The audience in Shanghai gave a standing ovation recently to the newly revised Chinese opera " The Peony Pavilion," written by renowned Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu (1550-1616) some 400 years ago.

"The Peony Pavilion," an opera in the 600-year-old Kunju style, tells the story of a young woman who meets her lover in a dream, but dies longing for him. When her ghost finds the man, she is brought back to life and they marry.

The uncut original version of the play in 55 acts, jointly produced by the Lincoln Center of New York and the Shanghai Kunju Opera Company, was scheduled for a global tour in 1998.

But that version was canceled because it was criticized by audiences and artists alike as showing "feudalism, superstitious beliefs, and pornography."

The revised version, directed by Guo Xiaonan, is in three acts and 34 scenes, and requires three nights for a full performance.

"Audiences in modern times like to watch compact dramas with a brisk rhythm," Guo said. "That's why I changed the play this way."

Li Shoucheng, an official with the Shanghai Bureau of Culture, said the new version is free of pornography, superstition and feudalism, and unfolds the essence of Chinese culture in the form of operatic drama.

Famed as the "Oriental Shakespeare," Tang Xianzu finished "The Peony Pavilion" in 1598, a work reflecting Tang's desire for freedom of love against the bondage of feudal ethics.

The new version, advocating humanism, has been in preparation since August 1998, and features nearly 150 characters.

Jiang Jurong, a drama expert at Fudan University, said that compared to the previous version, which had exaggerated plots about sex, this one not only inherits traditional values of Chinese opera, but also meets the demands of modern audiences.

Cai Minxia, a student at East China Normal University in Shanghai, said, "I have spent three nights watching the entire version of the play. I think it can challenge Hollywood masterpieces such as 'The Ghost' and 'Titanic'."

This operatic drama is sure to become popular at universities, she predicted.