What is the form of drama?

Chinese opera: the sound is in the ear and the emotion is in the eye.

Drama, the traditional form of drama in China, is a folk stage art with plot as the main body and integrating song, dance and drama. It is an enduring wonderful work in China's ancient traditional culture, and a great creation of China's ancient laborers and opera artists.

China traditional opera originated from music and dance, Nuo opera and Bai opera in Qin and Han Dynasties. There was a drama of joining the army in the Tang Dynasty, and the Song Zaju (Jin said) was formed in the Northern Song Dynasty. The operas produced in Wenzhou during the Southern Song Dynasty are generally regarded as the earliest mature forms of China operas. At the end of the Jin Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, Yuan Zaju appeared in the north, and the creation and performance of traditional operas were unprecedentedly prosperous. A large number of playwrights, such as Guan Hanqing, Wang Shifu and Bai Pu, as well as opera works and artists deeply loved by the people appeared. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, legendary dramas were formed on the basis of traditional operas and zaju. Various local operas have also flourished, represented by Kunqu Opera and Peking Opera, creating rich opera literature and a complete stage art system.

The biggest feature of China's traditional opera art is that people are the core.

As we know, the basic features of China's traditional opera art are "emptiness" and "emptiness". The so-called "emptiness" and "emptiness" means that the stage performance is different from drama and opera, and there is basically no stage art and installation. The material reason for the formation of "empty stage art" in traditional opera performance is naturally the folk stage architecture of Sanguan. However, there is a deeper reason why China opera chose this "empty stage" performance mode, that is, China opera culture was inspired by China's traditional philosophy in its historical development. China's traditional opera art is an artistic practice that follows the life "Tao" of "making something out of nothing, but actually making something out of nothing". So it depends not on the limited small scenery and furnishings on the stage, but on "people". Therefore, although it contains many artistic factors, many artistic factors are centered on human performance.

Another feature of China's traditional opera art is to write feelings.

Li Yu, a literary theorist and drama critic in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, thought that the word "field" could not be found in the "outline" of drama. He also said that "feelings come from the inside, scenery comes from the outside" and that "beauty lies in creating feelings by printing scenery", and emphasized that "seven emotions exist in the Outline of the drama. In China's voluminous traditional opera works, there are many people who describe people's rich feelings. For example, Yang Jiajiang and Yue Jiajun in "Yang Men Xia" and "Wang Zuo Brokeback" resisted aggression, wave after wave, which reflected the patriotism of the Chinese nation's spiritual will; For example, Lin Chong, Lu, and Sean in Forced Prostitution, Wild Pig Forest, and Fisherman Killed Children are all angry and rebellious against feudal rule. Like Bao Zheng and Song Shijie in My Beauty Case and Four Sons, they are just and selfless, helping the small and saving the weak; For example, the White Snake Empress, Xu Xian, butterfly lovers, The Seven Fairys and Yong Dong in The Legend of the White Snake, butterfly lovers and The Fairy Couple show their sincere love for freedom and kindness and yearning for a better life. China traditional opera performances are often full of emotions on the stage, and the theater is also full of emotions. Father and son, mother and daughter, husband and wife, brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, teachers and students are happy, angry, sad, happy, crying, laughing, ashamed, charming, angry, crazy, angry, anxious, resentful, hateful, surprised and fearful.

The third feature of China's traditional opera art is that it attaches great importance to plot arrangement and structural layout.

First, when the story unfolds, the self-expression of the characters on the scene is adopted, which is called "making a watch" in the jargon. This is the uniqueness of China traditional opera. "Making a table" contains rich meanings: it summarizes the characters' personality characteristics, outlines their life experiences, explains the environment, reveals emotions, sets off the atmosphere, and even retells what happened ... More importantly, it also "enlightens" the layout of the whole play and plays the role of "explanation" and "start" in structure. Second, in the plot layout, we should pay attention to a way to make the audience understand and not let the people in the play understand. For example, when Baoyu got married in the Yue Opera Dream of Red Mansions, the audience knew that the bride was not Daiyu, but Baoyu didn't know, and he was in high spirits, which greatly strengthened the tragic effect of the play and hooked the hearts of the audience. Another example is the Peking Opera "Yangmen Woman", which made the audience understand from the beginning that the border was tight and Zongbao was killed, but the actors still didn't understand, which led to a series of plot developments such as "discovery", "mutation" and "sharp turn". The third is to fully mobilize the emotions of the audience and let them have a long wait and anxiety in their hearts. For example, the passbook drama "Eliminating Three Harms" is a typical example of using this method. When Ji Xun described the first injury to the beginning of the week, the audience was already emotionally prepared; When describing the second injury, the audience's mood showed a sudden change trend, but before the third injury appeared, Ji Xun stopped singing, and there was a pause of "moving" but "not happening immediately". The audience was very anxious at this sudden change moment. It is such a layout that even the audience who have seen it many times know what the third kind of harm is, but they will still be very anxious by the pause of "not happening immediately" and have been in a state of high spirits. Fourth, in the overall layout, it is often emphasized that there is a beginning and an end, the clues are simple, the ending is generally "happy", and the results of good and evil are clearly explained. All these have their artistic charm that cannot be underestimated.

In addition, the main feature of China traditional opera is its unique stage artistic expression, namely, comprehensiveness, technicality, formality, exaggeration and virtuality. It is precisely because of this unique form of expression that both personification in narrative and lyricism in expression are visible, audible and tangible objective existence, rather than complaining out of thin air or moaning.

The comprehensiveness of China traditional opera art far exceeds that of drama, opera and ballet. It is not only a visual art, but also an auditory art. Even through singing, telling the truth and "civil and military field" music (through broadcasting), the audience can understand the plot, the feelings of the characters and what the characters are thinking and doing.

Secondly, it is technical. A traditional China dramatist must have many talents. He (she) should not only have a good voice and singing skills like a singer, but also have a good tone, good sound quality and performance ability like a dramatist, a good figure like a dancer and strict basic dance skills, and even have the skillful skills like an acrobat and excellent kung fu like a martial artist.

The third is its form. The so-called procedure is to solidify some elements of the form and then follow them over and over again, that is, to organize, rhythm and beautify the artistic factors of opera. Chinese opera has a set of artistic expression procedures from creation to performance, from stage installation to costume and makeup, from literature to music, from vocal music to instrumental music, etc. Judging from the script creation, the main characters often play the introduction first, then read a poem, and then report on their own lives and so on. This technique is used in many plays, and in the long run, it forms a screenwriter's procedure. From the performance point of view, all kinds of characters and movements have corresponding specific purposes, almost all movements are standardized, and often accompanied by music gongs and drums. There are also appearances and confession programs. From the musical point of view, all kinds of boards and accents have certain norms, and any cavity used by emotions also has its basic norms. For example, sadness is expressed in the opposite tone, and when crying, it is expressed in the form of crying, great sorrow, crying for Maike and so on. , express feelings with adagio, narrative with 26, 28, the original board, etc. The connection between boards also has certain rules.

According to the requirements of Chinese opera programs, the roles of playing different roles are also called "trades". The so-called "business" refers to the different identities, ages, personalities and appearances of the characters in the play, as well as the different types of characters divided according to the different requirements of singing, reading, doing and playing in the performance, which are basically born, born, clean and ugly. The charm of China's traditional operas lies in the flexible use of "programs" and vivid shaping of "undertakings", and the full mobilization of artists' artistic factors and means such as singing, reading, doing and performing "four feats" and "five techniques", thus shaping one drama stage figure after another full of emotions on the stage.

The fourth is exaggeration. Generally speaking, all kinds of arts have the characteristics of exaggeration, but it is rare to see such bold exaggeration as China traditional opera. We can compare China's traditional opera with modern drama. It is not difficult to see that modern drama art expresses the inner or essential truth of life through vivid external images; On the other hand, China's traditional dramas express the inner or essential truth of life through approximate images. First of all, drama can emphasize and exaggerate an action, a paragraph and a plot, making it more prominent and vivid than real life. In the art of traditional Chinese opera, the truth of art can only be achieved by exaggeration that seems to violate the truth of life. Secondly, it refines and simplifies some plots and dialogues to make them shorter than real life. Its main purpose is to skip those plots that are not the main plot but must be explained in a few sentences and actions.

The fifth is virtuality. On the stage of China's traditional operas, no matter what theme is shown or what characters are portrayed, there is generally no need for a "set" on the stage, only a table and two chairs are needed, and there is no real three-dimensional set. In this way, the "life background" of the characters in traditional Chinese opera depends entirely on their actions. This kind of emptiness is arbitrary, smooth and natural, changeable in an instant and endless. As big as the mountain village, as small as a needle and a thread, it is entirely up to the artist's beautiful and natural movements to let the audience know and think of the "scene". This virtual "sign" and "symbol" reduces the visual distraction of the audience, so that they can completely concentrate on the character image, watch his (her) "doing" and "beating", listen to his (her) "singing" and "reading", and appreciate his (her) performance of the characters' emotions, fears, joys and sorrows, or sit or.

In a word, the unique form and artistic charm of China's traditional opera art are nothing more than characters, feelings, stories and unique artistic forms. People are the core, feelings are the theme, layout is the "organizational completion" of its charm, and fixed programs are its beautification chain. It is these unique things that make up the charm of China's traditional opera, which is "fascinating and fascinating" and "makes people feel the sound in their ears and the emotion in their eyes after watching it for a few days" (in the Chinese language of Li Yu's Essays).