Huangmei Opera, a popular folk genre in east China's Anhui Province, has become a renewed object of discussion as a result of an interesting experiment.

Last November, Wu Qiong, once a leading Huangmei Opera actress, announced that she was returning to the theater after having left folk opera to become a pop singer a dozen years ago.

Wu said her loyal fans wanted her to return to her old genre. So to please them, she performed A Goddess' Marriage (Tianxian Pei) and Emperor's Female Son-in-law (Nu Fuma), the two most famous Huangmei Operas, over four nights at Beijing's Grand Chang'an Theater to mark her return.

About one month later, at the same venue, Han Zaifen, another popular Huangmei Opera actress a few years younger than Wu, premiered a modern Huangmei Opera play The Company (Gongsi).

Han says she created the new play with a contemporary storyline to attract young audience to the theater and to help win more popularity for Huangmei Opera at a time when folk operas are fading out.

In their own different ways, both Wu and Han are contributing to the preservation and development of Huangmei Opera, a local opera that originated from tea-picking ballads in central China's Hubei Province some 200 years ago. The opera, best-known for its tuneful melodies, later became especially popular in east China's Anhui Province, the home province of both actresses.

However, Han's new play, which will be staged again at the Beijing's Cultural Palace of Nationalities from March 10 to 13, drew conflicting comments from both the viewing public and critics.

Some think highly of her innovation in terms of the story, action and singing, while others said they were disappointed with the tunes and lyrics. And some said that it rated well enough as a modern drama but that it really wasn't Huangmei Opera.

But in this modern work, Han has revealed her desire to challenge herself.

"I expected the controversy. It proves that I have essentially succeeded in what I set out to do," she told China Daily. "It's hard for a folk opera to draw audiences for eight shows in Beijing, but we did it, although they weren't sell-outs. This tells me that there are people out there who enjoyed the show."

The folk opera experts of the China Academy of Arts organized a two-day forum to discuss The Company and Han's performance in Beijing two weeks ago.

All these things are strong reasons for Han to schedule a nation-wide tour this year, which will start with four shows in Beijing this month.

The Company features a very typical woman protagonist in a common enough story but with some dramatic turns and twists that explore the meaning of "trust" and "reputation" in today's commercial society.

In the play, Han plays Yao Lan, the protagonist, who fails to get a satisfactory job, even though she holds a PhD degree, and thus decides to open her own company.

She does so and subsequently meets different people through her business, including her ex-boy friend, who cheats her out of her money, the hypercritical manager of the company next to hers, a lecher and an immoral journalist.

Han says she had been thinking for a long time about producing a new play with a story closer to contemporary life.

"The stories of traditional folk operas are too far away from people's real life today, which is one of the most important reasons why these operas are losing audiences," she says.

The inspiration for The Company came from a visit she made to a company that impressed her with its management.

Soon after that, she found out during a get-together with some of her old friends that many of them run their own companies and had lots of stories to tell, some happy, but some terribly dark.

Then she invited Nie Zao, a not-so famous but very "creative" director, to "manage" the "Company." He had helped Han to promote her previous play Huizhou Woman (Huizhou Nuren).

Han explained why she chose him. "He is not a folk opera director so he didn't have fixed ideas about all the traditional routines. In addition, he himself was once a business man, so he has personal experience to bring to the production."

Nie, who has directed a few movies, said: "I appreciate her courage to innovate as well as her devotion to developing Huangmei Opera."

Han and Nie agreed that they wanted to make folk opera "in" again, to make people feel that watching a Huangmei Opera is just as interesting as watching a movie or a TV soap opera.

Aside from working out the story itself, Han, Nie and the entire crew made every effort to make the production an attractive "package."

The score borrows tunes and rhythms from pop music and jazz and the entire soundtrack is mixed in a pop way.

The curtain is specially decorated with a good many world-famous trademarks such as Microsoft, Coca-Cola and Boeing.

To maintain the tradition of singing and dancing in Huangmei Opera, Han has choreographed many special dance numbers to demonstrate such typical actions as typing and other office routines.

The big question is whether or not all their work has achieved the desired result. Theater goers are of different opinion. Most agree that Yao Lan's experience touches life and examines the question of trust.

Many of them applaud Han's sweet and mellow singing as well. But some elderly Huangmei Opera fans point out that the score lacks the typical tunes of Huangmei Opera. There are those who feel the play is entertaining. "The plot is dramatic and many lines are funny and to the point," said Chen Xingguo, who works for China Mobil.

Some truly get caught up in the opera. Wang Fengjun, a student from Peking University said the story is close to her, as she is going to graduate in July and was looking for a job in December when she saw the premiere.

But does the play really appeal to young audiences, as Han and Nie had hoped?

Li Xiaohong, a student from Renmin University of China, commented on a feedback sheet collected at the theater, "The story is plain...moralizing about the dark side of society."

Wei Yixiang, a student from Tsinghua University, wrote: "All the roles are too stereotyped to be believable. The words are not as lyrical as those of the traditional repertoire."

Le Shiliang from Peking University was bluntly critical: "Perhaps, it is not a good idea to try to modernize Huangmei Opera."

(China Daily March 5, 2004)