Visual Peking Opera Madame White Snake May 24, 2008

Time: 2008/5/24
Venue: NCPA-Opera House
Price: 100/160/220/280/380
MSN: [email protected]
Tel: 86-10-64177845

Booking now:
http://www.piao.com.cn/en%5Fpiao/ticket_1860.html

For other tickets:
http://www.piao.com.cn/en%5Fpiao/allticket.asp

MadameWhite Snake, Legend of the White Snake, is a Chinese legend, whichexisted as oral traditions before any written compilation of the MingDynasty. It has since become a major subject of several Chinese opera,films, and TV series.

Witha combination of peking opera, acrobatics, martial art, dance, andmagic show, the performance tells a story of a young scholar, Xu Xian,who falls in love with a beautiful woman Bai Suzhen, unaware that sheis a white snake which has taken on human form. A Taoist monk Fa Haiintervenes in order to save the scholar's soul and casts the whitesnake into a deep well at the Leifeng Pagoda.

TheStory is set in the Southern Song Dynasty. Over the centuries the storyhas evolved from horror story to romance with the scholar and the whitesnake-woman genuinely in love with one another. An added character is agreen snake Xiao Qing who has also been turned into a woman and servesas the white snake-woman's companion and confidante. Bai and Xu gotmarried, opened a medicine shop and lived happily at the West Lake in Hangzhou.When the town was struck by a plague and it was soon on the verge ofbecoming extinct, Bai and Qing obtained the magical herb needed to helpthe population. But a sorcerer called Fa Hai believes it is thedisaster that demons bring about and tries to eliminate Bai and Qing.On the fifth day of the fifth month, the Dragon Boat Festival is held.It is said the day that demons revert to their true selves. Xu Xianfalls for Fa Hai's tricks and fuddles his wife with realgar wine.Drunken Bai shows her true self, scaring Xian literally to death! Bairetrieves the herbal medicine and brings Xian back to life. Later Baigets pregnant, but Xu Xian falls for Fa Hai's tricks yet again and goesto the Golden Mount Temple. Having battled with Fa Hai, Bai and Qing meet Xu at the Broken Bridge of the West Lake,and Bei tells her husband the truth about her origin and herdifficulties after giving birth to a son. Xian is heart-touched andkindly accepts her. The lovers are united.

Theplot of White Snake is full of magic: snakes turning themselves intowomen, monsters, battles among heavenly creatures and demons, and soon. Magic, history, myth, and legend in the opera meld nicely intopotent overarching themselves like love and power.

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