Difference between Western Musicals and Beijing Opera in Terms of Performance and Musical Features - Coursework Example

Compare the Difference between Western Musicals (NOT Opera) and Beijing Opera in Terms of Performance & Musical Features Table of Contents Introduction 3 Key Performance Features in Western Musicals 4 Key Performance features in Beijing Opera 5 Key Differences 7 Conclusion 14 References 16 Introduction Musical theaters have been one of the most attractive places for tourists and people having interests in music and other forms of theatrical activities. Music lovers, from across the globe, prefer visiting some of the most popular and remarking concerts and music theatres in order to enjoy spellbinding performances by artists, who were considered as a major source of attraction. Apart from music, musical theatres are famous for a combination of spoken dialogues, songs, dances and acting, which are performed in the process of delivering the performance in the perspective of a story. Furthermore, musical theaters highlight the key messages in the form of introduction of emotional contents in the performance, inclusive of anger and humor amongst others. In the traditional perspective, the musical theaters were associated with dramatic appearances. However, “Western Musical theatres” came into existence during the nineteenth century, across the different nations, especially in the context of Great Britain and the U.S. Musical acts those can range from groundbreaking works on stories to comedy, comics and to dance forms (Kuritz, 1988). Moreover, in contrary to the western musical theatres, another major breed of music is associated with theatrical performances known as Opera, which carries number of similarities and differences when compared with Western musical theatres. Operas are thus associated with a particular art form that requires the musicians and singers to present quality work on drama with the combination of texts and musical scores. Additionally, Opera includes several elements such as dance, scenery and acting. Opera can be performed in different varieties or forms, which are equally popular in the East. Some of the nations in the East even have their own forms of Opera, such as traditional ‘Beijing Opera’ or ‘Peking Opera’, which is famous in China. Beijing Opera, is also known as Peking Opera and is most influential as traditional forms of theoretical performances that originated in the 18th century (Everett & Lau, 2004). Contextually, this paper intends to highlight the differences amid Western Musical theatres and Beijing Opera based on key attributes including performance and music features. Key Performance Features in Western Musicals Western Musical theatres, which emerges in the 19th century is a combination of the songs and dances, apart from acting and spoken dialogues. Additionally, it also consists of several performances including dramatic presentation on stories, comedies and historical fights. Furthermore, the historical dramas including the performances on dramas ranging from love stories to brutal deaths in conflicts are the key features of western musical theatres act. Additionally, the Western musicals revolved around a number of themes those highlighted the importance of traditions followed in the past. One of the earlier forms of western musical theatres included dramas based on the depiction of historical wars, such as ‘The Black Crook’ during the year 1866. The play was the first ever-original theatrical piece that utilized a combination of musical performance with the use of original music and dance to illuminate the story and attract the attention of audiences. Later, musical comedy and book musicals came into the limelight, wherein, the performances in the theater act were performed with the combination of several dance forms and musical instruments. This has further led to develop and widen the scope of Western Musical performances, considering the non-existence of fixed lengths, and dramas that included the use of costumes and attractive set designs. Nevertheless, the Western musical theatres made effective use of stages, set-designs and costumes when presenting the drama to the audiences (Latham, 2007). Performance of Western Musicals (Source: Western Carolina University, 2015) Key Performance features in Beijing Opera As opposed to Western musical theatres, Operas concentrated on the delivery of stage shows and dramas consisting of numerous plays. However, the dance form was mostly absent in such act. In context of modern Opera culture in the West, China is amongst some of those nations, which developed its Arts and Crafts culture to give major boost to its culture through the introduction of Operas. It is also known as the “Quintessence of China”, the infamous ‘Beijing’ or ‘Peking Opera’ of China. Notably, ‘Beijing Opera’ is celebrated and highlighted as ‘Oriental Opera’ that has brought a new revolution in the Chinese industry, especially through huge number of artists, all-time availability of numerous collections, Opera casts and plethora of viewers. The renowned ‘Beijing Opera’ has been developed from the several dramatic forms, especially, which gained popularity in the local environment, such as the ‘Huiban’. Beijing Opera is also known for its scenic art presentations that incorporate aria, soulful music, dancing performances and various literatures, apart from the core attraction of Beijing Opera, i.e., Face-Painting. The performance timings in Beijing Opera are quite similar to that of the Western Musicals and therefore, such performances in Beijing Opera are guided with several established norms and guidelines followed with due consideration. Furthermore, ‘Beijing Opera’ intends to differentiate itself from ‘Western Musical Theatres’, by integrating ‘reality’ and ‘virtual’ aspects, which enables the performers to deliver exceptional performances and utilize a special technique that requires deliverance of expressions. Owing to its expressive dramas, Beijing Opera is free from hindrances such as time constraints and large spaces required across the stage performances. Additionally, Beijing Opera is known through a number of names such as the Jingxi and Jinghuang. Lianpu is another prominent performance act in Beijing Opera, which highlights male performers wearing facemasks (Li, 2010). Lianpu Act Performance of Beijing Opera (Source: TravelChinaGuide, 2015) Key Differences The key differences between Beijing Opera and Western Musical Theater are that the performances in Beijing Opera are a combination of four diversified means of presentations carried out by artists and stage performers. One of them is singing, which plays one of the most crucial roles in the performances of Beijing Opera, since the majority of its performances are featured around singing. Singing herein plays a key role in intensifying the musical features of Beijing Opera, which enables development of a feeling of appeal amongst the viewers and demonstrates the combination of various tones that facilitate effective performances. Moreover, the dialogue is yet another performance recited in accordance with musical features that lay the foundation stone in developing and maintaining consistency and efficiency in delivering the stage performances. In addition, dialogue presentation is regarded as one of the unique features of Beijing Opera, since it intends to develop the sensation of singing and adds a complimentary feature to the singing. Moreover, the dialogues are framed in such a manner that supplements singing through its rhythmic as well as with the musical sensation. In addition, to the aforementioned performance and musical features, dancing is another integral feature of Beijing Opera. Besides, dancing is regarded as a composition of the various art performances categorized under the genre of Beijing Opera, as it requires specialized skills and body movements to create the feeling of rhythm across the artistic presentations. Additionally, artistic presentations are a combination of dancing skills along with the singing and throwing of dialogues, which plays a key role in enhancing the popularity and fame of Beijing Opera. Nevertheless, Martial Art has also been a prominent musical feature that distinguishes Beijing Opera from Western Musical theatrical performances (Wichmann, 1991). Correspondingly, dancing and singing are common musical features in both Beijing Opera as well as Western Musicals. However, martial art performances play a vital role in setting Beijing Opera as quite dissimilar from Western Musicals. Several performances in Beijing Opera are hence based on the display of Martial arts, which is considered as an indigenously developed combat exercise in China. Martial art herein plays a key role in Beijing Opera, as it allows the performers to display their martial skills and talents, which significantly widen the scope and recognition of Beijing Opera. Additionally, martial arts are developed by way of differentiating the skills and performances of Beijing Opera in comparison to the other forms of Operas and Westerns Musicals across the globe. Besides, while displaying Martial arts, the performances require artists to combine and display their combating skills and competencies with the dancing performances, consequently highlighting the actual worth of Beijing Opera (Wichmann, 1991). Some of the major performers including Sheng, Dan and Jin, carry out a majority of the acts in Beijing Opera. These characters can be observed as an important aspect that differentiates Beijing Opera with Western Musicals in which, participants portray differentiated characters during the performances. Furthermore, a higher number of participants in Western Musicals can be observed in comparison with the number of participants engaged in Beijing Opera. Additionally, in Beijing Opera, the performances are played by some common names who were widely popular, whereas, the Western Musicals accommodate various performers having different names and roles in the plays. Moreover, face Painting is another important feature of Beijing Opera, which is popularly known as Lianpu in China. Lianpu distinguishes the Beijing Opera performances from Western Musicals, which highlights the long-term practices and hardships undertaken by performers to develop and portray their understanding and decision-making during the stage shows. In Beijing Opera, Lainpu is regarded as an important performance attribute and a strong musical feature, which reflects the knowledge and perceptions of the performers regarding their roles. Additionally, Lianpu is carried out through the effective utilization of a blend of colors that demonstrate feelings with the facial expression of the performers. Moreover, painting the face is observed as a long-term tradition and performers consider it as an important tool of demonstrating their feelings and ideas. Through appropriate utilization of overstated ideas, viewers are hence able to get a hint and gauge the attributes that a performer is trying to display. In this regard, the entire process of displaying performances with the use of facemasks tends to develop the scenario of ‘picture of hearts’. Additionally, facial paintings used in Beijing Opera are subdivided into several categories that demonstrate the underlying differences between facial expressions and the roles played by artists in the performances. Moreover, colors play a dominant role in Beijing Opera, which also distinguishes it from Western musicals and highlights the differences in the performances and musical features of Opera. It is worth mentioning that the use of colors to paint faces in Beijing Opera demonstrates characteristics such as loyalty, honesty, frankness, impertinence and abruptness, while Western musicals are mostly depended on their dialogues songs and the body posture of the actors when playing the role (Lu, 2004). Use of Colors in Beijing Opera (Source: TravelChinaGuide, 2015) Similarly, Qimo, usually referred as stage properties, play a key role in influencing the artist’s performances in Beijing Opera. Qimo distinguishes roles in highlighting the differences in performances between Beijing Opera and Western Musicals since, it is characterized by real-life experiences. Besides, the stage settings in Beijing Opera is kept simple and minimalistic in design in comparison to Western Musicals wherein, the stage attributes play a crucial role in enhancing the worth of performance. Bridges, storms and umbrellas are also utilized in Beijing Opera to depict performances, and display freedom of expression. On the other hand, in Western Musicals, stage is designed with the prime purpose of giving the feeling of a real situation associated with the performance to the audiences. Additionally, musical features highlight differences in the use of a variety of genres to display talent in case of Western Musicals whereas, in Beijing Opera, performers intend to utilize traditional music, as background for the plays is prior focus (Lu, 2004). The depicted portrait highlights the stage design and performance of artists in Beijing Opera. (Source: TravelChinaGuide, 2015) Below picture reflects the stage design and performances of artists in Western Musicals. (Source: The Guardian, 2011) Another difference that has been underlying Beijing Opera and Western Musicals is that the differences in performances. On one hand, Beijing Opera is mostly intended towards highlighting the significance of Chinese traditions and cultures, whereas, the Western Musicals is concerned over displaying the cultures of various nations. Moreover, differences in the use of musical instruments also distinguish the Western Musicals from Beijing Operas. In Beijing Operas, orchestral and thumping instruments, such as bass gong and Beijing Opera gong are used during performances. On the other hand, the Western Musicals use modern musical instruments such as drums, guitars and pianos, apart from the traditional musical instruments such as Flute and Tabla (Lippman, 1992). Image displaying reflects the instruments that are used in Beijing Opera (Source: Best Service, n.d.) Image highlighting the instruments used in Western Musicals (Source: Batish Institute, 2012) Other key differences between Beijing Opera and Western Music are highlighted below. Beijing Opera Western Music In Beijing Opera, martial arts hold a prominent position In western musicals, there is high dependency over singing and dancing Use of traditional musical instruments Use of variety of traditional as well as modern instruments Stage uses minimalistic designing Stage is beautifully designed to support dances and plays Use of traditional music Use of a variety of genres in musical features Number of performers is low Usually number of performers is higher Performers are restricted to have similar names in every play Variety of plays having differentiated performers High importance on use of colors and face masks High emphasis over development of performers and their roles Demonstration of freedom of speech Demonstration of feelings and thoughts Conclusion From the aforementioned discussion, underlying the differences in the Western Musicals and Beijing Opera, it can be observed from that Western Musicals are renowned for their stage designs and use of a plethora of musical instruments. On the other hand, Beijing Opera is concerned with freedom of expression installing concepts like face paintings. Furthermore, the performances in Beijing Opera are highlighted based on the traditional values and cultural beliefs, using traditional musical instruments, which distinguishes it from Western Musicals. Moreover, it can also be understood that Western Musicals and Beijing Opera have a number of differences in relation to performances such as dancing, singing and dialogues. However, Beijing Opera sets itself apart from Western Musicals by incorporating martial arts and use of facemasks in its performances as well as musical features. References Batish Institute, 2012. Past Performances. Ashwin Batish - Sitar Power Band. [Online] Available at: http://ashwinbatish.com/ [Accessed May 13, 2015]. Best Service, No Date. Peking Opera Percussion. Instruments Virtuels. [Online] Available at: http://www.bestservice.de/fr/peking_opera_percussion.html [Accessed May 13, 2015]. Everett, Y. O. & Lau, F., 2004. Locating East Asia in Western Art Music. Wesleyan University Press. Kuritz, P., 1988. The Making of Theatre History. Paul Kuritz. Latham, K., 2007. Pop Culture China!: Media, Arts, and Lifestyle. ABC-CLIO. Li, R., 2010. Soul of Beijing Opera, The: Theatrical Creativity and Continuity in the Changing World. Hong Kong University Press. Lippman, E. A., 1992. A History of Western Musical Aesthetics. U of Nebraska Press. Lu, X., 2004. Rhetoric of the Chinese Cultural Revolution: The Impact on Chinese Thought, Culture, and Communication. University of South Carolina Press. The Guardian, 2011. Notes and Queries. Life & Style. [Online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2011/may/04/difference-between-opera-and-musical [Accessed May 13, 2015]. TravelChinaGuide, 2015. China Beijing Opera. Chinese Culture. [Online] Available at: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/arts/beijing_opera/ [Accessed May 13, 2015]. Western Carolina University, 2015. Musical Theatre Productions. Special Opportunities in Musical Theatre. [Online] Available at: http://www.wcu.edu/academics/departments-schools-colleges/FPA/schools-departments-and-centers/stagescreen/stage-screen-academic-programs/musthea/special-opportunities-in-musical-theatre/musical-theatre-productions/ [Accessed May 13, 2015]. Wichmann, E., 1991. Listening to Theatre: The Aural Dimension of Beijing Opera. University of Hawaii Press. Read More