What are the characteristics of Michael Chen's plays?

Michael Chen Opera is popular in Yuanshui and its upper reaches, commonly known as "Chenhe", hence the name "Chenhe Team", also known as "Chenzhou Team", which is one of the local operas in Hunan.

Michael Chen Opera is mainly popular in the vast areas in the upper reaches of Yuan River, including Huaihua and Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, as well as Tongren in Guizhou, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Youyang in Sichuan, Xiushan, Laifeng and Xianfeng in Hubei.

The formation of Michael Chen's opera has experienced a long historical development. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, many Jiangxi immigrants came to Chenhe to open up wasteland and run new areas. In the process of migration, work and management, Yiyang, a local opera tune, was also brought to a new home.

After Yiyang Opera was introduced into Chenhe, it was combined with local language, folk songs, chant, Nuo opera and religious music, and gradually formed a unique Chenhe Gaoqiang. Early Chen He had a high-pitched voice and sang a series of dramas and stories of Manglietia. This artistic tradition continued until the 1940s.

Qingyang Opera also played a certain role in the formation of Chenhe Gaoqiang. Early Qingyang operas such as "Fishing for the Moon in a Golden Basin" are still in Chenhe's high-pitched repertoire.

During the reign of Qianlong and Jiaqing in Qing Dynasty, Chenhe Gao Qiang cooperated with religious sacrificial activities, which was very popular. In all kinds of activities of offering sacrifices to gods, singing Chen He Gao Qiang has become an essential content. During this period, Shui Yuan was also the traffic artery between China and Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar and Laos. In foreign affairs activities, Chen He's high-profile singing activities often occur.

Chenhe Gaoqiang is distributed in the Tujia nationality inhabited area and the surrounding Miao and Dong areas in Youshui River Basin, the largest tributary of Yuanshui River. Under the influence of geographical environment, Chenhe Gaoqiang is popular in the towns along the river in the middle and upper reaches, and also develops to the surrounding ethnic minority areas.

In the performance form of traditional Chinese opera, in addition to the high-platform performance, Chen He Gao Qiang also has the puppet performance of "low stage". The "short stage class" is mostly composed of semi-professional artists, and the repertoire, music and ostentation are the same as those of the high stage class. Sometimes, these two forms of performance also appear in folk sacrifices and entertainment activities.

"Playing drums everywhere" is also an important performance form of Chen He Gao Qiang. People in urban and rural areas like to sing Chen He's high-profile songs. On the festive days next door, they go to his house to sing high-profile songs without makeup. At that time, many people in the political and cultural circles liked to participate in such performances.

The performance of Michael Chen Opera is primitive and rough, bold and lively, quiet and affectionate. Generally, there are three forms: "Gao Tai Opera" performed on the stage, "Low Stage Opera" performed on the puppet show, and "Drum Hall" with singing. Vocal voices are divided into four categories: high, low, singing and beating, with Gao Qiang as the representative.

Michael Chen Opera originated from the entertainment of local witches, Nuo and Taoism, and gradually evolved. It is an ancient local opera, which is called the "living fossil" of China opera by foreign academic circles. It is a set of qupai, high-pitched and rough, with local characteristics of western Hunan.

Qupai is transferred from "guilty tune" with varied techniques, which is different from other high-pitched tunes in that it uses suona to assist the tune. In the process of performing martial arts, Michael Chen Opera combines the moves of Xiangxi folk boxing, which has a strong local flavor. With the development of mountainous areas and the increase of artistic exchanges, Michael Chen Opera has absorbed the advantages of Han Opera and other operas and enriched the performing arts.

Michael Chen's traditional operas are dominated by high-pitched operas, including low-pitched operas, Kunqu operas and playing operas. In the old days, it was called "treble class". /kloc-It was introduced into the opera cavity in the 0/9th century, and later influenced by Changde Han Opera, it joined Han Opera artists and repertoires. The vocal cavity is dominated by high-pitched and elastic cavity, and there are many full-tenor operas in traditional plays.

Chenhe Gao Qiang originated from Yiyang Qiang, which is integrated with Xiangxi folk songs, ballads and Nuo Qiang. Music is a combination of qupai. When I was singing in the early stage, I talked alone and everyone helped each other. Nodes are drums, strings are ignored. Chen Hege Theatre is very distinctive. It uses suona instead of human voice, that is, high-pitched, rough, saturated and rich, and plays a wonderful role in endless human voices.

Michael Chen Opera has only simple makeup, but no complete martial arts routine. Up to now, musicians still retain the ancient notation of "circle cavity and point board" The role line is divided into five lines: raw angle, niche, bear angle, draw face and clown.

Michael Chen opera also includes Chenhe Kunqu Opera, Bass Opera and Elastic Opera. Chenhe Kunqu Opera originated from Kunshan dialect. Around the middle of Ming Dynasty, Kunshan dialect was introduced into Chenhe. Chen He's deep voice is similar to Kunqu Opera in singing. The difference is that Kunqu opera is accompanied by a flute, while low music is accompanied by suona.

After Daoguang and Xianfeng in Qing Dynasty, Hongjiang became a prosperous commercial port with many guilds and troupes. During the reign of Tongzhi and Guangxu in Qing Dynasty, Jinghe artists Zhou Shuangfu and Zhou Songgui successively came to Hongjiang to participate in troupe performances, bringing art to traditional Chinese opera, and many artists from Chenhe came to learn from it.

In addition, the influence of Qi opera in the adjacent area also promoted the formation of Chenhe bomb room. At this point, Michael Chen Opera has gradually developed into a multi-voice opera with high notes, Kunqu opera, low notes and elastic tunes as the main parts.

The stage language of Chenhe Gaoqiang is refined on the basis of Putonghua in western Hunan, and is based on patriarchal clan system. High-pitched music is composed of more than 200 qupai, with high-pitched tone, rough style and melodious melody. It blends with folk songs and songs, and is often entertained by human voices and suona, which has local characteristics in western Hunan. Kunqu opera has 162 qupai. There are more than 300 qupai in the low cavity.

There are 162 Kunqu operas and more than 300 Kunqu operas in Michael Chen. When singing, Kunqu opera is more elegant, quiet, fresh and beautiful, accompanied by bamboo flute; The low cavity is more unrestrained, warm and imposing, accompanied by suona. The stage language of Tan Qiang Opera is different from Gao Qiang. Changde Mandarin is mostly used in coastal towns in the upper reaches of Yuan River. Its music is composed of North Road and South Road, and it has a complete set of vocals connected by various plates, which is rich in expressive force.

The accompaniment instruments of Michael Chen opera mainly include suona, Beizi, Jinghu, erhu, sanxian drum, Xiao Gong, Yun Gong, cymbals, small drums, big drums, flag drums, lessons and rulers. The local tenor suona has a high voice, soft pronunciation and beautiful timbre, which is similar to soprano. It can be integrated with singing, plays an important role in vocalization and accompaniment, and has rich characteristics.

In the early stage of the development of Michael Chen opera, Chen He's tenor role was divided into eight lines: life, Dan, purity, ugliness, foreignness, vice, tail and paste. After the end of Qing dynasty, it became four lines: life, Dan, purity and ugliness. The angle of birth is divided into positive life, old life, red life and small life. Dandan is divided into Zheng Dan, Xiao Dan, Yao Dan and Lao Dan.

Chen He's professional troupe was once called Jianghu troupe, and its performances can be divided into five types: big wish drama, small wish drama, divine drama, hall drama and selling drama.

The Great Wishing Drama is a place to sing for the God who prays for God to protect people's peace. It must perform the biography of Manglietia, usually on the empty lawn in the wilderness. Xiao Yuan Opera House is jointly organized by a family, a village or several villages. The purpose is to pray for family, village and harvest. Often performed on the fixed stage of the village ancestral hall. Divine drama is an entertaining singing held by temples, fellow townsmen's halls and trade halls around the country for the life and death of the gods they worship. Tangxi is a singing activity held by officials and rich families for weddings, funerals and happy events; Selling plays is a common ticket-selling performance, which is usually performed in theaters in towns and villages. The latter has become the main form of Michael Chen opera performance.

The performing arts of Michael Chen opera can be divided into four schools: Xiahe Road, Zhonghe Road, Shanghe Road and Baihe Road.

Xiahe Road, centered on Pushi, luxi county, includes Yuanling and Chenxi. Due to the prevalence of the Drum Tower there, many artists started singing opera around the Drum Tower and took to the high platform to sing opera, which formed the characteristics of paying attention to singing, singing more legends and being good at performing successive stories.

In Zhonghe Road, Xupu is the center, and most artists come to the stage from puppet classes. The performing arts are rough and humorous, and some traces of puppet performances are preserved. In addition to performing the whole high-pitched opera, some short-term high-pitched operas will be put on the stage, and the performance will be more casual.

Shanghe Road, centered on Hongjiang, includes Qianyang, Zhijiang, Tongren and other places. Artists mostly come from the classes of Hongjiang and other places in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. The performing arts are rigorous and standardized, and the plays performed have both high notes and high notes. Because they have performed on the same stage with Changde and Jinghe artists for a long time, they have made great contributions to the formation and development of Chenhe Tan Qiang.

Baihe Road, centered on Wangcun, Yongshun County, includes Yongshun, Guzhang and Longshan. Artists often perform puppet shows. The troupe has two sets of tools, stage performance and puppet performance, and sings and speaks in the local dialect.

Michael Chen is rich in operas, including 6 series operas, 47 whole operas, 57 scattered operas, 765,438+0 series operas and some finalized versions. It is the most complete tenor opera in Hunan.

After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), Michael Chen's drama recovered its vitality and a number of professional troupes were established. There are more than 200 folk amateur troupes, which were officially named Michael Chen Opera in 1955. The party and government attach importance to the excavation and arrangement of this ancient drama art heritage, and a number of distinctive plays have been put on the stage again.

Among them, luxi county Chenxi Gaoqiang Opera Troupe rehearses two or three major dramas every year. Their modern dramas, historical dramas and excellent traditional dramas are welcomed by the audience. Michael Chen Opera, an ancient drama flower known as "the earliest art of stream of consciousness in the world", blooms more beautifully.

Chenhege theatre