What is the current survival status and development prospect of Henan Opera?

Henan Opera is the largest opera in Henan and one of the important operas in China. It is based on Henan dialect and has strong local characteristics in Henan. She is good at singing, studious and good at singing. The plot is easy to understand, and the whole is vulgar and elegant. She once performed in Hong Kong and was compared by the local media to the national opera Beijing Opera. "Peking Opera is a city girl and Henan Opera is a rural girl", which is very appropriate. It is precisely because of this that Henan opera is popular. Not only in this province, but also in the whole country and even overseas. And it was once the biggest play in China. No matter the number of troupes, the distribution of troupes, the number of actors and the number of performances, it has always been the first in the country.

And it is such an excellent traditional art, in this era of rapid economic growth and dramatic changes in thinking, what kind of living situation is it in? What is its development prospect?

With this question, I came to Zhengzhou and Kaifeng, Henan Province, with,,, and Xie for a two-week investigation of Henan Opera. By interviewing three troupes and people of all ages in Kaifeng, Zhengzhou, we made a questionnaire of ***6 17, and got a certain understanding of the present situation and development prospect of Henan Opera, which is divided into the following five aspects:

First of all, from the survival status and development prospects of Henan Opera Troupe to explain.

In China, there are two forms of troupe, one belongs to the government and the other belongs to the people. Belonging to the government, according to whether it is completely dependent on the government financially, it is divided into full supply and poor supply; Private enterprises can be divided into two types, one is a self-organized non-profit group, and the other is a profit-making troupe. During our internship, we interviewed three Henan Opera Troupes, one for the whole people, one for the poor and one for a non-profit organization. Now explain one by one:

First of all, Henan Henan Opera Troupe No.3 is a provincial-level troupe, which mainly rehearses modern dramas, is famous for its determination to reform, and enjoys a high reputation throughout the country. It belongs to the type of poor supply mentioned above, which in itself shows that the economic benefits of the three regiments are not good to some extent, and our interview also confirms this point. The economic benefit is not good, on the one hand, it is also the most fundamental one, because Henan opera, as a traditional drama, has weak competitiveness in the modern market, few performances and low performance income. Even provincial troupes are facing such difficulties, but the situation of other city troupes and county troupes is probably worse. On the other hand, it is also very important that Henan Opera Troupe, as an administrative department, is often the spokesman of the government, and it often spends a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources to publicize policies for the government, respond to current politics, and arrange plays with poor economic benefits but good social benefits, which increases the already heavy economic burden of the troupe. Therefore, how to balance social benefits and economic benefits has become an important issue in the development of troupe, but there is no recognized solution at present.

Recently, the state has also stepped up its reform efforts, urging provincial theatrical troupes such as the Henan Opera Third Troupe to come up with concrete reform measures. It is said that three provincial theatrical troupes will be merged and listed.

Let's talk about Zhengzhou Henan Opera House, which is a municipal troupe and belongs to the whole work. In 2000, it was formed by the merger of Zhengzhou Henan Opera Troupe and Zhengzhou Henan Opera Troupe II. At the same time, it also shows that the economic benefit of Zhengzhou Henan Opera Theatre is worse than that of Henan Henan Opera Troupe No.3, and it depends on the government's finance to "eat enough", which also depends on Zhengzhou's strong finance. If the economy is not affluent, its troupe will be in a bad situation. The reasons for its poor economic benefits are basically the same as those of the provincial troupe, but compared with the provincial troupe, the performance opportunities and expenses are lower and the situation is naturally less.

Then there is the Henan Sunset Opera Troupe, which is a non-governmental organization and spontaneously organized by some Henan opera lovers. Every Sunday, there will be regular free performances in Zhengzhou People's Park. Many of these fans of Henan Opera come from professional theaters. Colonel Liu is like this. She used to be a full-time actress in the local troupe. After the troupe was dissolved because of poor benefits, she went out to Zhengzhou to do business, but she couldn't let go of singing for more than ten years, so she organized this troupe with some like-minded friends. It can be seen that the economic benefits of many local theatrical troupes are not good, and local financial subsidies can't keep up, so it is inevitable to merge or dissolve. It is said that Shangqiu used to have more than 100 troupe, but now there are only a dozen left. As a result, many Henan opera actors found another way and took singing as a hobby. Like sunset fans, Henan Opera Troupe performs free of charge every weekend, serving itself, the public and the cause of Henan Opera. And every performance will attract many people to watch. Obviously, everyone likes this form.

Finally, I'd like to talk about private theater groups for profit. There are many successful examples, such as the Little Queen Henan Opera Troupe. Relying on our own hard work in the market, we have been responsible for our own profits and losses, and achieved a double harvest of social and economic benefits. Although private theatrical troupes are small in scale, their successful experience is worthy of serious study by public theatrical troupes.

Generally speaking, the survival situation of Henan Opera Troupe is not optimistic, and its development prospect is uncertain and not good. Moreover, county-level cities are worse than provincial cities. In this case, it needs not only the government's support and funding, but also the government's decentralization, going to the market, invigorating the internal mechanism and making it more competitive.

Secondly, from the government's assistance to the development of Henan opera, we can understand the present situation and development prospects of Henan opera.

The government has always played a vital role in the development of Henan Opera. Formulate policies to guide the development of Henan Opera and support the development of Henan Opera Troupe financially. In the process of economic development, social changes and the gradual decline of Henan opera, the normal operation of the troupe is maintained through merger and reorganization, and the normal and healthy development of Henan opera is realized. Many measures have been taken to promote Henan Opera, many of which have achieved remarkable results.

One of the most noteworthy is the launch of the column "Liyuan Spring" of Henan TV Station. Established in 1994. In those years, the development of Henan Opera in the whole province was at a low ebb. Everyone is busy with reform and opening up and grasping economic growth. There are fewer and fewer people paying attention to opera in To the Opera House. The strong appearance of "Liyuan Spring" has changed this situation, and it is somewhat better. Especially after the comprehensive revision of 1999, the special opera fan contest caused a sensation in the whole society, with the highest audience rating reaching 35.7%, which prospered the Henan opera market. Provide a stage for ordinary people and attract public participation with generous prizes. During the establishment of Liyuan Spring, millions of letters were received from the audience, and more than 50,000 people signed up for the competition, including many folk masters. The Henan Opera Circle suddenly became lively. Later, the Children's Challenge was launched, which gathered a large number of talented and talented teenagers. In this way, a considerable number of people with opera cells entered the way of Henan opera through Liyuan Spring. Whether they enter this industry in the future or not, they can become the reserve force of this industry. With their existence, Henan opera has great potential for revival even if it declines. In recent years, "Liyuan Spring" promoted Henan Opera to all provinces in China again by co-organizing opera evenings with provincial satellite TV, and successfully held a large-scale symphony concert of "Flying Songs in Liyuan", which was the first time to promote Henan Opera overseas. Its appearance is the perfect cooperation between modern TV media and traditional art, which has played a great role in promoting the development of Henan opera and can not be underestimated in the development of the national opera cause.

In recent years, some places have issued policies to set up elective courses of Henan Opera in some schools, so as to cultivate their feelings for Henan Opera from an early age, and at the same time let Henan people know about Henan's characteristic culture and give students who like Henan Opera the opportunity to learn. According to our questionnaire, 79% people said "necessary, support". I believe that if this policy is widely implemented in the whole province, it will definitely play a great role in the inheritance and promotion of Henan Opera.

This year, the Zhengzhou municipal government launched an activity called "Green Weekend", that is, on weekends, various Henan Opera troupes came to the university campus to perform on tour. The purpose is to bring Henan Opera to colleges and universities, to college students and to the younger generation, so that they can understand Henan Opera and Henan characteristic culture. According to Dean Sun, this activity has aroused good response in universities and society.

In addition, as this year marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, both Henan Province and Zhengzhou City have put out 60 plays to welcome the National Day, and Zhengzhou City has also performed dozens of plays, which have received good response and will certainly play a very good role in promoting the promotion of Henan Opera.

Thirdly, from the perspective of cultivating talents of Henan Opera, we can understand the existing situation and development prospect of Henan Opera.

The cultivation of Henan opera talents is a difficult and long-term process. It usually takes three to five years for a Henan Opera actor to train and perform. Training will be very hard during this period, and the employment situation after graduation is not good, so there are fewer and fewer people playing middle school in art schools. When these actors retire, talents can't keep up and there is a fault. This reasoning worries more and more people who care about Henan Opera.

As mentioned above, Li Yuanchun successfully attracted a group of people with talent for opera to learn Henan Opera and become amateur Henan Opera actors. The question now is how to get them into this industry and become professional actors. This also requires Henan Opera to grow into an attractive profession first. To put it bluntly, the pay is better, at least compared with what other Henan opera actors can do, the difference is not very big. In this way, in the face of many practical problems, they have reason to convince themselves to choose the Henan Opera industry. However, in the face of the general depression of Henan opera industry and poor economic benefits, how to improve the treatment? We know that treatment can actually be divided into two types: real and fake. The so-called virtual mainly refers to spiritual treatment, such as professional social reputation; The so-called material, mainly refers to material interests, such as wages and benefits. Among them, only wages are closely related to economic benefits. Therefore, it should not be impossible for the camera to change the proportion of various treatments and get comprehensive high treatment.

Fourthly, from the audience's point of view, we can understand the present situation and development prospect of Henan Opera.

From the questionnaire survey and interviews with more than 600 people in Zhengzhou and Kaifeng, we can get the following information comprehensively.

The good news is:

1, the proportion of families with Henan opera lovers is still very large, accounting for 72%, and the audience of Henan opera is still considerable, accounting for 68% of the total number. (Question 36)

2. People who "get in touch with many parties of Henan Opera" choose to think that Henan Opera is good, and those who think that Henan Opera is good will "watch Henan Opera occasionally or often", especially teenagers. This tells us that by increasing the spread and promotion of Henan opera, more teenagers will be able to accept and like Henan opera and become the audience of Henan opera. (Question 456)

3. The popularity of some classic tracks of modern Henan Opera is still quite high. (Question 9)

4. Introducing fashion elements into Henan Opera is an acceptable way of reform. and

65% people think that the current reform has retained the connotation of Henan Opera. (Question 1 12)

More than half of people are optimistic about the development prospect of Henan Opera.

The bad news is:

1, teenagers have more opportunities to get in touch with pop songs, and the number of people who like pop songs accounts for the vast majority of the total number. Far higher than those who like Henan opera.

2. The audience of Henan Opera is mostly middle-aged and elderly people, and there are few young people.

Fifth, the reform of Henan Opera itself.

According to the conversation with director, screenwriter Kong Min, director and vice president Sun of Zhengzhou Henan Opera Theatre, we know that in order to adapt to the development of the times, the rapidly changing tastes of the audience and the ancient Henan opera have never stopped reforming. From stage scenery to singing and dancing skills, we constantly introduce new elements and innovate. For example, the introduction of western montage techniques, the introduction of western musical instruments, the visualization of abstract stage performances, the transformation of China traditional opera's personal storytelling mode into a typical environment to shape typical characters and so on. Each of these changes has condensed the efforts of Henan opera workers for several years or even decades. Behind the achievements is their constant exploration, which is the result of their constant innovation and learning in the criticism and negation of the audience. However, the reform is endless and the exploration continues. For example, the screenwriter Kong Min proposed to catch a scientific and technological train to develop Henan Opera, such as how to adapt to the tastes of urban people and teenagers, how to make Henan Opera have a fashionable face on the basis of preserving ancient charm, and so on.

Some opinions

Finally, some suggestions are put forward to solve the above five problems.

1: 1 When talking about the future development of the public Henan Opera Troupe, President Sun of the Provincial Sanyu Opera Troupe and Zhengzhou Henan Opera College pointed out that the troupes should go to the market on the basis of government support. It is necessary to develop Henan Opera Troupe as an enterprise, let it get rid of the shackles of the administrative system, experience freely in the market, invigorate the internal mechanism, enhance its competitiveness and give support in many ways. After all, Henan Opera Troupe is still in a weak position in the market competition. It is undoubtedly immature to leave it directly to the market for development. The correct way is for the government to help again and gradually liberalize. How to help depends on your own situation, local conditions and your own advantages.

2. Troupe may not only rely on performances to obtain funds, but also establish a loose and mutually beneficial relationship with enterprises, publicize corporate brands, and lay a solid economic foundation for the sustainable development of troupes.

3. The social benefits and economic benefits of the troupe are not contradictory. As long as there is an audience, you don't have to pass the ticket, but you can still get economic benefits through the corresponding characteristic management.

4. Henan Opera belongs to Henan characteristics and can cooperate with the tourism industry for a win-win situation.

5. Develop the multi-faceted operation of Henan Opera industry, such as building opera teahouses and entertainment places.

6. Supporting and encouraging folk troupes like Henan Shenxi Yanghong Troupe is very helpful for the popularization of Henan Opera.

7. Draw lessons from the successful experience of private performance groups, introduce a competition mechanism into the troupe, arouse the enthusiasm and consciousness of actors, improve their acting skills, and enhance their market competitiveness, so that the troupe can become the standard-bearer for the development of Henan Opera's cultural industry.

2. As the public can see in the questionnaire, I hope the government can strongly support the work of Henan Opera Troupe and give it more autonomy.

Three: treatment can actually be divided into two types: virtual and real. The so-called virtual mainly refers to spiritual treatment, such as professional social reputation; The so-called material, mainly refers to material interests, such as wages and benefits. The lens changes the proportion of various treatments, giving Henan opera actors high treatment and attracting talents to enter the Henan opera industry.

Fourth, increase the popularity of Henan Opera, let primary school students take Henan Opera as an elective course, increase teenagers' contact with Henan Opera, and cultivate their feelings for Henan Opera and Central Plains culture.

Five: 1, I hope that the reform of Henan opera will be guided by the needs of the audience and rely on the new era, but the ancient Henan opera will retain its charm.

2. We should try our best to preserve the artistic features of the ancient Henan Opera that are out of keeping with the times. They are living fossils of ancient China society.

Finally, I sincerely hope that the efforts made by all sectors of society for the inheritance and revival of Henan Opera will not be in vain, and the tomorrow of Henan Opera will be better!

University of Science and Technology Beijing-Henan Opera Investigation Team