What is the biggest crisis facing opera?

The opera is facing a crisis, which is a fact that cannot be avoided. Some researchers believe that the crisis faced by the opera since the 1990s can be described as internal and external problems, has been regarded as a "comprehensive, deep-seated, overall industry crisis". This crisis is mainly manifested in the following aspects: first, the sharp decline in the number of state-run opera troupes; second, the rapid decline in the number of opera performances and the sharp decline in the number of audience; third, the rapid decline in the production capacity of the repertoire; and fourth, the severity of the talent gap, the disappearance of opera genres. A statistical data of China Art Research Institute shows that in the early 1960s, there were still 367 opera genres in the country, including more than 50 newly produced genres, and at present, only two hundred or so genres are still performing in the country, and some of them have extremely low staging rates.

/960a304e251f95ca5f91b87ec2177f3e66095295?x-bce-process=image/resize,m_lfit,w_450,h_600,limit_1/quality,q_85

The reasons for the crisis of opera are manifold. There are three of the most prominent reasons.

1, the performance form of opera and the audience's aesthetic habits change there is an irreconcilable contradiction

In the agricultural era, whether in the city or the countryside, people's most important cultural activities is to watch the theater. At that time, the pace of life was slow, and people had the time to settle down in the theater to enjoy dramatic performances. In the countryside, on New Year's festivals or in the agricultural leisure time, a little bit richer places, build a theater, please the theater troupe to sing. Because they often watched and listened to theater, many illiterate people would hum some opera choruses. By the time of the industrial economy, with the popularization of radio and television, coupled with the accelerated pace of life, people were accustomed to watching fast-paced movies or TV dramas, including comedies and sketches, etc., and their interest in the theater gradually waned to the point of disappearing altogether. Because the rhythm of drama is too slow, the characters' language expression and psychological activities are realized through singing, and it takes a long time to sing a passage, which is very uncomfortable and difficult for the audience to accept. In addition, the characters in the play, every move, every move, all have to pay attention to, many of them are programmed, but also spend time, the audience also have no patience. Over time, a significant portion of the audience and the theater drift apart. Singing is for people to see, there is no audience, or the audience is less, the crisis of the theater appeared. According to playwright Wei Minglun, "The era of world theater is no longer the era of Shakespeare's glory; people's lifestyles have changed into an era of dooryard civics and apartment civics, supplemented by square civics." So, "'revitalized onstage, cold offstage' is a common phenomenon."

/35a85edf8db1cb133c3e16dbd654564e93584ba6?x-bce-process=image/resize,m_lfit,w_450,h_600,limit_1/quality,q_85

2, the creation of opera can not keep pace with the times, the audience Recognition is low

Many types of theater have their own repertoire of reserved plays, no matter where it is that a few plays, the content of the play is very old, the audience does not like to see. Some troupes also engage in creative work, the subject matter of creation is either ancient or modern. Because the ancient times are far away from the present, many people are not interested in historical drama. If you write contemporary themes, those engaged in creative and not willing to go deep into the life, closed doors, the creation of the work lack of life, not grounded, the loss of affinity for the people, more and more people, the audience does not agree, of course, do not like to see. This is one aspect, on the other hand, the creation of drama characters, characters are symbolized, conceptualized, and the real life of the people have a great distance. Some people believe that the present opera creation and performance, basically to the literati theater structure manipulation of folk opera form, incongruous, folk wisdom, folk interest died out, folk vulgarity still exist, who see all uncomfortable.

3, fewer and fewer opera talents, all types of opera troupes struggling to survive and develop

Scarcity of opera talents in all troupes exist. The main reason for this is that the audience for opera is small, and the economic efficiency of the troupe is poor, so it can't recruit or keep good talents. Some of the original troupe's famous actor, the pillar, due to other reasons such as economic cross-border to become a host, when the singer, when the film and television actors. The loss of talent is serious, the survival and development of the troupe is even more difficult. A reporter conducted a survey on the situation of opera talent in Hebei Province in 2014. The survey showed that in 2014, Hebei Province, city and county-level troupes in the number of 3881 people on duty, of which, 726 people over 50 years old, 35-49 years old 1,501 people, only 141 people under 20 years old. The reporter found that many troupes are becoming a "sunset red" group, such as Langfang City Opera Troupe, the average age of 55 years old; Shijiazhuang City Youth Opera Troupe in the post in the staff accounted for more than 50 years old than nearly 60%; Tangshan City, under the jurisdiction of the Performing Arts Group of the five troupes, in the post in the staff of the remaining 180 people and the age of the aging.

Schools that train opera talent also suffer from a lack of talent. China Peking Opera Art Foundation has organized the relevant Peking Opera artists, educators went to Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hebei and Lu and other places, the Peking Opera College and professional education in the current situation of opera research found that the current opera education has a "three lacks" phenomenon, that is, the lack of top-notch skills and comprehensive artistic talent, the lack of master teachers, the lack of high-quality management personnel. Even if the school training of opera talent, students graduated to work in the troupe is very little, many have changed to do other work to go.

/d62a6059252dd42a002b2b63083b5bb5c8eab8d3?x-bce-process=image/resize,m_lfit,w_450,h_600,limit_1/quality,q_85

The above three aspects of the problem is the cause of the crisis of opera The above three problems are the important factors leading to the crisis of opera. On how to get out of the crisis of opera, many knowledgeable people have discussed, they call for government attention, increase investment, increase the training of talents, these insights are undoubtedly correct. However, the opera to get out of the predicament, get rid of the crisis, the key is to reform itself, especially the performance form to carry out the reform of the transformation type, do not worry about the change after the incongruity, the tradition lost. It must be understood that everything is developing and changing, today all the theater is the same development and change. For example, Huangmei Opera and Jieju Opera came from the singing of the poor when they were begging. While carrying out the reform of opera, we should take measures to cultivate the audience, so that the audience adapts to and likes the reformed opera, and with the audience, there is hope for the revitalization of opera.

The opera crisis is not equal to the opera into a dead end, as long as the innovative thinking, take practical measures, the opera will be able to get out of the predicament, and then create brilliant!