Vocal technique in Beijing opera: traditions and modern stage implementation

This article is devoted to the Beijing opera vocal technique, to its traditions and its modern implementation. Beijing opera represents the essence of the national culture, laid down in the five-thousand-year history of China. This original genre demonstrates to the world its unique charm through the synthesis of performance, singing, and music. Despite the fact that singing does not play a leading role in Beijing opera, the vocal technique here is unique and requires singers’ great professionalism and virtuosity. Being the part of the general system of opera art, vocals are subordinated to the content and image of the work. Beijing opera vocal technique features are based on sound production methods, timbre, pronunciation, intonation, connection with gestures and movement, declamatory nature, etc. The purpose of the article is to theoretically study the features of the Beijing opera vocal technique in the aspect of tradition and modernity. The main characteristics of this unique genre of Chinese culture are considered, the implementation forms and vocal performance meaning of Beijing opera are revealed, examples of interpretation of the art of Beijing opera are given on the example of the work of Mei Lanfang. The methods of the research were the analysis of literature on the topic of the work, musicological analys is of the Beijing opera genre, listening to audio recordings, viewing photographs.