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Palace intrigues…power struggle…heard that before? We recently had a repeat of such a
most pleasant, dramatic, operatic experience after a gap of 12 years! This was brought
about by the visit of Mr WAN Jiahuan, China National Grade 1 Spike Fiddle 京胡 player
(万家欢老师,湖省京剧团国家一级琴师). He most generously gave time, energy and
advice on July 5th to a small group of ‘die hard’ Peking Opera aficionados in the UK,
gathered from around London in Wimbledon for our marathon singing session! I was
one of the lucky singers to enjoy his expert accompaniment. Below are 2 photos of the
same Peking Opera excerpt ‘The Second Visit to the Palace’ 二进宫 sung by me as Li, the
newly widowed royal concubine. (Top photo: December 2013, with Mr Sun Haili and Mr
Ai Jun. Bottom photo: July 5, 2025, with Mr Kevin Zhang and Mr Xia Yajun.) These 4 are
FORMIDABLE Older Male Role singers 都是唱‘老生‘的上将!)
There were more top quality veteran amateur singers last Saturday of female and male
roles. Please forgive me for sneakily mentioning myself first here on my website!
Onwards to more Chinese opera singing in the UK!