Time: 2008/8/27-2008/8/29
Venue: People's Liberation Army Opera House
Price: 50/100/180/280/380
Tel: 86-10-64177845
Web: http://www.piao.com.cn/en_piao/ticket_2030.html
For other performances:
http://www.piao.com.cn/en_piao/allticket.asp
The PeonyPavilion is the masterwork in Chinese drama history and is full of thedelicacy and romance of Kunqu Opera. TANG XIANZU(1550-1616),the author,was a great dramatist who lived during Ming Dynasty. He is oftenmentioned together with the William Shakespeare.
Performed by The Northern Kunqu Troupe
Synopsis
The story takes place in the Southern Song period (960-1269).
DuLiniang, a sheltered, lonely girl of sixteen, dreams of a handsomeyoung scholar. Saddened that he was only a dream, she pines away.Before she dies, she paints a self-portrait and hides it in the garden.Her mother buries her under a plum tree, and a shrine is erected to hermemory. Most of the singing and action in Part I is done by the femalelead, in melismatic, haunting melodies.
LiuMengmei, an impoverished scholar, dreams of a beautiful young womanunder a plum tree who prophesies that only she will bring himhappiness. While traveling, he finds Du Liniang's portrait, and fallsin love with the image. Liniang's ghost appears. Convinced of Mengmei'slove, she reveals that she is a ghost, but that she can be revived.Braving his own fears, Mengmei opens the grave. Liniang returns to life.
Thelively resolution to the story. Mengmei succeeds as a scholar, but notbefore being punished on suspicion of grave robbing. Liniang isreunited with her parents, but not before her stern father admits thatlove can conquer death. This final section contains some of theliveliest and most humorous episodes in all of Kunqu.
