Morning — the four types and the painted face
Jingju, usually translated as Peking opera, arrived in Beijing in 1790 when four troupes from Anhui were brought south-to-north for an imperial birthday and simply stayed; it was added to UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2010. Everything in it is codified. There are four role types - sheng, the male roles; dan, the female roles; jing, the painted faces; and chou, the clowns - and within each type the costume, gait, gesture and singing style are fixed by tradition rather than chosen by the performer. The morning session begins with the faces. The colour is the character: red for loyalty, black for blunt honesty, white for cunning, gold and silver for gods and demons, and the patterns around the eyes tell you what the man does for a living.
Late morning — water sleeves and the walk
The practical work is physical. The shuixiu - the long white silk extensions of the sleeve - are used to express what the face is not allowed to show: grief, refusal, hesitation, flight. You learn the basic throws, the wrist snap that sends the silk out and the pull that brings it back, and then the entrance walk of a dan role, which is done on the ball of the foot with the body level and the eyes fixed forward. Participants are uniformly bad at this, which is the point; the correction the teacher gives is the same one the professionals get.
Lunch
A restaurant near the studio, with northern dishes and a clear soup - light food, because the afternoon has singing in it.
Afternoon — an excerpt, sung
Singing in jingju is not melodic in the Western sense: the two main tune families, xipi and erhuang, are frameworks with fixed cadences and enormous room for individual phrasing. Working in small groups by role type, the class learns one short excerpt - usually a few lines of recitative and one aria - with the teacher correcting pitch, the placement of the voice and, above all, the pronunciation of the syllables. Nobody is expected to sing well. Everyone is expected to sing, and to understand by doing it why a jingju aria moves the way it does.
Evening — a performance on a small stage
In the evening you attend a performance arranged through a local opera organisation, with the venue confirmed before departure. Smaller stages are better than the big tourist shows for a first encounter: you can see the footwork, hear an unmiked voice, and watch the percussion section - drum, clappers and gongs - hold the whole thing together. Your guide explains the plot before curtain up so that the conventions do not have to be decoded in real time.
Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation
In Beijing.
