A movie production of the opera Long March premieres at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing on July 1.[Photo by Ling Feng/China Daily]

The opera Long March debuts as a movie production in Beijing, marking the 96th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. Chen Nan reports.

On July 1, 2016, the opera Long March made its debut at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing. And, on the same day, a year later, the opera premiered as a movie production at the NCPA, marking the 96th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.

The movie version is directed by Hou Keming, who says that the production uses Ultra HD, or 4K technology, meaning that the picture has four times the resolution of high definition. 

The opera, written by famed scriptwriter Zou Jingzhi and composed by Yin Qing, which took four years to complete, traces the key events during the Long March, a two-year tactical retreat of the Red Army to evade Kuomintang forces, starting in 1934.

The opera was staged to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the epic march, and the events portrayed in the opera included the battle near the Xiangjiang River, which saw around 50,000 Red Army soldiers die; and the battle at Luding Bridge, which saw a small Red Army force brave gunfire to cross the bridge and attack enemy positions on the other side - successfully securing a bridgehead for the army to cross.