First on stage was a girl explaining how tea is had the traditional way, while we got settled. This was a bit strange, as we didnt have the right equipment to do all the things she was doing, but I've had the experience before (and it's not something you really need to do more than once). After this the proper show started, with a man introducing the history of Beijing opera and what happens in a show.
He brought some students up on stage and tried to teach them basic movements of the four character types. You can tell the characters in Beijing opera by their costumes. Different colours represent tempraments - white characters are evil, yellow characters are quick to temper, and so on. Young male characters speak and sing in a high-pitched wail, and old male characters wear long, straight bears. The most important characters wear painted face masks, and female characters have painted faces (and are usually played by men). Everything is exaggerated, which is fun, and helps one figure out what is going on. Speaking and singing is done in a more classical way (like Chinese Shakespeare) so even a lot of Chinese people have a hard time understanding the plot.
After an entertaining explanation and demonstration of the basics, we got to see two shows. The first, Xiang Yu Says Farewell to His Concubine, was a story from the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history, Xiang Yu being the king of one of these kingdoms, with the other two advancing on his city. It took a very long time to get the story across, and the concubine seemed to be the main character (so unfortunately we had to put up with her wailing voice the whole time), but there was some good sword dancing and the show was entertaining.
Xiang Yu, with orange bobbly things on his head.
Then, the second show was part of Journey to the West - the legend of the Monkey King. This was about the Emperor's guards challenging the Monkey King, and the Monkey King showing off. There wasn't much speaking in this, and no singing, so it was pretty good. The acrobatics were great. Unfortunately I didn't get a video of this one.
The Emperor, with his guards, and the same bobbly things.
Each of these shows went for about an hour and a half. A full opera can last well over two hours - which I would happily sit through if it was like today's second one (I doubt I could put up with the singing that long though). Afterwards, we went to a Japanese restaurant for lunch. So, in all, a good outing.
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