White-haired Girl 《白毛女》

White-haired Girl is a Chinese opera and ballet by Yan Jinxuan to a Chinese libretto. First opera performance: 1945. First ballet performance: Shanghai Dance Academy, Shanghai, 1965.

Along with Red Detachment of Women, the ballet is regarded as one of the classics of revolutionary China, and its music is familiar to almost everyone who grew up during the 1960's. It is one of the Eight model plays.

I saw White-haired Girl ballet version when I was 5 or 6 years old. In those days, Chinese people did not have own television, and seldom go to a cinema. But I was lucky, once a week or several times a month, I could saw movies in a lawn which we call movie field.

There were serveal movies I can remember quite clearly. Flower Sale Girl, north Krea produce, attracting me by the beautiful girl and beautiful song. The story of The Red Lamp, also is one of the Eight Model Plays, which was a contemporaneity Beijing opera, creatively accompanied by symphony orchestra. At that time, I was too young to stand the long slow vocal passages of Jing Ju (Beijing opera), but the red cloth of the main character was attractive! White-haired Girl was the most catching one for the the red pointe shoes, glidingly motions, and enduring music.

Up to present, White-haired Girl is the most successful traditional ballet production in China. In those desert years, it brought the most pure beauty to the Chinese people.

After many years, when I brought my daughter to see this ballet again, as soon as the several notes of the prelude played, my eyes were streaming with tears! It was that time I found how deep the music planted in my heart.

Prelude of White-haired Girl
http://210.26.16.29/ysx/minzuoqiyue/ee2.mp3