China's iconic Beijing Opera has come to London, with a performance at the Sadler's Wells Theatre. The show is a mix of music, mime, dance and choreography. The ancient art form dates back to the late 1700s, with roots in martial arts and Kung Fu. But it has a particular sound that can be alien to those outside China. Richard Bestic sees how this Chinese music and melodrama goes down with theatre-goers in the UK capital.

The masters of the Beijing Opera study for decades to perfect their skills before being even allowed near a stage. Every move and sound honed to a format dating back more than 200 years to the days of the Qing dynasty. In China they say one minute's performance is 10 years hard work. Sharing these exquisite skills with the world is a matter of genuine pride for the directors of the Beijing Opera Company.

LI SHENGSU, ACTOR CHINA NATIONAL OPERA COMPANY "Beijing Opera is a very important element in Chinese culture and we hope that, by bringing it to London and through the colourful costumes and gestures, people will be able to understand and appreciate it our Chinese traditional culture."

Encapsulating the finest traditions of Sino art, even in the painted faces, Beijing Opera is a peacock display of China's cultural heritage. Effectively, living history in spectacular colour. Every move manicured: From the perspective of the experts, Beijing Opera is a jewel of Chinese culture, a historical mix of musical masterpieces and the martial arts.

KATHY HALL BEIJING OPERA PROMOTER "You have to understand a little bit about how words are enunciated; how words unfold or unfurl with the notes, so that you're singing the word as it becomes the note and the note becomes an extension of the word. So, we sound the consonant and we sound the vowels. There might be two vowels in one word in Chinese and then you sound the consonant again. All that together added to maybe one note; maybe one-and-a-half notes or maybe seven notes that makes the musical interpretation. And I think that's beautiful."

So, how do the sounds of the classical Beijing Opera sit with the Western ears of the London theatre-going public? It's fair to say it's a learning curve.

"Yes, it's different, but then a lot of things are alien until you've seen them. Basically, it did seem there were still stories there that you could follow. The Music's very different, a very different sense of harmonies. I think the most stunning thing is it's very visual."

"It's such an opportunity to see the richness of a completely different culture with no reference points really that link to a Western European life. So, I'm trying to pick up as much as I can about how they portray what they're seeking to portray, by their eyes, the movement of their feet, their hands. It's such a stylized portrayal of emotion."

The Emperor and the Concubine, the company's star turn in London this year is set at the start of the ancient Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty a thousand years ago. Perhaps by happy coincidence for the Chinese authorities, the fifth anniversary since China launched its plans for a 21st Century Silk Road in the global Belt and Road Project. RB, CGTN, London.