Where did Huangmei Opera originate?

Huangmei Opera originated from the tea-collecting tunes of the Huangmei area at the junction of Hubei, Anhui and Jiangxi provinces. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, it was introduced into the neighboring areas of Anhui Province, such as Huaining County, combined with local folk art, and sang and recited in the Anqing dialect, and gradually developed into a new opera genre. At one time, it was called "Huai Cavity" and "Anhui Opera".

Huangmei Opera, formerly known as Huangmei Tune or Caicha Opera, is one of the five major Chinese opera genres. It is also one of the four outstanding opera genres of Anhui, along with Anhui Opera, Lu Opera and Sizhou Opera.

Huangmei Opera has a simple and fluent singing style, and is characterized by bright lyricism and rich expressiveness. The performance is simple and meticulous, known for its authenticity and liveliness. It has become an important means of interpretation and dissemination of traditional Chinese culture

On May 20, 2006, Huangmei Opera was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. It is distributed throughout China with Anqing as the center.

Basic introduction

Huangmei OperaHuangmei Opera is a major local opera genre in Anhui Province. There are also professional or amateur performing groups of Huangmei Opera in Hubei, Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Taiwan and other provinces, as well as in Hong Kong, which are widely popular. Huangmei Opera, originally known as "Huangmei Tune", is a folk opera formed in the late 18th century in the adjoining areas of Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi Provinces. One of them gradually moved eastward to the Anqing area centered on the city of Anqing in Anhui Province, and combined with local folk art, sang and spoke in the local language, forming its own characteristics, known as "Huai Cavity" or "Huangmei Tune". This is the predecessor of today's Huangmei Opera. In the Republic of China in 10 years (1921) published in the "Su Song County Records", for the first time officially put forward the "Huangmei opera" this name.

Huangmei opera originated in the Song Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty, and flourished in the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, especially in the Republic of China. In the circulation of the customary called "small tune" "Cai Zi" "Mei Zi cavity" and so on. Plum opera yellow song is not only pleasant and intriguing, but also has a strong cultural background. Most of the stories are based on the theme of educating the world. For example: typical characters 'Chen Shimei', 'Pan Jinlian', 'Wu Song', 'Zhuge Liang', Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai and so on. It y exposes the ugly side of human nature and the oppression of the people under the feudal system, as well as the heroism and love of children in the Three Kingdoms period. At the same time, it also praises the beautiful love in ancient times and fully expresses the people's yearning for a better life.

Huangmei Opera has a repertoire of thirty-six major plays and seventy-two minor plays. The main performance of the opera was the people's dissatisfaction with the reality of class oppression, disparity between the rich and the poor and the desire for a better life. For example, "Buckwheat", "Sue the grain official", "Tianxian Match", etc. Most of the small plays are about rural laborers. Most of the small plays show the life of rural laborers, such as "point barley", "spinning cotton yarn", "selling bucket".

After the liberation, a number of large and small traditional plays such as "The Match of Heavenly Fairies", "Female Emperor's Son-in-law", "The Story of Luo Pa", "Zhao Guiying", "Tears of a Compassionate Mother" and "Three Searches for the Abbot's Mansion" were arranged and adapted, and the mythological play "Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden", the historical play "Losing the Punishment and Chopping Off the Head", and the modern plays "Spring Flowers Blossom", "Spring Morning in a Small Shop" and "The Beginning of Bei Lei" were created. Among them, "The Match of Heavenly Fairies", "Female Emperor's Son-in-law" and "The Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden" were successively put on the screen, which had a great influence at home and abroad. Yan Fengying, Wang Shaofang, Wu Qiong and Malan are famous actors of Huangmei Opera.

Huangmei Opera has become a famous type of opera loved by audiences all over China. Huangmei Opera has a history of more than two hundred years. In the early days, it was called Huangmei Tune and was a folk art of "singing and enjoying oneself".

History

The origin of Huangmei Opera can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty. According to historical records, as early as the Tang Dynasty, Huangmei tea songs were very popular, through the development of folk songs in the Song Dynasty, the influence of Yuan Dynasty opera, and gradually formed the prototype of folk opera. To the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Huangmei County theater more prevalent. Ming Chongzhen years, Huangmei County Governor Zeng Weilun in the "Huangmei Wind Education" in the "October for the countryside theater" account. Qing Daoguang nine years, in the Bei Jilin's "ask the flower of the Water Parlor Poetry Collection", a bamboo stick lyrics description is more vivid: "cloudy mountain rice fungus more, too white lake fishing wave. About this year to honor the master of the society, the village sings tea-picking songs.

About the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty to the Xinhai Revolution before and after the development of Huangmei Opera for the early Huangmei Opera version of the "Liangzhu". Huangmei Opera was originally known as "Huangmei tune" or "picking tea opera", is the late eighteenth century in Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces adjacent to the formation of a folk opera. One of them gradually moved eastward to the Anqing area centered on Huaining County in Anhui Province, and combined with local folk art, sang and spoke in the local language, forming its own characteristics, which was called "Huai Cavity" or "Huai Tune". This is the predecessor of today's Huangmei Opera. From its origin to its development, Huangmei Opera has gone through 4 historical stages, namely, one-act play, three small plays, three strikes and seven songs, and orchestral accompaniment. The first 3 stages were completed in Huangmei, Hubei, which provided sufficient prerequisites for the final formation of Huangmei Opera. From the Kangxi and Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty to the Guangxu period, it is an important historical stage for the formation and development of "three dozen and seven songs". This stage of the comprehensive practice of the traditional repertoire, singing, performing arts accumulation and the wide dissemination of the play, during the traditional repertoire is very rich, artists can perform the play, the play has more than 200, commonly known as "the big book of thirty-six, seventy-two small song". Among them, many of them are based on the real life stories of Huangmei, such as "Sue Jingcheng", "Sue Dam Fei", "The Great Resignation Shop", "Crossing the Boundary Ridge" and so on. In terms of repertoire, it is called "36 big plays and 72 small plays". The big plays mainly expressed the people's dissatisfaction with the realities of class oppression, disparity between the rich and the poor, and their yearning for a free and beautiful life. For example, "Buckwheat", "Sue the grain official", "Tianxian Match", etc. Most of the small plays are about rural laborers. Most of the small plays show the life of rural laborers, such as "point barley", "spinning cotton yarn", "selling bucket".

The Huangmei Tea Casting Tune, Jiangxi Tune, Tongcheng Tune and Fengyang Song, which were produced and spread to the provinces of Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi, were influenced by the performance of local operas (Qingyang accent and Hui Tune), and formed a combination with the folk arts of Lianxiang, stilts, and dry boat to form a number of mini-operas gradually. In further development, it absorbed the performance content and expression from a form of opera called "Luohan Pile" and the Qingyang Opera and Huizhou Opera, and thus produced the original opera with a complete story. There is also a transition form from the small play to the original play, which is called "string play" by the old artists. The so-called "string play" is their own independent and related to each other with a group of small plays, some with things "string", some with people "string". The plot of the "string play" is richer than that of a small play, and the characters have broken through the three small ranges of the clown, the little Dan, and the little boy. Some of the older characters need to be played by the main Dan, the old man, the old clown. This created the conditions for the production of this opera. In the 9th year of the Republic of China (1920), it was recorded in the "Su Song County Record" that "in the southwest of the territory of the Euphrates, bordering on Huangmei, Mei custom is good for tea-picking opera, also known as Huangmei Opera." For the first time, the name "Huangmei Opera" was proposed.

Development

History of Huangmei Opera

Huangmei Opera is the main local opera in Anhui Province. There are also professional or amateur performing groups of Huangmei Opera in Hubei, Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Taiwan and other provinces, as well as in Hong Kong, which are widely popular. Huangmei Opera, originally known as "Huangmei Tune", is a folk opera formed in the late 18th century in Huangmei, a region adjacent to Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi Provinces. One of them gradually moved eastward to the intersection of Tongcheng City and Anqing City in Anhui Province, combining with local folk art, singing and speaking in the local language, forming its own characteristics, known as "Huai Cavity" or "Huangmei Tune". This is the predecessor of today's Huangmei Opera. In the Republic of 10 years (1921) published in the "Su Song County Records", the first officially put forward the name "Huangmei Opera".

The history of the development of Huangmei Opera is roughly divided into three stages:

The first stage, from the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty to around the Xinhai Revolution. Produced and Huangmei Opera spread to the Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces between the Caicha tune, Jiangxi tune, Tongcheng tune, Fengyang song, by the local opera (Qingyang cavity, Hui tune) performance of the influence of the folk art of Lianxiang, stilts, dry boat and other folk arts to form a combination of the gradual formation of a number of small plays. It further developed and absorbed the performance content and expression from a form of opera called "Luohan Pile", Qingyangqiang and Huizhou tune, and thus produced the original opera with a complete story. There is also a transition form from the small play to the original play, which is called "string play" by the old artists. The so-called "string play" is their own independent and related to each other with a group of small plays, some with things "string", some with people "string". The plot of the "string play" is richer than that of a small play, and the characters have broken through the three small ranges of the clown, the little Dan, and the little boy. Some of the older characters need to be played by the main Dan, the old man, the old clown. This creates the conditions for the creation of this play.

The second stage is from the Xinhai Revolution to 1949. At this stage, Huangmei Opera performance activities gradually professionalization, and from the rural grassroots stage on the city stage. Huangmei Opera into the city of Anqing, with the Peking Opera class, and in Shanghai by the Yueju Opera, Yangju Opera, Huaiju Opera, and from the north of the evaluation of the opera (then known as "bouncing play"), in the performance of the content and form of a great deal of change. A number of new plays were arranged and transplanted, including the serialized plays "Wen Suchen", "Hong Bi Yuan", "Hua Li Yuan", and "The Bee's Tale". In terms of music, preliminary reforms were made to the traditional singing style, reducing the false sound liner notes in the old style, making it bright and smooth, and making it easy for the audience to understand what is being sung. Canceled the help, try the huqin accompaniment. In terms of performance, it absorbed and melted the programmed movements of Peking Opera and other brother operas, enriching the means of expression. Other aspects, such as costumes, make-up and stage settings, were also developed compared with those of the rural stage.

The third stage, from 1949 to the present, was in 1952, when Huangmei Opera artists went to Shanghai to perform in plays such as "Beat the Pig's Grass" and "Blue Bridge Meeting". A large number of actors and actresses were created in the past decades. In addition to Yan Fengying, Wang Shaofang and other artists of the older generation who had outstanding achievements in the art of singing of Huangmei Opera, the young and middle-aged actors and actresses, such as Malan and Han Zaifen, successively displayed their respective heroism on the stage, screen and TV screen, and aroused the attention of the audience. Yan Fengying and Wang Shaofang co-starred in "The Pairing of Heavenly Immortals," which was made into a movie for the second time and became a sensation at home and abroad.

The Artistic Characteristics of Huangmei Opera

In terms of repertoire, it is said that there are thirty-six major plays and seventy-two minor ones. The main expression of the opera is the people's dissatisfaction with the reality of class oppression, disparity between the rich and the poor and the desire for a free and beautiful life. For example, "Buckwheat", "Sue the grain official", "Tianxian Match", etc. Most of the small plays are about rural laborers. Most of the small plays show the life of rural laborers, such as "point barley", "spinning cotton yarn", "selling bucket".

After the liberation, a number of large and small traditional plays such as "The Match of Heavenly Fairies", "Female Emperor's Son-in-law", "The Story of Luo Pa", "Zhao Guiying", "Tears of a Compassionate Mother" and "Three Searches for the Abbot's Mansion" were arranged and adapted, and the mythological play "Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden", the historical play "Losing the Punishment and Chopping Off the Head", and the modern plays "Spring Flowers Blossom", "Spring Morning in a Small Shop" and "The Beginning of Bei Lei" were created. Among them, "The Match of Heavenly Immortals", "Female Emperor's Son-in-law" and "The Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden" were put on the screen one after another, which had a great influence both at home and abroad. Yan Fengying, Wang Shaofang, Wu Qiong and Malan are famous actors of Huangmei Opera.

The main categories of Huangmei Opera are flower cadence and flat words. Flower cadences are mainly used in small plays, rich in life and folk song flavor. Pingyin, the main singing voice in the opera, commonly used in large narrative, lyrical, rich in flavor, such as running clouds and flowing water.