May 16th: “A Bright Moon” —Famous Peking Opera Artists’ Concert(Approximate 150min, No intermissions)
May 17th: Peking Opera full-length WU Zixu(Approximate 190min, No intermissions)
May 18th: Peking Opera Cursing CAO Cao through Drumming and MA Su’s Loss of Jieting·The Empty Fort Strategy·Executing MA SU for His Misconduct(Approximate 170min, No intermissions)
May 19th: Peking Opera General YANG(Approximate 180min, No intermissions)
May 16th: “A Bright Moon” —Famous Peking Opera Artists’ Concert
The commemorative concert is titled “A Bright Moon”, which means more than the phrase tells. Mr. YANG’s representative works
WU Zixu,
General YANG and
Capturing and Release CAO Cao respectively begin with an erhuang adagio aria titled “A Bright Moon”, which was sung by YANG Baosen in different styles, becoming a classic aria of the YANG School and widely circulated. YANG Baosen’s voice was very unique, honoured as a “moon in clouds”. That is, it seemed to be a moon in clouds at first, partly hidden and partly visible. Then it grew louder, showing its strong lingering charms. Finally, it got more vigorous and sonorous, sounding like a bright moon hung high in the sky.
The followers and artists of the YANG School from all over the country will share the stage to perform YANG Baosen’s representative works and classic arias. The event is hosted by the NCPA and will be attended by the Tianjin Jingju Theatre Company, Tianjin Youth Peking Opera Troupe, Jingju Theatre Company of Beijing, Shanghai Peking Opera Company, Dalian Peking Opera Theatre, Peking Opera Theatre of Shandong Province, National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts, Beijing Vocational College of Opera and Arts and National Peking Opera Company.
Lead Cast (According to the order of appearance)
WANG Lin, LIU Jianjie, CHEN Ai, LING Ke, KANG Wansheng, WANG Peiyu, LI Jun, WANG Yan, DU Zhenjie, WANG Ping, DENG Muwei, ZHANG Ke, MENG Guanglu, YANG Naipeng, YANG Shaopeng, YE Peng
May 17th: Peking Opera full-length WU Zixu (Battle in Fancheng, Meeting in Changting, Wenzhao Pass, Man in Reeds, Tale of Washing Clothes, Visit to ZHUAN Zhu, Sword in Fish, Assassination of King Liao of Wu and Fighting against Five Generals)
Peking Opera
WU Zixu is also known as
Flourishing Spring and Autumn, composed of highlights including
Battle in Fancheng,
Meeting in Changting,
Wenzhao Pass,
Man in Reeds,
Tale of Washing Clothes, Visit to
ZHUAN Zhu,
Sword in Fish,
Assassination of King Liao of Wu and
Fighting against Five Generals, etc. Each of which can be performed separately. The above highlights stood as representative works in the WANG (Guifen) School’s repertoire and will be performed by the TAN School in a different way. After WANG Guifen’s retirement, his disciple WANG Fengqing often preformed
Wenzhao Pass and
Sword in Fish. After WANG Fengqing retired from public life, the WANG School’s singing method broke away from the stage and
WU Zixu gradually passed into silence.
In 1942, with the help of educator WANG Yaoqing, YANG Baosen rearranged the work based on the WANG School’s version and creatively performed the WANG School’s singing tune with the YU School’s singing method. He applied typical music styles of Peking Opera, including xipi, erhuang and anti-xipi, to the performance of arias in the work, including “A Letter Arrives in Fancheng” and “the Older Brother Utters Ill-judged Words” in
Battle in Fancheng, “hates King Ping of Chu for wrecking the country” and “a bright moon is shining on the window” in
Wenzhao Pass, “the hero runs to the State of Wu on a horse” and “he keeps mute, feeling sad” in
Tale of Washing Clothes, “JIA Ziya fishes by a stream as a hermit” and “Zixu starts to perform exploits” and “one cannot choose to be rich or poor” in
Sword in Fish. The complex arias and spoken parts of this work reveal YANG Baosen’s extraordinary performing skills. When elaborating
WU Zixu with his cousin accompanist YANG Baozhong and drummer HANG Zihe, YANG Baosen creatively developed and extended many bright and colourful singing tunes, enriching the old male role’s singing art. The birth of
WU Zixu, a representative piece in YANG Baosen’s repertoire, is an important sign of the formation of the art of the “YANG School”.
On the New Year’s Day of 1943, the
WU Zixu premiered at the Shanghai Tianchan Theatre from
Battle in Fancheng to
Fighting against Five Generals. Considering the long length of the work and his poor health, Mr. YANG chose to perform part of
WU Zixu, namely from
Wenzhao Pass to
Assassination of King Liao of Wu, in his later years, and rarely performed
Battle in Fancheng - Meeting in Changting, which was just recorded.
The full-length
WU Zixu to be performed in honour of the 110
th birthday of Mr. YANG Baosen is replicated as much as possible as the original YANG School’s version including
Battle in Fancheng,
Meeting in Changting,
Wenzhao Pass,
Man in Reeds,
Tale of Washing Clothes, Visit to
ZHUAN Zhu,
Meeting Jiguang, Sword in Fish,
Assassination of King Liao of Wu and
Fighting against Five Generals The followers and artists of the YANG School invited from Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai will share the stage to cherish the memory of Peking Opera master Mr. YANG Baosen.
Lead Cast (According to the order of appearance)
YANG Shaopeng, ZHANG Ke, DENG Muwei, LI Jun, DU Zhenjie, ZHANG Huifang, WAN Lin, LU Song, YANG Naipeng, MENG Guanglv
Co-star
ZHOU Yanan, TAO Xinchen, SHI Wei
May 18th: Peking Opera Cursing CAO Cao through Drumming and MA Su’s Loss of Jieting·The Empty Fort Strategy·Executing MA SU for His Misconduct
Cursing CAO Cao through Drumming
Cursing CAO Cao through Drumming, also known as
A Banquet for Officials, is a traditional Peking Opera work. Adapted from Chapter 23, titled
MI Zhengping curses CAO Cao with his Upper Body Naked, of
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms,
Cursing CAO Cao through Drumming was a masterpiece in TAN Xinpei’s, YU Shuyan’s and YANG Baosen’s repertoires. YANG Baosen started to perform
Cursing CAO Cao through Drumming in his childhood and insisted on performing it in his later years. He often staged it with
Hongyang Cave. MI Heng, who is frustrated for all his talent but wild and intractable, is a gentle, aloof, learned and stinging scholar who defies power. The work contains the main music styles of Peking Opera, such as xipi as well as many spoken parts, making it very hard for artists to perform. Apart from complex arias and spoken parts, the “santong drum” and “deep-night” drum are major features of this work.
Cursing CAO Cao through Drumming is a masterpiece adapted by YANG Baosen under very high artistic standards.
During the Three Kingdoms Period, CAO Cao plans to surrender LIU Biao by asking someone to deliver a letter to him, and KONG Rong recommends MI Heng as a messenger. CAO Cao calls in MI Heng, but doesn’t treat him courteously. MI Heng answers back sarcastically and administers rebukes to CAO Cao’s subordinates one by one. CAO Cao becomes angry from embarrassment and asks MI Heng to serve as a drummer to humiliate him. MI Heng is stripped to the waist and beats the drum at the banquet to vent his resentment with abandon, giving CAO Cao a good scolding. Unwilling to be branded as a man that kills a distinguished person, CAO Cao sends MI Heng to Jingzhou to surrender LIU Biao. MI Heng cannot but leave for Jingzhou at others’ suggestions.
Peking Opera MA Su’s Loss of Jieting·The Empty Fort Strategy·Executing MA SU for His Misconduct
Peking Opera
MA Su’s Loss of Jieting·The Empty Fort Strategy·Executing MA SU for His Misconduct, also known as
The Empty Fort Strategy·and adapted from
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, were representative works in TAN Xinpei’s and YU Shuyan’s repertoire.
YANG Baosen started to perform
MA Su’s Loss of Jieting·The Empty Fort Strategy·Executing MA SU for His Misconduct in his children and acted out Prime Minister ZHUGE Liang’s part. Despite his young age, he appeared mature, and therefore was considered a child prodigy. At all stages of his life, YANG Baosen chose
MA Su’s Loss of Jieting·The Empty Fort Strategy·Executing MA SU for His Misconduct as an indispensable piece in his repertoire no matter where he gave a performance. Constantly polished by YANG Baosen all his life, the performance of this work became excellent in his later years and he looked as though he were the real ZHUGE Liang on stage. Although the work was not only performed by YANG, he performed it in most distinguished way, creating a lively artistic image of ZHUGE Liang. All the photos and different versions of the full-length
The Empty Fort Strategy·handed down from him have become precious learning materials for later generations.
The full-length
MA Su’s Loss of Jieting·The Empty Fort Strategy·Executing MA SU for His Misconduct to be performed in honour of the 110
th birthday of Mr. YANG Baosen will be jointly performed by the followers and artists of the YANG School with chapters from Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Dalian.
Lead Cast (According to the order of appearance)
YANG Shaopeng, LI Jun, YANG Guang, LU Song, ZHANG Ke, DU Zhenjie, DENG Muwei, YANG Naipeng, YANG Chi, WANG Ping
Co-star
GAO Hang, SHI Hao, DOU Qian, SHAO Hailong, SI Ming, MA Jie, etc
May 19th: Peking Opera General YANG (LI Ling Tombstone - List of Honest and Upright Officials – Interrogating PAN Hong)
Peking Opera
General YANG usually consists of
Jinshatan,
LI Ling Tombstone,
and
Interrogating PAN Hong, of which
LI Ling Tombstone and
List of Honest and Upright Officials are major highlights for the old male role, and were YANG Baosen’s signature highlights. In the full-length
General YANG, YANG Baosen played two roles—YANG Jiye in
LI Ling Tombstone and KOU Zhun in
List of Honest and Upright Officials. The anti-erhuang singing tune “deplorably the YANG Family is loyal to the Song Dynasty” in
LI Ling Tombstone is the core aria of the work and a classic masterpiece composed by YANG Baosen based on what he had learned from TAN Xinpei, YU Shuyan and to enlighten his students; the erhuang singing tone “a bright moon rises early in the east” in
List of Honest and Upright Officials and the long spoken part in
Interrogating PAN Hong have very high requirements for singers’ ability. However, YANG Baosen treated it with ease, showing his extraordinary artistic skills.
Famous educator Mr. WANG Yaoqing gave YANG Baosen a poetic name “YANG Shiwu”. The name has many implied meanings. Not only does it have something to do with the title of
Executing MA SU for His Misconduct and
WU Zixu, but it has the following meanings: YANG Baosen’s surname is YANG. In addition, he acted in many operas where there is a character surnamed “YANG”, such as YANG Yanzhao in
Hongyang Cave, YANG Yanhui in
YANG Silang Visits His Mother, and especially
General YANG, an excellent masterpiece in his repertoire.
The
General YANG to be performed in honour of the 110
th birthday of Mr. YANG Baosen will be jointly performed by the followers and artists of the YANG School chapters from Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai.
Lead Cast(According to the order of appearance)
LI Jun, WANG Jiaqing, YANG Shaopeng, WAN Lin, YANG Naipeng, DU Zhenjie, ZHANG Ke, DENG Muwei
Co-star
MA Jie, LI Xiaoqing, ZHOU Yanan, LI Shanshan, TAO Xinchen, HAN Qing, DOU Qian, SHAO Hailong, etc
Presenter
Tianjin Jingju Theatre Company, Tianjin Youth Peking Opera Troupe, Jingju Theatre Company of Beijing, Shanghai Peking Opera Company, Dalian Peking Opera Theatre, Peking Opera Theatre of Shandong Province, National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts and Beijing Vocational College of Opera and Arts