A while back (yes, I forgot to post these pictures) Rachel and I had the opportunity to go to Beijing and visit some friends. While there we had an opportunity to visit the National Center for Performing Arts with a friend who works there.
The only free time we had to go to the
center was on a Monday; however, this turned out to be a good thing. Our
friend told us when we arrived that actually all the museums are closed
to the public on Mondays, so there were very few people around, but she
could show us around.
The first of the halls was their opera hall where they were getting ready to do Carmen.
So we felt we were in Europe somewhere rather than China.
Rachel was quite excited to be back-stage.
Wandering over to another hall we began to hear music (actually the sound of people warming up). It was a practice for one of the Beijing symphonies!
Even better, there were several special guest performers in traditional
dress, playing traditional instruments. We were super excited and
actually got to sit and watch for over an hour, as well as talk with
some of the performers. (No pictures, but we took a lot of video... hopefully we'll make it into something.)
Rachel, still excited about being backstage.
On display outside of one of the halls they had a replica of what a traditional stage would look like where they would perform Beijing Opera.
We had a great day!
