Oldest opera

Western opera dates from 1597 with Jacopo Peri’s Dafne, followed by the development of Baroque opera in the 17th and 18th centuries and the Classical and Bel Canto forms in Italy in the 18th and 19th centuries, along with French and German operas from that period. However, the Chinese developed a distinct opera form long before that. Kunqu is considered the “Mother of all Chinese operas” and emerged in the 14th century during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). Kunqu combined opera with ballet, drama and the recitation of poetry and music while drawing on earlier Chinese theatrical forms such as mime and acrobatics, dating back to as early as the third century AD.

Elaborate make-up is also a chief feature. 'Kun' refers to Kunshan (the district of Kunshan where the opera originated, near Suzhou, in modern Jiangsu Province) and 'qu' means music. It was further refined in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) by the artist Wei Liangfu, who put his stamp on it around 1530 when he established a series of rules for the genre. Its classic works include The Peony Pavilion and The Peach Blossom Fan. The arrival of Peking opera in the 18th century slowly eclipsed Kunqu and, by 1900, it virtually faded away. It regained popularity after that, only to be stymied by the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) as the Chinese government prohibited it being performed or the training of new performers. However, artists in Taiwan and Hong Kong revived it, and when China opened up in the late 1970s, this sparked a rebirth of Kunqu on China's mainland. In 2001, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization) proclaimed Kunqu opera as a “masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity”, and the form is now thriving again - not only in China's mainland (now with the support of the Chinese government) but also with Chinese Kunqu companies abroad in New York and the Washington, DC area (suburban Washington, DC, in the state of Maryland, to be exact, but the company’s website does not list the address or city where they are located). That company is the Wintergreen Kunqu Society, and they perform in the Washington, DC area.