Huangmei Opera, formerly known as "Huangmei Diao", is a folk opera formed in the Anqing area adjacent to Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces in the late 18th century. In its long process, it has continuously absorbed the musical essence of Qingyang tune, Hui opera, local folk songs and other operas, and gradually formed its own unique style today. Huangmei Opera is sung in the Anqing language. The singing style is simple and smooth, known for its bright lyricism and rich expressive power. The performance of Huangmei Opera is simple and meticulous, and is famous for its authenticity and liveliness. Huangmei Opera comes from the folk, it is both elegant and popular, and it is pleasing to the people. It infects the audience with its rich flavor of life and fresh local flavor.

Most of the early performances of Huangmei Opera were small plays written and performed by veteran artists that reflected the folk life of the lower class. In the 1950s, a large number of intellectuals who were interested in opera joined the ranks of discovering and recreating the traditional repertoire of Huangmei Opera. Their participation greatly enriched the expression form of Huangmei Opera, strengthened the literary nature of Huangmei Opera, and developed singing and accompaniment. , its original folklore and popularity have been qualitatively sublimated, the melody has become more beautiful, and its influence has expanded. Huangmei Opera has truly ushered in the artistic spring of letting a hundred flowers bloom and bringing forth the new. It was during this period that a large number of outstanding acting talents appeared, such as Yan Fengying, Wang Shaofang, Pan Jingli, and Zhang Yunfeng. "The Fairy Match", "The Consort", and "The Story of Luo Pa" are representative works produced during this period. With the continuous release of many excellent plays, audiences at home and abroad have come to know and accept Huangmei Opera, which has made Huangmei Opera move from rural grass terraces to urban elegant halls, and eventually became a famous opera well-known at home and abroad. The theater's plays and actors have won many awards and have performed in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Germany, Taiwan, the United States, Australia and other countries and regions. They have received widespread praise and are praised by foreign friends as "China's Country Music" .

Pride and glory have become history, and the new century has opened the door of hope. Today, Anhui Huangmei Opera has emerged with many newcomers such as Ma Lan and Huang Xinde. Facing the new century, we place our hope in the new generation of Huangmei Opera inheritors, carrying forward the past and opening up the future, using youth, beauty and wisdom to create new brilliance...

The development history of Huangmei Opera

Huangmei Opera is The main local opera genre in Anhui Province. There are also professional or amateur performance groups of Huangmei Opera in Hubei, Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Taiwan and other provinces as well as Hong Kong, and they are widely welcomed. Huangmei Opera, formerly known as "Huangmei Diao", is a folk opera formed in the adjoining areas of Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces in the late 18th century. One of them gradually moved eastward to the Anqing area centered on Huaining County, Anhui Province. It combined with local folk art, sang and spoke in the local language, and formed its own characteristics, which is called "Huaiqiang" or "Huaidian". This is the predecessor of today's Huangmei Opera.

The development history of Huangmei Opera can be roughly divided into three stages:

The first stage lasted from the late Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty to around the Revolution of 1911. The tea-picking tune, Jiangxi tune, Tongcheng tune, and Fengyang song that emerged and spread to the three provinces of Anhui, Hubei, and Jiangxi were influenced by the performances of local operas (Qingyang tune, Hui tune), and were closely related to folk songs such as Lianxiang tune, stilt tune, and land boat tune. The art formed a combination and gradually formed some small plays. After further development, the performance content and expression form were absorbed from a folk art form called "Luohan Zhuang" and Qingyang tune and Hui tune, thus producing this play with a complete story. There is also a transitional form from small opera to main opera, which old artists call "string opera". The so-called "string play" is a group of independent but interrelated small plays, some of which are "stringed together" by things, and some by "stringed together" by people. The plot of "string opera" is richer than that of small opera, and the characters appearing in the opera also break through the three small categories of clown, Xiaodan and Xiaosheng. Some of the older characters need to be played by Zhengdan, Laosheng or Laochou. This created the conditions for the production of this play.

The second stage is from the Revolution of 1911 to 1949. At this stage, Huangmei Opera performances gradually became professional and moved from the rural grass stage to the urban stage.

After Huangmei Opera entered the city, it collaborated with Peking Opera, and was influenced by Yue Opera, Yang Opera, Huai Opera and Ping Opera from the north (called "Beng Beng Opera" at the time) in Shanghai. It played a great role in the content and form of the performance. change. A number of new plays have been arranged and transplanted, including the scripted plays "Wen Suchen", "Hongbiyuan", "Hualiyuan", "Bee Diary", etc. In terms of music, preliminary reforms have been made to the traditional singing tune, which reduces the empty words in the old tune, making it bright and smooth, making it easy for the audience to understand what is being sung. The accompaniment was canceled and the Huqin accompaniment was used. In terms of performance, it absorbs and melts the formulaic movements of Peking Opera and other brother operas, enriching the means of expression. Others, such as costumes, makeup and stage settings, have also developed compared with the rural grass stage.

The third stage is from 1949 to the present. In 1952, Anqing Huangmei Opera artists performed in Shanghai with plays such as "Pig Weed" and "Blue Bridge Club". Over the past few decades, a large number of actors have been created. In addition to the older generation artists such as Yan Fengying and Wang Shaofang who have made outstanding achievements in the singing art of Huangmei Opera, young and middle-aged actors such as Ma Lan and Han Zaifen have successively demonstrated their respective talents on the stage, screen and TV screen. The heroic appearance attracted the attention of the audience. "The Match", co-starring Yan Fengying and Wang Shaohang, was made into a film for the second time and became a sensation at home and abroad.

The artistic characteristics of Huangmei Opera

In terms of repertoire, it is known as "thirty-six major operas and seventy-two minor operas". The drama mainly expresses the people's dissatisfaction with class oppression and the disparity between rich and poor and their yearning for a free and better life. Such as "The Story of Buckwheat", "Calling the Grain Official", "The Fairy Match", etc. Most of the short plays show fragments of the lives of rural workers, such as "Pointing Barley", "Spinning Cotton Yarn", and "Selling Dou Baskets".

After liberation, he successively compiled and adapted a number of major and minor works such as "The Fairy's Match", "The Consort", "The Legend of Luo Pa", "Zhao Guiying", "Mother's Tears", and "Sansou Guozhan's Mansion". Traditional repertoire includes the mythological drama "The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl", the historical drama "Beheading without Punishment", and the modern dramas "The Warmth of Spring", "Spring Morning in a Small Shop", and "The First Blooming Buds". Among them, "The Match", "The Consort" and "The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl" were successively put on the screen and had a great impact at home and abroad. Yan Fengying, Wang Shaofang, Wu Qiong and Ma Lan are famous actors in Huangmei Opera.

The main categories of Huangmei Opera include coloratura and Heping Ci. Coloratura mainly performs small plays, rich in the flavor of life and folk songs. Pingci is the main singing style in the original opera. It often uses long narrative and lyrical expressions with rich charm, like flowing clouds and flowing water.

The outstanding repertoires of Huangmei Opera include "The Match of the Immortal", "The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl", "The Story of the Sophora Tower", "The Female Prince Consort", "The Couple Watching the Lantern", "Pig Weeding", "Willow Well", " "Blue Bridge Club", "Lu Yu" and so on.

The naming and origin of Huangmei Opera (quoted from the research article of the famous Huangmei Opera theorist Mr. Wu Gongmin)

Huangmei Opera has two major tune systems - the coloratura system and the Pingci system. The coloratura system was born out of folk minor tunes and belongs to the Qupai style; the Pingci system originated from Gaoqiang, Tanci, Luohanzhuang, Daoqing, blowing tune, Huizhou tune, Peking Opera and other tunes, and belongs to the Banqiang style. These two major tune systems are both rooted in the tune soil of Anqing area. The performance form of Huangmei Opera has gradually formed its own style based on learning from Kun Opera, Peking Opera, Anhui Opera and other major operas.

Among the early Huangmei Opera practitioners, most of the accomplished Huangmei Opera veteran artists with historical records were from the Anqing area. For example, Cai Zhongxian (the earliest known Huangmei Opera actress, born in 1821, from Wangjiang County), Hu Puya (the earliest Huangmei Opera actress, born in 1821, from Taihu County), Hong Haibo (from Qianshan County), Ye Bingchi (Dongfang County) Zhi County), Jiu Shuangyin (Huaining County), Hu Yuting (Wangjiang County), Long Kunyu (Wangjiang County), Cheng Jishan (Guichi County), Zha Wenyan (Huaining County), Ding Yongquan (from Huaining County), Pan Zehai (from Anqing City), Yan Fengying (from Luoling, Tongcheng), etc., all have teacher-instructor relationships among them.

Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were no literati involved in Huangmei Opera. Most of the hundreds of traditional plays performed were transplanted from Qingyang Opera, Yuexi Gao Opera, Peking Opera and Hui Opera.

Through the above discussion of the formation of Huangmei Opera’s tone, the tracing of the accumulation of repertoire, the tracing of the actor-teacher relationship and the overall grasp of the historical evolution and development of Huangmei Opera, we have a clearer overview of the development of Huangmei Opera. know. The origin of Huangmei Opera is in the Anqing area. Huangmei Opera was born in the Anqing area, grew up in the Anqing area, and flourished in the Anqing area. The vocal system is an important symbol of a type of opera. The formation of any type of opera and the vocal system belonging to this type of opera requires a difficult and complex process of continuous absorption, reference, integration, sublation, transformation, dissemination, and constant adaptation to the audience's aesthetic needs. process. In this process of continuous maturation, there must be one or several musical materials that are closely related to the cultural background, humanistic environment, aesthetic trends, living customs, etc. of this drama. They are important elements of this drama. nutrients, thereby accelerating the formation of this drama. If we compare a drama genre to a river, then a certain type or several musical materials that promote the maturity of this drama genre can only be regarded as tributaries that merge into that river along the way. The relationship between Huangmei Opera and Huangmei Tea Picking Tune is like the relationship between a river and its tributaries. Huangmei Tea Picking Tune is an important factor in promoting the maturity of Huangmei Opera, but it is by no means the source of Huangmei Opera.

Historical records of the origin of Huangmei Opera. Mr. Lu Hongfei listed several legends about the origin of Huangmei Opera in his book "The Origin of Huangmei Opera".

Legend -: "Huangmei Opera was developed on the basis of 'Huaining Tune'. ... Whenever spring planting and autumn harvest, farmers used to sing 'Huaidiao Folk Songs' to praise their labor This kind of beautiful and lyrical folk song is collectively called "Huaining Diao""

Legend 2: "...Huangmei Opera originated in Anqing, Anhui Province. In the past, there were often floods during the Huangmei season. In order to pray for a good harvest, farmers from all over the country held a festival to welcome the gods at this time. Various songs and dances appeared at the meeting. A form of opera based on this song and dance singing form was related to the Huangmei season. It’s called ‘Huangmei Diao’.”

The third legend: “Huangmei Opera originated from the folk song Huangmei Tea Diao in Huangmei County, Hubei Province.”

I think the above three legends are the same. The first two legends are more in line with historical reality, but the latter legend seems far-fetched. Many people agree that Huangmei Opera originated from Huangmei County because Huangmei Opera and Huangmei County have the same word and pronunciation. Of course, some experts have also analyzed and deduced from the aspects of music, repertoire, and teacher inheritance, believing that Huangmei Opera originated from Huangmei Tea Picking Tune, but the arguments and arguments they put forward were not convincing. They also admitted that due to the lack of information for reference, Therefore, no final conclusion can be formed. As for the origin of Huangmei Opera, few people are interested in exploring it. This is due to its long history, lack of written materials, the death of some old artists who knew the situation, and lack of financial support. It is also related to people's general indifference to the origin of Huangmei Opera.

After generations of arduous creation and development, Xinghuangmei Opera has grown from a little-known folk opera to a well-known national opera. In spite of the overall shrinkage of opera, it still maintains a unique style. The good development trend is due to the popularization and popular artistic quality of Huangmei Opera and its innovative spirit of advancing with the times. We cannot just focus on today’s achievements and ignore the ups and downs of Huangmei Opera’s journey. If even Anqing people who have always regarded Huangmei Opera as their hometown opera cannot clearly explain the origin of Huangmei Opera, wouldn't they feel like forgetting their ancestors? Furthermore, clarifying the origin of the opera, finding our unique spiritual home, arousing people's sense of identity and pride in Huangmei Opera, rectifying its origins, and further concentrating on pioneering and forging ahead are also the sustainable development of Huangmei Opera in the new century.

The theme excavation is more profound

The era when Huangmei Opera flourishes again is an era when the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation and the outstanding achievements of world culture blend with each other, and it is an era where multiple ideas and cultures stir up each other. This era is also an era in which the quality of spiritual and cultural life of the people is rapidly improving. The path of deepening the opera theme that Huangmei Opera "A Dream of Red Mansions" has taken has been further extended in the atmosphere of the times at the end of the 20th century.

As a traditional art style, Huangmei Opera is very familiar and comfortable in performing costume dramas; the number of modern dramas created is small, and the quality is always inferior. This situation needs to change. Huangmei Opera cannot be satisfied with ancient themes, adaptations and transplants. It must go deep into the hot real life, reflect the great social practice of the people's participation in modernization, and organically combine innovation in form with innovation in content. To explore the way to appreciate both refined and popular art, one should study the various artistic styles that are popular today. Practice over the years has proven that, starting from the richness and variety of modern media, extending the stage of Huangmei Opera to the screen and screen is an effective means to expand the viewing audience. The main reason why Huangmei Opera can spread so widely is the beautiful singing melody. Audiences who love Huangmei Opera often come to the theater to enjoy the beautiful melody of Huangmei Opera, but they are afraid that their auditory experience will change. Therefore, singing seems to be the part that best displays the essential characteristics of opera, and it is also the part that requires the most inheritance during the innovation process, so it should be done with caution. To sum up, Huangmei Opera must adhere to artistic innovation, but it must grasp the "degree" in innovation and move forward step by step.

The language of Huangmei Opera is based on the local language of Anqing and belongs to the Jianghuai dialect of the northern dialect family. Its characteristics are that the libretto structure throughout the play is mostly seven-character sentences and cross sentence patterns. Most seven-character sentences have a two-, two-, and three-character structure, while most cross-character sentences have a three-, three-, and four-character structure. Sometimes seven-character or cross-word sentences can be used as the framework according to needs. The number of words can be compressed or expanded, and duplex sentences are often used for tunes. The lyrics of the coloratura opera are flexible and varied, ranging from three to seven characters, often mixed with a variety of colloquial characters without meaning. The number of sentences is not necessarily an even number. Sometimes an odd-numbered sentence repeats the last sentence to make it an even number. The chanting method is all in Anqing Mandarin, which is close to Mandarin. The whole play is pronounced in rhymes and sung in Mandarin. The short plays use the local dialect of Anqing, and the singing is still sung in Mandarin.

If we talk about the artistic function of Huangmei Opera’s language in shaping artistic images, rendering artistic situations, and transforming people into “education through entertainment,” it can be summarized from the following aspects:

First, the language of Huangmei Opera has the inherent rhythmic beauty of "folk song" style.

Huangmei Opera developed on the basis of lyrical and playful little plays. Its predecessor was the folk song tune, Xiaodan and clown stage duets. In the process, it attracted people from various eras and places. , humanistic cultural nourishment, developed into today's Huangmei Opera genre, but its main "soul" - the aesthetic characteristics of folk songs remain unchanged. Therefore, the language of Huangmei Opera and the musical beauty on which it relies complement each other, thus forming the inherent rhythmic beauty of the language of Huangmei Opera.

Secondly, the language of Huangmei Opera is close to the heart and is popular among the people.

On the surface, the language of Huangmei Opera is relatively rustic, and every sentence is true. But if you think about it carefully, you will find that it is actually rich in content and extremely flexible. Expressing conflicts and highlighting the character's current situation has the advantage of being just right.

Because the language and lyrics of Huangmei Opera draw on the strengths of ancient poems, ancient lyrics, folk spoken language, folk proverbs, and folk songs, they abandon the disadvantages of being too elegant and difficult to understand and play, and give full play to The words are close to the heart but far away, and as clear as words, so it has become a kind of script literature that appreciates both elegance and vulgarity, a mixture of literary and wild styles, and strong emotions but light words.

Thirdly, the language of Huangmei Opera tends to be optimistic and exaggerated.

The language of Huangmei Opera is like a cloak of banter, covering most traditional repertoire, thus forming a unique style. These languages ??are basically the oral creations of working people and lower-class people. In Huangmei Opera, they are processed and refined by artists to make them more personalized, better combined with the drama situation, and arouse laughter from the audience. Therefore, Huangmei Opera can give people a sense of A feeling of joy and vitality.

Fourth, the language of Huangmei Opera is full of philosophical experiences from the real society at that time.

Since many of Huangmei Opera’s traditional repertoires come directly from folk literature that sung real people and real events at that time, its language and lyrics are inevitably permeated with the life philosophy and experiences of that era, and The depiction and expression of the people living in the lower class of society are particularly delicate, original and full.

Fifth, some unique usages in Huangmei Opera language.

The language and lyrics of Huangmei Opera have some special usage. One is the lining words and back-up words added according to the changes in the mode, such as "ah ho sha, yi ho ya" and so on. This kind of padding may seem inconspicuous at first glance, but if you remove them and only sing the actual words, it will be boring. Lining words and lyrics are the embodiment of the charm of folk songs. Without them, it is like a good flower has been separated from the soil and has no roots or bottom. The form of chorus dance is very common in Huangmei Opera. Xiaodan, clown or guessing, or pairing flowers, or reporting place names, or talking about ancient times, are lively and beautiful, and also lyrical and interesting. The lyrics required by it generally have the same rhythm in form. .

In addition, the use of idioms to guess the name of the medicine and the use of numbers one, two, three...

The language of Huangmei Opera can be summarized in four words: lightness, simplicity, humor and style. Briskness refers to its profound and simple explanations, as clear as words; humor refers to its elegant style and taste, wit and playfulness; style refers to its continuous absorption of nutrients from folk oral literature creation, enriching itself, and often having something fresh and unique.

Huangmei Opera originally had only percussion accompaniment, which was the so-called "three hits and seven songs". During the Anti-Japanese War, attempts were made to use Jinghu Tuo tune; later, Erhu accompaniment was tried, but failed to be popularized. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was gradually determined to use Gaohu as the main accompaniment instrument, and a mixed band with national instruments as the mainstay and Western instruments as the supplement was gradually established to enhance musical expression. The accompaniment of gongs and drums originally consisted of large gongs, small gongs and flat round drums, which was called "three dozen seven singing", that is, three people played percussion instruments and participated in singing, and seven people sang. Later, the drummer also played bamboo root knots and cymbals. The three accompanists sat inside and outside the entrance gate and in the middle of the grass platform (drummer). After the 1930s, due to the influence of Anhui Troupe and Peking Opera, it gradually moved to the side of the stage. The traditional gong and drum beats are simple and concise. The commonly used ones are one, two, three, four, five, six, nine hammers, thirteen and a half hammers, four non-stick (also known as "one-character gong"), toad jumping short, and phoenix nodding. , Three Arrows, Pushing the Bus, etc. There are Qiban gongs and drums, thirteen-and-a-half hammers, seven-character gongs, shouting gongs, etc. that are used in conjunction with the body movements. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, people gradually absorbed the skills of Peking Opera and created some new gong points to meet the needs of performance and vocal accompaniment.

Initially, Huangmei Opera had no accompaniment. Before and after the Anti-Japanese War, it was performed on the same stage as Anhui Opera and Peking Opera, so it absorbed the Peking Opera's "Three Guns", "Big Door", "Small Door" and "Withered Door". "Emperor" and other tunes. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, artists also absorbed some tunes such as "Spring Outing" and "Pipa Ci" from folk percussion and Taoist music, gradually enriching the accompaniment of Huangmei Opera.

Huangmei Opera is a type of opera that gradually developed from folk songs, yangko, tea songs, tea-picking lanterns and flower-drum tunes, first in rural areas and then in cities. Its origin can be traced back to the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, but it was only in modern times that it became a complete drama genre. During this period of time, he absorbed the essence of many sister arts such as Han Opera, Chu Opera, Gaoqiang, Tea Picking Opera, Peking Opera, etc., gradually improving himself and becoming a famous opera. When talking about this famous play, we cannot help but notice that the group that performs this type of play has also gone through such a long development process. He also started from scratch, from small to large, from simple to complex, and gradually perfected it. It can also be said that the formation and development of Huangmei Opera and the formation and development of its performance groups are complementary to each other.