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What do you get when you mix Peking Opera with Kabuki

by BBelew57 on April 12th, 2007

What do you get when you mix Peking Opera with Kabuki?

Twice as much fanfare that you cannot understand.

I have seen kabuki and Peking Opera and though I think that my 20+ years in Asia has given me some insight to a lot of things…it hasn't helped at all when viewing either of these two theatre genres.

There's a Peking Opera star who is married to a Japanese woman who says,  "For me, countries' boundaries don't exist in arts."

Perhaps for him, but not so for the rest of us…at least not so for me.

The star, Wu Rujun, might be the only one I have come across who understands both.

Wu says, Peking opera is very masculine, but that the Japanese culturs wants the music to be more melodic.

The Japanese, it is said have been moved to tears by his New Peking Opera performances in Japan.

Uh…when I saw the Peking Opera in Beijing…the screeching, squalling, high pitches nearly drove me to tears as well.

Still, there is a bridge being built here between the two countries…on a different level. And anything that can bring Japan and China closer together is a good thing.

Even, if we canNOT understand what it is saying.

How about you? What do you think of the Peking Opera, Kabuki Theater, both or neither?

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POSTED IN: All about Japan