Huangmei Opera is the main local theater in Anhui Province. It is generally customary to believe that the origin of Huangmei Opera is Anhui, which is inaccurate. Huangmei (County) itself in Hubei, however, is in Hubei, Anhui, Jiangxi provinces border area. More than a hundred years ago, the "Yellow Plum Tune", also known as the "Tea Casting Opera", was popular here. A branch of this small opera gradually moved eastward and became established in the Anqing area of Anhui Province, forming what became known as the Huangmei Opera.
Early Huangmei Opera was mostly about bringing local folk songs and ditties directly to the stage to express stories about local life, especially rural life. For example, the story of "Hogweed" is about a boy and a girl in the countryside, who have conflicts because of the damage to the crops caused by hogweed, and the conflicts are resolved by singing songs to each other. The song "Lang to Flower, Sister to Flower, Pair to Ridge ......" has long been a popular song. Another example is "Husband and Wife Watching the Lanterns", which depicts the colorful life of the city through a young couple's experience of watching the lanterns at the Lantern Festival. Soon, Huangmei Opera also made achievements in moving big plays. These big plays were mainly influenced by the Qingyang accent and Hui tune, which produced the complete story of the whole play, such as "Wujinji" and "Seven Immortals Go Down to Earth". Among them, "The Descent of the Seven Immortals" was honed and modified several times, and finally designated as "The Match of Heavenly Immortals", which became the most influential representative work of Huangmei Opera. It is important to note that early Huangmei opera was basically a form of literature and art in which peasants entertained themselves.
From the 1920s onwards, Huangmei Opera became more and more established, and gradually embarked on the road of professional performance, one of the important symbols of which is that the performance place from the countryside to the city stage. First, there was a professional troupe in the area of Huaining, Anhui Province. Huaining is known as the "theater town" title. Here singing Huangmei tune is very prosperous. From the side of the show, there are many plays, many talents and many organizations; from the side of the audience, there are many viewers and many markets. In 1926, the famous actors Ding Yongquan (danjiao), Cao Zengxiang (xiaosheng), Ding and Shou (joujiao), etc. were active in the city of Anqing, and since then they have taken root here.
After entering the city, Huangmei Opera was influenced by Peking Opera, Yueju Opera, Yang Opera, Huai Opera, and Jieju Opera, and made great improvements in its performance. In terms of repertoire, it has adapted and transplanted good plays from other genres such as "Wen Suchen", "Hongbi Rim", "Gorgeous Rim", "Bee's Tale" and so on. From the music point of view, the traditional singing has been reformed to a certain extent, mainly by reducing the traditional singing with a strong dialect color of the word pad, so that the singing is concise, clear, literally also easy to read and understand. In terms of performance, it has absorbed some of the programmed movements of the sister operas. Such as opening, closing, rounding, drinking and other actions. Other costumes, props, devices, accompaniment and many other aspects than the rural performances have been developed. The Huangmei opera of this period, especially in the 1940s, has matured.
The greater development of Huangmei Opera came after the founding of the People's Republic of China*** and the State of China. As the State paid sufficient attention to local opera, and in order to strengthen the artistic force, the State successively selected and sent a number of specialists in literature, drama, music, and fine arts to take part in the reform of Huangmei Opera. New and old literary and artistic workers **** with efforts to make the overall appearance of Huangmei Opera a new look. Huangmei Opera has become the largest opera in Anhui Province by leaps and bounds from the small opera of Anqing. So far, Huangmei Opera and Huangshan together, and called "Anhui two yellow", become the pride of Anhui Province.
This period of Huangmei Opera, singing singing method has been reformed, music to enhance the expressive power of the "plain words" type of singing, breaking through the "flower cavity" can only be used exclusively for special plays, at the same time, skillfully borrowed from the folk songs and other musical components, to create a harmonized with the traditional singing voice. At the same time, it skillfully draws on folk songs and other musical components to create a new accent that harmonizes with the traditional cantata. In terms of accompaniment, it was no longer the intermittent "three hits and seven songs", but the establishment of a mixed Chinese and Western orchestra based on Chinese music, which greatly improved the expressive power of the opera in terms of musical atmosphere. During this period, many plays were performed, but most of them were reorganized and rearranged. For example, "Beat the Pigweed", "Husband and Wife Watching the Lights", "The Matching of Tianxian", "Drawing Water from the Blue Bridge", "Mending the Back Corset", "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai", "Qin Xuemei Hanging Her Filial Piety", "The Well of Willow Trees", "The Legend of Chunxiang", "The Female Emperor's Son-in-Law", "Cowherd and Weaving Maiden", "The Party's Daughter", "Sister Jiang", and "Sister Liu", and so on, are too numerous to mention. Among them, "The Match of Heavenly Immortals", "Female Son-in-Law", "The Cowherd and the Weaving Daughter", were made into movies, which played an important role in the wide circulation of Huangmei Opera and the preservation of the excellence of the Huangmei Opera artists.
When it comes to the art of Huangmei Opera, it is impossible not to mention a group of old artists who have made great contributions to the art of Huangmei Opera, such as YAN Fengying, WANG Shaofang, and PAN Jingli, etc. Among them, YAN Fengying is the most important one. Among them, Yan Fengying is the most prominent. To this day, whenever people mention Huangmei Opera, they will mention "The Match of Heavenly Immortals", and whenever they mention "The Match of Heavenly Immortals", they will mention Yan Fengying, the actress who played the Seven Immortals. Imagine how many people in China today would sing Yan Fengying's "Birds on the Tree in Pairs"! Opera - especially local opera - has become a popular song, sung by millions of people, and Yan Fengying has been instrumental in making it happen.
Yan Fengying was born in 1930 to a poor family in Anqing, and at the age of 13, she began to learn to sing Huangmei opera from Mr. Yan Yungao. Her voice was clear and sweet, her costume was beautiful and dignified, and she had a strong artistic ability, so her performances were well received by the audience. Her performance in "The Little Shop of Words" was especially well known. Little Quit Shop" is one chapter in the full version of "The Record of the Knife". It is about a young merchant, Cai Mingfeng, who goes out to do business and stays in a store owned by Liu Fengying. Liu Fengying's husband is a gambler, who fools around in casinos all day long and does not care about his family. Liu Fengying is extremely dissatisfied with her husband, but she and her loyal and honest customer, Kwai Mingfeng, share the same feelings for each other, and they fall in love. However, Kwai Mingfeng has to go back to her hometown after all, and the two of them are devastated when they part ways. When Liu Fengying learns that Kwai Mingfeng still has a wife at home and is determined to quit the store and return home, Yan Fengying uses a melodious and mournful singing style of three hundred and twenty lines to express the character's heart-breaking grief, making the performance a strong shock. During this period, Yan Fengying's performances of "Delivering Fragrant Tea", "Advising an Aunt to Ask for Marriage", "The Meeting at the West Tower", "Beating Pigweed", "The Tale of a Private Affair", and so on, became popular with the audience and have been preserved.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Yan Fengying's artistic career faced a great turning point. During this period, Yan Fengying deleted and added to the repertoire, especially rehearsing new plays such as Jianghan Fishing Song, Mulan's Journey to the Army, Two Big Red Flowers, and Liujinmei's Turning Over, which greatly improved and expanded the level of Huangmei Opera's performances, artistic specifications, and the field of subject matter.
At the end of 1955, the film "The Pairing of Heavenly Immortals," written by Sang Arc and directed by Shi Wan, starring Yan Fengying and Wang Shaofang, was completed. During this period, I don't know how many people watched the movie over and over again, I don't know how many people were attracted by the plot of the movie, I don't know how many people were attracted by the excellent performance of Yan Fengying and Wang Shaofang. ......It can be said that the staging of the movie "The Match of Heavenly Immortals" set off the "Huangmei Opera Fever" and "Yan Fengying and Wang Shaofang's outstanding performance. It can be said that the staging of "The Match of Heavenly Immortals" created "Huangmei Opera Fever" and "Yan Fengying Fever" in China. Yan Fengying, who was in her twenties, instantly became a performing artist beloved by hundreds of millions of people.
After "The Match of Heavenly Immortals", Yan Fengying starred in "Female extra horse harnessed by the side of a team" and "The Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden", which were also made into films, which were shown both at home and abroad, and which played a good role in spreading the Yellow Plum Opera. During the "Cultural Revolution", Yan Fengying was subjected to wanton insults and physical destruction. She could not stand the unwarranted attacks, refused to give in to the evil persecution, on April 8, 1968, 37-year-old Yan Fengying took medicine to kill herself.
After the Cultural Revolution, people remembered the artist who died young, and in her hometown of Anqing, molded the alabaster statue of Yan Fengying, so that the beautiful, kind-hearted "nymphs" will remain on earth forever.
Thankfully, after ten years of catastrophe, Huangmei Opera has not declined and died out, but has been spreading at home and abroad with a stronger momentum. In the new period of reform and opening up, Huangmei Opera has made great progress in terms of talents, repertoire and performance style.
Huangmei opera talents continue to emerge. Older artists such as Wang Shaofang are still active on the stage, while a large number of newcomers such as Malan, Wu Qiong, Han Zaifen, Chen Xiaofang, Jiang Lina, Ma Zijun, Huang Xinde, Wu Yaling, Jiang Jianguo, Zhou Li, Chen Zhaoshun, Yang Jun, Zhang Hui, Liu Hong and so on have quickly become the backbone of the stage. At the same time, Huangmei Opera staged a large number of new plays with novel ideas and clear themes, such as Dream of the Red Mansion, Yu Laoshi and Zhang Ernu, Ke Laoshi Joining the Party, Unfinished Love, Double Downhill, Split Coffin Dream, Jade Shattered at the Pearl Gate, The Dragon Lady, The Book of the Roppas, Xishi, Zhu Xi and Lianiang, Rain and Storm, Cold and Smiling Causes, and so on, at the same time as it was organizing the traditional scripts. Among them, the most influential are "Dream of the Red Chamber", "The Swing Frame" and "Women of Huizhou".
"Dream of the Red Chamber" is a new play launched by Anhui Huangmei Opera Theater in 1991. This "Dream of Red Mansions" is different from previous performances in that it does not follow the stereotype of the romantic marital entanglements of Baoyu, Daiyu, and Baochai, but takes Baoyu's personal situation as its main line, exposing the evils of the feudal system and advocating the inevitability of individuality and liberation. Malan is a Dan actor, but this time she changed her attitude to play Jia Baoyu. Her performance as a young actor in the role of Jia Baoyu brought Malan's art to a new peak. "I don't think there has ever been a Dream of Red Mansions of higher taste than this book," according to Ma Ke, the director of the play. "As we approached the rehearsal, I wrote more than forty lines of lyrics overnight for the scene of Baoyu's weeping," and "the composer immediately composed the music." ...... The performance of A Dream of Red Mansions took Huangmei Opera to the next level
What drew attention and was controversial was Malan's release of "The Swing Frame" and Han Zai-fen's "Women of Huizhou" in the late 1990s.
The Swing Frame is a play tailor-made by the famous scholar Yu Qiuyu for her wife, the Huangmei opera artist Malan. It is a legendary story that draws on the ancient Chinese imperial examinations, saying that Chu Yun, a talented woman, disguised as a man, took the imperial examinations and won the first prize after repeated attempts. The emperor decided to marry his daughter to Chu Yun, Chu Yun is helpless, another talented man Qianxun broke into the palace to save. Chien Hsun and Chu Yun are sentenced to death for the crime of deceiving the emperor. In the face of death, Chien-hsuan and Chu-yun hold an engagement ceremony. This touches the originally angry princess, and the three young people exchange heartfelt words and embrace each other tightly, and the matter ends in a comedy. In this story, the imperial examination becomes a child's play, it is only the handrail of the story, the story points to a symbolic swing frame.
When "The Swing Stand" appeared, people inside and outside the industry paid warm attention to it. Applauding and criticizing went hand in hand.
Anhui theater theorist Wang Changan wrote an article praising "The Swinging Frame," saying:
The feudal imperial examination system is the sorrow of China's old culture. It stifles nature, suffocates life and buries human creativity. However, as a result of the imperial examination, countless students, with their heads in their hands, grind through iron inkstones to take the examination, are left with no choice but to "do what they have to do". This inevitably leads to the great contradiction between the rosy life and the rigidity of reality. Chu Yun, a woman who is used to swinging, feels the beauty of life and the value of freedom under the swing frame, and feels the significance of independent floating. And all this must be obtained by "playing". Only "play", people really become themselves, become a symbol of the ideal personality, transcendent "immortal".
So she used "play" to complete the countryside examination on behalf of her father. Thus, what she got was not the satisfaction of success and the joy of honor, but the pleasure of playing itself, and the sweetness of freedom. It turns out that all seemingly sacred things can be treated in a naughty way. When she and Qianxun private life, she gave her lover's token is not a jade pendant, not sweat scarf, not poetry, but a grasshopper. This is her concern for life, a remnant of her nature. She not only hopes that she, but also her beloved, in this human desire, ritual cannibalism in the society to save some more nature, to leave themselves even a piece of space in the cage. And this freedom and nature can not be obtained by restoring the rites, on the paradigm of orthodox culture. It can only be earned by playing and releasing one's nature.
A swing, swinging to a helpless choice; a joke, showing the joy of an autonomous sinking and floating. The contradiction between nature and orthodox culture will exist for a long time. The progress of human civilization will eventually provide us with more diversified choices to achieve the unity of dissipation and joy, and will inevitably replace the mountainization of nature with the socialization of nature.
"The Swinging Frame" weaves a fairy tale; "The Swinging Frame" displays a fable; "The Swinging Frame" allows us to view the world with a different set of senses, and to savor the past with a different state of mind.......
Xie Xizhang, a senior literary critic of the Beijing Evening News, dissected and criticized the play, stating that
The experience of human life is reduced to "swinging on the swing" whether it is appropriate or not to be argued, and if only to express such a little meaning, Professor Yu Qiuyu wrote an essay will be enough, there is no need to labor to engage in a big play. Since it is a play, what is presented on the stage should be much more important than the ideas it is meant to illustrate. The modernization of opera has been explored for many years, and it is a very important fact that the way out of opera never lies in the modern interpretation of traditional texts.
The fact that Malan is not well represented in the play is largely due to the undue prominence of the unsympathetic Yu Qiuyu in the foreground. The front of the culture that should be the background often makes the things presented on the stage show some kind of wandering and embarrassment. For example, on the night of the wedding, a young lady and a princess talk about "what is a woman", and a pair of young men and women who love each other talk about the value of life on the execution ground, and then stage a scene of "wedding on the execution ground", this kind of modern interpretation of the traditional text obviously carries a kind of subjective arbitrariness. This modern interpretation of the traditional text, obviously with a subjective arbitrariness, is very difficult to get the audience to agree with the opera, and even destroy the rationality of the narrative.
Unlike "The Swing Frame," "Huizhou Woman," performed by the Anqing Huangmei Opera Troupe, is a completely different style. Huizhou Woman" is starred by Huangmei Opera artist Han Zafen. Through the four processes of a woman's "marrying", "hoping", "chanting", and "returning", the story expresses The story shows the tragedy of a woman's life at the bottom of the feudal society. Prints like stage art, innovative directing techniques, Han Zai-fen's excellent performance, so that the "Huizhou Women" a traditional Huangmei opera against the small, clever, light, joyful and other styles, instead of deep, gravity, tears, enlightenment, with a strong artistic shock. Critic Tangyue to "high and low may not be" as the title, in the "Theatre and Film Newspaper - Pear Weekly" wrote an article, he said:
Huangmei Opera stage protagonist position was originally occupied by the "small family", and the "Huizhou woman" in the Huangmei Opera characters gallery to grandly introduce a "big girl", "the big girl". "big girl". Small family is light and beautiful, frank and lively, and popular opera nature has a lot in common. The dignity of the lady of the house is a different kind of scenery, which is no different from that of the "Little House". However, in the image of dignified and respectful, there are a few more connotations, and that would be an enhancement of taste. The woman of Huizhou can be called a woman of rich connotation, whose long life extends slowly in the progress of the plot, which is as light as water and fluctuating as a cloud, and contains a profound experience of loneliness and confusion, an incisive interpretation of love without hate and resentment without remorse, and a relentless pursuit of the belief in life and the value of life, which erupts into a strong and deep human power.
Criticisms of Huizhou Woman have centered on the fact that the play is like a "drama" and has downplayed the essence of "drama", i.e., "acting out the story with songs and dances". Especially in the last scene of the play, the main characters did not even sing a single line, and it is incomprehensible that the cast and crew specifically "did not arrange a single line to sing" to self-appreciation. This is obviously contrary to the ontological aesthetics of opera, which is "no sound, no song, no movement, no dance". People can say, "Huizhou Woman" is a good opera, but it is difficult to say "Huizhou Woman" is a good Huangmei opera." Because it is not opera if you don't sing, and it is not Huangmei opera if you don't sing Huangmei tunes, which is a fixed and irrevocable basic characteristic.
Of course, the flaws do not cover up the good, people, including those who have criticized the overall "score" of "Huizhou Women" are not low.
Like many opera genres, the survival and development of Huangmei Opera is facing many difficulties in the new century. Like the troupe restructuring, repertoire inheritance and innovation, the cultivation of young talent, the development of the opera market and the development of the loss of famous talent and protection of many issues need to be resolved. Create a better tomorrow, Huangmei Opera still has a lot of work to do.
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