Hangzhou Opera is a local opera type in Hangzhou. It was once popular in water towns around Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Huzhou and southern Jiangsu. Because Hangzhou was called "Wulin" in ancient times, the tunes of Hangzhou Opera were called "Wulin Tune" and its troupe was called "Wulin Troupe", which is not the name of the opera type. Hangzhou Opera was formed on the basis of sitting singing and singing.
Xuanjuan tune began in the Yuan and Ming dynasties. There is no musical accompaniment in Xuanjuan tune, only wooden fish beats are used. One person sings alone, and everyone sings the coda "Namo Amitabha". The content is mostly to persuade people to do good. By the beginning of the 20th century, Xuanjuan had become a form of rap for people's self-entertainment, and gradually became popular inside and outside Hangzhou.
In 1923, Xuanjuan enthusiasts and silk weavers Qiu Fengchun, Fang Jipeng, Jiang Jinfang, Jin Yuehong, Zhao Bingquan, etc. put Xuanjuan singing on the stage and formed a folk music club. He Pinsan was elected as the leader and rehearsed "The Oil Seller Monopolizes the Oiran" is adapted from a Hangzhou folk tale.
In addition to announcing the roll, the tune also adopts the singing style of "Dresser" in Yangzhou Qingyin, and is accompanied by Huqin, Sanxian, small gong and drum board. The play was performed at the Great World Entertainment Center in Hangzhou and was so popular that it was known as the "Makeup Xuanjuan" and was named the "Wulin Class". This was the prototype of Hangzhou Opera.
After the birth of the folk music club, some xuanjuan enthusiasts also organized class clubs. In order to compete, each should focus on their own strengths. There are those who specialize in martial arts, such as Yuanyuan Troupe; there are those who focus on singing, such as Deji Stage. In terms of performance and makeup, both the literary and martial arts theaters followed the procedures of Peking Opera and Yangzhou Opera.
In 1925, the Folk Music Society entered the Shanghai World Entertainment Center to perform. As the influence of martial arts classes gradually expanded, four classes successively went to Shanghai and southern Jiangsu to perform tours, making their first appearance in the water towns of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Those with insight among the actors believe that blindly imitating Peking Opera and Yangzhou Opera is not the right path. Jiang Baoer first started with the singing tune, choosing Manjianghong tune to improve it, and absorbing elements of Wandering Soul tune and Xuanjuan tune, Gradually evolved into a beautiful and melodious continental plate.
Actors competed to learn singing, and after continuous processing, it became a distinctive mainland singing style. At the same time, the dressing table singing tune of Yang Opera evolved into the basic flat tune, while the original Xuanjuan tune developed into the Da Jing tune and Xiao Jing tune, and later absorbed some popular folk ditties to make it more local.
After the basic singing tune was formed, musician Jin Xiaolong developed the original accompaniment method of the main Hu of Yang Opera, using continuous bowing to play, and improved the main Hu, forming the soft and dignified pronunciation of the main Hu of Hang Opera.
In order to enhance the accompaniment effect of the main Hudun bow, the musicians Wang Baoyuan and Jin Xueqin chose the small sanxian and used long-note rolling to highlight it. The two worked together in a tacit understanding and created a unique style of Hang Opera singing performance.
After the basic singing tunes of Mainland Ban and Banban were formed, Hangzhou opera developed rapidly and formed Wulin tune, which was widely circulated in the neighborhoods of Hangzhou for a while.
Hang Opera has successively included Folk Music Club, Tongle Club, Yuanyuan Class, Tongmin Society, Jinji Wulin Class, Yuji Stage, Shunji Stage, Laoshunji Stage, Minxin Stage, and Gongji There are 16 classes including the stage, Sixi Stage, Yongji Stage, Deji Stage, Lan Stage, Renji Stage, and Star Stage.
Some of these classes are rooted in Hangzhou, Jiazhou, and Hu, some are active in Ningbo, Shaoxing, and Jinhua, and some circulate in Shanghai, southern Jiangsu and other places.
In the early days of Hang Opera, there were no actresses. After 1926, it began to imitate other types of opera, attracting women to participate, and implementing male and female co-starring. The actresses who are gradually becoming famous include Yang Wenying, Wu Juying, Xu Meiying and Green Peony, known as "Three Heroes and One Peony". In 1932, Fu Zhifang and others organized the Hangzhou Opera Chunqiu Club, which began to use the name Hangzhou Opera, but was generally still called the Wulin Class.
Most of the repertoires performed by Hangzhou opera are copied from Peking opera and Yangzhou opera, such as "The Civet Cat for the Prince", "Yutangchun", "The Beauty Case", "Dahongpao", "Hualiyuan", etc. Although some actors compiled and adapted the traditional Xuanjuan repertoire "Taipingji", "Hundred Flowers Terrace", "Pipa Ji", and "Shiluopa", they were not able to be processed into a repertoire with their own characteristics.
After the founding of New China, the martial arts class was officially named "Hangzhou Opera". The Deji Stage in Yixing, Jiangsu Province was registered on the spot. In 1952, it was renamed "Qunyi Hang Troupe" and in 1953, it was renamed "Yixing Hang Troupe". In the second half of 1957, it returned to Hangzhou and became the Second Hangzhou Opera Troupe. The original Hangzhou Chunqiu Hang Opera Troupe was the First Hangzhou Opera Troupe.
In 1958, the two troupes merged to form Hangzhou Hang Opera Troupe. In 1959, it merged into Hangzhou Experimental Theater. In 1961, the Hangzhou Experimental Theater Company was canceled and the Hangzhou Hangzhou Theater Company was restored.
In 1961, Hangzhou City decided to rescue and revitalize Hangzhou Opera. It gathered 108 editors, directors, music professionals, young actors, performers, and old actors scattered among the people to enrich Hangzhou’s Hangzhou Opera. The theater troupe carried out a comprehensive reform of Hangzhou opera.
In order to enrich the music and singing of Hangzhou opera, they incorporated the tunes and singing of Hangzhou Tanhuang, an ancient Hangzhou song, into Hangzhou opera. Selected excerpts from Hangtan's traditional repertoire such as "Monks and Nuns Descending the Mountain", "Zhaojun Hefan", "Broken Bridge", "Snow in June", "Diao Chan Worshiping the Moon", have been put on the stage one after another.
After accumulating some experience in the reform of Hangzhou opera, they rehearsed the large-scale historical story drama "Silver Ping" with Hangzhou's local characteristics. The music of the play uses Wulin tune for passionate parts and Hangtan tune for beautiful lyrical parts.
On the eve of National Day in 1961, the play premiered. This is the first play to be officially performed after the reform of Hangzhou Opera. The repertoire, music and singing, stage art, cast, etc. all meet the audience with a new look, and the performance is well received.
In 1962, Meng Chao's new Kunqu opera "Li Huiniang" was transplanted. The music was based on Hangtan music and incorporated some singing styles of Wulin tune. It also draws lessons from the humming method in choral music, and uses unaccompanied vocal humming to enhance the atmosphere. A wandering melody is graceful and lingering, beautiful and touching. On New Year's Eve in 1963, "Li Huiniang" premiered.
The performances of "Silver Ping" and "Li Huiniang" attracted the attention of the masses and gave Hangzhou Opera a new lease of life. In the same year, director Wu Ping created and performed "Lei Feng" and "Wang Jie", and adapted and performed modern dramas such as "Young Generation" and "Red Plum in the Snow", which were also welcomed by the audience.
The folk tale drama "Su Xiaoxiao" is a major drama of Hangzhou Opera. The creative team made full use of the beautiful singing and melody of Hangzhou opera, combined with modern stage performance techniques, to create a classic that has both the humanistic history of Hangzhou and the rich characteristics of Hangzhou opera, allowing the audience to understand it from a new perspective And he loves Hangzhou Opera, an ancient type of opera.
Hangzhou opera is a real local opera in Hangzhou. It is an opera sung by Hangzhou people in authentic Hangzhou gossip and has a broad mass base. The tunes sung in Hangzhou Opera include flat tune, continental tune, wandering soul tune, Da Jing tune, Xiao Jing tune and Hangzhou Tanhuang tune, etc. The more you watch Hangzhou Opera, a local specialty of Hangzhou, the more interesting it becomes.