The Sichuan Opera Love Celestial Ladder stars the national second-level actor Kong Gang and national first level actress Ma Li. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A new production of the Sichuan-style opera Love Celestial Ladder kicked off the 2017 Zhangjiagang Small Theatre Performances series at the Zhangjiagang Art Theatre on Nov 5.

Held as part of the Yangtze River Culture and Art Festival, the series will last ten days and will include several excellent opera performances designed to promote Zhangjiagang's culture scene and get more young people interested in traditional Chinese drama.

Created by Cai Shaobo, Love Celestial Ladder is a true love story set in Chongqing, the megacity near Sichuan province, in the 1950s.

The protagonist is a young man named Liu Guojiang, who fell in love with a beautiful widow 10 years older than him, named Xu Changqing.

The affair initially provokes the local villagers' ridicule and sarcasm, so in order to escape the gossip and protect his wife, Liu escaped to the mountains with his wife.

To make life more convenient for his wife, Liu spent about 50 years carving a ladder out of the stone on the sheer precipice. The stone ladder with almost 6,000 stone steps was dubbed the “Love Celestial Ladder”.

The opera stars the national second-level actor Kong Gang and national first-level actress Ma Li. Cai said that they even visited the couple on which the story is based in Chongqing during their preparation for the show.

The audiences were moved into tears by the actors' performances in the 90-minute production.

Cai said he was so excited to see so many youngsters enjoying the opera.

"Although Sichuan Opera is a household name, most audience members are usually older. Today I was so glad to see many young people here, which shows that small theatre performances are closer to our daily lives."