in a London antique shop in 1920. Ye bought a lost volume of "Yongle Dadian (Yongle Encyclopedia with Annotations)" which contained the scripts and kept it in a bank in Tianjin.

However, the original scripts were lost during the war in the 1940s. After the founding of New China in 1949, renowned writer Zheng Zhenduo (1898-1958) collected the copy of the scripts into an ancient drama collection and dramatist Qian Nanyang wrote an annotation book for them. These are the two main resources the troupe has used to revive the oldest play.

In recent years, opera insiders have shown increasing interest in the three plays. The Academy of Chinese Opera, Zhejiang Yongjia Kunqu Opera Theatre and the China National Peking Opera Theatre have staged different versions of "The No 1 Scholar Zhang Xie."

The Beifang Kunqu Opera Troupe has now become the first to revive "The Noble Son Leading an Unmatched Life."

The play tells a love story between Wanyan Shouma, the son of a leading official of the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234), and Wang Jinbang, an actress from a small opera ensemble. Wanyan has been fascinated by the local opera and falls in love with Wang. Despite his family's opposition, Wanyan overcomes all sorts of obstacles to marry Wang and becomes an actor in the ensemble. Wanyan's father finally decides to accept the marriage after watching an opera performed by his son and daughter-in-law on his way travelling incognito.

Liu Yuchen, president of the troupe, said he settled on this play because "it offers rich information about the costumes, style, tunes, repertoire and the popular roles of the Chinese play in its preliminary period and the opera performers' lives some 800 years ago, all of which are valuable for research and study on early Chinese plays."

Besides, the story takes place during the Jin Dynasty which was the first dynasty to select Beijing as its capital city. The leading role of Wanyan is the son of a high official living in the capital, so the play tells the story of people's lives in Beijing some 800 years ago.

The Jin Dynasty was established by the Nuzhen ethnic group and Wanyan is a big family from that ancient minority. From the play people can see that, at that time, Han people and Nuzhen ethnic people lived together, intermarried and communicated in arts and culture.

But, the production crew had not planned to "produce a fake antique," instead, they want to "interpret an 800-year-old story in a contemporary way." The troupe is eager to attract more ordinary people to come and enjoy this old elegant art.

"Kunqu Opera was the origin of many traditional Chinese operas, including Peking Opera. However, in spite of its charms, Kunqu is facing difficulties, which can be seen by its dwindling audience," said Liu. "Someone said that the best way to preserve Kunqu Opera is to send it to a museum, but we are not willing to accept this. It's not right to say that today's audience, especially young people, do not like it. The problem is how to perform it," he added.

This may be easy to say, but it is hard to achieve.

People at that time had different ways of thinking, so some things in the play are hard to understand today. What's more, most of the tunes and some scripts have lost.

The scriptwriter Liao Ben and director Cong Zhaoheng have to consult many historians of the Nuzhen ethnic group and the Kunqu Opera to make some plots logical and easy for today's viewers to understand and simplify some ancient language.

They also invited Hu Weiguang, an expert in Nuzhen dance and music to help them design the tunes and dance numbers. Thus composer Wang Dayuan has created some new tunes, combining some Nuzhen folk elements into the traditional Kunqu melody to make up for those lost over the years.

The setting designed by Yu Shaofei is also impressive. Some supporting performers dressed in the costumes look like the carved stone walls which are typical of the Jin Dynasty, adding a rich flavour of that time.

Public views

"It has not only attracted experts' attention to the origin and the preliminary form of Chinese drama, but will be well received by today's audiences for its popular love story, pleasant melody and the performers' wonderful acting," said Zhu Shaoyu, a composer with Beijing Peking Opera Troupe, which co-created the Peking Opera version of "The No 1 Scholar Zhang Xie."

"It's an ancient play for today's audience. The tune sounds very beautiful, and somehow novel to the Kunqu Opera, since it is combined with the musical elements of Nuzhen ethnic group," Zhu said after watching the show last month.

Jin Tong, a professor with China Academy of Local Opera, said: "The play is a broken antique, but the Beifang Kunqu Opera Troupe has repaired it well."

He said: "The troupe has made a great contribution to revive the oldest Chinese opera. Clearly, the crew has spared no effort in reviving the original form of the Kunqu Opera, while at the same time making it easier for today's viewers to understand."

And Gong Hede, a fellow researcher with the China Research Institute of Arts, appreciated the social meaning of the play. He said: "Wanyan breaks both the bounds of the class and nationality to pursue his love, both for the actress and the opera. What he did was unacceptable at that time. The play also suggests that Chinese opera is the fruit of all nationalities' contribution."

Challenging roles

The play also challenges the performers, demanding a variety of skills, since an opera performer of some 800 years ago was not fixed on one type of role.

An example is when Wanyan (starring Ke Jun) auditions to join the local opera ensemble after being driven from his home. He is required to display various skills that few actors could master all at once. It is actually a test for Ke Jun himself. The 38-year-old versatile actor demonstrates all types of combat skills in that scene. Ke, vice-president of the Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre and an award-winner actor, was invited to perform Wanyan just one month in advance to replace the original actor of the Beifang Kunqu Opera Theatre who is suffering from a physical injury.

Born in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, hometown of the Kunqu Opera, Ke looks a decade younger than his actual age.

"I would like to thank the Kunqu Opera. It is the opera that keeps me young," he joked.

The refined actor endows the noble young man with a scholarly bearing. He successfully portrays the changes from a respectable and gallant young noble to a poor beggar when he is driven out of home, and a popular actor giving tour performance.

Drama critic Liu Housheng likes Ke's performance so much that he said: "Wanyan is a unique role for actor, but Ke does a perfect job."

(China Daily October 13, 2003)