When I live in Beijing, I occasionally go to see a Peking Opera while my old friends visit and talk about old times.
Now to see the Beijing opera, usually go to the Chang'an Grand Theater in Jianguomen, or the Mei Lanfang Grand Theater in Chegongzhuang, these two venues, almost every day there is a play. Chang'an Theater has a history of ten years, Mei Lanfang Theater and the Chinese Peking Opera Theater in a street, about five or six years. In Beijing, they are all considered new. Older venues, like the People's Theater and the CPPCC Auditorium, don't seem to be performing much these days.
The Liyuan Theater in front of the door is considered to be an old venue, but that has become a tourist attraction for foreigners to watch Peking Opera, which is often staged in the "Eighteen Luohan Fighting Wukong", "Three Forks" and other martial arts plays, at best with a "Autumn River", accompanied by foreigners who have been there several times and are tired of watching. The latest National Grand Theater Theater, two years ago, staged a new Peking Opera "Red Cliff", play luxury realistic approach, will be a dozens of meters high model of ancient warships placed on the stage, the result is only to see the scenery do not see the people, outrageous away from the big. Dongdan old auspicious theater, repair Oriental Square when demolished, a little trace of the old theater will be wiped clean.
Twenty years ago, to Beijing to study, a classmate's sister in the Central People's Broadcasting Station, "Air Stage" column work, from time to time to get rehearsal tickets, observation tickets, review tickets, pre-recorded tickets. Tickets, we hurriedly ate lunch, from the school where the west eight rooms on a bicycle, around the Dongzhimen, through the Drum Tower Street, to the New Street People's Theater to see the play. I remember that the hosts of the program at that time were still Liu Lu and Song Shixiong. Sometimes, when we encountered important performances, we had to explain that we should not applaud indiscriminately, and that if we did, we had to applaud together with the person who was leading the applause. Then, they really tried to drum once. The first time I saw the movie, I was able to get a good signal, and everything was in place before I started the show and recorded it.
In the early nineties in Beijing, there were not as many cars as there are now. After the end of the song, it has been a quiet night, the ice wheel at first surging, cycling through the Beihai Shichahai area, the wind whisked, don't mention how beautiful it is.
In recent years, to see the Beijing opera, there is a place to go, that is, Zheng Yi Temple theater. This theater in the West River Street, south of the Hepingmen, is said to be China's oldest pure wood structure theater. The old theater, the ticket price is also old in the renovation, more and more expensive, now the lowest to one hundred eight, the highest has reached eighteen thousand. Been there once, and then never been. However, the impression is deep, is the theater on both sides of the hanging of the couplet:
Perform sadness and happiness, the contemporary is not the previous generation;
Observe the suppression of praise and blame, often in the seat of the play. In the past, I felt that Pu Songling's theater couplets have the most flavor, so I copied down to enjoy. Pu Songling to the fame is not as good as expected, turned to write "Liaozhai Zhiyi" book, popular, passed down through the ages. He made two couplets for the Bolshan theater for:
A song to come, civil and military clothes and crowns all into a dream;
three drums, glory and wealth all into a void.
The face is always not true, borrowed from the witnesses, by him to make the decision;
Things are not false, living in the present to identify the ancient, you have to think about it.
Zheng Yi Ancestral Temple theater in the Qing dynasty during the Kangxi period by Zhejiang merchants funded the construction, as a place of worship, assembly, feasts, and then a long period of time, or "Ya Department" (Kunqu) performance venues. In 1931, Chen Moxiang wrote an article in the Monthly Journal of Theater Studies, mentioning a pair of couplets on the stage of Zhengyi Ancestral Hall, which can be used as evidence.
? Eight thousand goblets of autumn moon and spring breeze,
? The butterfly's dream on the pipa strings;
? The five hundred pairs of golden bottles and sandalwood boards,
? I'm not going to be able to do that, but I'm going to be able to do that, and I'm going to be able to do that.
This pair of couplets makes people think, and their hearts flutter, and they are in a trance of the scene of the year when it was in full bloom. I saw a copy of it in the Pearland Theater at the front gate, but I don't know where it came from.
Zheng Yi Temple theater, why is called "Zheng Yi"? According to "Zhengyi Ancestral Tablet" and other documents, the name is related to Taoism, the original Ming Dynasty, a Taoist temple dedicated to Guan Di. Zheng Yi Shrine, also known as "Zheng Yi Si". Ming Hongwu years, the Taoist sect of Zheng Yi Dao leader Zhang Normal was named "Zheng Yi Heir of the Church Protector of the State Expounding ancestor Tongcheng Chongdao Hongde Da Zhenjin, rank two," is the origin of the name of the Zhengyi Ancestral Hall. However, I have not seen any information about when the name changed from "Yi" to "B". Perhaps, a harmonic with B, to B for one, can avoid some trouble, but this change, the sound is harmonic, one also became two.
Historically, most of the actors in the "Tongguang Thirteen" have performed here. At the end of the Guangxu period, "Changchun class" used it as one of the regular performance venues. In the 1930s, famous actors such as Tan Xinpei, Mei Lanfang, Wang Yaoqing, Yu Shuyan, and Yan Jupeng all performed here, creating the glorious years of Zheng Yi Temple.
After the fifties, Zheng Yi Temple theater decay, has been a warehouse, opened a coal store, built a school, ran a guest house. Until after the nineties, only by entrepreneurs twice hand, repair the old as old, trying to reproduce the scenery.
Now, Zheng Yi Ancestral Temple is run by a cultural company called "Xinhua Yaji", run into a luxury performance venue. "Xinhua", also "Yaji"; "Yaji", become a luxury.