China’s largest opera form comes from the province we are based in. So does Mulan.
WHAT IT IS
Yu Opera — 豫剧, also called Henan bangzi 河南梆子 — is the traditional opera of Henan province, and by number of professional troupes and performers it is the largest local opera form in China, ahead of roughly three hundred others. It is commonly counted among the country’s five major opera genres. It entered China’s national intangible cultural heritage list in the very first batch, in 2006.
The sound is the thing people remember. Yu Opera is bold, bright and open-throated where other forms are delicate — it carries impassioned, full-voiced passages and quiet lyrical ones in the same piece, and it was built to be sung to ordinary audiences rather than a court. That directness is why it travelled out of Henan and across the country, and why it still fills theatres.
We are a Zhengzhou company. This is the opera of our own province, performed by our own company.
MULAN
The Ballad of Mulan is one of the very few Chinese stories a Western audience already knows.
What is less known outside China is where it comes from. The Mulan legend is itself on China’s national intangible cultural heritage list, and the lead declaring region is Yucheng County in Henan — the province Yu Opera belongs to.
And the definitive stage version of the story is a Yu Opera. 《花木兰》 as sung by Chang Xiangyu 常香玉 is the single most famous work in the repertoire, and its central line — “who says women are not the equal of men” — is one of the most quoted lines in Chinese theatre.
The story behind that production is worth knowing. In 1951 Chang Xiangyu took the opera on a fundraising tour from Kaifeng and Zhengzhou down through Wuhan, Changsha and Guangzhou: 178 performances over six months, more than 300,000 people, and every ticket going toward a single purpose. The money bought a MiG-15 fighter, which flew under the name of her opera company.
We stage 《花木兰》. For an international audience it is the rarest thing a cultural programme can offer: a piece that is authentically, seriously traditional, and which the room already has a way in to.
WHO IT IS FOR — AND WHO IT IS NOT
We would rather be straight about this than sell you the wrong act.
Yu Opera is sung, and it is sung in Chinese. It rewards an audience that has some connection to the language or the culture. It is the right choice for:
- Chinese New Year programming at properties whose guests over the holiday are largely Chinese
- Overseas Chinese communities — diaspora galas, association banquets, cultural festivals and city twinning events
- Broadcast — Spring Festival galas and cultural programming, where opera is expected repertoire
- Civic and government ceremony, particularly anything involving Henan
- Chinese corporate clients hosting internationally
If your audience is a European incentive group with no Chinese speakers, we will tell you so and cast you Bian Lian, acrobatics or lion dance instead. Those acts pay off in ninety seconds without a word. This one does not, and a programme that misjudges that loses the room.
Where it works, nothing else in the roster carries the same weight.
FORMATS
Short-form excerpt — 8 to 12 minutes. A single aria or scene, staged with full costume and face paint. This is what most international bookings should take. It is long enough to be the real thing and short enough to sit inside a mixed programme.
Gala segment — 15 to 20 minutes. Two or three contrasting pieces, usually one martial and one lyrical, with a change of costume between them.
Full production. Available, and appropriate for a theatre, a festival or a dedicated cultural evening rather than a banquet.
Costume and make-up as a guest-facing element. The face painting and the headdresses are extraordinary at close range. Performers can be available for photography before or after, which is consistently one of the most photographed things on any programme we run.
WHAT IT NEEDS
- Stage or a defined performance area; a raised stage is strongly preferred
- Amplification and a sound check — this is a sung form and it will not survive a bad PA
- A dressing area with mirrors and good light; face make-up takes time
- Costume, headdresses, props and instruments travel with the company
- Surtitles or a short spoken introduction, where the audience is not Chinese-speaking — we can supply English text for either
INTERNATIONAL BOOKINGS
Our performers travel. They hold valid passports, work in basic English alongside our bilingual production staff, and are experienced with international schedules and call sheets.
For overseas bookings we normally need four to six weeks for visas and documentation, though we have worked to shorter notice. Costume, props and instruments travel with the company.
We also cast for film, television and commercial shoots. On request we can supply portfolios, full-body reference photography, measurements, unedited performance video, and day and overtime rates.
Want Yu Opera on your programme?
Tell us who your audience is and we will tell you honestly whether this is the right act for them — and what to put beside it if it is.
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