I. The origin of the opera
Flower Drum Opera is the most famous opera in Hunan Province, originating from local folk songs and gradually developing into the primary form of Flower Drum Opera, which is sung by one clown. Qing Jiaqing 23 years (1818) published "Liuyang County Zhi" about the local Lantern Festival to play the Dragon Lantern situation, said: "and to children dressed in clowns and Dan opera singing, drums and drums, since the beginning of the night until the night stops". That once a clown sings the flower drum opera - ground flower drums, at the latest in the Qing Jiaqing period has been formed. According to Yang Enshou "Tanyuan diary" in the first year of the Qing dynasty Tongzhi (1862), Yang Enshou in Hunan Yongxing to watch the "Flower Drums" (i.e., Flower Drum Opera), there have been four roles of the scholar, the boy, Liu Ying, Liu Ying maidservant, and the plot and performance is more vivid, indicating that at this time of the Flower Drum Opera not only has been developed into a "three small" (the little Dan), but also "three small" (the little Dan, the little Dan, the little Dan). Three small" (small Dan, clown, small student) play, and the performance form also has a certain scale. From the sound and repertoire, the initial traditional folk tunes and songs and dance life of the small opera, such as "playing birds", "disk flower", "send cousin", "look at the face" and so on.
Later, the "gong cavity" and the "Sichuan tune" were introduced, and the storytelling folklore plays gradually appeared. The main repertoire of the gong-playing cavity includes "Qingfeng Pavilion", "Lulin Meeting", "Eight Hundred Miles of Dongting", and "Xuemei Teaching Her Son", while the main repertoire of the Chuan tune includes "Liu Hai Playing with a Toad", "Whipping the Reeds", "Zhang Guangda's Birthday", and "Catching the Son on the Road". In this way, it has formed an artistically complete local theater.
Early flower-drum opera, only semi-professional class in the rural areas for seasonal performances, busy farming, agricultural leisure from the arts. Since Guangxu, the development of this class faster, only Ningxiang, Hengyang County, there are dozens of "line box", nearly 200 artists. Training actors to take with the class with the teacher, there are also apprentices to pass on the art, called "teaching field" or "teaching museum", each dozens of days, teaching three or four plays. In the past, due to the frequent discrimination and banning of Hua Drum Opera, Hua Drum Opera classes all over the world used to perform locally popular opera repertoire as cover, and this kind of classes were called "half-taiwan" or "half-opera, half-tongue," "yin and yang classes. ". People's Republic of China **** and the establishment of the country, respectively, around the establishment of professional troupes, into the city theater public performances. According to 1981 statistics, there are 54 flower-drum opera troupes in the province, and set up the Hunan Provincial Flower Drum Opera Theatre. 1957, Hunan Provincial Academy of Fine Arts was established, with a flower-drum opera specialist.
II. Vocal Cavity
The music of Huadu Opera has about 300 tunes, which are basically the structure of the tune, supplemented by the changes of the board. According to the tune structure, musical style and different methods of expression, can be divided into four categories:
1. Chuan tune
Or known as the Palace tune, that is, the stringed tune, the big tube, suona accompaniment, the tune by the over the door phrases and singing phrases composed of rich changes in the tune, the melody, is the main singing of the Flower Drum Opera.
2. Gong playing
Also known as gong cavity, the structure of the song boards, "cavity", "flow" (several boards) combined, not hosting the strings, a person to start the mouth of the crowd to help and, such as the high cavity, is the Changsha, Yueyang, Changde, one of the main singing of Flower Drum Opera.
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3. Pai Zi
Pai Zi, there are walking and gongs and drums, originating from the folk songs of southern Hunan, accompanied by small suona and gongs and drums, it is lively and light, suitable for singing and dancing, and it is one of the main singing voices of all the genres in southern Hunan.
4. Minor Tunes
There are minor tunes of folk songs and minor tunes of silk strings, the latter of which belong to the Minor Tunes system of Ming and Qing Dynasties, but have been localized. Various forms of tunes are characterized by roughness and crispness.
Three. Characters
Hunan Flower Drum Opera, although the later development of the Sheng, Dan, Jingsheng, clowns, but Dan, Sheng, clowns still occupy a major position, the performance of a rich flavor of life, but also pay attention to the continuous absorption of traditional performance techniques, such as Yueyang Flower Drum Opera directly from the Baling Opera borrowed from the traditional theater of the robes and belts, plumes, fins, fan, the official clothes, cap, mustaches, handles, and pouncing, falling, flipping, The performance techniques such as beating, etc. are used for characterization and plotting to enrich the expressive power of the flower-drum opera genre.
The performing art of Flower Drum Opera is simple, bright and lively, and the performances of clowns, young dancers and young scholars are still the most characteristic. The clowns are exaggerated and funny, the little dan is cheerful and spirited, and the little student is free and easy. The footwork and stances were rich, and the performers were good at using fans and handkerchiefs, and had various programs to express rural life, such as rowing boats, picking burdens, pounding pestles and pestles, chopping firewood, playing irons, playing cannons, grinding tofu, touching mudskippers, flying kites, catching butterflies, and so on. In the later period, due to the development of the repertoire, the performing arts were also enriched, such as absorbing some of the blankets and handles of the brotherhood, and enriching the martial arts performances.
The division of labor in the Flower Drum Opera is also more detailed, not only by the "three small" to the development of the student, the Dan, the purity, and the ugly, but also in the "three small" there is a more detailed division of labor. Taking Changsha Flower Drum Opera as an example, the clowns are divided into pleated clowns, short-bodied clowns, official-clothed clowns, rotten cloth clowns, and milk-sheng clowns; the small dan is divided into Zhengdan, Erdan, Huadan, and Boudoumendan; and the small sheng is divided into Zhengxiao Sheng, Fenliu Xiao Sheng, Wuxia Xiao Sheng, Rotten Cloth Xiao Sheng, Milk Sheng Zi, and so on. In the long-term artistic practice, the flower-drum opera in each place have some famous actors, now there are Changsha's He Dongbao (ugly), Xiangtan's Liao Chunshan (Dan), Shaoyang's Wang Yousheng (old Dan), Taoyuan's Zhang Shusheng (Sheng), Yueyang's Yang Bocheng (ugly), Hengyang's Zhang Tingyu (Xiaosheng) and so on.
III. Classification of Schools
Hunan Flower Drum Opera is divided into Changsha Flower Drum Opera (Yiyang Flower Drum Opera), Yueyang Flower Drum Opera (Linxiang Flower Drum Opera), Changde Flower Drum Opera, and Hengyang Flower Drum Opera due to the differences in regional voices as well as folkloric sounds. They all use Changsha dialect as the unified stage language, and each has its own representative repertoire and musical sound.
Four. Traditional repertoire
The traditional repertoire of Hunan Flower Drum Opera, totaling more than 400 plays, mainly reflects folk life, mostly based on production and labor, love between men and women, or family conflicts, with vivid language and a strong sense of local flavor. 1949, the art of Flower Drum Opera had a great development, not only finishing the traditional plays such as Liu Hai Chopping Woodcutting and Fighting Birds, but also creating Double Delivery of Grain, Busy Aunt and Sister-in-law, many modern plays such as San Li Wan, and Bird Hitting, Sanliwan" and many other modern operas. And "playing gong", "mending pot", "delivery road", "wild duck continent" and so on have been made into a movie.
After the liberation, under the guidance of the Party's literature and art policy, Hunan Flower Drum Opera, under the efforts of old artists and new literature and art workers***, has excavated, collated and adapted a lot of traditional repertoire, among which the ones that have a greater impact on the whole country are Liu Hai Chopping Woodcutter and Liu Hai Playing the Golden Toad, etc.
Hunan Flower Drum Opera is one of the most famous opera of China.