Peking Opera: The Legend of the Silver Serpent at Shanghai Grand Theatre - Lyric Theatre

Two serpent-fairies, Bai Su-zhen and Xiao Qing have practiced sorcery and sought apotheosis in Mount Emei for more than a millennium. Longing for mundane pleasures, they assume the forms of beauteous maids and come to the gorgeous West Lake. In a sudden shower of rain, they encounter Xu Xian, a young righteous scholar, whom Bai falls in love with at first sight and soon marries. But such a union is against the canon of the fairies and eventually provokes heavenly fury. The gods order Fa-hai, a Zen bonze, to capture Bai in man’s world and to punish her duly. The bonze instigates Xu into feeding his unsuspecting wife with sulfur wine, which instantly reduces Bai to her original form, a silver serpent. As the scene scares Xu to death, Bai rushes to Mount Kunlun and, overcoming many troubles, obtains the reviving grass, which is to return his late husband to life. His first attempt having been frustrated, Fa-hai manages to trap the innocent Xu at the Jianshan Vihara. Denied access to her man, Bai has to resort to inundating the Buddhist temple with sorcery. Xiao Qing assists her. They, however, are engaged in a pitched combat with the Heavenly Hosts, which have come to Fa-hai’s rescue and rout the serpent fairies. In the hasty flight, Bai Su-zhen and Xiao Qing come upon Xu Xian, who has escaped from the vihara, on Duan Bridge, the exact place where they first met each other. The misunderstanding between the miserable couple vanishes immediately after they recount their own recent experiences.

* The programme is subject to change, it'll be determined to the day of performance.