Who can introduce Kunqu opera?

Kunqu Opera is an ancient drama in China. Originally referred to as Kunshan Opera or Kunqu Opera. It has been called Kunqu Opera since the Qing Dynasty, and it is also called Kunqu Opera now. The accompaniment instruments of Kunqu Opera are mainly Sheng, Xiao, Suona, Sanxian and Pipa (percussion instruments can be used). The performance of Kunqu Opera also has its own unique system and style. Its greatest characteristics are strong lyricism, delicate movements and ingenious and harmonious combination of song and dance.

Historical position

Kunqu Opera is one of the oldest traditional operas in China, and it is also the treasure of traditional culture and art in China, especially the opera art. It is called the "Orchid" in the Hundred Flowers Garden. From the mid-Ming Dynasty to the mid-Qing Dynasty, many of the most influential vocal operas were developed on the basis of Kunqu Opera, and were known as the "mother of China operas". Kunqu Opera is a kind of opera with the most complete performance system in the history of China opera. It has a deep foundation and rich heritage. It is the result of the high development of China's national culture and art, and occupies an important position in the history of China's literature, drama, music and dance. This kind of opera was named as "masterpiece of oral and intangible heritage of mankind" by UNESCO on May 65, 20001year, which is precious to all mankind.

The name of Qu's work (Qu) is composed of

The music of Kunqu Opera belongs to the antithetical couplet structure, referred to as "Qupai Style". According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 1000 kinds of qupai used, including ancient song and dance music, Daqu and Ci tune in Tang and Song Dynasties, aria and Zhu Gong tune in Song Dynasty, folk songs and ethnic minority songs. Based on Nanqu, it composes music by means of "breaking the tune", "borrowing the palace" and "picking songs" with the number of sets of Beiqu.

develop

As early as the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty (65438+the middle of the 4th century), Kunshan cavity appeared in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province. It, Haiyan Opera originated in Zhejiang, Yu Yaoqiang Opera originated in Jiangxi and Yiyang Opera are also called the four major operas in Ming Dynasty, belonging to the Southern Opera system.

Kunshan dialect began as a folk song ditty. At first, its distribution area was limited to Suzhou. During the Wanli period, Suzhou spread to the south of the Yangtze River and the north of Qiantang River, and gradually spread to Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Henan and Hebei, and also flowed into Beijing at the end of the Wanli period. In this way, Kunshan Opera became the most influential vocal opera from the middle of Ming Dynasty to the middle of Qing Dynasty.

Artistic feature

Kunqu opera, as a kind of drama that once had a great influence in the whole country, can be miraculously revived after suffering, which is closely related to its superb artistic charm, and its artistic achievements are first manifested in its music.

Kunqu opera has beautiful lines and melodies, and is good at touching and feminine. In singing skills, we pay attention to the control of sound, the ups and downs of rhythm and speed, the articulation and pronunciation, and the complete accompaniment of the scene.

"Water mill cavity". This new tune has established the singing characteristics of Kunqu opera, which is fully reflected in the slow tune (that is, the "fine tune") of Nanqu. It is embodied in slowing down the beat and delaying the rhythm in order to use more decorative coloratura in the melody. In addition to the usual one-sided and one-sided approach, there is also a kind of "free board tune", that is, the tune of 4/4 beat is slowed down to 8/4, and the tone is soft and euphemistic.

Relatively speaking, the voice and emotion of Beiqu tend to be ups and downs and bold, with strong jumping ability. It uses a seven-tone scale, which is different from the five-tone scale used in Nanqu (basically no semitone). However, during the long-term absorption of Beiqu, Kunshan Opera gradually merged the characteristics of the original Beiqu into a "Nanqu" singing style. Therefore, in Kunqu opera, Beiqu is used as a complete set, and there are also singles and "the combination of North and South".

The application of "North-South Combination" is very distinctive: generally speaking, the Northern Song Dynasty is sung by one role, while the Southern Song Dynasty is sung by several different roles. The combination of these songs is entirely based on the plot, so that music can obey the needs of drama as perfectly as possible.

According to the changes of the North-South songs themselves, there are many techniques such as "borrowing the palace", "breaking the tune" and "picking songs". The original set of songs, regardless of the North and South songs, has the problem of songs belonging to that palace tune. When singing songs needs to obviously change the mood, the songs in the same palace tune are not competent, so you can borrow suitable songs in other palace tunes. For example, in Peony Pavilion, the qupai used successively are [goat] (up-regulated), [mountain peach red] (Yuediao), [Bao Lao Cui] (Huang Zhonggong) and [Miandai Flour] (Yuediao).

In singing skills, Kunqu pays attention to the control of sound, rhythm and pronunciation speed, with the distinction of "gap", "overlap", "sigh" and "wow" and the individual singing methods of various roles. In addition to the slow beat of four beats, the slow beat of music is slowed down by two beats by the "gift board" in Nanqu, and it also includes the three-eye board, one-eye board, running board and scattered board commonly used in Nanqu and Nanqu. There are many changes in their actual singing, and everything is subject to the plot and the emotions that the role should have.

The instruments of Kunqu Opera are relatively complete, generally composed of wind instruments, stringed instruments and percussion instruments. The main musical instruments are flutes, as well as sheng, xiao, sanxian and pipa. Due to the soft-voiced flute as the main accompaniment instrument, the extensive use of gift boards, the way of pronouncing words at the abdomen and tail, and its own "beautiful" characteristics influenced by Wuzhong folk songs, Kunqu music has been crowned as the "graceful charm, singing and sighing" pear garden for hundreds of years. Accompaniment has many playing cards, which are suitable for different occasions and later used by many operas.

The music of Kunqu Opera belongs to the antithetical couplet structure, referred to as "Qupai Style". There are more than 1000 kinds of qupai used in it. The sources of North and South Qupai include not only ancient song and dance music, Daqu and Ci tune in Tang and Song Dynasties, singing and earning in Song Dynasty, but also folk songs and ethnic minority songs. Based on Nanqu, it composes music by means of "breaking the tune", "borrowing the palace" and "picking songs" with the number of sets of Beiqu. In addition, there are many religious songs.

The performance of Kunqu Opera has a set of rigorous "singing and dancing" performance forms.

The biggest feature of Kunqu Opera performance is its strong lyricism, delicate movements and ingenious and harmonious combination of song and dance. Kunqu opera is a comprehensive art with various performing means such as singing, dancing, quotation and dialogue. In the long-term performance history, the performance characteristics of singing and dancing have been formed, especially in the performance image of each role. Its dance forms can be roughly divided into two types: one is an auxiliary gesture when speaking, and the other is a freehand dance developed from gestures; One is lyric dance with lyrics, which is not only a superb dance action, but also an effective means to express the characters' hearts and lyrics.

The traditional dance of Kunqu Opera has absorbed and inherited the traditions of ancient folk dance and court dance in many aspects. Through long-term stage performance practice, I have accumulated rich experience in the close combination of rap and dance, adapted to the needs of performance venues for narrative scenery writing, and created many dance performances that emphasize description, and cooperated with "drama" to become a story-telling drama. Adapted to the needs of performance venues with strong lyricism and action, he created many lyric dance performances and became the main performance means of many single-fold lyric song and dance dramas. Representative plays such as Xichuan Tu Lu Hua Dang, Zhongjingji Sweeping the Qin Dynasty, Treading on the Moon Pavilion, The Story of the Sword Running at Night, Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, Tiger Bag Playing the Mountain Pavilion, etc.

The intonation of Kunqu opera is also very distinctive. Because Kunqu Opera was developed from Wuzhong, its pronunciation has the characteristics of Wu Nong's soft language. Among them, clowns also have a local white based on Wu dialect, such as Su Bai and Yangzhou Bai. This kind of street language in Wuzhong area has a strong flavor of life, and allegro rhyme is often used, which is very distinctive. In addition, the singing of Kunqu Opera has extremely strict norms in pronunciation, linear cavity and rhythm, forming a complete singing theory.

The stage art of Kunqu opera includes three aspects: rich clothing styles, exquisite colors and decorations, and the use of Facebook.

In addition to inheriting the costume styles of opera figures since the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, some costumes of Kunqu Opera are very similar to those popular in the society at that time. Reflected in the play, military commanders have their own military uniforms, and civil servants also have different costumes according to the class level of feudal society. Facebook is used for clean and ugly lines. Very few people who belong to Saint and Dan occasionally use them, such as the Monkey King (Saint) and (Dan), whose colors are basically red, white and black.

After years of running-in processing, Kunqu Opera has formed a fairly perfect system, and this system has long occupied a unique position in China opera. Therefore, Kunqu Opera is known as the "ancestor of hundreds of operas", which has a far-reaching influence on the development of the whole opera. Many local operas have absorbed its artistic nutrients to varying degrees, and some of them also have Kunqu opera.

Cosplay

Because the early Kunqu opera belongs to the southern opera system, it inherits the role system of the southern opera and absorbs the advantages of the northern zaju, with seven basic roles: life, Dan, Jing, Ugliness, Externality and Stickiness. The early work "Huansha Ji" embodies the role branching method in the early stage of Kunqu Opera, that is, it not only follows the seven lines of Nan Opera, but also draws lessons from the setting methods of Xiao Mo and Xiao Dan in Yuan Zaju, and even more.

During the prosperous period of Kunqu Opera in the late Ming Dynasty, the Ming version of The Legend of Mohanzhai changed the original role of "Tie" to "Lao Dan", and also absorbed the branching method of Yuan Zaju. Other roles are basically the same as those in the early stage of Kunqu Opera. During the reign of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, the role business of Kunqu opera basically maintained the system of "twelve roles in rivers and lakes".

During the Qianlong period, Kunqu opera was the most prosperous, the performing arts were further improved, and the role-playing system for portraying characters also made a new breakthrough. There are "Twelve Characters in Rivers and Lakes" in Yangzhou Painting Boat Record. They are: deputy, old student, regular student, foreigner, big face, two faces and three faces, which are called "male roles"; Lao Dan, Zheng Dan, Xiao Dan and Tie Dan are called "female roles"; Another person was slapped and called "Za". Later, in southern Kunqu opera, it evolved into the main roles of Xiao Sheng and Dan Jiao, so the division of these two branches was more detailed. Primary schools are divided into five categories: big official students, small official students, towel students, shoe students (poor students) and pheasant students. Dan stars are divided into six categories: Lao Dan, Zheng Dan, Zuo Dan (who can play a boy), Stan (who kills Dan), Wu Dan (a girl) and Liu Dan (with Dan). But each Kunqu school has its own category.

With the development of performing arts, the role division in Kunqu opera is becoming more and more detailed. Between Jia and Tao, the role business of Kunqu opera combines the original "twelve roles of rivers and lakes" with the finer division of labor that appeared later. Under the five major undertakings of "health, Dan, cleanliness and ugliness", it is subdivided into twenty small lines, which are called "Twenty Houses".

In the family of Sheng, it is divided into official students, towel students, shoe students and pheasant students to play different roles. Officials and students play adult men who have become officials, and they are divided into big and small officials because of their age and status. For example, Wang Ming in the Tang Dynasty in "The Palace of Eternal Life" and Li Bai in "The Story of Taibai Drunkenness" were all starred by senior officials. The Wang He in Biography of Chai Jing and the Goldfinch are all played by low-ranking officials. The performances of official students and towel students are different: towel students play a romantic and elegant young scholar, clear and elegant, and singing requires a combination of true and false voices, with a loud falsetto and crisp and pleasant voice; Officials and students should be free and easy, and the style of big officials and students should be rich. In singing, they are also a combination of true and false voices, but the true voice falls in a higher range than when the towel is used, and the beauty is loud.

Danhang Airlines is divided into Lao Dan, Zheng Dan, Zuo Dan, Sidan, wudan and Liu Dan. But in fact, there is another one, * * * is seven doors.

Zheng Dan generally plays married women with low status, such as Zhao Wuniang in Pipa, Dou E in Golden Lock and Zhang Sangu in Langya Dan. Zheng Dan pays attention to simplicity and generosity in performance, and in singing, the spewing nozzle should have greater strength, bright and generous timbre, and the volume is also required. Zheng Dan's plays are quite rich, and all kinds of roles he plays have distinct characteristics, which provides a broad performance space for actors.

In addition, the network cable is divided into big face and white face, and the big face mask is mainly red and black, so there is a saying of "seven red, eight black and three monks"; Most white faces play villains. In addition to eye lines, the whole face is coated with white powder, which is usually divided into mink white powder, pleated white powder and shirt white powder. White flour sometimes plays a positive role, or it doesn't matter whether it is good or bad, and sometimes it plays a female role. There is also a sparse white flour separated from the white flour line. In addition to white powder, add some black lines to the corners of the eyes and nasal fossa, hence the name. Most of them play third-rate roles, close to the role of gag.

The last line is subdivided into old students, old students and foreigners. Students in the old Kunqu Opera are both civil and military, such as Lin Chong in The Sword and Qin Qiong in Qilin Pavilion. The beard left at the end of the foot also changed from black to white, just like the old one.

Ugly behavior is divided into vice (also known as "two sides") and ugliness. The difference is that the white face of the vice is painted on both sides of the eyes, while the ugly face is only painted in the middle of the eyes. The assistant often wears pleats, palace clothes and robes, and the ugly often wears short clothes.

There was no such business in Nan Opera and Yuan Zaju before Kun Opera. Because of the appearance of the "vice" line, Kunqu Opera extended the performance scope of ugliness to the gentry in the upper class. Most players are dishonest literati, treacherous court officials, unruly people, vicious litigators, and bangxian films. The same characteristics of these characters are treachery and malice, and their appearances are different. They emphasize their cold side in the performance, which is the so-called "cold water two sides".

Ugly behavior is also called "little flower face" because of its small white face, and "three flower faces" because it is arranged behind two faces. Most of the roles played are low social status or funny and lovely, such as Dr. Cha in Finding Relatives and Wan Jiachun in Fisherman's Music. The ugly feet of Kunqu Opera are both civil and military, and sometimes they perform martial arts and play heavy character plays.

Ugly behavior, like two faces, can also play women, such as Zhan Aijuan, the youngest daughter who made a kite mistake, and Aunt Zhang in the story. Ugly feet also play villains, such as Lou Rat in Fifteen Biographies.

Another "miscellaneous" line of all kinds of mass characters refers to all kinds of mass characters without surnames in the play, such as coachman, boatman, umbrella man, leader, eunuch, maid-in-waiting, walk-on, etc., which are usually not considered as home.

Traditional Kunqu professional class clubs generally only need eighteen actors, commonly known as "eighteen clean towels", and only a few large class clubs have twenty-seven actors. Generally speaking, a class club can perform as long as it has ten complete doors, and other roles can be replaced by actors close to their own doors. These ten basic doors are called the "Top Ten Colleges", which are: clean, official, towel, old, late, positive, fifth, sixth, secondary and ugly. Among them, the four doors that can determine the performance quality are: net, old students, official students and Zheng Dan.

All walks of life in Kunqu Opera have formed their own set of performance procedures and skills. These stylized action languages have formed a complete and unique performance system of Kunqu opera in depicting characters, expressing their psychological state, rendering drama and enhancing appeal.

procedure

In the long-term performance practice, Kunqu opera has accumulated a large number of stage plays. Among them, Wang Shizhen's Feng Mingji, Tang Xianzu's Peony Pavilion, Zi Chai Ji, Han Han's Han Han Ji, Conan Ji, Shen Jing's Yi, etc. There are also Hosta, Kite Mistake by Li Yu, Fifteen Passes by Zhu, Peach Blossom Fan by Kong, Palace of Eternal Life by Hong Sheng, and other famous passbook dramas, such as Dream in the Garden, Yangguan, Sanzui and Qiu Jiang.

Kunqu opera characters

Yu Zhenfei is an outstanding Kunqu artist. He has a certain accomplishment in ancient literature and is proficient in poetry and calligraphy. He not only studied Kunqu Opera, but also performed Beijing Opera. Therefore, he can integrate the performing arts of Beijing and Kunming to form a refined, elegant and strong style, especially his "bookish spirit". His representative festival is highly respected at home and abroad, including Li Bai in Taibai Drunk Writing. Liu Mengmei in A Dream in the Garden; Tang Huangming in Adventure and Jade Burying; Pan Bi is in Qin Daluo; Wen Jun is in Bayang; Xu Xian and others in Broken Bridge are lifelike.

Kunqu opera is also called Kunqu opera. This play was named "masterpiece of oral and intangible heritage of mankind" by UNESCO on May 8, 2006.

Kunqu Opera has a long history. It originated in Kunshan at the end of Yuan Dynasty and has a history of more than 600 years. Since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, China's operas have been divided into north and south, and their singing styles are different from place to place. At the end of Yuan Dynasty, Gu Jiegang and others sorted out and improved the original tune of Nanqu, which was popular in Kunshan, and called it "Kunshan tune", which was the embryonic form of Kunqu opera. During Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty, Wei Liangfu, an outstanding opera musician, reformed and innovated the melody and singing method of Kunshan tune, absorbing the advantages of southern tune such as Haiyan and Yiyang, giving full play to the characteristics of Kunshan tune and absorbing the rigorous structure of northern tune. Using the singing method of North Tune, accompanied by flute, flute, sheng, pipa and other accompaniment instruments, a refined and elegant Shuimo Tune was created. By the end of Wanli, due to the extensive performance activities of Kunban, Kunqu was introduced to Beijing and Hunan through Yangzhou, ranking first among all kinds of operas, and became the standard aria of legendary scripts: "Songs from all directions should be directed at Wumen". In the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, Kunqu Opera spread to Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangdong, and developed into a national opera. The singing of Kunqu Opera was originally based on Wu dialect in Suzhou, but after it was introduced to other places, it was combined with local dialects and folk music and evolved into many schools, forming a colorful Kunqu Opera system and becoming a representative drama of the whole nation. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the development of Kunqu opera entered its heyday. From then on, Kunqu Opera began to dominate the music scene, and lasted for six or seven hundred years, becoming the oldest existing traditional opera form in China and even the world.

Kunqu opera has beautiful lines and melodies, and is famous for its charm and gentleness. In singing skills, pay attention to the control of voice, the ups and downs of rhythm and speed, and pay attention to articulation and pronunciation. The live accompaniment music is complete, and the flute is the main instrument, which makes Kunqu music famous for its graceful charm and three sighs. Due to the all-round development of performing arts, the business of foot color is naturally more and more detailed. For example, old students are divided into deputy students, foreigners and old students; Xiao Sheng is divided into official students, Xiao Sheng and towel students; Divided into big face, white face, second face and small face; Dan is divided into Lao Dan, Zheng Dan, Zuo Dan, Assassination Dan, wudan, Liu Dan and Erdan. All the lines and colors form their own complete performance procedures in the performance. These stylized action languages have formed a complete and unique performance system of Kunqu Opera in depicting characters, expressing psychological feelings, rendering drama and enhancing appeal. As an independent drama, it has declined for a long time, but its artistic life is far from over. Beijing Opera, Yue Opera, Sichuan Opera, xiang opera Opera, Wu Opera, Qi Opera, Guangxi Opera, Liu Zi Opera, etc. They are all deeply influenced by it, and still retain some plays, voices and qupai of Kunqu Opera. Up to now, there are independent Kunqu Opera Troupes in Zhejiang, Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing and other places that continue to perform.