Chinese Opera

The flashing, ricocheting crash of Peking opera cymbals is no longer just for musical tourists. Regular theatergoers know just what the sound means: It's an abbreviated overture that galvanizes attention, calling the entire theater to order, and beginning a mythological tale that's full of human truths, often told with fantastical, proto-Star Wars imagery. Chances are audiences have heard a lot of it; it's now part of our landscape. The difference in The Silver River, the Chinese opera (for lack of a better word)

Yo bud - yeah, you in the wet bathing suit eating the ice cream cone. I'm talkin' to you. Come a little closer. Don't ya think it's time to get off the beach? You're looking burnt and sweaty. Enough with the sun and surf, already! What you need is some cool-down time, some quality live entertainment and a stiff drink, in a nice, dark showroom or lounge at one of our finest Atlantic City resort casinos. "Like what?" you say. How 'bout somethin' bluesy to kick back and relax to - like B.B. King or Little Feat, or music so hot (like AWB or Kid Creole)

After some excellent adventures in the martial arts field ("Hero," "House of Flying Daggers") director Zhang Yimou returns to humanistic parable mode with the modest, if deceptively titled, "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles. " The film indeed covers that much territory, ranging from Japan's snowy northern coast to the arid canyons of southwest China. But it's an intimately focused tale about the most personal relationships and interactions, from which wider meanings about the human condition touchingly arise.

As soon as the Kimmel Center opens, you're invited. Between Dec. 16 and Dec. 31, more than 130 free performances will be presented, as well as some ticketed attractions. This gift to the city is a unique chance to check out the facility, which includes Verizon Hall, Perelman Theater and the vast Commonwealth Plaza, all at once. Support for these attractions comes from Lincoln Financial Group, which is also subsidizing opening night, jazz programs next year, and a Dec. 20 program for Philadelphia high school children with jazzman Wynton Marsalis.

Wolfgang Sawallisch's recording of the complete, 15-hour Der Ring des Nibelungen has been released in a 14-CD package. No other musical work - except some Chinese opera - matches Richard Wagner's Ring for scale. The gargantuan recording project slipped into local stores without fanfare, probably because EMI counts the appearance of the four-opera set as a rerelease: The original recording was issued as a set of video discs. Sawallisch recorded the four Wagner operas in 1991 while he was completing his 22-year tenure as music director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.

Lisa Draper has been appointed to the new post of administrator for enrollment development at Gloucester County College, and Audreen Pittman has been appointed coordinator of outreach for the college's Educational Opportunity Fund. A resident of Sewell, Draper will work with contacts at high schools and with adults wishing to enroll at the school. Her appointment, said William Austin, vice president for enrollment management and student development, is part of the college's efforts to increase enrollment, which had declined over the previous five school years.

China embarrassed President Clinton twice yesterday on the eve of his visit, bouncing three reporters from his trip and blocking a Chinese opera company from performing in New York. Despite U.S. protests, a charter plane carrying more than 300 journalists took off for Xian, China, without three Radio Free Asia reporters whose visas were suddenly withdrawn by Beijing. At the same time in Shanghai, Chinese officials stonewalled a Lincoln Center representative seeking permission for the opera troupe to begin long-scheduled performances in New York on July 7. Clinton called the action against the reporters "highly objectionable" and said, "We hope they will reconsider it," but went ahead with plans to leave for Xian today aboard Air Force One with first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, daughter Chelsea and a high-ranking U.S. delegation.

For the thousands of Chinese contract laborers who came to this country in the last century, America was "the Golden Mountain" - a land of unlimited promise and opportunity. But for most of these immigrants, driven from China by poverty and political corruption, the reality of what they found here bore little resemblance to their hopes. Instead of riches, there were slave-like working conditions in mines and along the railroads. Instead of acceptance, there was unrelenting prejudice.

The DanceBoom! Festival is on hiatus this year, but dance booms throughout Philly between now and June nevertheless. At least 40 dance events emblazon our stages, from classical ballet to modern dance with roots in European, Asian, Indian and Middle Eastern traditions. It all begins tonight with Shen Wei Dance Arts, which returns to the Kimmel Center after a jaw-dropping debut there in the 2004 Live Arts Festival. Shen Wei (he always uses both names) was born in 1968 in China's Hunan province.

Ever wonder what would happen if a bunch of sleep-deprived dramatists came together in a marathon session of writing with the express purpose of creating a half-dozen shows for next-day production? Well, Thieves Theater - a radical cadre of theater artists based in New York, but currently in residence in the upstairs space at Theater Double, 1619 Walnut St. - dares you to come find out. They call the concept "Fly by Night," and in a nutshell it's six writers, six directors and 18 actors with only 24 hours to come up with a play for an 8 p.m. curtain the following day. Here's how it works: At 10 p.m. on Friday, each actor brings in one prop for the prop pool, and each writer is given one noun and one verb, a cast makeup (e.g.

IN THE 1930s, Chinese opera artists Cheng Yanqiu and Mei Lanfang traveled to Europe and the United States, looking to promote their art form in the West and to import some Western ideas into their own work. In "Journey to the West," Chinese theater artist Danny Yung revisits those travels over the course of three nights, pondering ways in which cultures overlap and influence one another. In a sense, he's making the same kind of sojourn through time that his predecessors made over the land, exploring the strange country of traditional Chinese opera, returning with those experiences to the more familiar shores of his own modern experimental theater.

The DanceBoom! Festival is on hiatus this year, but dance booms throughout Philly between now and June nevertheless. At least 40 dance events emblazon our stages, from classical ballet to modern dance with roots in European, Asian, Indian and Middle Eastern traditions. It all begins tonight with Shen Wei Dance Arts, which returns to the Kimmel Center after a jaw-dropping debut there in the 2004 Live Arts Festival. Shen Wei (he always uses both names) was born in 1968 in China's Hunan province.

After some excellent adventures in the martial arts field ("Hero," "House of Flying Daggers") director Zhang Yimou returns to humanistic parable mode with the modest, if deceptively titled, "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles. " The film indeed covers that much territory, ranging from Japan's snowy northern coast to the arid canyons of southwest China. But it's an intimately focused tale about the most personal relationships and interactions, from which wider meanings about the human condition touchingly arise.

During the last couple of years, Chinatown has gotten plenty of something it didn't ask for: high-priced condominiums, which neighborhood activists say drive up housing prices and drive out working-class residents. Now, Chinatown has a chance to get something it's always wanted: a public school, where children can learn and grow in familiar surroundings. Asian Americans United, an advocacy group, has presented Philadelphia education officials with a phone-book-size proposal to create a 280-student charter school just north of Vine Street.

The Philadelphia Chinese Opera Society started, appropriately, with a song. It was an aria from the traditional Chinese opera The Matchmaker. The singer was Shuyuan Li, an opera artist from Nanjing. And when she performed it at a community event in Chinatown in 1999, the song electrified some of the Chinese emigres gathered that day. "We had people interested in opera for years," said Jun Qiao, an opera buff and Temple University academic adviser. "But after Ms. Li came, we started organizing.

As soon as the Kimmel Center opens, you're invited. Between Dec. 16 and Dec. 31, more than 130 free performances will be presented, as well as some ticketed attractions. This gift to the city is a unique chance to check out the facility, which includes Verizon Hall, Perelman Theater and the vast Commonwealth Plaza, all at once. Support for these attractions comes from Lincoln Financial Group, which is also subsidizing opening night, jazz programs next year, and a Dec. 20 program for Philadelphia high school children with jazzman Wynton Marsalis.

Lisa Draper has been appointed to the new post of administrator for enrollment development at Gloucester County College, and Audreen Pittman has been appointed coordinator of outreach for the college's Educational Opportunity Fund. A resident of Sewell, Draper will work with contacts at high schools and with adults wishing to enroll at the school. Her appointment, said William Austin, vice president for enrollment management and student development, is part of the college's efforts to increase enrollment, which had declined over the previous five school years.

Ever wonder what would happen if a bunch of sleep-deprived dramatists came together in a marathon session of writing with the express purpose of creating a half-dozen shows for next-day production? Well, Thieves Theater - a radical cadre of theater artists based in New York, but currently in residence in the upstairs space at Theater Double, 1619 Walnut St. - dares you to come find out. They call the concept "Fly by Night," and in a nutshell it's six writers, six directors and 18 actors with only 24 hours to come up with a play for an 8 p.m. curtain the following day. Here's how it works: At 10 p.m. on Friday, each actor brings in one prop for the prop pool, and each writer is given one noun and one verb, a cast makeup (e.g.

The flashing, ricocheting crash of Peking opera cymbals is no longer just for musical tourists. Regular theatergoers know just what the sound means: It's an abbreviated overture that galvanizes attention, calling the entire theater to order, and beginning a mythological tale that's full of human truths, often told with fantastical, proto-Star Wars imagery. Chances are audiences have heard a lot of it; it's now part of our landscape. The difference in The Silver River, the Chinese opera (for lack of a better word)

Yo bud - yeah, you in the wet bathing suit eating the ice cream cone. I'm talkin' to you. Come a little closer. Don't ya think it's time to get off the beach? You're looking burnt and sweaty. Enough with the sun and surf, already! What you need is some cool-down time, some quality live entertainment and a stiff drink, in a nice, dark showroom or lounge at one of our finest Atlantic City resort casinos. "Like what?" you say. How 'bout somethin' bluesy to kick back and relax to - like B.B. King or Little Feat, or music so hot (like AWB or Kid Creole)