Full coverage: 80th Anniversary of the Victory of the Red Army's Long March

To commemorate the 80th anniversary of the long march an original opera of the same title recently premièred at Beijing's National Center for the Performing Arts. It tells the story of the two-year tactical retreat of the Red Army to evade Kuomintang forces in 1934 and combines the tradition of Italian bel canto with Chinese folk.

To commemorate the 80th anniversary of the long march an original opera of the same title recently premièred at Beijing's National Center for the Performing Arts. It tells the story of the two-year tactical retreat of the Red Army to evade Kuomintang forces in 1934 and combines the tradition of Italian bel canto with Chinese folk.

Climbing snow-capped mountains and trudging through marshlands is what the Red Army experienced during the Long March, and now its been re-created for the stage.

This new opera traces the 12,500-kilometer march through snow-topped mountains, moors and turbulent rivers from East China's Jiangxi Province to Northwest China's Gansu Province in the Red Army's escape from the Kuomintang soldiers that were hunting them.

"I'm playing a female soldier named Wan Xia. The lead characters in the Long March are mainly male and I think the female characters really brings out the softer side of their journey and complete the characters," said Gong Shuang, singer of "the Long March" opera.

The whole opera has six screens of nine scenes with over 30 characters and a chorus of one hundred of people, making it the largest NCPA performance ever.

The Long March is the 11th original opera of the NCPA. To reproduce the epic march of the Red Army's soldiers back in 1934, the production team of the opera created an epic journey for themselves, one that took four years in the making.

Telling a Chinese story using a Western art form is always a daunting task and that is especially true for composer Yin Qing.

The veteran was inspired by the melodies created during the Long March.

"I think the most challenging part is to create drama in the music. Unlike the Hollywood movies which often tell stories about one hero fighting the villain, we have a large group of heroes in the Long March, fighting with nature and conquering their own weakness. I was struggling with ideas until I read one of the chorus songbooks of the Red Army soldiers composed during the era. I was greatly touched by their determination and their perseverance which was demonstrated in the music, so I jumped right back into composing. Hopefully my score has conveyed the same spirit that I felt," Yin said.

The legacy of the Long March will go beyond the stage with the production team also holding a fund raising event for rural areas in Guizhou Province.

The opera runs until July 6th at the NCPA.