Classic Chinese opera transforms into stage musical

The Chinese musical Jiang Jie was staged at the Beijing Performing Arts Center on Saturday and Sunday.

Inspired by the classic Chinese opera of the same title, the musical centers on a female martyr, Jiang Zhuyun, also known as Jiang Jie, born in 1920 in southwestern Sichuan province, who joined the Communist Party of China at age 19.

Premiered in Beijing in 1964, the Chinese opera Jiang Jie was a huge success and toured nationwide. It was adapted from the revolutionary novel Hong Yan (Red Crag) written by Luo Guangbin and Yang Yiyan, which portrays a group of underground communists and their heroic battle on the eve of 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded.

The image of Jiang, with hair down to her shoulders, wearing a red jacket over a blue cheongsam and wrapped in a long white scarf, is well-known among Chinese audiences.

The musical production was created by the Beijing Film Academy and features soprano Wang Li in the title role. Wang is also the head of the musical theater department at the School of Performing Arts of the Beijing Film Academy.

Wang's journey with the opera began in 2007, when she first performed the role at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing. She went on to perform in over 100 shows, marking her 100th performance of the opera in 2021. In 2022, after joining the Beijing Film Academy, she initiated the creation of the musical adaptation of Jiang Jie, which premiered in September 2022. Since then, the musical has been touring across China.

The creation of the musical involved collaboration across multiple departments of the school, including theater, film studies and fine arts. In the past two performances, more than 200 students gained practical experience, both onstage and backstage.