Visual performance elements

Beijing opera performers utilize four main skills. The first two are song and speech. The third is dance-acting. This includes pure dance, pantomime, and all other types of dance. The final skill is combat, which includes both acrobatics and fighting with all manner of weaponry. All of these skills are expected to be performed effortlessly, in keeping with the spirit of the art form.

The four skills of Beijing opera are not separate, but rather should be combined in a single performance. One skill may take precedence at certain moments during a play, but this does not mean that other actions should cease. Much attention is paid to tradition in the art form, and gestures, settings, music, and character types are determined by long held convention.

This includes conventions of movement, which are used to signal particular actions to the audience. For example, walking in a large circle always symbolizes traveling a long distance, and a character straightening his or her costume and headdress symbolizes that an important character is about to speak. Some conventions, such as the pantomimic opening and closing of doors, mounting and descending of stairs, are more readily apparent.

Many performances deal with behaviors that occur in daily life. However, in accordance with the overriding principle of beauty, such behaviors are stylized to be presented on stage. Beijing opera does not aim to accurately represent reality.

The most common stylization method in Beijing opera is roundness. Every motion and pose is carefully manipulated to avoid sharp angles and straight lines. A character looking upon an object above them will sweep their eyes in a circular motion from low to high before landing on the object.

Similarly, a character will sweep their hand in an arc from left to right in order to indicate an object on the right. This avoidance of sharp angles extends to three dimensional movement as well; reversals of orientation often take the form of a smooth, S-shaped curve. All of these general principles of aesthetics are present within other performance elements as well.

Aural performance elements

a. Vocal production

Vocal production in Beijing opera is conceived of as being composed of "four levels of song": songs with music, verse recitation, prose dialogue, and non-verbal vocalizations. The conception of a sliding scale of vocalization creates a sense of smooth continuity between songs and speech. The three basic categories of vocal production technique are the use of breath, pronunciation, and special Beijing opera pronunciation.

b. Stage speech

Beijing opera is performed using both Classical Chinese and modern Standard Mandarin with some slang terms added for color. The social position of the character being played determines the type of language that he or she uses. Beijing opera features three major types of stage speech. Monologues and dialogue, which make up the majority of most plays, consist of prose speeches.

c. Song

There are six main types of song lyrics in Beijing opera: emotive, condemnatory, narrative, descriptive, disputive, and "shared space separate sensations" lyrics. Each type uses the same basic lyrical structure, differing only in kind and degree of emotions portrayed.

Songs in Beijing opera are proscribed by a set of common aesthetic values. A majority of songs are within a pitch range of an octave and a fifth.

d. Music

The accompaniment for a Beijing opera performance usually consists of a small ensemble of traditional melodic and percussion instruments. The lead melodic instrument is the jinghu, a small high pitched two string spike fiddle.

The jinghu is the primary accompaniment for performers during songs. Accompaniment is heterophonic - the jinghu player follows the basic contours of the song's melody, but diverges in pitch and other elements.

The melodies played by the accompaniment mainly fall into three broad categories. The first is the aria. The arias of Beijing opera can be further divided into those of the Erhuang and Xipi varieties. The second type of melody heard in Beijing opera is the fixed-tune melody, or qupai. The final type of musical accompaniment is the percussion pattern. Such patterns provide context to the music in ways similar to the fixed-tune melodies.

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