Beijing Opera Lecture and Demonstration at UCLA

The China Beijing Opera Institute's Mei Lanfang Beijing Opera Company will give a lecture and demonstration at UCLA.

This star-studded Beijing Opera Troupe was established in honor of opera legend Master Mei Lanfang, a performer of the nandan roletype (female impersonator). He is credited with introducing Beijing Opera to the West through his performance tours in Europe and the United States in the 1930s and encounters with artists such as Bertolt Brecht, Charlie Chaplin, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Constantin Stanislavski, and Mary Pickford.

The event is cosponsored by the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, the UCLA Confucius Institute, the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies, and the California Institute for Chinese Performing Arts.

With a history of more than 80 years, and with an array of National Class performers and award-winners, including Hu Wenge, Li Hongtu, and Dong Yuanyuan, the troupe has successfully toured the the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Russia and Canada to critical acclaim.  This will be the troupe’s first time performing in the United States since Master Mei Lanfang’s visit in 1930.