This is total theater. Shinkyogeki, new-style Beijing Opera, is a combination of almost every performing art known to the East and the West. It should be a cross-cultural mess -- but it's not. At its best, as in the staging of "Yang-kui-fei and Abe-no-Nakamaro," which is now touring Japan, it's breathtaking.

The drama tells of the legendary beauty Yang-kui-fei (719-756), concubine of the sixth T'ang emperor, who -- with the assistance of the Japanese ambassador, Abe-no-Nakamaro -- escapes to Japan during an uprising. It is being staged here to mark the 30th anniversary of the postwar normalization of relations between China and Japan -- which explained why heavyweight politician Ryutaro Hashimoto was in the audience and why the paparazzi were waiting outside on the opening night last Wednesday.

A Beijing Opera production is a true symbol of reconciliation between the two former foes, as the man who singlehandedly revived the genre, Mei Lanfang (1894-1961), famously refused to perform during the 1937-45 Japanese occupation of China. The master, who specialized in female roles, grew a beard and mustache as a sign of his defiance, and did not return to the stage until 1946.