The Unique Face-changing Skills of Sichuan Opera —— Revealing the Fire-breathing Principle of Sichuan Opera

Chengdu, Sichuan is the hometown of drama, and Sichuan opera is an indispensable part in this city full of cultural colors. As early as the Qing Dynasty, Sichuan Opera had already taken shape. Now, after hundreds of years, the connotation of Sichuan opera has been enriched a lot, and fire-breathing is the unique skill of Sichuan opera actors.

Sichuan Opera is one of the Han operas in China, which is popular in eastern and central Sichuan, Chongqing and parts of Guizhou and Yunnan. The facial makeup of Sichuan Opera is an important part of the performing arts of Sichuan Opera, and it is an artistic treasure created and inherited by Sichuan Opera artists in past dynasties. Sichuan Opera has research and cognitive value in Bashu culture, art, history and folk customs, and has a very unique position in the history of China opera and the development of Bashu culture.

Sichuan opera is a major feature of Sichuan culture. Chengdu is the hometown of drama. As early as the Tang Dynasty, there was a saying that "Shu Opera was the best in the world". During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, on the basis of the local car light drama, the voices of Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Anhui, Hubei, Shaanxi, Gansu and other places were absorbed and integrated, and a "Sichuan Opera" sung in Sichuan dialect was formed, with five parts: tenor, huqin, Kunqu opera, lantern and Tanxi. Among them, Sichuan opera is the main singing form of Sichuan opera with rich tunes, beautiful singing and the most local characteristics.

The auxiliary cavity of Sichuan opera is leading cavity, combining cavity, chorus, accompaniment and duet, which means meaningful and fascinating. The language of Sichuan Opera is vivid, humorous, full of distinctive local colors, full of life breath and has a broad mass base. There are hundreds of common plays on the stage, including complete singing, doing, reading and acting, humor, instrumental music, unique "face changing", "fire breathing" and "sleeves", and freehand stylized movements, which imply endless wonderful taste.

"Fire-breathing" is a stunt performed by China traditional opera actors. Generally, they are people who describe monsters to highlight the stage effect and make their images more realistic, so as to attract the audience.

During the performance, the actor held a tube in his mouth, which contained rosin powder and unburned paper ash. The burning degree of paper ash is very important, and it needs to be burned out, but it can't be completely burned out. ) When you need a fire, light it outside, and the actor will blow out air, so that sparks will come out. Achieve the purpose of monsters and ghosts breathing fire.

Spitting fire is a unique mysterious stunt in Sichuan Opera, which originated in ancient West Shu and is very famous in China Liyuan. Face-changing people use magical techniques to instantly change their faces, even combined with the magical power of fire-breathing, to express the dramatic changes and internal tension of the characters' hearts and plots, which is the most powerful and romantic artistic technique to portray characters in Sichuan Opera.

There is a unique skill in spitting fire, that is, don't inhale when the fire in front of you has not been extinguished, otherwise the most direct consequence is to "burn us to death." Spitting fire is probably the most wonderful performance in Sichuan opera. With luck, the actor can spray fire pillars. Now the audience only knows that spitting fire means wrapping kerosene in your mouth and spitting on the fuse in front of you. However, there is another trick to spitting fire, that is, don't inhale when the fire in front of you has not been extinguished, otherwise the most direct consequence will be to "set us on fire."

It is reported that an actor in Shenzhen breathed in quickly after spitting fire. As a result, the fire dragon in front of him suddenly reversed rapidly with the gaseous kerosene floating in the air, and his face was severely burned. In addition, spitting fire has developed from directly spitting kerosene with a lamp to hiding the fuse in other parts of the body. The audience only saw the actors tumbling up and down, and suddenly spit out the fire dragon, which added to the thrill. If you want to spit fire repeatedly, you can also hide kerosene in a secret place behind you, spit it once, and then drink it quietly. It's just that these moves are so fast that the audience won't notice at all.

To practice the stunt of spitting fire, the provincial art school dare not let the children blow kerosene directly. Children who practice spitting fire are asked to practice spitting water repeatedly. "Until they spit the water into a fog", "Some students are numb when they just practice, so they can't open and close easily". Over and over again, it takes more than 20 days for most children to spit out water mist.

At this time, the teacher will teach them to practice spitting kerosene. In the rehearsal field of the art school, two students can easily spit fire. According to the teacher's instructions, they all waited for the fire in front of them to go out before they breathed a sigh of relief. Some people haven't finished spitting kerosene in their mouths, but they quickly spit it out while running. "There are also beginners who accidentally swallowed kerosene. At this time, they have to drink more water and get rid of it. "

Conclusion Sichuan Opera's "face changing", "fire breathing" and "water sleeves" are all famous unique skills in Sichuan Opera. No matter what kind, it takes constant hard training to understand a thing or two, and fire breathing is a very dangerous skill.