Feature: Versatility, poetry of Chinese traditional opera captivates Spanish audience

MADRID, June 30 (Xinhua) -- A combination of music, dance and drama of Wu Opera by a troupe from east China's Zhejiang Province amazed an enthusiastic audience in the Spanish capital Madrid over the weekend.

Some 2,000 people attended two packed Wu Opera performances by China's Zhejiang Wu Opera Research Center on Friday and Saturday. A lot of the audience praised the versatility, drama, agility, colors, and poetry of this local operatic genre, which has a history of more than 500 years.

"I found it very interesting. The combination of music is so unfamiliar to us: the acrobatics, the gestures, and the movements. I thought it was very colorful, very unique," Patricia Garcia, a music teacher, told Xinhua after watching the show on Saturday.

She said the audience was very passionate and involved from the beginning. "I think it is a very attractive and different show. It transported me to China," she added.

During the show lasting for more than an hour and a half, the audience was introduced to different performances like "9-Pieced Segmented Dragon," Suona Solo "Picking Dates," or satirical pieces such as "The Sedan Ride" and "Three Triumphs Over the Skeletal Demon."

Amaya Niz Azpiroz, a supervisor at Lufthansa Airlines, said she is very interested in Chinese culture and art, and this was her first time watching Wu Opera.

"I loved it because of the colorfulness, how simple it is to understand what is going on, the gestures and expressiveness," she said, adding that she expected to see more such shows.

Concepcion Gutierrez, a retired professional, pointed out that she was very impressed by the dragon. "The girl handing out the flowers with the ribbon (is) so delicate. Of course the agility of everyone, the colours," she said.

Among the audience, some people, like Rebeca Mato, came from far away. The Mexican has been a cellist for 33 years with the Mexico National Autonomous University Philharmonic Orchestra, and she is on holiday in Spain.

Noting that the musical registers of Wu Opera are very different from Western ones, Rebeca said they "produce different emotions" and "they have incredible coordination, they do a lot of acrobatics, they do dance ... They are very complete artists."

Wu Opera, also known as Jinhua Opera, is the second major regional operatic genre in Zhejiang Province, eastern China. It first grew in popularity in Jinhua and its surrounding areas and was named after Wuzhou, the name of Jinhua in ancient China.