Chang'an Grand Theater

It's great to watch Beijing opera here!!! You must come to see a Peking Opera when you come to Beijing!

Chang'an Grand Theater

Chang'an Grand Theater is a famous time-honored theater, which was founded in 1937. The new theater was reopened in September 1996 and moved to Guanghua Chang'an Building on the north side of East Chang'an Street. Chang'an Grand Theater is a perfect combination of classical national architectural style and modern architectural art. Its design and decoration have typical Ming and Qing styles. Chang'an Grand Theater mainly performs classic plays, especially various art forms represented by Beijing opera.

Brief introduction to the theater

Chang'an Grand Theater

Built in 1937, the new site is located in Guanghua Chang'an Building on the north side of East Chang'an Street. It is a high-end, luxurious and comfortable modern theater on Chang'an Street in Beijing. The theatre is a perfect combination of classical style and modern architectural art. It has the style of Ming and Qing Dynasties. The hall is equipped with elegant mahogany tables, comfortable soft chairs, and "hand painted baby opera garden" tea sets. The Qinggong food can make the audience feel like they are in the opera garden of Ming and Qing Dynasties. The simple and elegant auditorium can accommodate more than 800 people to watch the performance at the same time, and there are luxurious VIP seats in the auditorium. The theater has advanced stage facilities and sophisticated theater equipment. The stage can be lifted and rotated, the music pool can be expanded and retracted freely, and the computer-controlled lighting and sound can be suitable for different forms of performance. Chang'an Grand Theater mainly performs classic plays, especially various art forms represented by Beijing opera.

development history

Chang'an Grand Theater is a time-honored theater with a history of more than 70 years. It was originally located at Xidan intersection. It was built in 1937. It has two floors and can accommodate 1200 audiences. Founder Yang Shouyi likes Beijing Opera and is a famous Beijing fan. Chang'an Grand Theater was originally built as a warehouse of the famous Risheng barbell house in Kyoto. It was closed due to depression and transferred to Yang Shouyi. After more than a year of construction, the opening ceremony was held on February 1, 1937. The first performance is "lost Street Pavilion" starred by Xi Xiaobo, a famous Peking Opera actor, and "yutangchun" starred by Hu Juqin, and "Bai Liangguan" starred by Jin Shaoshan. At that time, the words "Chang'an Grand Theater" had to be read from right to left. A small blackboard was often set up at the gate, on which were written the plays to be performed every day. Before 1989, Chang'an Grand Theater was at the entrance of Xidan subway. The door was very broken, and it was separated from the baozi shop on the right. Later, Chang'an was demolished in 1989 in order to build the Capital Times Square and a pile of buildings on the side.

In 1994, the media in Beijing suddenly began to pay attention to Chang'an Grand Theater. In that year, what people mentioned most about Chang'an was that Chang'an Street, known as "China's first street", could not accommodate a theater. In September 1996, people finally saw the "Chang'an Grand Theater" reopened on the east side of Chang'an Street. During the whole seven years of this period, Peking people had no decent theater to go to. After the new construction, Chang'an theater reopened in the golden autumn on September 27, 1996. It moved from Xidan intersection to No.7 Jianguomen Nei, Chang'an Street, the first street in China. She retains the simple and elegant national style of lelao theater, and is equipped with modern stage equipment and other theater facilities. The auditorium, which can accommodate nearly 800 people, is decorated in the style of Ming and Qing Dynasties. The mahogany tables and chairs in the front area, hand-painted baby opera tea sets and Qinggong food spots make the audience feel like they are in the opera garden of Ming and Qing Dynasties. Before the liberation of China, there was no theater dedicated to the drama troupe in Beijing, while Chang'an Grand Theater was the theater with the most dramas in the same industry. Famous plays such as sunrise, saijinhua, Camellia girl, resurrection and Begonia have been performed here. Famous actors such as Bai Yang, Zhang Ruifang, Shu Xiuwen, Li Jingbo, Xiang Kun and Xie Tian all performed here. Once upon a time, most of the famous actors and actresses who were able to make a name for themselves had their own troupes and rarely performed with other troupes. Chang'an Grand Theater has hosted several commercial cooperative performances, such as a late performance in August 1943, which included Li Duokui's "fishing for the golden turtle", Xiao Changhua's and ye Shenglan's "three levels of promotion in a row", sun Yukun's and Hou Xirui's "lianhuantao", and Shang Xiaoyun's, Xi Xiaobo's and Jiang Miaoxiang's "yubeiting", with the main axis of Tan Fuying, Jin Shaoshan and Zhang Junqiu "Er Jin Gong" co performed by the audience is very popular.

After liberation, in the summer of 1950, Chairman Mao, Premier Zhou and other central leaders enjoyed "three forks" by Li Shaochun and ye Shengzhang, and "Farewell My Concubine" by Mei Lanfang and Liu Lianrong. Chang'an Grand Theater won this honor and gained great fame.

After the construction of the new Chang'an Grand Theater, the attendance rate is astonishingly high, about 450 shows a year, with more than 600 shows a year at the most. In Chang'an, only 20% of the "sit and end rent" is in Chang'an, and the rest are organized by Chang'an people to choose plays and actors. Troupes from other provinces and cities come to Beijing to perform and most recognize Chang'an. In his early years, Chang'an also played drama. In 1998, Jiang Wen's "konok or the victory of medicine" played 10 times in Chang'an, and Chen Peisi's "nur'er" also went out of Chang'an. There are two special shops on both sides of the Chang'an hall. Almost everything related to opera can be found here, including the out of print "modeling of artistic figures in Chinese Peking Opera", two volumes in both Chinese and English. In 2016, Chang'an Grand Theater has been re opened for 20 years. In the past 20 years, Chang'an Grand Theater has not only held commemorative activities for Tan Xinpei, the four famous dans, the four Xusheng, Wang shaolou, Meng Xiaodong and other art masters, but also given the declining Yan (Jupeng), Xi (Xiaobo), Huang (Guiqiu), Xu (Biyun), Qi (Zhou Xinfang) art successors, male Dan actors and martial arts actors With special care. In addition to the auspicious dramas of Spring Festival every year, festival dramas will be launched in Qingming, June 1st, Qixi, Mid Autumn Festival, Chongyang, etc. to accompany the fans to search for the memory of traditional festivals.

In the past 20 years, the Chang'an Grand Theater has performed 7373 performances, and received 4.35 million audiences. There are 45 kinds of operas and more than 100000 actors on this stage, leaving artistic charm.

Management ideas

With its unique geographical location, it continues the glorious history of Chang'an, carries the responsibility of carrying forward the national traditional culture, and affects the hearts of new and old fans at home and abroad. Chang'an always adheres to the tenet of "Chang'an can't do without Peking Opera, but Chang'an can't only have Peking Opera". To a large extent, it retains the classic folk plays, which are staged regularly to meet the viewing requirements and tastes of old fans. At the same time, a variety of art forms are compatible to achieve the purpose of attracting young people and children audience. In order to better adapt to the market mechanism, on the basis of the overall unchanged business ideas, the theater constantly seeks new breakthroughs, innovates and improves its own business management system, updates various business and management regulations, strengthens the staff's sense of responsibility and mission, constantly integrates the staff team, expands professional and technical personnel, improves the overall business and management level, and improves the public image of the theater. In terms of service, we should further understand the psychological needs of the audience, perform and produce more classic and excellent plays that have won the praise of the people. On the basis of preserving the original flavor of traditional opera, these plays seek to reflect the cultural atmosphere changing with the times, so that more famous opera experts and fans can conduct academic exchanges through Chang'an's stage, and make Chang'an an an art Mecca for people at home and abroad to pay attention to traditional Chinese folk opera and appreciate Beijing opera.

Performance features

In the history of Chang'an Grand Theater, many operas of different schools and the artistic styles of many Peking opera performing artists, such as Mei Lanfang, Shang Xiaoyun, Cheng Yanqiu and Xun Huisheng, are displayed.

One of the biggest characteristics of Chang'an Grand Theater is that in order to let foreign tourists understand and appreciate Peking Opera, Chang'an Grand Theater and Peking Opera Theater and other performing units work together to arrange music more suitable for tourists to watch the whole tourism Peking Opera. All of these are carefully arranged by the screenwriter and director. It embraces all the fields of Peking opera art as much as possible, but also makes the audience understand it. In addition, there are Chinese and English subtitles synchronized with the singing, so that the audience has a full understanding of the plot. There is a special Beijing Opera tour at the Chang'an Grand Theater every day. Every day is a scene of Beijing Opera in the capital.

In addition to the special tourism Peking Opera show every night, traditional Peking Opera is also performed in the big theater every Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Among them, the representative plays include: Long Feng Cheng Xiang, Feng Huan Chao, Suo Lin Bao, Jin Gui Ji, Da Bao Guo · Tan Huang Ling · Er Jin Gong, Qin Xianglian, Si Lang Tan mu, Zhao's orphan, etc. Moreover, a large number of well-known actors such as Li Shiji, Li Weikang, Yu Kuizhi, Meng Guanglu, Li Shengsu, Zhang Xuejin, Zhao Baoxiu, Wang Rongrong and so on appeared on the stage one after another.

Some old opera artists also come to celebrate the festival, making Chang'an Grand Theater a big family and stage in the field of opera and a modern art palace. In addition to the tea seats in the front area, there are row seats in the back area. There are VIP box, ordinary box and row seats on the second floor. On the second floor of the lobby, there are still photos of the older generation of Peking opera performing artists and costumes display cabinets for different roles in Peking opera; on the first floor, there are also facial makeup, calligraphy and painting, audio-visual products for sale.

On the morning of the first Sunday of every month, Chang'an Grand Theater will hold a friendship party for ticket lovers, so that they can play the leading role on the stage that celebrities all yearn for. As of December 2, 2018, a total of 97 events have been held in the past seven years, and 1822 ticket fans from nearly 400 box offices in 32 cities across the country have shown their style here, including Zhao Baoxiu and Meng Guanglu

Chinese PinYin : Zhang An Da Xi Yuan