A historic performance

The Chinese opera centers on one of the female martyrs, Jiang Zhuyun, also known as Jiang Jie ("sister Jiang"), who was born in 1920 in Southwest China's Sichuan province and joined the Communist Party of China when she was 19.

She was arrested in 1948 and detained in a Chongqing prison. A year later, she was killed at the age of 29. The image of Jiang, with hair down to her shoulders, wearing a red jacket over a blue cheongsam and wrapped in a long white scarf, is an iconic one.

"The nervousness of playing the role while working with so many veteran artists is still vivid. The story of Jiang is well known among Chinese audiences and to me, playing the role successfully meant singing all the songs without any mistakes," Wang says.

On Saturday, the singer appeared at the NCPA to share her stories with music lovers, recounting memories of playing the character, as well as singing songs from the opera, such as Hong Mei Zan (Ode to the Red Plum Flower) and Embroidering the Red Flag.

The Chinese opera was staged in the capital last year to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. Directed by Wang Xiaoying, it was restaged by the China National Opera and Dance Drama Theater last year and Wang played the role for a 100th time.

"Every time we restage the classic opera, we go back to the beginning," says Wang Xiaoying, adding that the songs by the veteran scriptwriter Yan Su (1930-2016) and composer Yang Ming, both of whom worked on the original version of the opera, keep the creative team inspired. Yang, who is 87, also works on the creative team for this new version.

Before its original premiere in 1964, the composer, along with other members of the production, traveled to Sichuan province and Chongqing to collect material. Though opera is a Western art form, the composer combined elements of Sichuan folk music and Chuanju (Sichuan Opera) into his compositions.