where to see Peking opera in Beijing?

[Lu]

Does anyone know a place to see Peking opera in Beijing? I know one or two places that do the tourist thing, with a few scenes from different operas, but what I'm looking for is a full-on performance. Ideally with English supertitles, but I'll happily settle for Chinese supertitles or no titles at all.

Thanks for any tips!

[edelweis]

http://www.changantheater.com/

The night I went there in November 09, I saw 3 short pieces, but the previous day there was a single full piece. There were Chinese subtitles only. The audience was mostly Chinese (unlike the acrobat show I had seen the week before). The ladies at the ticket desk and book+DVD store spoke a little English.

Have a look at the google maps link

It has a photo of the entrance which is pretty distinctive.

The nearest subway station is Jianguomen, then go west keeping on the north side of the road.

Edit oh, according to the planning, every night has two or more pieces listed now. Does that mean those are all shorter pieces or are they showing only extracts ? I don't know.

[edelweis]

Well then, I am curious about one thing: what is the usual length of Peking Opera pieces?

That last time in Beijing I bought three recordings:

截江奇头 is 38' long

春闺梦 is 57' long

泗洲城 is 34' long

Are these unusually short pieces? Or perhaps just extracts from the full pieces?

(My feeling was that Chinese Opera is (or was) a more popular type of show than Western Opera has become.

And Western Opera is not exclusively 3-hour long drama pieces, there are some shorter comedies as well.)

[skylee]

A full-length opera can be 3 hours or longer. Take a look -> http://www.hk.artsfe...l.org/en/prog/3

[edelweis]

thank you Skylee.

[Lu]

Thanks Edelweis, I'll see if that place has any full-length operas.

[roddy]

Did you mange to find anywhere?

[edelweis]

Here is another place:

中国国家大剧院