Wu Promotion collaborate with the Jingju Theatre Company of Beijing, Beijing’s most renowned Peking Opera Troupe, and launched a new project called “Peking Opera Festival”.

Watching an authentic Peking Opera outside China is a seldom opportunity. It is an art that most people know by name, but have never seen before. Peking Opera is more than just music and singing; it also combines drama, dancing, martial arts and acrobatics, which makes it one of the most multifaceted theatrical forms in the world. In 2010 Peking Opera was declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO.

The Peking Opera Festival offers a fine selection of original plays accompanied by an introduction to some of the key facts about Peking Opera. Basic background knowledge about the meaning of typical gestures, the abundant make-up and elaborate costumes help the audience understand the fundamentals of this mysterious genre.

Organized by Wu Promotion, the brand-new Peking Opera epic “Red Cliff” – a production of the National Theatre of the Performing Arts and Jingju Theatre Company of Beijing – was greatly acclaimed on its first European tour (Staged at the Burgtheater Vienna, National Theater Prague and Hungarian State Opera Budapest) in 2012. After the big success of the tour, Wu Promotion started collaboration with the Jingju Theatre Company of Beijing, Beijing’s most renowned Peking Opera Troupe, and launched a new project called ‘Peking Opera Festival’. So far, the festival has been hold in seven countries, which include the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Germany, Brazil, United States of America and Russia. Over 43000 visitors were attracted by the Jingju aesthetics. In 2012, the Peking Opera Festival was carried out by Jingju Theater Company of Beijing and made a great success in Germany (Staged at the Reithalle Munich) and Italy (Staged at the Teatro Massimo Bellini di Catania and Teatro Rendano di Cosenza.). In 2013, the Jingju Theatre Company of Beijing made its first tour on the South-American continent, staging twelve performances in three different cities across Brazil (at Cidade das Artes, SESC Quitadinha and SESC Pinheiros). A very special edition of the Festival was organized in 2014, when the Jingju Theatre Company of Beijing, on the occasion of ‘The 120th Anniversary of Mei Lanfang’, performed in the United States of America and Russia, retracing the artistic footsteps of the master. Led by Mei Baojiu, son of the master Mei Lanfang, performances were staged at the renowned Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center and Mariinsky Theatre. Media in both countries unanimously extolled the performances as the tone was set by Chief music critic Anthony Tommasini with his highly positive review in the New York Times.

In 2016, The Peking Opera Festival will once again go on tour with the excellent Jingju Theatre Company of Beijing, giving foreign audiences the opportunity to experience some of the most distinguished Peking Opera performances on stage.

Links

Peking Opera: http://www.pekingoperafestival.com