Brechtian imprint

"Chinese operas tend to arouse your emotions and make you cry whereas Brecht wakes you up when you are just about to cry," said Mao.

Brecht's estrangement effect, which distances the audience from the narrative and creates a sense of rational thinking and curiosity, appears in many forms throughout the opera.

"Rap, modern dance and black humor are not only modernizations of Yue Opera but also ways to separate the audience from the drama," said Mao.

Characters may suddenly stand still and speak directly to the audience. There are also a few times when technicians carry lights on stage for scene transitions and to distract the audience.

At some moments, the audience may wonder if this is in fact a Yue Opera at all. But soon, they are drawn into the plot again.

Drama students in China are taught that there are three main performance systems in the world: Stanislavsky, Bertolt Brecht and Mei Lanfang.

Now with The Good Soul of South Yangzi, director Guo Xiaonan has created an indirect dialogue between Brecht and Mei. Mao said the key difference would be Mei was a man who played female characters whereas Yue Opera features women playing men. The intention is to put traditional Chinese opera in the same arena with global theater so audiences and experts can analyze and criticize the work.

Brave or brazen

The combination of Chinese opera and world-renowned stories is not new. Examples include the Huang Mei Opera production of Dürrenmatt's The Visit and Shakespeare's Hamlet in Peking Opera. Each time the assorted mergers accomplish varying results and spark new inspiration.

But can Western narratives and all kinds of modernization offer a possible future for Chinese operas? Are these innovations trailblazing or are they damaging the classical art? It may be too early to say.

Mao said for young performers of Chinese opera, traditional skills and shows are the heart of the art. Experiments and innovations may not be the future direction, but they show young talents the potential.

Playing a woman in this opera has proven to be an incredibly difficult task for Mao.

"Even when I play Sui Da wearing suits, dance in a bit of jazz style, it is obviously different from what I did before, where long sleeves and traditional Chinese boots are the usual outfit," she said.

Mao once heard that Chinese opera is a skills-led art. She never agreed with this statement until she met the role of Shen.

"We don't [fully understand] the era of Beethoven or Tchaikovsky, but when we play their music, we play with our modern vision," said Mao.

For traditional Chinese operas to survive and be loved in such a fast-paced era, shows like Good Soul of South Yangtze are worth trying as they fit into the time period today and modern audience's understanding of theater and culture.