Londoners had a rare chance to experience the charm of Chinese Peking Opera in the past week, when the China National Peking Opera Company (CNPOC) presented the British audience with a gala of traditional Chinese culture with its two classic productions of "A River All Red" and "The Phoenix Returns Home" at Sadler’s Wells Theater. 

The performance lasted from October 21 to 25.

The Peking Opera "A River All Red", also the best known poem by Yue Fei, is based on the true story of General Yue Fei’s steadfast patriotism and loyalty to his country even in the face of betrayal. In China’s history, Yue Fei is one of the most celebrated generals and the God of Loyalty in the heart of Chinese people.

The tragic story performed in London is a reproduction of the classic written and performed in the 1960s, which was rewritten in 2010.

China’s leading Peking Opera actor for old male roles, Yu Kuizhi, who played Yue Fei in "A River All Red", said that this year's performance had introduced improvements to the original production by fine-tuning the tempo, adding more stage imagery effects with modern multimedia technology, as well as presenting all four fundamental elements of this performing arts - singing, speaking, acting and fighting.

The audience were impressed by the color, the setting and the way of singing, which are quite different from that of western opera. 

"Although I don’t understand the language, I get the feeling," said Peter, a British audience member who did not give his family name.

As 2017 marks 45 years' ambassadorial diplomatic ties between China and Britain, the Peking Opera’s performance will undoubtedly be a new highlight of the China-UK Golden Era and play a significant contribution to the two countries' cultural exchanges.

"Chinese opera is an impression of culture. You can thus understand a little bit more about people by listening and watching performance like this," said Marina, a British spectator.

Yu Kuizhi illustrated that for the Peking Opera, a play is a story, which would inspire something in the people, especially to the youth. Many of China's traditional plays show Chinese loyalty and fraternity, which are traditional virtues and values of the Chinese nation.

"Through our performances, through the unique art form of this national essence, they could understand our Chinese culture, understand our nation, and more importantly, understand the current spirit of our Chinese people," said Yu.

Since 2005, the China National Peking Opera Company (CNPOC) has brought productions to Britain for four times. In 2015, CNPOC brought its production of "Warrior Women of Yang" and "Farewell My Concubine", which was a huge success with local audience.

In 2016, CNPOC staged "The General and The Prime Minister" and "The Legend of White Snake" in Britain to mark the beginning of the China-UK "Golden Era". This is the third consecutive year of the CNPOC performing in Britain and both the organizers and the performers have felt changes within the British audience.

Zhang Kewei, producer of Sinolink production, invited the CNPOC to perform in the UK over the past three years. He said he could feel that the British audience showed a deeper understanding of the Peking Opera in those years. 

"We are likely to see that lots of young people will get involved for this program this year. They use Twitter or Facebook to circle around this China National Opera Company coming to London. They have got millions of followers. This is something new to us. We never tried this commercial or ads before," said Zhang. 

Li Shengsu, a third generation Dan (women’s role) performer of Dr. Mei Lanfang’s style and a student of Dr. Mei's son, Mei Baojiu, plays Mrs. Yue in "A River All Red" and Cheng Xue’e in "The Phoenix Returns Home". As a leading actress, she has come to Britain with the CNPOC each time.

Li was deeply impressed by the British audience, and how adapted they were to watching the Peking Opera performances. 

"At the beginning, they watched Peking Opera like watching the western opera, and sits there quietly. When one scene finishes, they applaud. But now they were more like the Chinese audience. They would cheer 'bravo' when actors showed up. They would applaud for the brilliant parts. They would applaud for the martial art performances... They now realized that expressing your love by saying 'bravo' in the middle of the performances is welcomed and preferred, and I think this is the biggest change," said Li.

Peking opera is a mixture of literature, opera, music, dance, martial arts and so on. It is the jewel of Chinese culture and a treasure for the world. It is hoped that more of its performance could be seen in Britain and around the world, building stronger friendships between the Chinese people and people of the world.