The Opera that isn't Opera

We recently had a cultural experience one evening.   Chengdu is the home of the famous opera of this province,  Sichuan, and one of the city's main opera houses is across the street from our  hotel.

We knew not to expect opera by our definition, but more of a polished variety show with traditional art forms of this region dating back to the 1700's.  

These ladies danced gracefully to melodic, Oriental music and as they moved their arms they manged to control their lengthy sleeves in colourful arcs and twirls.  It was mesmerizing.  

 I've never seen such a large marionette puppet.  The puppeteer controlled her skillfully and gracefully as a story was told through music and both of them dancing.  She made the long feathers coming out of the puppet's headpiece move in the same wide arcs as the sleeves of the dancers above.  

Of course there had to be jugglers.

The following dancers symbolized lotus flowers.  

There were other selections of music, dance and comedy with the final act being the highly acclaimed face mask changing performance.  This is an ancient skill that has been passed down for generations within families and is a standard act of Sichuan opera.  The performers wear bright costumes and move to fast and dramatic music.  Part of their costumes are vividly coloured Chinese masks, which allow them to change faces almost instantly. I read that a skilled face-changer can change as many as 10 masks in 20 seconds. You would have to see it to believe it!

The audience doesn't even realize they are wearing masks and so we sat stunned to watch the faces change with the swipe of a fan, move of the head or wave of a hand.  I kept thinking of the magic tricks of our son-in-law Mike.  Later I learned that the skill of face-changing is considered a national treasure which is not allowed to be revealed.  

After many minutes of switching masks, we finally we got to see his real face!

It was an enjoyable evening and I would go again to another opera.