Traditional Chinese musical drama: content-style originality

Zhao Meng

The article gives a description of the style peculiarities of the traditional Chinese musical drama, on its basis the reason for the long isolation of the ways of development of the Chinese and European musical theater is revealed. The process of genre formation from ancient times to the 19th century, the time when European opera penetrated into China, is covered. Characterized features of acting, vocal, scenography of the Chinese national musical drama, its multiple genre varieties formed by centuries.

Keywords:China, traditional musical drama, Opera, traditional and European vocals, artistic symbols, stage roles.