Peking opera

And Sister Fu has a beautiful voice.

So they end up practicing their duets, singing Peking opera.

Yes.

And one thing I didn't acknowledge in my talk was the comedic aspect of this book.

Absolutely.

He said that, you know, and I can remember when the Peking Opera came out and I'm a bit of an opera fan, but not Chinese opera, but I didn't know the difference then.

And I wanted to go and my father forbade me on the threat of death if I wanted to do anything from mainland China.

But of course we have to change.

It made its U.S. debut in Boston and Washington, D.C. in 2023 before heading to New York.

China's National Peking Opera Company has staged a mid-autumn festival performance in Abu Dhabi.

It included four classic excerpts, The Crossroads, Selling Water, Farewell My Concubine, and Havoc in Heaven.

Wang Zheng reports from Abu Dhabi.

The Cultural Foundation Theatre in Abu Dhabi, UAE grandly unveils the Mid-Autumn Festival, a moment to remember Peking Opera's special performance.

Carrying over eight decades of artistic legacy, the China National Peking Opera Company takes the stage with a captivating showcase of classic experts.

With every stroke of their flowing silk sleeves, timeless ideas of reunion and harmony resonate, penning a poetic new chapter of shared splendor between the Chinese and Arab civilizations.

Before the makeup mirrors, face paint is meticulously applied and hair pieces firmly secured, as the artists quietly prepare for the stage according to time-honored theater traditions.

He definitely will be on the A-list.

yeah okay yeah yeah very acrobatic man very acrobatic he is known to be the best how should i say well-rounded peking opera actor because you know they all come out of the peking opera team that's how they all started and yunpyo has the best stretch and the best flexibility he can yeah flexibility he can do flip-flops he can do you know turns in the air i think we doubled uh i think He might have doubled Bruce Lee for one of the flip in the air or something,

you know.

And so

[laughs]

Um, well, we wanted to start broad and ask why you decided to write an opera.

This had been something you'd been thinking about for a while, or was this something new in terms of your compositional output?

Well, uh, well, I grew up in a, a s- set kind of a music, music, uh, family.

My, my mother was a singer, so I heard the Washington Opera from my childhood, um, for years.

And, uh, we have a lot of re- records and, you know, Tchaikovsky, uh, Smetana, uh, operas.

Uh, but, uh, you know, as a composer, I, you know...

I, I was, uh, uh, through the Cultural Revolution, uh, when I was 16.

[gong ringing] In 1986, Tan Dun came to New York City, and since then he's managed to combine elements of East and West into his own musical works.

In 1987, for example, he composed a violin concerto entitled Out of Peking Opera, which draws on both Chinese and European traditions.

In addition to prestigious awards and commissions from major foundations and orchestras, in March of 2001, Tan Dun won an Oscar for his film score to the Ang Lee film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

[percussion music] Composer's Datebook is produced by APM, American Public Media, in conjunction with the American Composers Forum, reminding you that all music was once new.

in places like the Soviet Union or East Germany.

And there were other people who went abroad as part of an acrobatics troupe or Peking Opera performance or something like that.

But the people who got sent on these tours were just basically there to go to different sites and look at stuff and observe.

And in a lot of ways, their experience kind of parallels some of the people who were coming on tours to China.