On the evening of November 9, 2015 local time, the Hanban Beijing Opera Performing Troupe, sponsored by the Confucius Institute at the University of Bucharest (UB), successfully staged a show in the UB auditorium at Bucharest, Romania. Travelling actors of the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA) showcased wonderful performances of Beijing Opera for their local audience. For more than one hour, hundreds of local spectators from all walks of life feasted their eyes and ears on Chinese traditional opera skills, such as "singing (Chang), stage speaking (Nian), dance-acting (Zuo), and combating (Da)".
As a prelude to the brilliant gala, the STA vice president delivered a speech to the audience. He praised Romania as a country of romance and heroism, and happily indicated that Beijing Opera is also an art of romance and heroism. He took the opportunity to wish for a lasting friendship between the two countries forever.
San Cha Kou (At the crossroads)
The repertoire not only included the traditional combating short play "San Cha Kou (At the crossroads)", the romantic love play " Gua Hua (To hang a picture)" , Mei School's classic play " Tian Nü San Hua (Celestial beauty scattering flowers)"and a witty humorous play “Wu Da Lang You Jie (Wu Da Lang’s reunion with his missing brother on the street)", but also included " Hong Qiao Zheng Zhu (Giving a pearl as a token of love on the rainbow bridge)", which is a perfect combination between Chinese fairy tale and Chinese kung fu. All these performances gave the Romanian audience a good taste of the unique charm of Beijing Opera, especially of its classification of roles, namely Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mo, Chou.
Tian Nü San Hua (Celestial beauty scattering flowers)
Hong Qiao Zheng Zhu (Giving a pearl as a token of love on the rainbow bridge)
A UB student, Mr. Valade, said that this was his first chance to enjoy Beijing Opera in a theatre and he was deeply impressed by the actors’ beautiful costumes, amazing martial arts, graceful dance, and tuneful songs. He thought Beijing Opera as a delicate, elegant art.
The actors' every gesture and movement, along with their masterly performances and gorgeous costumes, brought a fresh artistic experience to the Romanian audience. The audience showered waves of applause on the performers. After the performance, some of the audience could not withhold their admiration, so they took to the stage one after another and took pictures with the adored actors.
