What are the types and characteristics of China's plays?

China is an ancient country with a history of thousands of years. In this long history, many things were born for the nobles to play. Drama can be said to be a pearl in the history of China, with more than 300 kinds of dramas passed down to this day. Then, this drama culture introduces the most famous types and characteristics of China's dramas.

Pingju:

Popular in Beijing, Tianjin, North China and Northeast provinces, it originated from the Lotus Fall in the east of Hebei, and was formed by absorbing and developing musical performances such as Peking Opera, Hebei Bangzi, Shadow Play and Drum. After this kind of drama entered the city from the countryside, it performed many new plays under the influence of drama and Beijing opera, and was good at expressing the lives of ordinary people. Lyrics are easy to understand, singing is colloquial, words are clear and easy to understand, and life is strong.

It ranks among the top five operas in China. Some people think it is the second largest drama in China. In the late Qing Dynasty, it was formed on the basis of the ditty "Lotus Falls Opposite" in Luanxian County, Hebei Province. It was first popular in rural areas of Hebei province, and then entered Tangshan, and was called "Tangshan Xiazi". It was popular in Northeast China around the 1920s, and a number of actresses appeared. After 1930s, under the influence of Peking Opera and Hebei Bangzi, the performance of Pingju became more and more mature, and schools such as "Bai", "Bai", "Picking Lotus" and "Ai Lianjun" appeared.

After 1950, the plays such as Little Son-in-law, Liu Qiaoer, Flowers as Media, Yang Sanjie's Complaining, Qin Xianglian and so on had great influence in the whole country, and new, famous, famous actors appeared. Pingju is still popular in North China and Northeast China. Pingju is divided into East Road and West Road, with East Road as the main one. On May 20th, 2006, Pingju was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.

The artistic characteristics of Pingju are: good singing, clear articulation, easy singing, clear singing, strong life flavor and cordial folk flavor. Its form is lively and free, and it is best at expressing the life of contemporary people, so it has a large audience in both cities and villages.

The aria of Pingju Opera is a banqiang, which consists of adagio, Erliu board, crib board and scattered board. After liberation, remarkable achievements have been made in the innovation of Pingju music, singing and performance, especially in changing the shortcomings of poor male voices, and male voices have made new creations. Although its performing arts absorbed the form and program of Bangzi and Peking Opera, and once appeared the tendency of Peking Opera, it still maintained the characteristics of lively folk, freedom and rich flavor of life.

It is a tradition in Ju Ping to be good at expressing real life. After the Revolution of 1911, Cheng adapted Complaints, Black Cat Complaints, Shooting at Luo Long and Shooting at Luo Hu according to the local news creation, which basically established the feature that Pingju mainly plays modern dramas.

In the early stage, there were only male and female roles in Pingju, and then it gradually developed into three plays: life, Dan and ugliness. Influenced by Bangzi and Peking Opera, it has increased its business, including Tsing Yi, Hua Dan, Lao Dan, Xiao Sheng, Lao Dan and Clowns, and finally developed into a full-service drama such as Tsing Yi, Hua Dan, Lao Dan, Cai Dan, Xiao Sheng, Laosheng, Hualien and Little Hualien.

Peking Opera:

The most influential and representative drama that is popular all over the country. Its predecessor was Hui Diao, commonly known as Pihuang Opera, which was once called "Pingju" and later renamed Beijing Opera. In the performance, we pay equal attention to singing and dancing, integrate martial arts skills, use virtual movements, have a strong sense of rhythm, and create many programmed performance movements. When singing, pay attention to articulation and intonation, and recite with a sense of music. It has its own Peking Opera art system in singing, reading, doing and playing, which has a great influence on operas all over the country.

After the formation of Peking Opera, it began to develop rapidly in the Qing court until the Republic of China. Peking Opera has spread all over the world and become an important medium to introduce and spread China's traditional art and culture. It is distributed all over China with Beijing as the center. 20 10,10, 16, Peking Opera was listed in the "Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity".

The four artistic skills of Beijing opera performance: singing, reading, doing and playing are also the four basic skills of Beijing opera performance. Singing refers to singing, while reciting refers to musical chanting, which complement each other and form a "song", which is one of the two major elements of the performing arts of singing, dancing and Peking Opera. Doing refers to the body movements, fighting and tumbling skills of dance, which are combined with each other to form a "dance", which is one of the two major elements of the performing arts of song, dance and Beijing opera.

Through the long-term stage practice of countless artists, the stage art of Peking Opera has formed a set of standardized and standardized programs, which restrict and complement each other in literature, performance, music, singing, gongs and drums, makeup and facial makeup. As an artistic means to create a stage image, it is very rich and its usage is very strict. If you can't master these programs, you can't complete the creation of Beijing opera stage art.

Because Beijing Opera entered the court at the beginning of its formation, its development and growth are different from local operas. It is required to show a wider range of life, create more types of characters, be more comprehensive and complete in skills, and have higher aesthetic requirements for its stage image. Of course, it also weakens its folk local flavor, and its simple and rude style is relatively weak.

Therefore, its performing arts tend to combine reality with reality, which goes beyond the limitation of stage space and time to the maximum extent, thus achieving the artistic realm of "expressing the spirit with form and having both form and spirit". The performance requires exquisiteness and exquisiteness, and it is everywhere; It is required to sing melodiously and euphemistically, and the voice is full of emotion; Martial arts is not won by bravery, but by "singing martial arts".

Yue Opera:

One of the most popular local operas in Jiangnan. Originated in Zhejiang where the ancient Yue State is located, it is called Yue Opera, which has a history of 70 or 80 years and developed from the rap art of "singing books on the ground". Yue Opera is good at lyricism, focusing on singing, with clear and beautiful voice and beautiful performance. It is really moving and has a strong local color in the south of the Yangtze River.

Yue Opera is good at expressing emotion, focusing on singing, with beautiful voice, real and moving performance, beautiful and elegant, and full of Jiangnan spirit; Most of them take "gifted scholars and beautiful women" as the theme, and there are many artistic schools, among which thirteen are recognized. Mainly popular in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian, Jiangxi, Anhui and other southern regions, as well as most northern regions such as Beijing and Tianjin. In its heyday, except for Tibet, Guangdong, Guangxi and a few other provinces and regions, there were professional theatrical troupes all over the country.

Some people think that Yue Opera is the "biggest local opera" and it is called "China Opera" abroad. It is also one of the five major operas in China. Originated in Shengzhou, Zhejiang, originated in Shanghai, flourished in the whole country and spread to the world. During its development, it absorbed the achievements of Kunqu opera, traditional Chinese opera and Shao opera, and experienced the historical evolution from men's Yue opera to women's Yue opera.

The aria of the school of Yue Opera consists of two parts: tune and singing. In the organization of melody, each school has its own unique techniques, and forms its own basic style through the changes of melody, rhythm and rigid eyes. In particular, the beginning tone, falling tone, drawling between sentences, ending of sentences, and the repeatedly changing melody and idiomatic sounds are the core and key to embody the artistic characteristics of various schools of singing.

In singing methods, most of them focus on lyrics, aria, singing feelings and other aspects to show their unique personality, and form different charm beauty through the changes of voice, timbre and embellishment. Some nuances, including many special singing forms that are difficult to contain and record in detail, can better reflect the different colors of various schools.

In terms of performance, first, draw lessons from the performance methods of drama and film to truly and meticulously depict the characters' personality and psychological activities; The second is to learn the beautiful dances and routines of Kunqu Opera and Peking Opera. Based on the creation of new roles, the actors have gradually formed a unique style of combining freehand brushwork with realism. In stage art, three-dimensional scenery, colorful lights, acoustics and oil painting pigments are used for makeup, and clothing styles are specially designed in combination with the plot. The soft and elegant colors and materials have become an organic part of the artistic style of the play.

Hebei Bangzi:

An important branch of China Bangzi Tune was formed in the light years of the Qing Dynasty (1821-1850) and entered a prosperous period in the early years of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty. Hebei Bangzi is not only good at expressing historical themes, but also can reflect real life well. In the stage art, no matter in music, performance and stage art, there have been great changes and obvious improvements, thus adding clear, vigorous, gorgeous and euphemistic features to Hebei Bangzi.

It is popular in Hebei, Tianjin, Beijing and parts of Shandong, Henan and Shanxi, and has become one of the most influential Han operas in northern China. In its heyday, Hebei Bangzi was also introduced to the three northeastern provinces of China, the Jianghuai region and Russian and Mongolian nationalities.

After Shaanxi Bangzi flowed into Hebei, in the long-term performance process, in order to win the appreciation of the local people, according to the local language habits and tastes, the art was constantly reformed and created, especially the localization of successors and professional groups. Among the actors, Hebei people gradually increased, which was an important factor leading to the change of Shanshan Bangzi. During the Daoguang period, Shanshan Bangzi, who had been active in Hebei for a long time, gradually developed into an early Hebei Bangzi.

Hebei Bangzi singing is divided into three lines: life, Dan and ugliness. Xiao sheng and Wu sheng, who belong to the live line, basically sing along with the old students instead of adagio; Hua Dan, Beijing Opera Blues, Cai Dan and Lao Dan all belong to Danxing, singing Tsing Yi and rarely singing Adagio. The network cable has a set of self-contained basic boards, including flexible board, sharp board and running water, but it is not complete; Ugly behavior also has its own set of vocals, except adagio.

Male and female voices sing on the same stage, and it is more difficult for actors to sing. The positive tune singing method is fine-tuning, and the anti-tune singing method is Gongdiao. Four or five big jumps in singing are the outstanding characteristics of melody. Special skills such as "jaw cough", "spout" and "smashing rammer" are emphasized in the singing, which sounds impassioned.

High-pitched, vigorous, generous and sad are the inherent style characteristics of Hebei Bangzi singing, which belongs to banqiang. The singing is loud and intense, and he is good at expressing generous grief and indignation. The main boards are adagio, Erliu board, running board, sharp board, crying board and various lead boards and take-up boards.

There are more than 500 Hebei Bangzi plays, most of which are from Shanshan Bangzi, and some of them are transplanted from Beijing Opera, High-pitched Opera, Sixian Opera, Shenze Pendant Opera, Hahaha Opera, etc. In addition, there are more than 100 fashion dramas, which are the products of the joint performance of Bangchun (Erguotou), but most of them have not been handed down.

Huangmei opera:

Anhui local opera, formerly known as Huangmei tune or tea-picking opera. Popular in parts of Anhui, Jiangxi and Hubei, it is a folk song and dance based on Huangmei tea picking. At first, he was good at performing "two plays" and "three plays". Later, influenced by Qingyang opera and Huizhou tune, he gradually developed into a complete drama. Its singing retains the true colors of folk songs, euphemistically moving, and maintains the characteristics of singing and dancing in performance, with a strong flavor of life.

Huangmei opera is euphemistic and fresh, which can be divided into two categories: coloratura and Pingci. The coloratura is dominated by small fights, full of rich flavor of life and folk songs, and commonly used such as "Hushe" and "Feeding", such as "husband and wife watching the lights", "Blue Bridge Society" and "playing pig grass". Pingci, the most important aria in the original drama, is often used for long narration and lyricism, which sounds euphemistic and melodious, including butterfly lovers and The Fairy Couple.

Modern Huangmei Opera enhances the expressive force of "Pingci" singing in music. Pingci is often used for lyric and narrative, and is the main singing of the original drama. It broke through the limitations of some "coloratura" special play, absorbed the musical elements such as folk songs, and created a new cavity that was integrated with traditional singing. Huangmei Opera, with Gao Hu as the main accompaniment instrument, supplemented by other national musical instruments and gongs and drums, is suitable for performing plays with various themes.

Huangmei Opera is famous for its lyricism, charm and beauty. Its singing is flowing, euphemistic, fresh and delicate, touching, rich in local flavor, easy to understand and popularize, and deeply loved by people everywhere. The aria of Huangmei Opera is a plate variant, which has three major cavity systems: coloratura, coloratura and main melody. The coloratura is dominated by small plays, with healthy and simple tunes, lively and beautiful performances, lively and cheerful forms, and strong flavor of life and folk songs.

The popularity of Huangmei Opera is reflected in the pursuit of maximizing the audience and seeking more tastes. As an actor, it is not easy to make many audiences say "good-looking". The performance of Huangmei Opera is based on life, which absorbs the vitality and vivid skills in traditional Chinese opera programs and has a wide audience.

Popularization is a concept that conforms to the changes of the times. A hundred years ago, the "public" and today's "public" have different tastes in appreciating art. Therefore, the popularity of Huangmei Opera's performing arts must be developed and progressive.