The magic wand for me is the name of the magic plant which will bring back the young man, Xu, to life.
l'amadouvier
火种
This fungus (it was represented like a red white spotted fungus which is on the rock representing Mount Emei, picked with the mouth of the white snake) has the magic power of burning, with an everlasting flame when rubbed with a steel blade.Huǒzhòng
I found that detail poetic, ancestral, fascinating!
It took me some time to find out this missing link. After some intense "googling" I eventually landed here LINK
This is a wonderful cultural link from Angers Opera House, to understand more and more the amazing rendition I saw yesterday at Marseille Opera House.
This fall, Peking Opera is touring France with the Legend of the White Snake to celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between France and China. General De Gaulle welcomed China as a state in 1964, and China gave a cultural answer with the first rendition of this opera in Paris.
It took me back to another journey, this time, the real one I made to Hanghzou in May 2013.
Flash back to the Pagoda and the West lake.
On a rather brisk morning, after visiting a Green Tea farm with museum on the site we arrived at Leifeng Pagoda.
I was quite ignorant of the legend but became really amazed by the quality of the wooden carvings of the legend all around the walls of the 4th floor of the pagoda. I read and read again to get the story because I realised it was just as known as Snow White here, considering the number of kiddies staring at the beauty of the White Snake and her servant, running from one side to another, followed by their families including Yé-Yé and Nai-Nai! When I first understood the tale it reminded me of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, because of the journey to the silent world to get Euridyce back to life. The journey to Mount Emei for the magic herb is also a mystic quest. But the comparison does not last as here there are amazing powers of duel similariries with the two snakes, blue and white, embodied in exquisite young ladies floating in the carvings and also 'floating' on the stage yesterday in their surnatural ways of walking, drifting across the stage amid dream like costumes accompanied by traditional instruments ! They fight against the Monk and his forces, perhaps neither good or evil, (soldiers in red costumes, I have not quite decided if the Monk is the guardian of the order of the world to keep the balance between the magic world and real one. I would like to read the text as I could do it yesterday following the surtitles. I wish I could have done the same the several times I went to Yfu Theater in Shanghaï). These fights are visual splendours.
The Pagoda and its modern escalator, busy with Chinese tourists that day:
They have to rescue the white Snake's husband, Xu, twice: he is prisoner of the Monk in the Temple, so they have to have another battle: the Flood. There are sceneries of blue flag acrobatic motions which are really wonderful. The colours are spendid with the movements, singing and orchestra.(I did not take photos, I just could not, so captured by the beauties of the dancers). They will not succeed to deliver him from the monk's powers, because the White snake is worn out (she is pregnant).
Their arrival by the lake at the end, when Xu has been delivered by a Monk's servant, a popular character, with humour.
They are both longing to meet again while the blue snake, embodied as the servant would like to kill him because in fact she has always been in love with the white snake and does not understand her love for Xu who listened twice to the Monk's rather evil words against them.
They will be reunited by the Broken Bridge under the umbrella as a family sign, but in the pagoda legend they will never be united as the Monk emprisoned the snake in the pagoda for ever.
The amazing light carvings :
The underworld creatures being immortals cannot venture in the world of mortals: a touch of Greek myths again?
Yesterday afetrnoon in front of the simple landscapes retaining the poetry of the real ones .I was back on the shores of the west lake where I had a wonderful trip in the sunset, as the traditon tells you to have.
I had almost forgotten this episode but after the show, it all came back and I almost cried... of intense gratitude for these amazing artists who took us so far away.
Li Shengsu as Bai Suzhen, the White Snake (photo opera Pekin)
( if you care to reproduce the photos, just cite where they come from. Thanks!)
I still have my programme from the visit of the Beijing Opera to Toronto back in the 1960s - it was their first tour abroad. I saw the Legend of the White Snake with it's incredible battle sequence and the next night a short programme including several well known vignettes. With the cultural revolution much of that was destroyed but I was glad to see - when Laurent lived in Beijing and I lived there part-time - that these things were being brought back.
ReplyDeleteYour Toronto Programme is worth keeping ! You were lucky to see their first ouverture to the world. Sunday was a big treat for me here! ( I stayed two weeks in Beijing in 2000, my first trip to China, and I felt lost when I started trying to visualise all the things of beauty around me... )
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