The curtain opens to reveal a table flanked by two wooden chairs in front of a dark red backcloth. With two strident oboes and a mighty roar of percussion, the instrumental ensemble – out of view stage-left – announces the start of the play. A general with a long beard, high wooden shoes, brilliantly-patterned painted face and a strikingly-coloured costume that makes him look like a giant, arrives by ‘chariot’, attended by six young soldiers plus a staff of military officers. The fiddle begins a nasal riff garnished with swoops and slides which is punctuated by drum, cymbals and gongs; the general begins to sing in a declamatory manner, with broad gestures and contorted expressions to suggest anger. The brilliant clashes of the unblended instrumental sounds combined with the intensity of the singing – much of it in the upper register, to contrast with the hoarse outbursts of the rougher characters – create an exhilarating effect, as do the events of the story, which concerns two rival generals, the rougher of them fighting for a pretender to the emperor's throne. None of the actors or musicians at this opera school is over twenty, yet all are highly accomplished.