Shaanxi Opera or Qinqiang 秦腔

We were a little bit nervous when some local friends of ours invited us to a Shaanxi opera. We really enjoyed Beijing opera even if our ears had to adjust a bit to the difference in musical scales. However, we had heard some rumors that Shaanxi opera is just unbearable on the ears. This was reinforced by having heard locals listening to this kind of music from time to time on their little portable radios and even hearing local singing it (we guessed) at the park quite loudly and terribly on loud speakers. Nevertheless, we are always up for a new experience.

It was quite nice actually. Our friends explained some of the parts we couldn't understand, and Yellow could catch some of it on his own. There were only a couple times when the woman's voice reached a pitch we weren't comfortable with.  This was a love story that took place between an apprentice at a shoe makers shop and young girl whom he bought wine from for his master each day. We found ourselves laughing throughout. I guess it could be classified as a romantic comedy.

Shaanxi opera is also qinquiang in China and called Qin thousands of years ago. Its melodies originated from rural areas of ancient Shaanxi and Gansu. The word itself means "the tune or sound of Qin". An interesting fact (thank you wikipedia) is that it was banned from "being performed in Beijing" in 1785 by the emperor at the time, Qianlong. It was said that "the sexual suggestiveness of the genre" was the reason for it being banned, but it is believed that the real reason was because the difference in style from prior Chinese folk opera styles allowed social critique of China to be written into them. The ban, however, only ended up expanding the style into more areas outside of Beijing, primarily to theatres in the southeast.