Xiqu

“Execution of the Duke’s Second Brother” is a classic from the “Eighteen Plays of Cantonese Opera”. The play consists characters from all class and a dramatic storyline. It also contained classic Cantonese Opera sequences (Paichang) of great grandeur. In this piece, there are classic sequences like “Chair Stand”, “Stance on high platform” and many others. The sequences are definitely eye catching. The vocals of they play the in the Zhongzhou dialect. Due to it being a foreign dialect, many audience find it hard to understand. To solve this, we decide to reduce the difficult lines and focus more on the sequences. The play is separated into “Sworn Brothers”, “Drunk Execution of the Duke” and “Lamenting of the Besieged”. Each part showcases the body languages of the traditional sequences. Whilst speaking the ancient dialect, the play is decorated solely with the traditional one table two chairs. We strive to bring back the purest performing styles of Chinese Opera (Xiqu). To bring the Mei Lanfang performance system back to our audience. We hope to bring our audience into a refined world of Chinese Opera (Xiqu).