Peony Pavilion

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"Peony Pavillion" Botan Tei . . 牡丹亭





peony dreams
of heavenly re-union ...
shadows on the light


I watched a TV documentary about this special performance.

Tamasaburo studied the work of the late Chinese "onnagata (女形 : male actor who plays female roles)", Mei Lanfang.
Tamasaburo choose three young Chinese actors to share the performance with him and work toward a revival of "onnagata" in China, since they had been suppressed in the cultural revolution.

But first read about the performance of 2008:

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QUOTE
©　english.cri.cn, May 2008


Sino-Japan Version of the "Peony Pavilion"

China's Kunqu opera and Japan's Kabuki theatre
are great artistic treasures of the two countries. They are two rare theatrical forms in which the art of female roles played by men can still be seen. The latest experimental effort is the staging of the classic Kunqu opera, Peony Pavilion, featuring Japanese Kabuki master Bando Tamasaburo and veterans from the Suzhou Kunqu Opera House. Does this novel interpretation bring new life to this ancient romantic love story?
Our reporter Li Peichun goes in search of the answer.

Reporter:

The curtain is lifted, as we gradually see the elegantly clasped hands, the shining hair accessories and the embroidered silk costumes. Known for his own remarkable looks and talents, this is one of kabuki's greatest female role artists, Bando Tamasaburo. When appearing on the stage, he looks exquisitely alluring. The role he's playing is Du Liniang, the heroine in the Chinese Kunqu Opera, the Peony Pavilion.

It is about the story of Du Liniang, a daughter of an ancient Chinese official who comes back from the dead to unite with her true love, scholar Liu Mengmei.

Slow and melodic traditional music fills the Huguang Guild hall, while the red lanterns create a haze of nostalgia, wrapping the audience up in dreams of the old days when Kunqu Opera was in its prime. Bando Tamasaburo says this is exactly the atmosphere he wants to bring to the audience by his performance.

"The hall is a unique place where people gather to watch traditional operas. By performing the role of Du Liniang in the Peony Pavilion, I want to bring out the charm of the ancient stage. Once audiences enter and sit down to enjoy the show, they will be transported back to the past."

In this act, the stage is filled with the spirit of gliding, transient flowers. Guided by them, Du Liniang begins her dream in earnest. The set designs are minimal but evocative. It creates in the audience's imagination a lush garden of spring, in which Du Liniang and her future husband, Liu Mengmei, are dancing.

Director of this version of the Peony Pavilion, Jin Fei, says that just like Kabuki, one of the major traditional theatrical arts in Japan, all roles in Chinese Kunqu opera used to be performed only by males.

"Originally, both Kunqu opera and Peking Opera featured the art of Nan Dan, female role actors. Later, female roles were gradually played by actresses. We feel it is a pity that we lost the original art traditions with the passage of time."

In an effort to revive Nan dan in Chinese traditional operas, Kabuki master Bando Tamasaburo plays the female leading role, Du Liniang.


CLICk for more photos

Male actors can act like women, but they have never seen the world with the eyes of a woman. However, Bando Tamasaburo's interpretations of Du Liniang are even more colorful than most actresses. Audiences can't stop praising his impressive performance.

"It's hard to believe that the role is played by a man. He looks more like a woman than a real woman, which proves his success. He portrays the beauty of a true lady to the fullest."

"It is very beautiful. Men and women alike will be fascinated by his beauty. It's very difficult to achieve this, even for an actress."

So why are female roles acted by males more interesting on the stage? When the heavy makeup was removed after the performance, Bando Tamasaburo sat in his natural splendor. He is softly spoken and explains the advantages and disadvantage of being a man performing female roles.

"I play a woman with the eyes and the feelings of a man, like a man painting the portrait of a woman. I try to portray an ideal image of a woman, in the same way a male writer describes feminine feelings from a male perspective. I do not represent a woman, but I suggest the essence of women. When a man plays a woman, he observes her very precisely, with much closer attention than women do among themselves. That is why an onnagata, an actor playing women's roles, can show many things, which are unknown to a woman."

Japanese Kabuki performances do not include singing, but feature strong choreography. Unlike Kabuki, the Chinese Kunqu Opera blends various singing modes and speech patterns while dancing. This makes Kunqu Opera difficult to learn, even for Chinese performers. Head of Suzhou Kunqu Opera House, Cai Shaohua, tells us how Bando Tamasaburo learned the Chinese librettos and dialogues.

"Firstly, he wrote down the Japanese translation of Peony Pavilion. Then he marked the phonetic symbols for each Chinese line, including its musical tone. After that, he carefully imitated the lip movements of his teacher Zhang Jiqing by watching videos of her performances. Anyone who has watched his learning process will be deeply moved by his hard-working spirit."

Bando does not understand a single word of Chinese, but after repeated practice and meditation, he feels the powerful music, language and culture of Kunqu Opera.

"Chinese literature is the origin of its traditional opera. I was led into the elegant and refined world of literature, rather than just performing the play with my body movements. For audiences, what they witness is not just graceful moves on stage but the poetic atmosphere brought out by actors."

Zhang Jiqing, an acclaimed Kunqu performer and Bando's teacher, thinks Bando's small red mouth, slender and graceful waist, coy sideways glances and his delicate step make him a great artist. Zhang Jiqing says Bando's version of Du Liniang has combined the best of Kabuki and Kunqu Opera.

"He already had a good command of Kunqu Opera, and his acting has distinctive characteristics of Kabuki. He blends these two ancient theatrical art forms very well. The way he portrays the female role is natural and beautiful."

The Sino-Japanese version of Peony Pavilion premiered in Kyoto at the Minamiza Kabuki Theater in March. The performance was very well received among Japanese audiences despite the relatively high ticket price. Cai Shaohua says Bando Tamasaburo, who regards the late Mei Lanfang as his idol, serves as a cultural ambassador.

"Bando has played a very important role in bringing Chinese Kunqu Opera to the world stage. In Kyoto, it was the first time for many Japanese theatergoers to watch Chinese Kunqu opera and get to know the romantic story of Peony Pavilion. Most them were touched by the exquisite beauty of the ancient Chinese art through Bando's performance. Bando presented the very essence of Chinese culture and he has made a great contribution."

As various efforts have been made to preserve the 600-year-old art form, Kunqu opera is becoming more and more meaningful to modern audiences. Like a peony in the garden of Chinese traditional operas, it has embraced its spring time once again.




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Mei Lanfang ...
梅蘭芳（めいらんふぁん）
(1894-1961)

There is now a museum in his honor, where most of his work is shown. Each movement of the hand, which he picked up from many Buddha statues, has a special meaning. He also had many photos and film documents made about his art.

It was impressive to see Tamasaburo study all these movements with great diligence and later teach the young Chinese actors the "essence" of being an "onnagata", starting from how to put on the make-up to all the details of physical movements and then the state of mind of the actor. Tamasaburo was 58 years old, but turned into a young maiden with great grace.



quote
Mei Lanfang was born in an actors' family. He started to study Chinese Opera at the age of eight and performed for the first time when he was twelve. He also was the first Chinese to introduce Beijing Opera to the World with his tours to Japan in 1919 and 1924, to the US in 1930 and the USSR in 1932 and 1935.

Mei Lanfang has influenced different female roles in the Beijing Opera as well as the colourful make-up. At his time on stage, female roles were performed by male actors.
source : 　beijingnotebook.blogspot.com


Beijing Opera star Mei Lanfang's former residence
source : 　beijingnotebook.blogspot.com






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The Peony Pavilion




(simplified Chinese: 牡丹亭; traditional Chinese: 牡丹亭; pinyin: mudāntíng) is a play written by Tang Xianzu in the Ming Dynasty and first performed in 1598 at the Pavilion of Prince Teng.[1] One of Tang's "Four Dreams", it has traditionally been performed as a Kunqu （昆曲/崑曲） opera, but Chuan （川） and Gan （赣/贛） opera versions also exist. It is by far the most popular play of the Ming Dynasty, and is the primary showcase of the guimendan （闺门旦/閨門旦） role type. All Kun theatre troupes include it in their repertoire. Recent adaptations have sought to inject new life into one of China's best-loved classical operas, though such efforts have met with opposition from the Kun opera traditionalists.

Mei Lanfang (梅兰芳/梅蘭芳) (sometimes paired with Yu Zhenfei (俞振飞/俞振飛) as Liu Mengmei) was famous for his sensitive portrayal of Du Liniang. The most famous actress of recent years is likely Zhang Jiqing's (张继青/張繼青) traditional approach out of Nanjing's Jiangsu Province Kun Opera. In Shanghai, Jennifer Hua Wenyi (华文漪/華文漪) was very popular in the role, and has played the role abroad several times. Chen Shizheng's 20 hour version, with Qian Yi as Du Liniang, was perhaps the first full length staging in 300 years and spurred a renewed interest in the full opera beyond a few celebrated episodes.
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Mei Lanfang


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meeting
at the peony pavilion
the day moon and I

wearing masks
at the kabuki theatre
two butterflies

Ella Wagemakers, August 2008


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Peony (botan)

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