Two Peking Operas are going to be staged in Beijing Tianqiao Performance Arts Center on October 23 and 24, featuring Chinese phenomenal Peking Opera actress Zhang Huoding and her students from Peking Opera Cheng School Performing Talents Training Program. Photo: Web

 
A well-known Peking Opera artist and her students will perform two famous opera classics in Beijing to celebrate the 71st anniversary of the establishment of the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts.

Two operas – the traditional classic Unicorn Trapping Purse, and the modern revolutionary opera Jiangjie – will be staged at Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center on October 23 and 24, featuring Peking Opera actress Zhang Huoding and her students from Peking Opera Cheng School Performing Talents Training Program.

The Peking Opera Jiangjie is set in 1949 during the Chinese Civil War in Southwest China’s Chongqing. The opera follows underground communist agents under the command of Zhou Enlai as they fight an espionage battle against the Kuomintang. The opera aims to show the strong spirit of Communist Party of China revolutionary martyrs such as Jiang.

The Unicorn Trapping Purse tells the story of a wealthy family who are marrying off their daughter, Xue Xianglin. To ensure the daughter will have a happy married life, the parents prepare a lot of items to give the daughter, including a local traditional purse, named the “unicorn trapping purse,” in the hope that she will have powerful and promising sons.

The show will be performed by Zhang Huoding, along with the students from the training program including Li Linxiao, Yin Chanjuan, Pan Yu, Zhai Qian and Yang Xiaoyang.

Founded in 2016, Zhang’s training program has been providing training for the general public who are fans of Peking Opera.

Zhang plays Qingyi (virtuous females) in Cheng School classics, an opera school founded by Cheng Yanqiu, one of the four great actors of Dan roles (female roles) in Peking Opera. 

“Zhang Huoding is phenomenal. It’s hard to believe that a Peking Opera actress can be as popular as a pop star,” Fu Jin, a professor at the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts, once said about Zhang.