To 1785 or so, because of the abundant rainfall in Huangmei season, floods often occur. In order to pray for a bumper year, farmers in the four townships held a worship meeting at this time, and various songs and dances appeared at the meeting.
At this time, tea-picking songs were combined with a variety of folk arts to form a folk drama, which was named "Huangmei tune" because it was related to Huangmei season, also known as "tea-picking drama".
At this time, there was a girl named Xing Xiuniang on the southern edge of Dabie Mountain. She was born in poverty, smart and lovely since childhood, and loved singing. She went out to sing with her brother and sister-in-law, and her Huangmei tune was particularly popular.
Xing Xiuniang won such a reputation for her handsome appearance and sweet singing soon after her debut:
No money, no home, listening to the embroidered mother singing and picking tea.
She performed for Emperor Qianlong four times and was awarded the title of "Celebrity of Huangmei" by Mo Bao.
1764, a flood occurred in Huangmei county, and Xing Xiuniang's father died. Her brother and sister-in-law took her and her two-year-old nephew to Jiangxi to sing. A playboy in Jingdezhen, seeing Xiuniang as young and beautiful, wanted to take her as his concubine, and then fled back to Huangmei with the help of Wu Rong of the Sichuan Boxer.
Back home, Xing Xiuniang hastily married her husband, Mei Huowang, who was engaged to a "small marriage" when she was a child. After marriage, Xing Xiuniang devoted herself to singing opera and formed a class club. Coupled with the regional atmosphere of "every village has a play" in Huangmei County, almost everyone in Huangmei County is a "opera fan".
Xing Xiuniang finally succeeded in slowly combining Huangmei tune with folk song and dance, forming an art form of song and dance. People call it Huangmei Opera, and because its main activity is the Lantern Festival, it is also called the Lantern Festival.
However, at this time, the troupe of Huangmei Opera only consisted of farmers and craftsmen who sang in their spare time, and there were no professional artists and professional class clubs. During the reign of Tongzhi and Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty, Cheng Fuxiang, a shipai man from Anhui Province, began to form Huangmei Opera Troupe, which was semi-professional and performed village by village during the slack season.
In addition, in 1895, Peng Honghua, a bricklayer in Tongcheng, Anhui Province, was called "Peng" and organized Huangmei Opera Troupe to perform in the rural areas of Huaining, which was called "Peng Ban".
By 1896, people in Shipai Street, Anhui Province had established Huangmei Opera Class "Renyi Class" and had a formal class name. From that time to the beginning of the 20th century, professional and semi-professional clubs in Huaining sprang up like mushrooms after rain, and more than 20 clubs were built.
In Shanghai's "Shen Bao" in June18971KLOC-0/4, there is such a record:
Outside Beiguan, Anhui Province, there are actors of Huangmei Opera, with a class of more than 20 people ... But there are always one or two plays after the main play, and Hua Dan and clowns perform all kinds of antics.
This shows that Huangmei Opera was already sung in rural Anhui during Guangxu period of Qing Dynasty, and the Huangmei Opera troupe with more than 20 people was the Caotai team in Shipai area. In this regard, the opera monograph "Wan You Pu" also recorded:
Today, there are so-called Caotai operas in rural Anhui, but not in other provinces.
The performances of these professional and semi-professional clubs are mostly in the vast rural areas and small and medium-sized market towns, and artists call them "township teams". They flexibly organize performances according to the agricultural production season and the characteristics of rural life.
At this time, the performance facilities of Huangmei Opera are generally lower than those set by merchants in the open air, commonly known as "grass platform", and the role is even less up to standard. Actors who play leading roles often wear only long gowns and short gowns, and even borrow the robes of monks and Taoist priests.
Most people who play the role of Dan borrow the cloth skirts of rural girls and sisters-in-law. Black "silk buns" are often used as "heads", and the facilities on the stage are only a table and two chairs.
Although the conditions and facilities of Huangmei Opera at this time were quite backward, it was loved by ordinary people because of its beautiful expression and catchy mouth. During this period, many famous Huangmei artists such as Pan Xianmei also appeared.
Huangmei opera, like Beijing opera, was performed by men in the early days. Pan Xianmei, from Shipai Town, Huaining County, was the first actress to sing opera. Pan Xianmei entered the troupe after her father's death, and worshipped Yang Shizhong to learn from Hua Dan.
Pan Xianmei is deeply loved by the audience for her tireless study, diligent study, lively performance, sweet voice, beautiful singing and mellow charm.
Among them, Shanbo's Visiting Friends, Xiaoci Hall, Pearl Tower and Double Mirror are famous for their singing performances. At that time, the stone tablet was called "Huangmei for the first time".
During this period, not only the first actress appeared, but also the first Huangmei opera class with a female foreman, named "Little White Tooth Class".
Xiaobaiyaban was founded around 19 1 1. The monitor is Cui He. They used to be child brides, and the artists of Huangmei Opera lived next door to their house. When they were teaching Huangmei Opera, they learned it by eavesdropping on the partition wall. Later, they broke through the barrier of learning from the teacher and the audition was successful. The latter two used "two operettas" to sing "Tang Hui" everywhere, which was very popular.
Later, the two of them invited people to form their own class, called "Little White Tooth Class". They not only sang two plays and three plays, but also performed this play.
At that time, women's acting was a new thing, especially when two divas sang on the same stage, which caused a sensation in four townships and eight villages, and people from dozens of miles away also came to see the play. This is the first female foreman class club in the history of Huangmei Opera.