Chinese Opera

Chinese Opera is the traditional form of Chinese theatre, which combines dialogue, music, vocal performance, dance, kung fu(gongfu), acrobatics, and so on. It is one of the three oldest theatrical art forms in the world, together with Greek Theatre and Indian Sanskrit Opera. Its origin of it can be traced back to singing and dancing and religious rituals in primitive times. But not until the late Song Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.) and the early YuanDynasty (1279-1368 A.D.) through a very long period of development and reforms did ChineseOpera form a mature and complete artistic system. According to partial statistics, there are over 360 regional opera styles in China. After a long period of development and evolution, a library of Chinese operas has been gradually formed with the five opera genres as "Peking Opera, Yue Opera, Huangmei Opera, Ping Opera, and Yu(Henan) Opera".

Peking Opera

Peking Opera is the quintessence of China. It evolved into Peking Opera after the fusion of various plays in ancient times. Peking Opera is a comprehensive performance art that combines singing, reciting, doing, fighting, and dancing to tell stories through programmatic performances. The roles in Peking Opera are divided into four main types according to the sex, age, social status, and profession of the character: Sheng (male roles), Dan (female roles), Jing (roles with painted faces) and Chou (clowns) and besides, there are some other minor types.
 

Peking Opera was also very popular in ancient times. Artists from many regions performed and integrated, and matured during the Guangxu period, and famous artists of "Thirteen Wonders of Tongguang" emerged.

Symbolism prevails in Peking Opera, the stage of which knows no limit in space or time. The music of Peking Opera mainly combines the Er Huang tune, the Xi Pi tune, and the melodies of Kunqu. Typical Chinese musical instruments are used in a Beijing Opera orchestra, such as JingHu (two-string fiddle), Pi Pa (Chinese lute), Sheng (reed pipes), drums and gongs, etc.

Facial painting is a prominent feature of Peking Opera. It shows the character's age, profession, and personality by using different patterns and colors. Each color symbolizes a certain characteristic; red for loyalty and uprightness; black for a rough, stern, or honest nature; yellow for rashness and fierceness; white for cunningness and deceitfulness; purple for bravery and wisdom; blue for a daring and vigorous character; gold and silver for gods and demons.
 

Ping Opera

Ping Opera is mainly distributed in Northeast China, North China, and other places. It is a popular folk drama in the northern region, also known as Ping Opera Bangs. It appeared at the end of the Qing Dynasty and was formed on the basis of the small song "Lotus Falling on the Opposite Mouth" in the area of Luan County, Hebei Province. It was popular in the rural areas of Hebei at first, and later entered Tangshan, and has a great influence in China, so it is also called "Tangshan Laozi". This kind of comedy evolved from folk songs and dances are very popular locally, especially the A favorite of some workers and peasants.


Yu (Henan) Opera

Also known as "Henan Bangzi". Henan Opera is developed on the basis of Henan Bangzi, through continuous inheritance, reform, and innovation. . The original four major schools of Henan tune, Henan tune, Xiangfu tune, and Shahe tune are now mainly Henan tune and Henan west tune. There are very influential and famous actors such as Chen Suzhen, Chang Xiangyu, Cui Lantian, Ma Jinfeng and Yan Lipin. The repertoires include "The Grand Party of Heaven", "Mu Guiying Takes Command", "Matchmaker", "Flower Dynasty", "The Spear of Flowers" and the modern drama "Chaoyanggou". Henan Opera is called Bang Opera in northern Anhui, and parts of Shandong and Jiangsu are still called Henan Bangzi Opera. The popular areas of Henan Opera are mainly in the Yellow River and Huai River basins. In addition to Henan Province, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei, Beijing, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Taiwan, and other provinces, regions, and cities have the distribution of professional Henan Opera Troupes, which is the largest local opera in my country.


Yue opera

 

Yue Opera is mainly popular in Zhejiang, Shanghai, Hubei and other places. Yue Opera is mainly about lyricism, the singing is gentle and pleasant, the melody is long, the emotion is rich, and it has the characteristics of Jiangnan. Yue Opera was developed from the rap "singing books" in Zhejiang. At first, there were only male actors, and later there were mixed or all-female classes. At the very beginning of Yue Opera, half-peasants pretended to play and sang, and it has also been circulated among the people for a long time, and it has a certain mass base.

Huangmei Opera

Huangmei Opera is mainly a local opera in Anhui Province. There are also professional Huangmei Opera performers in Hubei, Jiangxi and other places, and it is very popular. Huangmei Opera is performed in the local dialect or vernacular, and gradually formed its own unique characteristics, known as "Huangmei Opera", and then formed into Huangmei Opera. Huangmei Opera has a well-known opera called Tianxian Match, which can also be said to be a classic piece of Huangmei Opera.