Comparison between Chinese Opera and Western Drama

Chinese opera art, as a part of theater art, has the same characteristics of theater, but also because of its unique means of expression and unique aesthetic characteristics, which is different from other forms of theater. In particular, the art of opera is y rooted in the traditional culture of the Chinese nation, with distinctive national characteristics, full of a "like and unlike" of the writing, the expression of the aesthetic mood as the highest artistic pursuit, belonging to an expressive synthesis of the arts, with its unique artistic style in the world of theater art is unique. Chinese opera has a special meaning of ancient oriental culture. Opera is a unique form of drama created by the Chinese nation. It is a comprehensive form of drama centered on singing, reciting, acting and playing. "Singing" refers to singing, opera singing generally has a fixed song plate as well as plate style, such as the guide plate, slow plate, fast plate, etc. in Peking Opera. "Nian" refers to speech, which is catchy, staccato and very moving. "Do" refers to the performance, the stance, work frame, such as the whole crown, beard, trip horse, etc. have a fixed program. "Fight" refers to martial arts, there are a variety of routines. In short, Chinese opera mixed martial arts, talking and singing, singing and dancing, and Western theater to form a fundamental difference.

I. Different performance forms. Comparatively speaking, the Western theater is relatively simple in the elements of performance, while the Eastern theater is diversified in the elements of performance. Because the earliest form of theater art is a combination of song and dance, theater was originally produced from the ritual dance, but the Western theater in the development process no longer have a combination of song and dance form: or rely on the lines of the "drama"; or only song without dance "opera The "opera" is a form of song and dance, and the "ballet" is a form of dance without song. The separation of song and dance became a feature of Western theater. In contrast, Oriental theater retains the ancient tradition of combining song and dance. Almost without exception, Chinese opera, the typical representative type of Oriental theater, contains the elements of singing, reciting, acting, and playing. If you have ever watched the Peking Opera "Fishing and Killing Families" or the Chinese Opera "Flowers for Matchmakers", it is easy to realize this feature when you close your eyes and think about it. In fact, from the name "opera", we can also see that "opera" refers to the dance and movement, and "song" refers to the singing part. "Song and dance have become an integral part of Chinese theater. The same is true of Japanese Kabuki and Indian Sanskrit theater, which are also from the East.

Two, the aesthetic grasp of reality is different. Oriental theater focuses on "writing", Western theater focuses on "realistic". "Realistic" refers to the stage from the performance to the set, all to make the people watching the play feel like the real form of life, like "Thunderstorm" and other classic plays of the set and sound are close to the form of life. The "writing" is a characteristic of oriental culture, it does not pursue the form of realism, but emphasis on the expression of the mood, which is a wonderful place of the opera, on the stage of the opera, take a whip dance means riding a horse Mercedes Benz; and run a circle even if you walk through the ten miles eight miles or even thousands of miles; four dragons on behalf of the army of thousands of horses, and so on. It seems to be a bit like when people were young, riding a bamboo pole as if on a high horse, it is a highly imaginative creation. This kind of not seeking to reproduce life, but with highly refined, exaggerated, embellished to achieve God-like way, breaking the limitations of time and space, expanding the field of expression of life, bringing the audience to the colorful life association, so that people get a high degree of artistic enjoyment. Another uniqueness is the programmatic nature of opera. The so-called program refers to the rules and regulations, that is, no matter singing, reciting, doing or playing, there is a program. How to get up, how to walk, there is a routine for sparring, there are rules for throwing sleeves, and there are rules for crying in Dan's role, laughing in Xiaosheng's role, huafen's furious "wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. It is in the rules of the program that the actors play their respective skills and talents.