Like any human drama, China opera originated from the religious ceremony of human culture. The difference is that it did not form a cultural rupture as in the history of Europe and India. Tragedy and comedy in ancient Greece and Brahma drama in India were all interrupted only after they shined brilliantly, but China's opera has been developing and evolving to this day, and it is endless. In the long history of China's cultural development and evolution, China's traditional opera has been gestating, changing and growing. Especially in the later period of China's ancient history, opera activities became an important form of people's social life. Similarly, with the development of today's society, traditional opera is also facing a modernization problem.
China traditional opera is a changeable and inclusive cultural system.
Today, it is not difficult to find in any stage play that is being staged: drama retains many characteristics of the primary stage of human drama, and its primary feature is the comprehensiveness of stage form. It is a comprehensive art that combines poetry, music, dance, art and other artistic elements. In its long-term evolution, it has absorbed all the artistic elements that can be absorbed. For example, in its performance form, in addition to singing and dancing, it also includes elements such as ceremony, acrobatics, magic and martial arts. China traditional opera integrates these elements, and with the passage of time, it gradually becomes a stage style with rhythm and rhythm as the leading factor, singing as the feature, and expressing life stories by comprehensive artistic means.
China's classical operas reached maturity in Song and Yuan Dynasties. The complete form of drama injects new life into China traditional art, enriches the spirit of China traditional art, and makes it more open and inclusive in content; It is also more colorful in form, making opera the most comprehensive art in the world. It can be said that China's traditional opera combines all the past art forms, and plays the role of music, dance, poetry, art and other art forms under the guidance of the "drama" principle. God, it is not difficult to find in any stage play that is being staged: drama retains many characteristics of the primary stage of human drama, and its primary feature is the comprehensiveness of stage form. It is a comprehensive art that combines poetry, music, dance, art and other artistic elements. In its long-term evolution, it has absorbed all the artistic elements that can be absorbed. For example, in its performance form, in addition to singing and dancing, it also includes elements such as ceremony, acrobatics, magic and martial arts. China traditional opera integrates these elements, and with the passage of time, it gradually becomes a stage style with rhythm and rhythm as the leading factor, singing as the feature, and expressing life stories by comprehensive artistic means.
China's classical operas reached maturity in Song and Yuan Dynasties. The complete form of drama injects new life into China traditional art, enriches the spirit of China traditional art, and makes it more open and inclusive in content; It is also more colorful in form, making opera the most comprehensive art in the world. It can be said that China's traditional opera combines all the past art forms, and plays the role of music, dance, poetry, art and other art forms under the guidance of the "drama" principle.
Opera is culture, which is determined by the cultural character of opera. It condenses the best traditional culture in China, and it is neither imitated nor closed. From the form of expression, classical opera presents obvious symbolic artistic features, which embodies an inherent classical spirit in China cultural tradition. Its performance means are abstracted and sublimated from life, and everything created on the stage is carried out in accordance with the principles of rhythm and beauty, which is characterized by stylization. From the basic means of expression such as singing, chanting and working, to the auxiliary components such as clothing, makeup and scenery, it has been carefully designed everywhere. Most of the experience of this design comes from the accumulation and inheritance of tradition.
As we know, during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, great changes have taken place in classical operas-Peking Opera combines the characteristics of Kunqu Opera and local operas, and is well coordinated between elegance and vulgarity. Beijing opera makes Kunqu opera a citizen, a folk, and local operas a literati. Peking Opera has retained a considerable number of Kunqu operas, and tried to absorb the singing and performance skills of Kunqu opera and local operas. In this process of integration, new things are constantly produced. For example, the performance characteristics of various "trades" of traditional Chinese opera are gradually obvious in the performance of Beijing opera, that is to say, Beijing opera makes the performance art of various "trades" in Kunqu opera and local opera more mature. This inheritance and integration not only established the status of Peking Opera as a "national opera", but also made the classical opera move towards the modern society through modern history.
It is with such an art-China Opera, which is fused, accumulated and passed down to the maximum extent in content and form, that the tradition can be "lost" to the minimum in the transformation and development. In this sense, China Opera is not only an art form that best represents the traditional humanistic spirit of China, but also a constantly changing and inclusive concept and cultural system. It not only organically combines many traditional art forms, but also solves the contradiction between "new" and "old" and inheritance and innovation in culture.
Innovation is the decisive factor for the continuation and development of China traditional opera.
The continuous acceleration of the modernization process has created conditions for the development of contemporary culture, and also put the survival and development of traditional culture and national art in a dilemma. In this context, the emergence of "drama crisis" is an indisputable fact. From another point of view, the diversity of culture, the diversity of choices, the increase of people's entertainment methods and people's appreciation are no longer single, which shows the progress of society. At the same time, we should be soberly aware that there will be no more scenery in which traditional operas dominate the world. The feudal concepts advocated by some traditional opera tracks conflict with today's concepts, and it is reasonable for operas to lose some audiences. As the essence and concentrated expression of traditional culture, the existence and development of traditional Chinese opera has its unique national cultural significance. How to revitalize China traditional opera and ancient art, so that our unique national culture can survive and multiply, has become an increasingly urgent and arduous task for our generation of opera workers.
As an art form that best represents China's traditional humanistic spirit, China's traditional operas are facing various difficulties, such as lack of successors, and some excellent traditional operas are on the verge of extinction. This is the same as tearing down the old city of Beijing. It's easy to tear it down, but it's never possible to rebuild it. Losing tradition and national culture and art based on tradition means losing the soul of a nation. "What is our tradition?" "What kind of art do we have?" Every opera worker, every traditional cultural worker and even every China person should always ask themselves.
For traditional culture, only when people generally realize that our own culture is the essence can it be worthy of world attention and traditional culture be popularized; By the same token, for opera, only by making people realize that opera is the essence and worthy of appreciation and understanding by people today can we promote the development of opera art. From a macro perspective, the protection and development of traditional culture has become an important aspect of maintaining world cultural diversity and the sustainable development of human society in the process of economic globalization. How to preserve and develop our respective excellent traditions in the process of modernization and how to make the traditional cultures of all ethnic groups effectively participate in the development of contemporary society has become a common concern of all countries in the world, including developed and developing countries.
In 1930s and 1940s, China society was undergoing earth-shaking changes, and China's cultural traditions were seriously challenged by foreign western cultures. How to preserve and carry forward China's traditional humanistic spirit while absorbing the western scientific spirit is the goal of many people with lofty ideals. The opera workers represented by Master Mei Lanfang successfully completed the transformation in the field of performing arts, and kept, promoted and developed the traditional humanistic spirit in classical operas in time. Today, China opera, as a stage art, is still on the road of "classicalization". The task of opera workers is to keep the art of opera on the road of "exquisiteness and elegance", instead of lowering its artistic character and classical taste under the so-called "market value". At the same time, it is necessary to "inherit and innovate, and appeal to both refined and popular tastes". China opera is an outstanding example of China traditional art, with profound cultural taste and connotation. We should carry forward and develop traditional Chinese opera as a culture, and let it live on the stage and in people's hearts, instead of being displayed in museums. Art is tangible and culture is intangible. The invisible hand that affects the rise and fall of China traditional opera art lies not only in its own cultural self-confidence, but also in the cultural soil on which it depends. China traditional opera is the accumulation and crystallization of predecessors' innovation, and continuous innovation is the decisive factor for the continuation and development of China classical opera. Encouraging and protecting the inheritance and innovation of traditional operas and realizing the development and innovation of classic operas are of great significance not only to China culture, but also to the diversified development of world culture. Because, history has proved that any excellent cultural tradition, only by constantly sublating, transforming and updating with the progress of the times, can maintain its vigorous vitality, reflect the vivid contemporary life and give inexhaustible power to real life.