Hello, everyone. My name is Yang Yifei. I am junior from School of Art Theory and Management, Sichuan Conservatory of Music. Today, I would like to introduce to you the opera called "Dreams in Boudoir". I will introduce it to you from four aspects: The background and origins; The makeup and costumes; The tune and performance; The characteristics.

THE BACKGROUND AND ORIGINS

Dreams in Boudoir is based on an ancient poem. Shortly after the heroine and her husband got married, their husband was forced into the army and died in battle. The heroine misses her husband all day long and meets him in her dream…

This is a tragedy. Both the playwright and the original performer hope that through the tragic fate of the heroine of this play, they can awaken people's inner goodness, so as to achieve the goal of opposing war.

THE MAKEUP AND COSTUMES

The costumes and shapes of opera are designed to open the psychological distance between the opera and the audience.

The actors wear the specified costumes and these gorgeous ornaments, and they become the characters in the script. In this way, the audience will pay more attention to the opera itself than to the actors.

However, in real life, we do not dress up like this, nor do we speak in such a special tone. The opera expresses itself in this way to stimulate the audience's senses.

THE TUNE AND PERFORMANCE

The actor who first performed this opera had voice problems when he was very young. At the same time, this play is a tragedy, so his tune is deep and sad.

THE CHARACTERISTICS AND ACTORS

Beijing opera is freehand brushwork. The props on the stage are very simple, and even there are no prop in many cases. It depends on the performance of actors to show the war scenes and dream scenes.

As you can see, this is my most respected and favorite Beijing Opera actor, Professor Huoding Zhang.

CHANG'AN GRAND THEATRE

Chang'an Grand Theatre is a well-known and long-established theater, which was built in 1937. The original theatre was located in the busy commercial street of Xidan, Beijing; the new theater was reopened in September 1996 and moved to the Guanghua Chang'an Building in the north of East Chang'an Street, with extremely convenient transportation.

The new Chang'an Grand Theatre is a perfect combination of classical national architectural style and modern architectural art, and its design and decoration are typical of Ming and Qing styles. Chang'an Grand Theatre mainly stages classic plays, especially performances of various art forms represented by Beijing opera.

By 2016 when it was the 20th anniversary of the new theater, a total of 7,373 performances were staged here with 4.35 million audiences and 45 types of plays and more than 100,000 actors leaving their artistic grace on this stage.

The above is all my introduction to the opera. Thanks for your listening. If you have any questions, you can contact me through WeChat and Twitter.