[Leica] China Ballet 1976

[afirkin at afirkin.com (afirkin at afirkin.com)]

Wow, what a great collection. Well done. Great memories no doubt and great
opportunity.

Alastair


> HI Luggers,
> In addition to touring Russian inspired heavy industry factories while
> in China in 1976 I was also invited, many times, to see revolutionary
> ballets and operas, mostly the Red Lantern, Taking Tiger Mountain by
> Strategy, and the Red Detachment of Women. These works were overseen
> by Madame Mao and they were the only public performances allowed. So
> we got to see them over and over again until we were sick of them. The
> tickets you received depended exactly on where you ranked in the VIP
> list. In this set of photos, some taken in Shanghai and some in
> Guangzhou, I was quite lucky because, although only middle ranking (a
> First Secretary) I managed to score the second row - meaning there
> were few real VIPs in the theatre the nights I was there. Having seen
> the dances so many times it was easier to anticipate the action and no
> one minded me taking pictures with my Pentax K2 and 85mm f1.8 lens on
> high speed (!) Exta 160. No flash, of course.
> So here are eight slides, some of them cropped because of the VIP head
> in front of me. Please enjoy, look large and C& C always welcome.
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/1976ChinaBallet/
>
> Howard.
>
> PS: 35 years on there is a lot of nostalgia for these works and there
> have been several revivals in recent years. The communist messages
> (class struggle, etc) that was so important in each play originally
> has been subsumed by the memories of the "good old days".