What is Nuo Opera?

Nuo Opera, also known as Nuo Dance, is one of the local operas in China. It developed from the ancient Nuo instruments in Yuan and Ming Dynasties. At first, the story was performed by singing and dancing. When the image of Zhong Kui appeared in Nuo ceremony, Nuo opera came into being.

Nuo opera is popular in Sichuan, Guizhou, Guichi, Qingyang, Anhui and mountainous areas in western Hubei. Actors wearing wicker masks play the legendary exorcist-exorcist, and perform with repeated and large-scale procedural dance movements, mostly on fixed festivals, with a very primitive dance style.

Nuo opera is a form of drama developed on the basis of Nuo dance. The main feature of Nuo opera performance is that all the characters wear wooden masks, pretend to be ghosts and gods, sing and dance, and show the life story of God.

Due to the different historical background and artistic influence, Nuo opera can be divided into three types: Nuo opera, local opera and Yang opera. Local opera is a kind of Nuo opera performed by descendants of soldiers who stayed in Yunnan and Guizhou in the early Ming Dynasty to sacrifice their ancestors. There are no folk life dramas and talent and beauty dramas, which are all martial arts dramas that reflect historical stories. Yang opera, on the other hand, was performed by Master Duan Gong to the living after completing the Buddhism. Therefore, the performance is mainly based on small plays reflecting folk life, and the singing is mostly absorbed from folk plays such as flower drums and lanterns.

Up to now, there are still a large number of Nuo cultural relics in the southwest of China and the northeast of Guizhou Province, and there are Nuo operas in many places. Up to now, there are more than 60 Nuo sets with hundreds of actors in Dejiang County. The Nuo opera in Dejiang County is simple and broad, which retains the original form of Nuo opera culture and has a lot of ritual content.

The masks of Nuo Opera in Guizhou are generally made of willow and poplar. In the modeling of masks, we pay attention to the depiction of characters. Accordingly, Nuo masks can be divided into several categories: righteous gods, fierce gods, secular masks, clown masks and cow's head and horse's face. God is upright and merciful.

Nuo opera performances include Meng Jiangnv, Ponzi Nv, Dragon King Nv, Taoyuan Cave God, Liangshan Land and so on. In addition, there are some repertoires based on the Biography of Mu Lian, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the story of The Journey to the West.