Grand Lyrical Peking Opera "Battle of the Red Cliff"

"Battle of the Red Cliff" is a newly-produced Peking opera (in grand lyrical style) last year, in conjunction with the opening of the National Centre of the Performing Arts. I'm not sure if this mega-production was a reaction to the widely popular movie "Red Cliff", but I have to say this opera is as grand as the movie, although the artistic direction is not quite the same.

Looking at the pictures of the grand set that this production has, it can be said that this production strayed from the conventional style of Peking opera production which uses the minimalistic and highly abstract style of scenic design, and that is great, because we have come to an age whereby we're constantly stimulated by images, and it is no longer workable trying to portray a dramatic battle scene with just 1 table and 2 chairs, coupled with brightly coloured and intricately embroidered curtains as a backdrop. However, I felt that since the prouduction team had invested so much on the set, they should do likewise about the costuming as well. A brief glance at the performance pictures it's not hard to tell that the characters are still wearing the traditional Peking opera costumes which stood out like a sore thumb. For example, all wen court officials were wearing headgears with long narrow wings behind, a style which was popularised only from Song dynasty onwards, and that's about a thousand years' difference!








Having said that, I believe it is still a production worth watching, although I have no idea if this show can actually hit our shores; the cost of bringing this show in will be quite a lot, and even if it could come to Singapore, the scale of production will be greatly reduced as we might not have the facilities to stage it, not even in Esplanade.