Stills from the Huangmei Opera movie "Tianxian Pei" in the 50s of the 20th century, performers (from left): Wang Shaofang, Yan Fengying, Zhang Yunfeng. Profile picture
"The Female Horse" is a classic repertoire of Huangmei Opera, often performed and new, and the picture shows stills from Han Zaifen's version of "The Female Horse". Profile picture
As one of the "five major operas" in the mainland, Huangmei Opera is close to the aesthetic taste of ordinary people in terms of content and form, especially its melody is not only beautiful and pleasant, but also approachable. In September 1954, "Tianxian Pei" participated in the East China Opera Observation and Performance Conference, which caused a sensation throughout the country, and Huangmei Opera became a household name. The reason why Huangmei Opera, known as "Chinese country music", is deeply loved by the people is precisely because it is deeply rooted in the masses.
At one time, it broke through geographical restrictions and went to home and abroad
Local operas are generally popular in the birthplace, but Huangmei opera has already broken through geographical restrictions, with "Tianxian Pei", "The Female Concubine", "Luo Pa Ji" and other repertoire, it has produced waves of great influence at home and abroad, with hundreds of troupes and hundreds of millions of audiences.
Especially in the decade after 1954, the development of Huangmei Opera can be described as "full of flowers". Not only Anhui and nearby provinces Hubei, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Jiangsu have established many Huangmei Drama Troupes, but even some places as far away as Jilin in Northeast China have also established Huangmei Drama Troupes. Not only did the mainland people like to watch Huangmei Opera, but by the late fifties, Huangmei Opera was popular in Hong Kong, Taiwan and even spread to the whole of Southeast Asia. What's even more amazing is that the film industry in Hong Kong and Taiwan has created a new film genre called "Huangmei Tune", which occupies an important position in the history of Chinese cinema.
In the eighties and nineties after the reform and opening up, Huangmei Opera continued to produce dramas, not only new plays on the stage, but also excellent Huangmei Opera movies and television works. During this period, the old artists were rejuvenated, and the new generation of actors was trained by specialized art academies to form a new force. New and old artists have jointly created and performed "Dragon Girl", "Female Painter in the Wind and Dust", "Much Ado About Nothing", "Wind and Rain Beauty", "Dream of Red Mansions", "Huizhou Woman" and other plays that have had a positive and huge impact on the country, and these repertoire have cultivated famous actors such as Han Zaifen, "Five Golden Flowers" (Ma Lan, Wu Qiong, Wu Yaling, Yuan Mei, Yang Jun), Huang Xinde, Zhang Hui and so on. Huangmei opera movies such as "The Cuckoo Girl", "Dragon Girl", "Zhumen Jade Broken", "Queqiao Couple", "Hui Shang Love", etc., and Huangmei Opera TV series such as "The Story of Double Lotus", "Newlywed", "Zheng Xiaojiao", etc., are very popular. Whenever some Huangmei Opera TV series are broadcast, they can really be described as "empty alleys". The spread of Huangmei Opera has left a strong mark in the history of Chinese opera.
Old classics are still popular, and new masterpieces are yet to be developed
Since the beginning of the new century, the Huangmei opera industry has continued to adapt to the new environment and carried out arduous explorations, and some new repertoire has achieved great social and economic benefits; at the same time, the classic repertoire is still loved by new and old opera fans in the new communication environment.
Among the newly created repertoire, there are works such as "Xiao Qiao's First Marriage", "Xue Langgui", "Half Moon", "Doll Wants to Cross the River", "Duck Sister-in-law", "Once Upon a Time in Huizhou" and other works, which have had a certain impact on the opera industry. For example, the original Huangmei Opera "The Past of Huizhou", which took 6 years to create, depicts the regional culture of Huizhou in rich ink and color, the melody is close to the tradition while absorbing modern elements, and the melody not only maintains the charm of Huangmei Opera but also adds a sense of modernity. Since its launch at the end of 2012, the play has toured more than 100 performances across the country, and has been recognized by experts and audiences, and the starring Han Zaifen also won her second "Plum Blossom Award".
However, looking at these new repertoire, there has never been a work that can surpass the "Old Three" of Huangmei Opera, "Tianxian Pei", "The Female Concubine" and "The Legend of Luopa" and become new classics. At the grassroots level, these three old dramas are the must-perform repertoire of all theater troupes, and even if they are performed every day, they will be watched every day. It is particularly noteworthy that these plays are not only the favorite of old theater fans, but also attract the attention of young people today. Some troupes have staged excerpts of these operas on short video platforms, gaining more than one million fans in a short period of time. "Old Three Articles" is still the work that people will think of when they talk about Huangmei Opera.
The fundamental reason why these works have been able to endure the long river of time and gain the love of several generations is that they are close to the aesthetic tastes of ordinary people and have a deep mass base. On the one hand, most of these opera stories are born from folklore and legends, reflecting the living conditions of ordinary people, reflecting their value judgments of good and evil, loyalty and treachery, which are very easy for ordinary audiences to understand; on the other hand, the singing design of these repertoire is simple, natural, beautiful and soft, infectious and easy to sing, and is widely popular among the people.
In addition, Huangmei Opera has always maintained a flourishing creative and development trend in the 50s and 60s and 80s of the 20th century, which is related to the good ecological environment of Chinese opera at that time. Especially after the 80s of the 20th century, Anhui Province, the birthplace of Huangmei Opera, has built Huangmei Opera as a business card of the province, and has taken a variety of effective measures in talent training, repertoire creation and performance, and theater and troupe construction. Hubei Province, the place where the basic tunes of Huangmei Opera are abused, has put forward the strategy of "inviting Huangmei Opera back to its parents' home" and continues to promote it. At present, we need to strengthen the creation of Huangmei Opera, and further develop new masterpieces while inheriting the classic repertoire.
Cultivating local talents and strengthening the creation of small dramas
Huangmei Opera originated from the folk, and its vitality is still among the folk. In order to create a masterpiece that can be "spread" and "retained", Huangmei Opera still needs to be deeply rooted in the grassroots and continue to grow among the masses.
First, it is necessary to cultivate local playwrights and composers who are familiar with the culture of the region to promote the creation of repertoire. If opera is the crystallization of the entire Chinese culture, then local opera is the crystallization of local culture. As mentioned above, the reason why Huangmei Opera in the 50s and 60s and 80s of the 20th century was frequently produced was closely related to the fact that there were a large number of playwright talents who were familiar with the regional culture centered on Anqing and had been cultivated in the artistic atmosphere of Huangmei Opera for a long time, as well as composers who had a deep study of Qingyang dialect, Yuexi high dialect, Anqing and Huanggang folk songs, and understood the musical characteristics of the three major dialect systems. On the one hand, it is urgent to carry out a long-term and overall layout and implement a talent training plan, and on the other hand, it is also possible to select young people who are familiar with regional culture, love Huangmei Opera and have a relatively solid literary foundation, potential creative talent and high musical attainments through the form of training courses, or discover screenwriters and composers through the Huangmei Opera script and Huangmei Opera song writing competition.
The second is to create a number of repertoire that fully demonstrates the style of Huangmei drama. The style of Huangmei Opera is lyrical, romantic, and poetic, and the successful repertoire prominently demonstrates such a style in terms of storyline, characters, music, singing, and scene atmosphere. As the playwright Jin Zhi said: "In the repertoire of Huangmei Opera, if you can't smell the fragrance of the earth, feel the breath of life, hear the melodious pastoral songs, can't see the humor of wisdom, don't wander in the stream of emotion, bathe in the poetic breeze, and can't appreciate the youthful demeanor of the actors, then it is a problem that is not in the right way in art." "In the innovative creation of repertoire, we should always adhere to the traditional style of lyricism, romance and poetry that has been highly recognized by people.
The third is to work the creation of small dramas. Huangmei opera originated from folk operas, and at the beginning it was mostly the "three small plays" of Xiaosheng, Xiaodan, and clowns, and there was a saying that "seventy-two small operas and thirty-six big operas". In fact, small dramas are not necessarily "small", in terms of the popularity of the audience, the economic cost and convenience of the performance, and the breadth of influence of excellent plays, they are not inferior to many big plays. Huangmei opera is the closest to the people, and it is necessary to strengthen the creation of small operas, and change the situation that artistic creation has long focused on big operas since the great success of "Tianxian Pei" and "The Female Concubine". At the same time, it is necessary to inject the spirit of the times into traditional dramas. In this regard, in recent years, the small theater Huangmei Opera "Jade Tianxian" has been successfully explored. Although the play tells the well-known story of Zhu Maichen's divorce of his wife, the image of his wife Yu Tianxian is very different from the previous historical records, folklore, and opera narratives. The choreographer described the misfortune of her life with an attitude of sympathy for her, combined traditional stories with hot topics in current society, and aroused the audience's thinking about marriage, family, life, circumstances and many other issues.
In addition, it is also necessary to pay attention to the basic training of performing talents, so that there will be successors to Huangmei Opera. Even if a play has a first-class script, first-class composition, first-class choreography, and first-class director, it is difficult to have first-class artistic presentation without first-class actors. It is necessary to encourage gifted students to enter Huangmei opera professional colleges and universities for systematic study from childhood and adolescence. It is necessary to speed up the training and growth of young actors through the inheritance and practice of classic repertoire, create leading figures in Huangmei Opera, and give full play to the leading and driving role of leading figures in the innovation and development of opera.
In short, Huangmei Opera, which has a deep mass foundation, has accumulated thousands of repertoire, and has formed a distinctive artistic style, as long as it follows its own development laws, is deeply rooted in the grassroots, and always thinks of the aesthetic needs of the people, it will definitely usher in another vibrant spring.
Source: Guangming Daily
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