Dance drama Confucius is constituted of six sections: Prologue - Inquiry, The Chaotic Time, Out of Food, Great Harmony, Mourning for Benevolence, and Epilogue - Happiness.

 

The story displays the life course of Confucius who engaged in politics, gave advice to the emperor, toured various states, stuck in extreme poverty and food shortage, wrote the lyrics of the guqin music Virtues of the Silent Orchid and returned to the Lu State in his late years. He revised The Book of Songs, composed Spring and Autumn Annals, and created rituals and music, etc., all those plots reflect Confucius’s upmost ideal of “perfection” in art.

 

 

The story tells a part of Confucius’ life experience about his tours in various states. It is a journey of incessant barriers, a one-way trip failing to realize dreams and a bumpy road without results.

 

China Opera and Dance Drama Theatre is a national-level theater affiliated to the Ministry of Culture. It is all-inclusive in artistic categories. It consists of Opera Troupe, Dance Troupe, National Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra, Creation Studio and complete Stage Art Production Department.

 

It converges a large group of famous performing artists such as GUO Lanying, ZHAO Qing and CHEN Ailian, as well as many popular middle-aged and young artists springing up in recent years. Over the past five decades since its inception, it rehearses and performs nearly 100 well-known operas and dance dramas, such as operas The White-haired Girl, Injustice to Dou E and Savage Land and dance dramas A Dream of Red Mansions, Dancing Girl of Tongque Platform and Shadow of Fence Wall.

 

 

In recent years, it is committed to creating and performing musical dramas, and launches a batch of excellent repertoires such as HUA Mulan. It perfectly undertakes many creation and performance tasks, such as large-scale musical dance epic The East is Red, the Asian Games, International Arts Festival, International Choral Festival and the reception of foreign heads of state including the Former US President Bill Clinton’s visiting China.

 

 

It organizes and independently sponsors many large-scale national-level variety shows. A variety of singing and dance repertoires are also highly praised by the majority of the audiences in China.

 

The Theatre has been toured in many countries across Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Latin America. It contributes to boosting international culture exchanges and solidifying the friendship among peoples of different countries, and wins glory for our motherland.