Preview: National Beijing Opera Theatre Of China, The Lowry, Salford; then touring

A debut that leaves you dazzled

Astonishingly, it has taken 50 years for Chairman Mao's pet opera company to get round to making its first British tour, so Salford, London, Edinburgh, and Salisbury will witness an historic event. But the art is anything but Maoist: its roots go back to the seventh century. It was always a popular entertainment, rather than an aristocratic one: it was only taken up by China's royals in the 19th century, who seized on it as a forbidden pleasure, as Britain's young royals have done with pop music.

Astonishingly, it has taken 50 years for Chairman Mao's pet opera company to get round to making its first British tour, so Salford, London, Edinburgh, and Salisbury will witness an historic event. But the art is anything but Maoist: its roots go back to the seventh century. It was always a popular entertainment, rather than an aristocratic one: it was only taken up by China's royals in the 19th century, who seized on it as a forbidden pleasure, as Britain's young royals have done with pop music.

Having just spent two days with the company in Beijing, I can vouch for the rigour that underpins the seemingly effortless art on stage: as the company's stars assured me, the pedagogical savageries in Chen Kaige's celebrated film Farewell My Concubine were no exaggeration. I watched them limber up with somersaults, then double somersaults, then somersaults with a twist, then a double twist - Olympic stuff, but done in almost complete silence. After a spot of juggling they went into character, and again I was dazzled: they've been selected from a catchment of one billion, so they're bound to be good, but the way they meld acrobatics and dramatics takes the breath away.

There's a stately grace and fluidity in the full performance, with every move calibrated and calculated, employing 10 standard poses ("dozing", "shyness", "considering") and a whole lexicon of hand gestures. This is a two-dimensional art, like a succession of paintings: it's cousin to Japanese kabuki, but where kabuki reminds you at every moment that you are in the theatre, Beijing opera roots itself in nature, albeit in a stylised way. The glissando singing may initially strike the Western ear as outlandishly contrived, but after a while it comes to seem no more artificial than Italian opera. So roll up for Legend of the White Snake, Havoc in Heaven and Suicide with a Golden Brick.

Touring to 27 May ( www.thebeijingopera.com)