According to Wei Liangfu's Introduction to Southern Ci in Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1368- A.D. 1644), Kunqu Opera was created by Gu Jie at the end of Yuan Dynasty (A.D. 1279- A.D. 1368). It is generally believed that during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, Kunqu Opera was absorbed by Wei Liangfu, and the music of Yiyang Opera was processed and improved, with increasing influence. In collaboration with legendary writers, he created "Huansha Ji", which tells the story of wuyue's hegemony in the Spring and Autumn Period. The protagonist is the first stone of four beautiful women in ancient China. It has become a script that conforms to the rhythm of Kunqu opera and promoted the spread of Kunqu opera. Kunqu opera flowed into Beijing during the Wanli period. In this way, Kunshan Opera became the most influential vocal opera from the middle of Ming Dynasty to the middle of Qing Dynasty. But in the middle of Qing Dynasty, Kunqu opera gradually declined, and almost disappeared from the stage before liberation. After liberation, after a series of work to rescue and sort out this precious play, Kunqu opera regained new vitality.
The music of Kunqu Opera belongs to the antithetical couplet structure, referred to as "Qupai Style". According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 1000 kinds of qupai used, including ancient song and dance music, Daqu and Ci tune in Tang and Song Dynasties, aria and Zhu Gong tune in Song Dynasty, folk songs and ethnic minority songs. Based on Nanqu, it composes music by means of "breaking the tune", "borrowing the palace" and "picking songs" with the number of sets of Beiqu. The accompaniment instruments of Kunqu Opera are mainly Sheng, Xiao, Suona, Sanxian and Pipa (percussion instruments can be used). The performance of Kunqu Opera also has its own unique system and style. Its greatest characteristics are strong lyricism, delicate movements and ingenious and harmonious combination of song and dance.
In the long-term performance practice, Kunqu opera has accumulated a large number of stage plays. Among them, Wang Shizhen's Feng Mingji, Tang Xianzu's Peony Pavilion, Zi Chai Ji, Han Hanji, Ji, and so on have great influence and are often performed. There are also Hosta, Kite Mistake by Li Yu, Fifteen Passes by Zhu, Peach Blossom Fan by Kong, Palace of Immortality by Hong N, and other famous discount plays, such as A Dream of Red Mansions, Yangguan, Sanzui and Qiu Jiang.
Kunqu master: Yu Zhenfei
Yu Zhenfei is an actor of Kunqu Opera and Peking Opera, a coolie with a nickname Zhenfei. His ancestral home is Songjiang (now Shanghai) and he was born in Suzhou.
His father, Yu Sulu, is a master of Kunqu Opera in the south of the Yangtze River, and he has formed his own school-"Yu School". Yu Zhenfei studied poetry, calligraphy and painting since childhood, and began to study Kunqu opera with his father at the age of 6. At the age of 65,438+04, she made her debut in the footsteps of a young student. Although he is an amateur actor, he answers blows with blows. Later, he followed Shen Yuequan for further study and learned more than 200 Kunqu operas.
At 193 1, Yu Zhenfei worked as a lecturer in Jinan University. At the invitation of Cheng, he quit his job, went to Beijing to perform with him, and worshipped Cheng as a teacher to learn Peking Opera. 1934 officially transferred to Qiusheng Society as a professional minority actor, and received careful guidance from Cheng Jixian.
In Cheng's new repertoire, many artistic images have been created: Jing Li in Hong Fu, Shine Wong in Young Women's Dream, and so on.
Since 1930s, she has cooperated with artists such as Cheng, Mei Lanfang, Ma, etc. Yu Zhenfei performed in Hongkong in the late 1940s and returned to Beijing on 1955. 1957, he returned to Shanghai as the principal of Shanghai Opera School, taught in person, and trained a large number of Peking Opera talents.
Yu Zhenfei is proficient in calligraphy and painting, good at playing the flute and versatile. His voice is naturally excellent, and he can use it freely. He has a unique pursuit for Peking Opera students, and he has deep attainments in singing, reading, using sound and using qi. Formed his own performance style: elegant and dignified, full of book spirit.
Yu Zhenfei's representative works include Kunqu Opera "A Dream in the Garden", "Taibai Drunk Writing", "The Broken Bridge of Leifeng Pagoda" and "Imperial Ji Qin Tune". Peking Opera "Jade Tang Chun", "Wine Order", "Spring and Autumn Match", "Strange Double Meeting" and so on.
Reason: Kunqu Opera was selected as "oral and intangible cultural heritage of mankind" because it is a classic of China classical performing arts. But "success is also Xiao He, failure is also Xiao He", and the glory and failure of Kunqu opera are all related to its characteristics. The prosperity of Kunqu Opera is in the same strain as the literati's life interest and artistic interest at that time. The cultural accomplishment of scholar-officials injected a unique cultural taste into Kunqu opera. Their leisurely life and pursuit of ethereal realm endow Kunqu with the characteristics of slow rhythm and beautiful artistic conception. In addition, the literati's sadness about society and life made Kunqu opera often show melancholy and lingering emotions in music and singing. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the citizens' class rose, and the style of relieving depression was obviously incompatible with them. Even the literati began to be pragmatic, Kunqu opera was not favored by the public, and it also lost its place in the literati class. As a result, Kunqu opera gradually declined. 1949 Before the founding of New China, there was no professional Kunqu Opera Troupe in China. In the 1950s, a drama was saved by the release of Fifteen Passes, and six Kunqu Opera Troupes were established nationwide. Han Shichang,, Furukawa, Zhu Chuanming, Zhou, Hou Yongkui, Tian Ruiting, a famous flute player in Beikun, Tian Julin, a famous Kunqu female performer in the north, and a group of outstanding actors trained after liberation, such as,, Ji Zhenhua, Zhang,, and Wang Shiyu, compiled Peony Pavilion and A Thousand Miles of the West Chamber. However, to this day, Kunqu opera's strict stylized performance, slow cadence, too elegant lyrics and old story lines have lost its fashion and most of its entertainment functions, which is far from the aesthetic needs of contemporary people. It is difficult to win an audience, and there are fewer and fewer performances, which is also difficult to find in the performance market, forming a vicious circle. 10 years ago, there were about 800 people engaged in Kunqu opera in China, the so-called "eight hundred heroes". Now there are only 600 people left. The creation and performance of six Kunqu Opera troupes in China are generally in trouble, and they are unable to invest in actor training and artistic creation. Since Tian Jia was forced to leave Beikun, his only family heirloom, the Double Champion, has lost the complete copies of Lotus Pearl Match and Legend of the White Snake, which is also a great loss for Beikun. Some people argue that Kunqu opera should be regarded as museum art, only for preservation, not for development. This has been opposed by Kunqu opera workers and people of insight, and it also violates the original intention of UNESCO to select human oral and intangible cultural heritage-to ensure the survival of these excellent cultures, rather than to curb their future development. However, Kunqu opera does face a dilemma: the brain drain makes few people qualified to create Kunqu opera; In order to innovate Kunqu opera, we are faced with a dilemma-it is impossible to narrow the distance between Kunqu opera and the times without major changes; If it is changed greatly, Kunqu opera will lose its characteristics and become Kunqu opera. Most of the arts included in this oral cultural heritage are in a difficult situation and are on the verge of extinction, which shows that the whole world is facing the problem of how to protect excellent traditional culture. As far as Kunqu opera is concerned, getting out of the predicament is by no means a one-step process. Besides relying on their own artistic strength and the professionalism and enthusiasm of Kunqu workers, they must also have corresponding policy guarantees and practical and effective measures. Therefore, in June this year, the Ministry of Culture convened a meeting between the heads of the national Kunqu Opera Theatre and the leaders of the theater where the troupe is located to discuss the development plan of Kunqu Opera, and a ten-year plan for the protection and rescue of Kunqu Opera is being formulated. Some experts also called for the establishment of a "special fund for the protection and revitalization of China Kunqu Opera" to increase investment. Experts believe that the current urgent task of Kunqu opera is to rescue existing plays and documents. First of all, it is necessary to record and video the representative works of middle-aged and old-aged artists all over the country, and collect and sort out precious Kunqu literature, performance scripts, music scores and pictures. Kunqu opera performance can make a living from old operas, and the repertoire should be mainly inherited and sorted out. For example, The Peony Pavilion, rehearsed by Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe in recent two years, compressed Tang Xianzu's original work into three books and matched it with modern stage processing, which not only maintained the characteristics of the original work, but also conformed to today's aesthetics and received good market effects. The Ministry of Culture plans to set up two training centers for Kunqu Opera actors in Beijing and Shanghai during the period of 10, so as to train performers for the national Kunqu Opera Troupe. The person in charge of Kunqu Opera Theatre hopes to gather outstanding teachers from all over the country and hold seminars for Kunqu Opera actors, screenwriters, directors, composers and managers in China Opera Academy. Because of its characteristics, Kunqu Opera cannot shine brilliantly in today's world, nor can it restore its former glory. But as a treasure of China culture and a world heritage, we have a responsibility not to let it die! Three measures: 1, Kunqu Opera enters the campus and establishes a community to let college students know about Kunqu Opera and inherit it. 2. Learn from other countries' measures to protect traditional culture. 3. College students should actively implement relevant government protection policies.