Hometown of traditional Chinese opera

On the south bank of the lower reaches of the Yellow River in the beautiful and rich Lubei Plain, there is a city with a long history and rich humanities, which is the hometown of Han Xiaozi and the birthplace of China's excellent traditional dramas and Lu operas. Coco Town, Boxing County, Shandong Province, enjoys the reputation of "the old revolutionary base area" and "the hometown of Lu Opera".

Lu Opera belongs to a kind of local art, and its predecessor is "make-up dulcimer" and "Qin Opera". It developed from the folk rap art "Qin Shu". The play is about farming, singing about farming feelings, and most of the scripts reflect the worldly wisdom of the countryside. With an ancient, traditional and conservative love story as the theme, it is simple in content, rich and fragrant in local flavor, vivid and lively, and its singing style is simple and beautiful, which has won the favor of the masses and has become one of the main local operas in Shandong.

Lu Opera is located in Coco Town and surrounding villages, with professional troupes running north and south, and amateur troupes going deep into people's lives. No matter on the big stage of the art palace or in a small place in the field, there will be a popular Lu opera singing. As an intangible cultural heritage, Lu Opera was named "Shandong Lu Opera Art Town" and "Shandong Folk Culture Art Town" by Shandong Provincial Department of Culture in 1996. In 2008, the Ministry of Culture named it "the hometown of Lu Opera in China" and "the hometown of folk culture and art in China" and other honorary titles.

In the early 1950s, Shuliang Zhang (an old student) and Zhang Chuanhai (Tsing Yi), two artists from Shenggeng Village, established the first Luban nearby, and recruited nearly twenty or thirty apprentices 18 years old, becoming the founders of local Lu Opera. From 1960s to 1970s, nearly 50 people in Guangshenggeng Village performed in other places. In 1963, Luban from Shenggeng Village and Peking Opera from the north performed in Yiyuan County. At that time, all props and costumes had to be borrowed from the village. The first performance was held in Luyadian, Yiyuan County, twice a day. The venue was full, and the locals had to move elsewhere after seeing it. Although singing opera is a tiring job, it is also a good job to support people. The "actors" who come out of the countryside can be regarded as beggars. They only eat two meals a day, and then eat one meal after the play in the evening. They eat steaming cabbage stewed with tofu, and their wages are pitiful, but they don't care and have a hard time. In those years, there was famine every year and the Yellow River flooded. Poor farmers beg by singing "ditty", but it has become the main means for many people to support their families. So many people are willing to let their children join this team in order to support their children. In the long years, they sang and performed, constantly absorbing and improving the accuracy of opera singing and lyrics singing, gradually enriching their performances, perfecting their performances and perfecting the content and form of scripts. It is because of their continuous efforts and research that they have been able to step onto the big stage, go to the screen and become a well-known drama. They not only sang traditional plays, but also wrote and performed their own plays, such as Little Lonely Fairy, Wang's Loan, Gua Yuan Ji, Gold Bracelet and Yuhuan Ji, Legend of the White Snake, Li Tianbao's Wedding, Swing Grass, Caravan and so on. , rich in content and plot.

Although the actors in the troupe are all rural people, they don't just go back and forth to tell the original old plays. In the countryside, generations of talented people come forth in large numbers, and there is a crop pole that can't read a liter of words. With an amazing memory that never forgets anything, you can create a good drama that goes deep into the countryside and is easy to understand after watching the movie. You can also delete or change some original, unhealthy or negative paragraphs in the old drama to make the whole drama more attractive. For example, in "Wang Jienian", poor Hanwang is happy. On New Year's Eve, he went to Zhang Yue's house to spend the New Year. After entering the gate, he saw the Zhang Yue family who built the house celebrating the New Year. He deeply felt that he was in a pitiful and embarrassing situation. Is he going in or out? While hesitating, someone came out. In desperation, he hid in the stable, just as his sister-in-law went to the stable to pee ... The plot of this ugly king was completely deleted and changed. Just when Wang was ashamed and hesitant, he saw someone coming. In desperation, he strayed into the boudoir of his fiancee Ajie, who happened to be the sister-in-law who accompanied Ajie back to the boudoir to rest. Sister-in-law expressed deep sympathy and concern for the situation of Wang He and Sister Ai, and secretly decided to help her. In Well Meeting, Lan Ruilian, a cardamom girl, was forced to sell her to Zhou Lankuan, a 53-year-old ugly girl, because of her debt. Being bullied and abused by the Zhou family after marriage. This seems to lack a strong contrast between cause and effect and good and evil. Later, Zhou Lankuan used money and power to forcibly occupy Lan Ruilian. In her husband's family, Ruilian was beaten and tortured by her husband and mother-in-law ... and eventually became a plain, vivid and touching local famous drama. Their own operas include March Gang and Wang. They are full of rich and fragrant pastoral flavor, concise lyrics, the protagonist's psychological activities and decisive or gentle body movements, as well as the actor's ever-changing facial expressions, which are vivid, delicate and almost perfect, and are deeply loved by the audience. After the founding of New China, Shenggeng Village Opera Troupe not only sang operas, but also innovated modern Peking Opera. In the troupe of Shenggeng Village, they performed in full swing, such as A Journey to the Tiger Mountain, Harbor, Red Lantern and Shajiabang. Especially "March Gang" and "Li Er's Wife Remarries" and modern Peking Opera "Shajiabang" are the representative works of Shenggeng Village. The melodious vocals of the actors, vivid and easy-to-understand lyrics, flowing clouds and flowing water, and crisp and melodious piano sound are unforgettable for a long time.

In order to carry forward the art of traditional Chinese opera, develop and inherit the intangible cultural heritage of traditional Chinese opera, and carry forward the ancient folk culture and art, the Boxing county government and the Boxing county cultural center often hold opera competitions, and the village troupes in the county actively participate, learn from each other's skills, learn from each other's singing methods, select excellent crews, and give encouragement and rewards. Excellent theatrical troupes are often organized to perform Lu Opera. They are not only in the countryside, but also in the fields. They also go to provincial and municipal stages. Not only do they wander around the surrounding counties and cities, but their voices will gradually ring around Changwei, Jiaodong, Huantai, Guangrao, Zibo, Binzhou and Jinan, leaving their cheerful voices and rich and practical footprints everywhere in Qilu. On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, 2007, CCTV 12 Channel Opera Channel came to Shenggeng Village, and recorded the footage of "Sister-in-law Li Er remarried", which attracted the attention of the whole country for a while.

At present, Shenggeng Village Theatre has 29 members, among whom Zhang Xuemin, an 87-year-old artist, is rickety, deaf and mentally fit, and the young amateur actor is only a teenager. The drama in Shenggeng Village is not only an amateur fitness and entertainment activity, but also enriches the cultural life of farmers. It's also an important topic that we can't abandon the folk culture and art left by our ancestors, which has been wandering in time tunnel for a hundred years, and even needs to be carried forward and passed on. The new secretary Liu Hengjia is young and promising. He vigorously cultivated the artistic talents of Lu Opera, encouraged the creation of outstanding dramas of Lu Opera, and built an art museum next to his old residence to teach drama and learn to play, adding luster to the great development of "the hometown of Lu Opera".