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Brief introduction of Yue Opera

Among the hundred gardens of China opera, Yue Opera is a wonderful flower blooming in the south of the Yangtze River. Her delicate performance, euphemistic singing and elegant style are intoxicating. Although it has been less than a hundred years since its birth, Yue Opera is the third largest drama in China after Beijing Opera and Bangzi, and it is also the most popular and popular drama in Zhejiang Province.

Yue Opera originated in the rural areas of Shengzhou, Zhejiang. At the earliest, poor farmers used their skills of singing folk songs and singing books along the door to beg for charity in order to make a living. Later, singing books entered the halls of towns, teahouses and large families, and finally turned to stage performances, which marked the birth of Yue Opera.

After the 192s, Yue Opera went out of the mountains in eastern Zhejiang and entered Ningbo, Hangzhou, Shanghai and other cities. The continuous innovation of folk artists has made Yue Opera form a brand-new and unique musical style, which is loved and accepted by the audience. In Shanghai at that time, Yue Opera was all the rage.

Since the 194s, the sisters of Yue Opera, represented by Yuan Xuefen, have made bold innovations in order to resist Japan, save the nation and revitalize China. Xianglinsao, a Yue opera adapted from Lu Xun's novel Blessing, has made a breakthrough in the theme of Yue opera performance. In order to raise funds for the self-built benefit performance of the theater "Love in a Mountain River", the "Ten Sisters of Yue Opera" was brought together to write a glorious page in the history of Yue Opera.

After the founding of New China, Yue Opera has embarked on the road of all-round prosperity and development, with various schools and celebrities. Excellent plays such as butterfly lovers, The Romance of the West Chamber, A Dream of Red Mansions, jade hairpin, etc. are constantly emerging, and they have also been made into films and shown all over the country.

Since 198s, the rising stars of Yue Opera have appeared, with "Little Hundred Flowers" represented by Mao Weitao, and many excellent plays, such as "Five Women Celebrate Birthdays" and "Han Gong Complain", marking the arrival of another moderns of Yue Opera.

the origin of yue opera

yue opera originated in shengxian county, Zhejiang province. It is located in the south of Shaoxing, with the towering Siming Mountain in the east, the steep Taibai Mountain in the west, the mythical Tianmu Mountain in the south of Shengxian County and Wei 'e Mountain in the north. The clear stream flows through the mountains into the Cao 'e River. Sheng county, known as Shan county in ancient times, has a long history and rich folk literature and art. The picturesque scenery of the hills and streams has a long-standing reputation in the southeast mountains and rivers. The ancients called it "the beauty of mountains and rivers, the wonder of pictures". Outstanding poets such as Xie Lingyun, Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi, Wang Wei, Lu You, Su Shi, Wang Anshi, Ouyang Xiu, Tang Xianzu, Yuan Mei, etc. all traveled here naked and left behind poems about moxibustion population. In Shengxian area, folk music such as "Watching Niushan Song", "Three transgressions and Twelve Langs" and "Rocking the Boat" are popular, and large-scale instrumental music such as "Yuanmen", "Shifan" and "Embroidering the Ball" are popular, such as cloth dragons, grass dragons, stilts, jumping impermanence, lion dancing, dragon boat rowing, crane dancing, emerald bottle dancing, turning around and worshipping. "Mu Lian Opera", "Meng Jiang Class" and "Xuan Juan" of Buddhist songs composed of Hui Opera and local Taoist classes are also very common. These artistic forms rooted in the masses are colorful and are fertile soil for the emergence of Yue Opera.

The predecessor of Yue Opera is "singing books on the ground". This is a kind of rap that the local people love to hear. This kind of rap was originally created by folk artist Jin Qibing. Jin Qibing is a native of Matang Village, Xixiang County, Sheng County. He was originally a farmer. One day in 1852, he sang a few news stories on the threshing ground in Tiantou, and each sentence was accompanied by the sound of {four workers closing the ruler} at the end as a contrast. This kind of singing is somewhat similar to the Buddhist song "Xuanjuan", in which the Buddhist name "There is no Buddha in the south, and there is no Amitabha Buddha in the south" is announced every time one or two sentences are sung. However, the content of singing is what we have seen and heard in our daily life, and it has nothing to do with Buddhism, so we can't announce the Buddha's name because of procrastination, so we used {four workers closed the ruler}. The masses thought that the tune was concise, smooth and flexible, so they learned from Jin Qibing in succession, and many people were seriously worshipping him as their teacher. Some apprentices taught by Jin Qibing will become famous book singers in the future. This kind of tune is called {Four Gong Singing Book Tune}. Singing books is a form of self-entertainment for farmers. After working, singing books is used for entertainment, which is called "Tian Tou singing books". Around 186, self-entertainment began to change. Why? It turns out that the Qing Dynasty * * * stepped up the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom uprising, which further aggravated the land tax and made farmers' lives more difficult. In order to make a living, poor and bankrupt farmers began to sing books as a means to make up for their economic woes. At that time, I went out alone, at the gate, with a dry food bag on my left shoulder and a long cigarette bag in my hand, knocking on the threshold as my companion. Singing along Beijing time, begging for rice cakes and zongzi. From the autumn harvest to the sowing in Qingming the next year, it was a slack season, and farmers who could sing books went out one after another and gradually flowed into the nearby Dongyang, Yiwu and Tonglu areas from the county.

First, the content of the song is short, mostly in auspicious words, which are called "colorful words" locally. For example, when you arrive at the door of a shop, you will sing "the boss of southern goods makes a fortune, and gold and silver treasures roll in". One is a short story in rural life, such as "Silkworm Girl", singing about the fun of two sisters in raising silkworms, and "Embroidering a purse", singing about the love between Mei Duojiao and Zhao Wenbiao. Later, the book-singing artist lost his pipe-smoking bag, and used a ruler made of bamboo and a tattoo drum made of bamboo to accompany him. From one person to sing alone, he developed two partners, and the lead singer took the ruler, called the upper file, and helped the singer take the tattoo drum, called the lower file. This period was called "singing books along the door". "Singing books along the door" is mainly in rural areas. After a few years, folk artists gradually entered the town teahouse and made a good contract with it, so they had a relatively stable singing place. At this time, "singing books along the door" developed into "singing books on the ground" The form of singing has changed accordingly: there is a desk in front of the lead singer, and some simple movements are made by hand while rapping, and people who help the voice are beside the desk, accompanied by ruler boards and drums, and with the tail cavity. Because the audience has become urban residents, and it is not just a family, if the content of singing is still some popular short paragraphs, it will not meet the requirements of the audience, so some big books reflecting ancient life have been added, including the love stories of talented and beautiful women and the stories of emperors dealing with military affairs, commonly known as "martial books." At that time, there was a saying that "documents go to the grange and martial arts books go to the teahouse". Singing is long and high, and it is dull and monotonous. Artists seek new tunes in practice.

On September 18th, artist Jin Yitang sang a book in Huluqiao Teahouse in Yuhang County. Besides singing books, he has to repair shoes. Once, when he was repairing shoes, he heard the artist of "Huzhou Three Jumps" singing, the tunes were more soothing and the voices were more flexible, so he listened patiently, secretly learned, absorbed the advantages of "Huzhou Three Jumps" and melted them into the tune of {Four Workers Singing Books}, and some voices used "chanting to frighten others", so it was called {chanting to frighten others}. Because this tune absorbs the elements of "Three Jumps in Huzhou", artists also call it "Lake Tune". This kind of tune, singing a long bibliography is more flexible, adaptable and expressive. Artists in Shengxian County are divided into two groups, the North and the South, with the boundary of Tongxi. Although * * * is the founder of Jin Qibing, their singing styles are different. In practice, it has also developed into {poison to scare the south} and {poison to scare the north}. The {Southern Tune} is rough, passionate, bright and lively, with many ups and downs in melody, and the bibliography is mostly turned over from folk stories and folk operas, such as Wuji Ji and Guihua Pavilion. The {Northern Tune} is euphemistic and soothing, and pays attention to accurate pronunciation and mouth shape changes. The plate and tunes absorb many advantages, which are rich and varied, while the tracks are mainly compiled from "Chuanshu" such as Pearl Tower, Seven Beautiful Pictures and Wopao. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the singing form had developed again: when singing, the lead singer first patted the wood and recited a poem; Singing books is not only accompanied by body movements, but also distinguishes the five-color voices of birth, Dan, clean, end and ugly according to the identity of the characters in the story. In addition to the vocals, the backup singers also insert short dialogues; The "three springboard" has also been added to the position play. At this time, it is called "Taiwan Book" or "Taiwan Book". From "singing books at the top of the field" to "singing books along the door" and "singing books on the ground" until "walking on the stage", the tunes gradually enriched, the performance components increased and the drama color became increasingly strong, which prepared the conditions for the birth of Yue Opera. One day before the Qingming Festival in 196, a group of southern artists from Shengxian County sang books in a teahouse near Laping Village in Qianxian County. The local people said, "You can make a figure and have a five-color voice. Why don't you go on stage and perform!" Artists promised to give it a try. The masses set up an open-air stage with rice barrels and door panels on the grain drying field in Waping Village, and took the initiative to lend them bamboo skirts and women's powder to let the children "dress up with water". On the first day, the performers of "Ten Pieces" and "Ni Feng Fan Tea" were rich Jingsong and Li Shiquan; The next day, The Story of Lai's Marriage and Embroidered Pocket were performed, and Yuan Fusheng, Gao Binghuo, Li Maozheng and Jin Shigen were added. The news soon spread to the northern artists who sang books in Yuhang. They have nine people in four classes and live in a family named Chen. Ma Chaoshui, the youngest, offered to try acting, and was slapped by Master. However, the Chen family also advised them to perform, and other artists were also interested, so they assigned roles, gathered in a series of plays, and performed the Pearl Tower.

At that time, almost all the artists who sang books were semi-agricultural and semi-artistic. When Tomb-Sweeping Day arrived, everyone rushed home from other places to farm. Qian Jingsong, Li Shiquan and Gao Binghuo, who once performed in the five villages of Laping in Qianxian County, returned to their hometown Dongwang Village in Shengxian County to talk about the performance outside. The local people felt very fresh and asked them to perform in their village. On the evening of the third day of March in Tomb-Sweeping Day, everyone set up a platform in front of the incense hall in Dongwang Village and borrowed clothes from people in the village. A newly married daughter-in-law also took out her own wedding dress. Seven artists including Qian Jingsong, Li Shiquan, Gao Binghuo, Yuan Fusheng, Yao Maozeng, Ni Shengbiao and He Youxing performed Ten Pieces of Head and Double Golden Flowers. After the performance on the first day, the crowd was in high spirits, and they were still asked to perform the next day. "People in Shengxian can act by themselves!" The news spread like wildfire. On the second day of the performance, many people from the surrounding villages rushed to Dongwang Village to watch. Incense is often crowded with people. Then, the neighboring Dongshan Village and Shenjia Village invited them to act. After playing for two days, Dongwang Village asked them to come back and play again in the village. However, at this moment, there was a storm warning.

It turns out that Dongwang Village is only three or four miles away from Ganlin Town. Ganlin Town, also called "Two Doors", is a big town in Shengxian County. There is a big bully in the town, called Wan Jinhuan, who is a Yong ying and controls a landlord's armed forces. He has eighteen "empty-handed" men, all vicious hooligans and thugs, who are bullying around here. He heard that someone in Dongwang Village actually started acting on his own, and he didn't post a gift to himself in advance, threatening to show Dongwang Village a little bit. Everyone knows that this guy is ruthless, and what consequences fish will bring to Dongwangcun. However, the people in Dongwang Village were not intimidated. They said indignantly, "What crime did you commit in acting?" Will the artists perform after they return to Dongwang Village from Shencun? Play as usual. However, the threat to the bully Wan Jinhuan cannot be taken lightly. At this time, a man named Li Haifa stood up in Dongwang Village. Li Haifa is a learned man, who often travels to Shaoxing, Hangzhou and other places, contacts with people from the League and the Guangfu Association, accepts the idea of "equal land ownership" put forward by Sun Yat-sen, and has a sense of justice, so he can be regarded as an enlightened gentry. Wan Jinhuan and others called him a "black leader" behind his back, but when they saw that he had contacts with the government above, they had to be afraid of him. Li Haifa went out on business and didn't see the first performance of the incense hall; However, after he returned home, he listened to his daughter's detailed information about the performance, and heard that the bully with "two doors" was coming to be fierce, so he consulted with the villagers and made preparations. The people in the village did not hate Wan Jinhuan for a long time, and they all said that they would fight Wan Jinhuan this time. Before the performance that night, he took all the imports and exports of Dongwang Village to the county to go to court except for everything left. Wan Jinhuan sent one of his men to Dongwang Village to scout the situation in advance, pretending to be a pancake seller. Seeing that Dongwang Village was ready, the spy hurried back to report. Wan Jinhuan had to give up. The performance of the incense hall in Dongwang Village has started again. Although the atmosphere is a little tense, the audience's mood is enthusiastic. In order to distinguish it from "Shaoxing Big Class", it was suggested to call this kind of drama "Xiaoge Class". Because the accompaniment is only a ruler and a drum, it makes a sound of "sincere loyalty", so people later called it "sincere loyalty". On the third day of March, 196, Tomb-Sweeping Day became the birth day of Yue Opera. Although a storm has passed, the bad luck suffered by "Xiaogeban" since its birth has not ended. New blows and struggles have not stopped.

As soon as the seedling "Deduban" broke through the ground, it was hit by frost and snow, and it almost broke. However, rooted in the people, welcomed by the masses, despite being destroyed, it still stubbornly grew up. Since the performance of Dongshan Wangcun, book singers have come on stage. Then, many classes were set up in the north and south banks of Shanxi, Shengxian County, which specially trained "Du Ban" actors. In the second year, it entered the county seat, and then gradually developed to Xinchang, Zhuji, Shaoxing, Shangyu and Dongyang. The repertoires of the performance include Lai Wedding, Pearl Tower, Wu Jin Ji, Golden Dragon Map, Double Golden Flowers, Jinfeng Girl grinding bean curd, Tea Picking, Embroidered Pocket, etc. In 191, Qian Jingsong and Yu Baisong's troupe entered Hangzhou for the first time and performed at Gongshuqiao Ronghua Theater. During this period, they were all actors. Some young people ask: Why were all the actors in Yue Opera at first? In fact, the reason is very simple: at that time, the "Little Song Class" had just evolved from a rap form to a drama form. The first generation of "Little Song Class" actors were almost all book singers. After they became actors, sometimes they still had to make a living by singing books. At that time, feudal ideas were still very thick, and women could not go out and show their faces casually, let alone sing books and act.

Male artists performed in Shaoxing and Hangjiahu for a while, and suffered from oppression. The government and the financiers looked down upon the fact that they didn't recognize the "little song class", branded it as a "lewd play" and were not allowed to perform. In 1913, Ma Chaoshui, Fei Caitang, Qiu Shuigen and other artists organized a "Awakening Society" class to perform "Double Golden Flower" and "Golden Seal" in Beitou Grass, Zhuji County. The director of the local police branch led the police to arrest people, burned their costumes, and let Song Xianqing, who sang Xiao Dan, dress up as He Lanying and parade in the streets of Zhuji County. What an insult! The masses were very sympathetic to the artists. When they saw it in their eyes and were dissatisfied with it, they spontaneously organized and smashed the police station. Ma Chaoshui and others fled to the countryside, so they had to still sing books for a living. Later, they performed in Xindeng County and Yuhang County, and were put into prison successively. In 1916, they performed in a small village opposite Sanjie Town, Sheng County, and were once again arrested by the police. When the police chief interrogated, he said, "What are you not doing? Why do you want to be a "little song class"? Ma Chaoshui replied, "Acting is to persuade people to do good. Be a good person and not be a bad person. People have three kinds of advice in the world: first, hard persuasion, using the king's method, doing bad things to fight, shut down and kill; The second is to be good at persuading people to do good; The third is to persuade flowers, to make good or bad on the stage, to distinguish good from evil, to make bad people famous in the world, and to make good people immortal. " . The police chief listened.