Encyclopedia of Opera | How did the stage names of the opera actors come about? Born in the class, taken from the characters of the good play, the audience reputation inherits the name of the teacher, to follow the genre on the stage of the old children, to commemorate the middle of the sea, from the original line of the image is clear, the first to win people

The actor's stage name is often the image embodiment of his artistic style and performance characteristics, and the popularity of the stage name in the majority of theatrical audience is directly proportional to the actor's acting. For the origin of the stage name, it is naturally not surprising in the opera industry, but it is not known much in the outside world. It is understood and collected, which can be roughly divided into the following categories:

In the past, actors learned art from teachers, and often had to choose a stage name by the master. This kind of stage name is arranged according to the generation of characters, and the students who study art in the same period are called the first generation, and their format is "surname + character generation + other characters". The "surname" is still the original surname of each person; the middle one is a character of the generation, fixed and unchanged; the latter word is freely selected. For example, the Peking Opera class "Fu Liansheng" is like this, the "rich character generation" has Ma Fulu, Tan Fuying, etc., the "ligature generation" has Ma Lianliang, Liu Lianrong, etc., and the "Sheng zi generation" has Ye Shenglan and Gao Shenglin. Its characters are "joy, wealth, connection, sheng, world, yuan, rhyme".

Actors from the class, in the way of selecting stage names in a unified ranking of characters, are almost all over the major dramas. For example, in the Yue opera of eastern Zhejiang, the students of the Dongshan Yue Art Society who taught Fan Ruijuan and Fu Quanxiang used "dong" as the character, including Zhang Dongjuan and Zhang Dongzhen. The same is true of the Kunqu opera community, such as the Kunqu Opera Transmission Institute run by Mu Rongchu before the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the students use "chuan" as the word. Zhou Chuanying, who played the role of Guan Zhong in the famous Kun opera "Fifteen Guan", and Wang Chuansong, who played Lou A rat, and hua Chuanhao, who often performed with Yu Zhenfei, were born as "Chuanzi Generation".

This type of stage name is the audience's reputation for the actor's good play, usually named after the characters in the play that the actor is good at playing. For example, as mentioned above, Jiangnan Huowu Songgai is called Tian, and Ye Shenglan in the Peking Opera circle is known as "Living Zhou Yu", Xiao Changhua is praised as "Living Jiang Gan", Tan Fuying is praised as "Living Lusu", and Ma Lianliang is praised as "Living Kong Ming". The famous Qin actor Wang Bingzhong is known as "Living Zhao Yun" and Tian Yutang is known as "Living Wu King". This kind of stage name is actually a high evaluation of the actor's artistic personality and acting skills, and is a nickname of honor. Those who have this honor in the audience have become the listed characters of the troupe.

The genre of the opera industry refers to the opera genre formed by similar or similar actors in the creative style, artistic tendency and good role of the performing arts in a certain historical period, they are an artistic echelon of the upper masters and the next new talents, and some are often from the same family. Their stage names have a strong inheriting grandmaster color, usually preceded by the word "small" in front of the stage names of their predecessors.

For example, Tan Zhidao's stage name is "Tan Called Heaven", and his son Tan Xinpei is called "Little Called Heaven"; monkey opera artist Zheng Changtai's stage name is "Sai Huo Monkey", and his son Zheng Faxiang is called "Little Living Monkey"; Gai is called Zhang Jianhong, the son of Heaven, who is known as "Xiao Gai Called Heaven"; Zhang Zongyi, a famous Zhejiang Opera actor and actor of Sun Wukong in "Sun Wukong Three Dozen White Bone Essence", is known as "Six-Year-Old Boy", also known as "Contemporary Monkey King", and his son also loves monkey play, tempers bones, and is highly skilled, with the stage name "Little Six-Year-Old Child". Another example is the descendant of the famous actor Chang Xiangyu of Yu opera, whose stage name is "Xiao Xiangyu".

Some stage names come from admiration and patriarchal masters. Such as Peking Opera actor Sun Yu? The stage name Xiao Zhenting is from Wusheng Yu Zhenting; the stage name of the critic Li Zaiwen is Xiao Bai Yushuang, who is from the senior actor Xiao Bai Yushuang; the stage name of the old Shanghai opera actor Xiao Wenbin is from Zhang Wenbin.

Some stage names are named according to the age of the actor in the year when he officially appeared on stage, which is of commemorative significance. Actors often learn the age of art is relatively small, so most of these stage names are children's age titles, which seem naïve and amiable. For example, Zhou Xinfang, a Peking Opera performance artist, began acting at the age of seven, and was just a fledgling and had extraordinary skills, so he was named "Seven-year-old Boy", and later changed to "Qilin Boy". Coincidentally, Zhang Zongxin, a famous actor in Zhejiang Shao opera, is also a seven-year-old actor, and his stage name is also called "Seven-year-old Child", and his role in "Sun Wukong Three Dozen White Bone Essences" won the audience's high praise. The "six-year-old child" who played Sun Wukong mentioned earlier naturally began acting at the age of six. Among the famous actors of Shao opera is also a thirteen-year-old actor Wang Zhenfang, whose stage name is "thirteen-year-old child", and the image of Yu Qian he played in the play "Yu Qian" was once well-known in Beijing and Shanghai.

Some actors are not from the class, but halfway to the sea, and their stage names often come from the original industry. For example, Liu Lijie, a famous actor in the Qin Cavity, was originally a carpenter, and was called "carpenter red" after his acting became famous; Kang Zhengxu was originally a cabbage trader, and was called "cabbage red" after becoming famous.

Some stage names vividly summarize the actor's distinct stage image and superb acting skills. For example, in the early Qing Dynasty, Qi Caifen, a famous actor in Shanxi Yizi, was known as "Floating on the Water", which used "Floating on the Water" as a metaphor for the beauty of her flexible and relaxed stage movements and free stretching. Shandong wuyin actor Deng Hongshan is good at playing the beautiful and moving Hua Dan, pouring the audience, and the stage name is "fresh cherry". In addition, such as the cantonese opera actor Kwong Jianlian's stage name "Red Line Woman", and the Chinese opera actress Chen Bohua's stage name "Little Peony Flower", etc., are all artistic summaries of the audience's beautiful stage image, giving people a deep impression.

There are various reasons for the origin of the stage name, but there is a basic point, that is, it is all related to the actor's stage performance career, which is the case in the six cases listed above. Life is complicated, and some actors have stage names that do not come from the stage, but from offstage. For example, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was a Zhixian named Dekejin, who was usually informal, and a person surnamed Wang ridiculed him, saying that he was not an official material, but only worthy of acting. Later, When Dekkin was impeached and removed from his post by his superiors, he turned to studying drama and performed in Shanghai for a long time. In order not to forget the ridicule of the person with the surname Wang, he specially took the stage name "Wang Xiaonong" to encourage himself. He can choreograph and act, according to the characteristics of his voice, absorb the singing methods of the famous Peking opera masters Wang Guifen and Sun Juxian at that time, and create a new style and become a school of his own. The new plays compiled, such as "Bolang Vertebrae" and "Weeping Ancestral Temple", were quite influential at that time.

Take another stage name from offstage. Niu Decao, who played the seven sesame officials in the Henan Yu opera "Tang Zhi County Trial Commandment", was originally named Niu Junguo. The clown art he played in his youth was quite distinctive, and at that time, there was a poor old Confucian named Li Chunfang in Kaifeng, who loved to listen to the cow's play, and the cow also respected him. Once, Niu Junguo said to the old man: "Everyone says that my name is very inconsistent with the clown industry, can you help me get another one?" Mr. Li thought about it and said: "Some people with the surname Hou are called Hou Deshan, monkeys can climb the mountain; those with the surname Yu are called Yu Deshui, and fish with the surname Zhu can swim freely; there are those with the surname Zhu called Zhu Deshan, and pigs with chaff can be strong." Since your surname is cow, why don't you call the cow grass? The cow has grass, the weight is strong, and the tenacity is infinite! Niu Junguo was very happy to hear it. Since then, the stage name of Niu Decao has spread among the audience of Yu opera.

The stage name was once a cultural landscape in the Chinese performing arts industry, which fully embodies the aesthetic pursuit and audience taste of the stage art and performing arts market. But I don't know when it began, the stage name has been forgotten and unfamiliar. The movie stars, singers, and celebrities in the show business that we know today can hardly find their stage names anymore. Although there are also "four kings" and "super female voices" and the like, it is not a stage name. The lack of stage names can be said to be, in a sense, the lack of aesthetic character of performing arts culture. Isn't the phenomenon of the absence of a stage name worth pondering?