On the Reform of Traditional Chinese Opera after the Founding of New China

In the second half of the 20th century, the history of China turned a new page. The development of China opera has also entered a new historical period. The improvement of traditional Chinese opera in the new period has really become a movement.

19 At the end of 1950, 2 19 opera artists from Beijing Opera and various local operas gathered in Beijing to attend the National Opera Work Conference held in New China. The people of China and Premier Zhou Enlai of the State Council attended the meeting, shook hands with each representative and thanked the 77-year-old Peking Opera artist Shang He and the Sichuan Opera artist Zhang Decheng who had been persecuted for 30 years in the old society. At the end of the meeting, the conference solemnly announced that the title of "old artist" would be cancelled with immediate effect, and all the delegates suddenly burst into thunderous applause for fifteen minutes. In the applause, the participants deeply felt that the people of China stood up! Dying opera and the vast number of opera artists who make a living from it have been reborn since then!

1950, the Ministry of People and Culture of China successively established the Opera Improvement Bureau, the leading organ of China Opera, and the Opera Improvement Committee, an advisory body composed of 43 experts and artists.

195 1 year, the State Council, the central people's government, issued the Instruction on the Reform of Traditional Chinese Opera issued by Premier Zhou Enlai. The directive points out: "the primary task of drama should be to carry forward the people's new patriotism and inspire the people's heroism in revolutionary struggle and productive labor." In line with the primary task, we should encourage promotion, otherwise we should oppose it. At present, the work of drama reform should focus on the examination and approval of the most popular old dramas. It is necessary to "promote the" hundred flowers blossom "of traditional Chinese opera art", strengthen the education of artists, and train opera reform cadres from artists. It is necessary to "reform some unreasonable systems in old troupes" and "under the principle of enterprise, establish demonstration troupes and theaters through public construction, public-private partnership and private public assistance, and perform new dramas in a planned and regular manner, so as to improve theater management and promote the reform of local operas." ⑾

The basic content of this "instruction" has been summarized as the basic principle of opera reform of "changing drama, replacing people and restructuring".

1952 65438+1October 6 to165438+1October 14, the first national opera viewing and performance conference was held in Beijing. More than 65,438+0,600 actors from 37 troupes of 23 operas in China performed 82 plays for the conference. This is an unprecedented gathering and a grand review. For the first time, this grand event showed the excellent heritage of China opera culture, inspiring people and exchanging skills, which created a good situation for the new prosperity of opera.

From the date when the instruction was issued to the end of 1956, 5 1867 traditional operas were excavated, 14632 were recorded, more than 4000 were arranged and adapted, and more than 10000 were performed. According to statistics, there are 8 19 professional playwrights, 587 amateur screenwriters and 306/kloc-0 full-time staff engaged in repertoire work.

The adaptation and performance of Kunqu Opera "Fifteen Levels" is the most outstanding achievement in this period.

During this period, the achievements and experiences of traditional Chinese opera reform are obvious:

First, before this, the improvement of Chinese opera was only the conscious action of minority groups and people. During this period, due to the leadership of the ruling party, the improvement of drama became the overall action of the national drama community. In this overall action, the scale of reform is large, the speed of action is fast, and the effect of change is remarkable. For example, watching performances nationwide and strengthening exchanges and learning between operas are of great benefit to promoting the development of artistic productivity and improving the quality of drama art.

Second, works of art are returned to the public.

The essence and dross coexist in the old drama. Some dross in China's traditional opera culture has become "opium that poisons the people"; Once it became a masterpiece, it was taken by the feudal ruling class to "cover it in a glass cover", making the people "unable to understand, unable to stand it and feel unworthy."

After the state power is in the hands of the people, the reform of opera is to take the interests and needs of the people as the primary criterion for choosing operas. At the same time, with the support of powerful political forces, the old drama paradigm was improved and became an art form for people to vent their feelings at that time.

Thirdly, the reform of traditional Chinese opera in this period paid attention to the spirit of "content precedes form", which made the main body of traditional Chinese opera return, thus driving the external form of traditional Chinese opera to change its form.

In the early days of the Reform Movement, because some new writers and artists joined the drama team, on the one hand, they had the passion to express their lives with literary and artistic creation, on the other hand, they were less bound by the old paradigm rules. In order to express new life, a bold breakthrough was made in the old paradigm of traditional Chinese opera. For example, with the participation of new literary and art workers, the musical system of Hunan ancient painting drama "Double Grain Delivery" has undergone new changes. A piece of "Liuyang River" in the play has been circulated for half a century and has become a popular song (not a traditional opera aria in the general sense), which has adapted the new drama to the new era.

Fourth, the status of opera actors has been rapidly improved, and the quality of opera teams has been enhanced. On the one hand, opera actors were discriminated and insulted in the old society. On the other hand, we should also see that many of them were infected by the habits of the old society and lacked the necessary cultural knowledge and artistic accomplishment. The drama reform in this period paid great attention to the help and education of "people" and improved the old artists in politics, culture and art; Let them be close to people's lives, understand social needs, and let the opera truly belong to the people.

In this historical period, the new China has just been born, so it is very difficult to start a business. In addition, U.S. imperialism launched a war of aggression against North China, which spread to the Yalu River and forced the people of to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea and defend their country. In this grim situation, the party and the state still put the old society on the agenda as a "small skill" play. For the major events of traditional Chinese opera, the party and state leaders are all hands-on. With the help of opera workers who showed great revolutionary enthusiasm, they saved and supported the endangered operas on a large scale, leaving a glorious page in the history of China drama.

The achievement is great. However, due to the limitations of history and times, from the perspective of change, there are also some shortcomings in the operas of this period:

First of all, we missed a good opportunity for the transformation of Chinese opera. In the early days of liberation, among the leaders of drama reform, there was a clear understanding of drama reform:

At present, the music of Peking Opera is still made according to the rhythm and way of life in agricultural society, so it is more suitable to express the life in feudal society. It is a bit out of place to use them to express the life and emotional feelings of modern people. How to make this old music that expresses the rhythm of social life serve the new realistic content, we think it can be put forward as a direction to improve Beijing opera today. ⑿

Besides Peking Opera and other local operas, China has also produced a new kind of drama, represented by the white-haired girl. ..... This kind of opera is a new thing, and it is still immature; Because its content is novel, it meets the needs of the people, and because of some successful music creation, it has been welcomed by the masses; Admittedly, it is a new form of national opera, which should be encouraged, fostered and developed. However, this new opera does not completely inherit the rich heritage of national opera, and only under such conditions can the development of new opera find a bright future. At present, its influence among the broad masses of the people is not as good as China's original opera. At the same time, this kind of drama is gradually innovating. When expressing modern themes, some local dramas are not basically different from the new ones. ⒀

If we guide and encourage the "change" in the reform of traditional Chinese opera according to this idea of literary and artistic reform, traditional Chinese opera may be able to embark on the road of modernization. But the old paradigm of traditional Chinese opera is too closed and conservative. In this period and later historical periods, while opposing and criticizing western culture, we respect and advocate national traditional culture. In this context, the old opera paradigm is also respected and protected; The change has been terminated. On the other hand, because the new opera is the achievement of Yan 'an literary movement and is respected, there is no fundamental difference between the new opera and the new opera that expresses modern themes, and it has become two "drama forms": the opera cannot be made into an opera, and the opera must be different from the opera. In this way, the transformation of traditional Chinese opera has been artificially separated and lost its "purpose"; However, the "sphere of influence" of traditional Chinese opera is limited, and it is impossible for it to develop fully and healthily. Therefore, the modernization of China's drama was hindered.

Second, there is a "left" tendency in the creation of drama literature.

The return of the creative subject of drama literature is a gratifying phenomenon of drama reform in this period, but it has been frustrated because of the influence and interference of "Left" in political thought. For example, in the creation of historical plays, some playwrights integrate their ideas and concepts into historical themes and make new interpretations, which was originally a common technique in literary and artistic creation; Whether it is successful or not is just an academic issue and an artistic issue. However, in this period, this technique was simply labeled as anti-historicism, subjectivism, formulation, idealism and formalism. Therefore, writers are excluded, criticized and attacked. This simple and rude literary criticism and wrong handling method not only left a hidden danger for the later literary career, but also became an invisible resistance to the reform of Chinese opera.

Third, in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the State Council, the central people's government, issued the "Instructions on the Reform of Chinese Opera", which clearly pointed out the construction direction of artistic performance groups: 1, the principle of enterprise; 2. Ownership forms of public, private and private public assistance; 3. Establish a demonstration troupe that often performs new plays. This is the correct direction for the healthy development of performing arts groups. However, with the development of the national political situation, the enterprise of the troupe has become an empty talk, the national performance group has become a public troupe, and the demonstration troupe no longer needs to exist. Since then, most performing arts groups have lost their inner vitality.

Fourth, drama art education has not kept up with the pace of art development. After the abolition of the old apprenticeship system and the disappearance of ordinary classes, a more effective new art education system has not been established in most grass-roots troupes. Although some various types of art colleges have been opened one after another, they are still a drop in the bucket for many operas, many grass-roots troupes and many artists. Therefore, the "inbreeding" inheritance system of performing arts and technology in traditional Chinese opera groups, coupled with the "pot rice" management system in the troupe, has caused the deterioration of the overall quality of traditional Chinese opera actors.

In a word, as far as the whole history of China's drama development is concerned, although the drama art in this period showed a prosperous scene, it did not undergo a qualitative change.

History has entered a new era.

From 65438 to 0956, the party announced that the task of socialist transformation in all fields and fronts in China was basically completed. China * * * production party led the people of the whole country to turn to large-scale socialist construction, and the cultural and artistic circles rejoiced.

As early as 1952, Zhou Yang, Vice Minister of the Central Ministry of Culture, pointed out in the summary report of the first national opera viewing and performance conference: "The traditional opera heritage reflects the life of the people in the past, but the new people's life also needs new operas to express it. Therefore, how to properly express people's new life in various drama forms, rather than stiffly, has become a serious creative task for opera workers at present and for a long time to come. " Since then, efforts to modernize the forms of China traditional operas have become the focus of literary and art workers. One of the means for literary and art workers to promote the modernization of traditional Chinese opera is to vigorously advocate modern drama.

Before 1956, due to the socialist transformation movement of "changing people, drama and system", drama creation and performance were not outstanding. After 1956, the task of socialist transformation was basically completed. In the field of traditional Chinese opera, the modernization of traditional Chinese opera was naturally put on the agenda.

However, in the next two decades, due to "the Party's insufficient ideological preparation for building socialism in an all-round way", we made some achievements, but also made some serious mistakes and suffered major setbacks. In this context, the opera art belonging to the superstructure is inevitably greatly influenced.

The following table reflects the direct influence of some major political and economic mistakes on the art of traditional Chinese opera before the Cultural Revolution:

Annual political and economic situation, major events in the field of drama

1957 spring, announced the end of large-scale class struggle and boldly opened up traditional Chinese operas.

/kloc-in the autumn of 0/957, the anti-rightist struggle emphasized that "literature and art serve politics".

1958 the great leap forward put forward the idea of "striving to make the modern drama of each drama troupe reach 20%-50% within three to five years" and "writing center, singing center and performance center"

1959- 196 1 Lushan conference, the struggle against right deviation and the three-year natural disaster put forward the policy of "three simultaneous efforts" for modern drama, traditional drama and new historical drama.

1962, Jiang Qing put forward the idea of "grasping the class struggle in the ideological field" and secretly planned to criticize "Hai Rui dismissed from office"

1963, the "four clean-ups movement" began to argue about the play, and some people proposed to ban Li Huiniang from performing for thirteen years.

1964, further launched the "social education" movement, criticized Yang's "combining two into one", and strongly advocated criticizing modern drama and writing "middle figures". Jiang Qing published "On Beijing Opera Revolution"

1965-1On the eve of the Cultural Revolution in the spring of 1966, Yao published an article criticizing "Hai Rui dismissed from office" and arguing about "being honest and clean".

Because literature and art are emphasized to serve politics, the fate of traditional Chinese opera "moves" with politics. 1958' s "writing center, singing center and performance center" and 1963' s "thirteen years of capitalization" put the creation and performance of modern drama in the first place, which greatly promoted the change of drama content and form, but because it was tied to the "left" chariot, the aesthetic value of drama itself was ignored, so drama was ignored.

From 65438 to 0962, a group of political careerists began to directly intervene in the reform of traditional Chinese opera. Since then, the art of traditional Chinese opera has fallen into the abyss of disaster.

1From June 5th to July 3rd, 9641day, the "Modern Peking Opera Exhibition Conference" organized by the Ministry of Culture was held in Beijing. Twenty-nine troupes from 19 provinces and cities across the country performed 35 modern Peking Opera plays, including 25 dramas and 10 operas. A large number of outstanding plays have appeared, such as Hanging the Red Lantern High, Wandering the Fire, Surprising the White Tiger Troupe, Xie Zhenguo, Gate Six and so on. At the meeting, Comrade Mao Zedong gave very strong instructions on June 27th:

Most of these associations and their publications (a few of which are said to be good) have basically (not all) failed to implement the party's policies, being officials and masters, staying away from workers, peasants and soldiers, and failing to reflect the socialist revolution and construction in the past 15 years. In recent years, it has actually fallen to the edge of revisionism. If it is not reformed seriously, it will one day become a group like the Petofi Club in Hungary.

Although the instruction is not directed at the Ministry of Culture, which observes and organizes the performance conference, it will undoubtedly have an impact on the conference. On July 5, Jiang Qing, Kang Sheng and others fled to the conference. At the meeting, Jiang Qing delivered a long speech on the Peking Opera Revolution, and began to usurp the achievements of the reform of traditional Chinese opera, creating public opinion for the Cultural Revolution, and then occupying the whole superstructure field.

The reform of Chinese opera has gone astray. Under the control of a few political careerists such as Jiang Qing, the so-called "Peking Opera Revolution" began in the field of traditional Chinese opera for more than ten years.

The "Beijing Opera Revolution" is broken or established. "Big break and big stand".

"Broken": First Li Huiniang was banned, then Xie Yaohuan and Hai Rui, Peking Opera, were dismissed, and then "swept everything". At one time, almost all operas were criticized and banned. From drama to people. Many outstanding traditional opera artists were overthrown, and traditional opera performing arts groups were destroyed and dissolved. The excellent tradition of Chinese opera has been destroyed.

"Li": In drama, it is to carefully brew "revolutionary model operas".

During the thirteen years from 1964 to 1976, Jiang Qing was directly involved in drama reform. By adopting the "trinity" creative system of "ideological guidance, scriptwriting skills and mass life", a number of modern dramas that have been staged have been carefully selected, and a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources have been concentrated. Finally, a number of "glorious literary revolution models", including music and dance works, have been processed and produced in the spirit of "grinding a drama for ten years". [14] They are:

Peking Opera:

Outwit Tiger Mountain (adapted from novels Lin Yuan 1958 and 1964)

The Story of the Red Lantern (1964 adapted from the film "There is an afterlife" into the Shanghai drama "The Story of the Red Lantern")

Shajiabang (1960 Shanghai Opera, formerly known as Qingshui Hongqi and Ludanghuo)

Seaport (creation and implementation in 1967)

Surprise attack on the white tiger regiment (1964)

Song of the Dragon (1963)

Du Fushan (1964 adapted the novel Tiger Pan into a drama)

Fighting on the Plain (1973 pieced together from several films)

Panshiwan (adapted from drama and Shanghai drama "The Great Wall of the South China Sea")

Red female soldier (based on novels, movies, 1964 Kunqu Qionghua)

Dance drama:

Red female soldier (based on novels and movies)

White-haired girl (based on opera)

Ode to Yimeng (adapted from Beijing Opera Red Sister)

Children of the Prairie (adapted from the newsletter and the movie Miss Hero of the Prairie)

Music:

Symphonic music Shajiabang and Outwit Tiger Mountain

Piano accompaniment "The Red Lantern"

Piano Concerto "Yellow River"

-This is the literary life of 900 million people in 13 years!

In the process of creating "model operas", playwrights have gained the following main experiences in art after long-term exploration and summary:

First, the creative principle of "three highlights" is adopted in the characterization, that is, "highlighting the positive characters among all characters; Highlight the hero among the positive characters; Highlight the main hero among heroes. "

Second, "procedural, not stylized." Critically absorb the beneficial parts of China traditional opera programs, and transform them according to life, thus creating new programs. For example, the horse dance and ski dance in "Taking the Tiger Mountain" absorbed the walking, riding, circling and jumping in the old Beijing opera program.

Third, the new opera music system of "special drama and special song" was adopted; Singing design and singing method "insist on starting from the characters", rather than "singing without feelings and singing without characters"; Music design and accompaniment "strengthen and supplement the main theme" to enrich the expressive ability of drama music; In the band system, a mixed band system of Chinese and foreign instrumental music is adopted.

Fourthly, in stage art, realistic scenery is widely used.

Wait a minute.

Most of these experiences come from the creative collective of the first "model opera" Peking Opera "Putting the Tiger Mountain Outward". It had a great influence on the later "model opera" and the drama creation for a long time.

The successive appearance of "model operas" dominated and even monopolized the stage of China drama. Under the high-pressure politics, learning to transplant "model operas" has become the central work of the drama industry; "Learning to sing revolutionary model operas" has almost become a top priority in the political and cultural life of the people of the whole country; In a short time, "model opera" has been "popularized" in the vast urban and rural areas.

What enlightenment can we get from reviewing the China Opera Reform Movement since the second half of the 20th century?

First, this period advocated that literature and art were subordinate to politics. Therefore, literary and artistic works can only be political propaganda materials forever. From 1949 to 1976, there are only a handful of plays with performance value now, which is the reason. Affected by this reason, drama creators and critics have formed a psychological stereotype: simply thinking, processing and evaluating drama themes from the political and sociological perspectives, which has affected the development and deepening of the aesthetic level of drama works.

Secondly, leading and guiding drama work by administrative means can make the improvement of drama a unified action, but on the other hand, it also restricts the development of drama art itself. Since its birth, China's traditional operas have never swayed so frequently with the changes of politics and policies. Especially when it is manipulated by political careerists, it brings great disaster not only to the drama itself, but also to the whole social civilization.

Thirdly, the vigorous promotion of modern drama has restored the literary creation of drama to its proper position, but due to the influence of cultural absolutism for a period of time, the subjective consciousness of drama has not really returned; The putting forward of creative slogans such as "Three Highlights" has completely lost this subjective consciousness.

Fourthly, many basic principles of China's traditional opera paradigm were forcibly broken through during the Cultural Revolution. Although this breakthrough is a by-product of cultural absolutism, it is beneficial for China traditional operas to overcome the crisis caused by deformity. The practice in this period successfully solved the long-standing controversial "theory" problems, such as "genre", "specialty" and "project". Especially in music (such as the addition of western musical instruments), stage art, performance and other aspects of experience, for later drama creation to provide reference.

Fifth, "model operas" can travel all over the country. In addition to the role of high-handed politics, the familiarity of Beijing opera language is irreplaceable by operas in other parts of the country.

Sixth, although the creative model of "model opera" and "three combinations" is not desirable, it has concentrated a group of top talents in drama literature, director, performance, music and dance beauty, and formed a relatively perfect creative collective. Qi Xin's concerted efforts in tackling key problems and long-term tempering have inspired us.

Wait a minute.

Summarizing the positive and negative experiences of China's drama reform movement since liberation, we may ask a question: If we abandon all the mistakes in this stage of drama reform and absorb all the successful experiences, can we solve the problems faced by drama in contemporary society and make it rejuvenate?

Our answer is no.

Because with the end of this period, China society began to enter a new historical period. In this new period, many new qualitative changes have taken place in China society. Traditional Chinese opera can still exist as a traditional drama paradigm, but as a generation of drama, it is coming to an end; As the mainstream of drama of the times, China Opera has completed its historical mission.