The premiere of director Chen Kaige's stage show Xiyi took place in Dali, Yunnan Province Wednesday, after almost a year's delay. Though drawn from a traditional Bai ethnic love story, the play combines numerous modern performance elements while the director himself makes a special appearance in the play as its narrator.

The play tells an ancient tragic love story between a princesses and a hunter, who is eventually killed by a jealous general. The princess then offers her own life to the goddess of mountain in exchange for reviving her lover for just a few minutes at the end.

In updating the story to modern times, Chen decided to add various elements, including Peking Opera, folk dance, acrobatics, and the very special art of shuanghuang, in which one person is speaking or singing behind another person, who is performing the character's movements.

The sets receive a grandiose treatment as well and include a 261-meter rainbow bridge, which also doubles as a screen to display different animations, lyrics and lines throughout the performance.

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