Beijing Opera appeared in the Qing Dynasty (朝代). In 1790, manyopera troupes (戏班) went to Beijing for performances tocelebrate the birthday of Qianlong. This kind of unusual performance touchedthe hearts of the people deeply. While in Beijing, the troupes created a newkind of opera called Beijing Opera. It was on the basis (基础) of Anhui Opera by taking in the advantages of other operas.
Beijing Opera is quite unique (唯一的) in role shapingbecause it divides the roles into different kinds. They are sheng, dan, jingand chou which are quite different in many ways.
A popular song goes like this, "Foreignerscall Jingxi Beijing Opera." In fact, Beijing Opera is different fromopera. Opera tells the story and expresses the thoughts by singing instead ofspeaking. But Beijing Opera stresses (强调) chang, nian, zuo and da. Chang means singing, nian means musicalspoken parts, zuo means dance movements and da means martial (武打) skills.
Mei Lanfang is an excellent performingartist of Beijing Opera in China. In 1930, he led an opera troupe to Americaand presented Beijing Opera before Western people. Today, Beijing Opera hasbecome a sign of Chinese culture. It is changing with the development ofdifferent musical styles.
