How many kinds of plays are there in China? What's the difference between Beijing Opera and other operas?

There are about 360 kinds of traditional operas and tens of thousands of traditional plays in ethnic minority areas in China. After the founding of New China, many traditional plays have been adapted, and new historical plays and modern plays that express the theme of modern life have been warmly welcomed by the audience. The more popular and famous operas are: Shaanxi Opera, Beijing Opera, Yue Opera, Huangmei Opera, Pingju Opera, Henan Opera, Kunqu Opera, Guangdong Opera, Sichuan Opera, Huai Opera, Jin Opera, Han Opera, xiang opera Opera, Chaozhou Opera, Fujian Opera, Qi Opera, Puxian Opera, Hebei Bangzi Opera, Hunan Opera, Shandong Opera, Ancient Painting Opera and Anhui Opera.

Peking Opera is one of the operas in China, also known as "Oriental Drama". Peking Opera originated in Beiping, the capital of the19th century, and gained unprecedented prosperity in the Qing court. Its timbre is mainly Xipi and Huanger, with huqin and gongs and drums, which is regarded as the quintessence of China. It is developed from Huizhou School, Hubei Handiao, Kunqu Opera and Shaanxi Opera. In the fifty-fifth year of Qing Qianlong (A.D. 1790), four Huizhou classes from the south of China successively entered Beiping. The first Huiban who went to Beijing was Sanqing, who mainly sang Huang Er tune. Because of its rich tunes and various tracks, it gradually overwhelmed the Shaanxi opera prevailing in Beijing at that time. Many Shaanxi opera actors transferred to Anhui opera class, which formed the fusion of Anhui opera and Shaanxi opera. Subsequently, three other Hui classes, Sixi, Chuntai and Hechun, also came to Beijing, which led to the gradual decline of Kunqu opera, which had been popular for many years, and most Kunqu opera actors were transferred to Hui classes. During the Daoguang period in the Qing Dynasty, Hubei actors went to Beijing and brought Chu tunes (Han tunes and Xipi tunes), which led Xipi and Huang Er to merge in Shi Jing and Huiban, forming the so-called "Pihuang Opera". At this time, the Pihuang opera, which was formed in the capital, was influenced by Beijing pronunciation and accent and had the characteristics of "Beijing dialect". Later, because they often performed in Shanghai, Shanghainese called this kind of Pihuang drama with Beijing characteristics "Peking Opera", also called "Peking Opera". Because of the rapid development of Beijing Opera in Beijing, its artistic level ranks among the best in China's operas, and then it is popular all over the country, so it is also called "National Opera".

Henan Opera is developed on the basis of Henan Bangzi through continuous inheritance, reform and innovation. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Henan was called Henan Opera for short. Henan Opera is called Bangzi Opera in northern Anhui, but it is still called Bangzi Opera in parts of Shandong and Jiangsu. The popular areas of Henan Opera are mainly in the Yellow River and Huaihe River basins. Besides Henan Province, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei, Beijing, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Taiwan Province and other provinces and cities have professional Henan Opera Troupes, which are the largest local operas in China.

Henan Opera is the largest local opera in China, second only to Beijing Opera, ranking first among local operas. At present, there are professional Henan Opera Troupes in 16 provinces and cities. The origin of Henan Opera has always been difficult to verify. First of all, after Shaanxi Opera and Zhou Pu Bangzi were introduced to Henan in the late Ming Dynasty, they were combined with local folk songs and minor tunes. First, it develops directly from the northern chord; First, it was developed on the basis of Henan folk singing art, especially in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and on the basis of popular fashion performance posters in the Central Plains, and absorbed artistic achievements such as "string rope".

Huangmei Opera is the main local opera in Anhui. Huangmei Opera, formerly known as Huangmei Tune or Tea-picking Opera, is a folk drama that was formed in the Piling area of Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces in the late18th century. One of them gradually moved eastward to Anqing, centering on Huaining County, Anhui Province, combined with local folk arts, and sang and spoke in the local language, forming its own characteristics, called "Huaiqiang" or "Huaidiao". This is the predecessor of Huangmei Opera today.

Chaozhou Opera, also known as Chaozhou Opera, Yin Chao Opera, Chaozhou Tune, Chaozhou Bai Zixi and Chaozhou Qu, is mainly popular in Chaozhou dialect area. It is an ancient local opera with a history of more than 440 years. It is called the living fossil of opera. Chaozhou Opera is mainly distributed in Yunxiao County, Dongshan County, Zhao 'an County, Pinghe County in eastern Guangdong and Zhangzhou area in southern Fujian. It is popular in Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Shanghai and many western countries and regions. Thailand used to be the development center of the world's Chaozhou opera, and now there are Thai Chaozhou operas. Where there is chaozhou people, there is the tide. Chaozhou opera is often performed at temple fairs to show respect for the "master" (referring to the gods), and ordinary people also like to watch it in a very lively atmosphere, which makes the festival atmosphere more intense. Therefore, Chaozhou opera is more folk-custom than other operas.

Huai Opera "Tooth Marks" Huai Opera, also known as Jianghuai Opera, is popular in Jiangsu, Shanghai and parts of Anhui. Huai Opera is an ancient opera with a history of more than 200 years. As early as the middle of the Qing Dynasty, there was a popular form of door-screaming rap in Yanfu (Yancheng, Funing) and Qinghuai Fort (Huai 'an, Baoying) in Jiangsu Province, which was developed from Jia Min's chant and Tian Ge's thunder tune and rice planting tune. The form is a solo or two duets, just clapping with bamboo boards. Later, it was combined with the folk incense opera in northern Jiangsu, which was called Jiangbei Opera. Later, influenced by Hui Opera and Peking Opera, Huai Opera gradually enriched in singing, performance and repertoire. The language of Huai Opera is a stage language based on today's jianhu county dialect and formed through dramatization. The language of Huai Opera has gradually formed 20 rhymes in the long-term practice. The aria music of Huai Opera belongs to banqiang, with [Huai tune], [Latin tune] and [free tune] as the three main tunes. [Huai Diao] is high-pitched, intense and narrative, and is mostly used for narrative. The tone is euphemistic and delicate, and the lines are fresh, which is suitable for lyric scenes; [Free Tune] The melody is smooth, plastic and comprehensive. Some tunes derived from the three major themes, such as one-character tune, leaf tune, cross tune, Nanchang tune, Xiahe tune, Huai Sad tune and Great Sad tune, etc. Huai Opera "A River Flows East" The accompaniment instruments and orchestral music of Huai Opera include erhu, sanxian, dulcimer, flute and suona. Percussion instruments include flat drums, Su Gong, cymbals and drums. Percussion music evolved from folk gongs such as Qilin Gong and Yanfu Huagu Gong on the basis of incense play.

Kunqu Opera is an ancient drama in China, also known as "the mother of China opera". Kunqu Opera was formed in Kunshan, Jiangsu at the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty, also known as "Kunshan Opera". Wei Liangfu, an outstanding opera musician in Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty, made a great reform on Kunshan Opera. He absorbed all kinds of vocals of Nanqu, melodic singing methods of Jin, Yuan and Northern Song Dynasties, and folk ditties of Jiangnan, and created a gentle and euphemistic "water mill tune". Liang Chenyu, a playwright who chose his surname at the same time, wrote a play "Huansha Ji" specially for Kunshan dialect, which caused a sensation in the south of the Yangtze River and quickly swept the country. At the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty, Kunqu Opera was once prosperous, more refined and perfect in art, and became a kind of drama with national influence. During the Qianlong period, the art of Kunqu Opera was plundered by the ruling class, and its content tended to court, so that it was divorced from the people and gradually declined. On the eve of liberation, it was on the verge of extinction. After liberation, some people wrote and sang Kunqu opera. Singing and other aspects of reform, and strive to be easy to understand. From 6: 438 to 9: 56, Zhejiang Troupe successfully performed "Fifteen Levels" in Beijing, which caused a sensation throughout the country. 1957 According to the instructions of Premier Zhou, the Northern Kunqu Opera Theatre was established. Kunqu Opera, an ancient drama, is full of artistic youth.

Kunqu opera has a history of more than 500 years, forming a complete performance system and a unique vocal cavity system. Its repertoire is rich, its script dictionary is elegant and gorgeous, and it is very literary. Pay attention to four tones in pronunciation and articulation, strictly abide by rules and regulations, and be rigid. The tune of Kunqu Opera is Qupai style, and each play consists of a complete set of Qupai. The song is mellow and melodious. Exquisite performance, close combination of body movements and singing, and strong sense of dance. The accompaniment instruments are mainly flutes, and sometimes sanxian, sheng and suona are also used.

Shaanxi Opera, also called random play, is one of China's operas. It originated from western Shaanxi Opera and is now popular in Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang and other places in northwest China. Because it uses the jujube bangzi as a percussion instrument, it is also called "Bangzi Tune", commonly known as "Bangzi Tune" (named after the "dreamy" sound when Bangzi plays, and the pronunciation of Shaanxi dialect is particularly beautiful), which is the oldest, richest and largest of the four major tunes of China opera. Shaanxi Opera pioneered the method of "board-variable structure" in China's traditional opera music, which is the earliest board-cavity and the matrix of Bangzi Opera (Prose Opera) system. Nowadays, although the style of Bangzi Opera in northern China is quite different from that of Shaanxi Opera, it maintains the same characteristics in timbre and accompaniment.