Jiangnan opera began in the Southern Song Dynasty. At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty, northerners moved south because of the war, and northern zaju spread to Wenzhou, where it was combined with local dialects and folk tunes, resulting in Wenzhou Zaju or Yongjia Zaju, later called Nanxi. At present, there are about 170 scripts of Southern Opera. The plot is mostly based on the legends of the Tang Dynasty and the stories circulating in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Pipa, Chai Jing, Killing Dogs, White Rabbit and Moon Worship are the most influential southern operas. So far, it is also a repertoire of other operas.
The appearance of Southern Opera laid the foundation for the legends of Ming and Qing Dynasties. Xu Wei was the greatest playwright in Ming Dynasty. His masterpiece is Four Tones Ape. His zaju is full of romantic spirit, which impacted Chen Xiangyin's traditional opera creation habit at that time and had a direct impact on the creation of the great dramatist Tang Xianzu. The antithesis of Tang Xianzu in * * * is Shen Jing and Suzhou Wu * * *. Shen Jing is a native of Wujiang, contemporary with Tang Xianzu. He wrote seventeen kinds of legends. Its style, early pursuit of beautiful and elegant words, such as "Red Algae"; In the middle and late period, more attention was paid to "true colors" and "harmony", such as "chivalrous heroes", whose words sought to be natural and simple. His Jingyanggang has been well preserved since its publication. In addition, there are playwrights such as Shen Zijin, Wang Jide, Jin Yuan and Feng Menglong.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were many playwrights, such as Hong Sheng and Li Yu. Hong Sheng and Kong Renshang are equally famous, and they have the saying of "South Hong and North Kong", and their masterpiece is the Palace of Eternal Life. Jiangnan is also rich in traditional Chinese opera theories, such as Qulv and Qupin written by Wang Jide and Lv Tiancheng, and there is a saying of "discussing two treasures of music". Li Yu's drama theory is more complete. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Jiangnan was one of the centers of China's plays.
At present, there are as many as 300 kinds of operas in Jiangnan. It can be roughly divided into the following categories.
(1) Ancient Kunqu Opera
Kunqu Opera was named after its birth in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province. It is one of the oldest existing operas in China, which was produced as early as the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty. It was originally named "Kunshan Opera", together with Haiyan Opera, Yu Yaoqiang Opera and Yiyang Opera, it is called the four major operas of Southern Opera in Ming Dynasty. Kunshan dialect was originally a folk tune and oratorio, and after a long development, it became Kunqu opera and Kunqu opera. Wei Liangfu and Liang Chenyu are two people who have made great contributions to Kunqu Opera. Later, Kunqu opera spread all over the country, forming two factions, North and South. Nankun is popular in Jiangnan area, and its style is beautiful and delicate. Beikun is popular in Beijing and Hebei, and it is rough and unrestrained. The most prosperous stage of Kunqu Opera was from the middle of Ming Dynasty to the middle of Qing Dynasty. In this issue, Kunqu Opera has always appeared as a "correct voice" and has been the leader of China drama for more than 200 years. The reasons are as follows: first, there are many scripts, and most writers are talented scholars; Second, the beauty of Kunqu opera has far-reaching influence, which is beyond the reach of other operas. It sounds the most charming. The performance of Kunqu Opera has the tendency of dancing, strong lyricism and delicate movements. The fine division of roles is conducive to the actor's grasp of characters and plots. In addition, in makeup, modeling, clothing, props and other aspects. Kunqu opera also has a set of formats. In a word, the comprehensiveness, integrity and aesthetic feeling of Kunqu opera itself are the fundamental reasons for its dominance. After Daoguang, Kunqu began to decline. There are many factors, among which aristocratization is the main one. Kunqu Opera is a kind of drama that appeals to both refined and popular tastes at first, and it has a good mass base, so it has developed rapidly. Later, the creation of Kunqu scripts became less and less, more and more elegant, and the songs were high and few. Especially after entering the Qing Palace and becoming a palace drama, the road became narrower and narrower, and finally declined. Other local operas have also flourished. After modern times, Kunqu Opera either evolved into a local Kunqu Opera or was absorbed by other vocal operas and became a "ancestral opera".
(2) All kinds of dramas are strumming together.
Zhejiang is known as the "hometown of random bombs". The so-called random play means that in a play, there are Kunqu opera, high-pitched tune, Huangpi, Bangzi, blowing tune, beach spring, flowing tune and so on. A hundred years ago, there were dozens of random plays popular in Zhejiang. There are mainly four kinds of San Opera: Wu Opera, Shao Opera, Ou Opera and Taizhou Opera. The original name of Wu Opera is Jinhua Opera, and Jinhua plays randomly. The main activities are in Jinhua, Lishui and Hangzhou. Shao Opera, formerly known as Shaoxing Daban, Shaoxing Luantan and Shaoxing High-profile, has a history of more than 200 years. Ou Opera, formerly known as Wenzhou, has a history of one hundred years. The tunes of Ou Opera are gorgeous and smooth, and the accompaniment is extremely colorful. There is little difference in the repertoire and performance forms of various random bombs, and there is a saying that "the world is littered".
(3) Various beach spring plays.
"Beach Springs" in Zhejiang include Yong Opera, Opera and Shanghai Opera. Jiangsu has Chang, Xitan Spring and Jiangyangtan Spring. Yong Opera is also called Ningbo Tanquan. He is good at performing Zhuang Qing plays and modern plays, and can speak Ningbo dialect. Rich in vocabulary and humorous in language, its tunes are characterized by cantata and rapid repetition of words, which are very colloquial and full of life flavor. It is easy to understand that there is no need for big gongs and drums, but only small gongs and drums for decoration. Yao Ju is also known as Yuyao Beach Spring. The main theme is called Pingsi. Yuyao dialect is adopted, with rich vocabulary and flexible tunes. Lake Opera, also known as Huzhou Tanquan, is commonly known as Baihua Opera and this altar tune. Use Huzhou dialect.
(4) Rising Star Yue Opera
The history of Yue Opera is not long. It has been more than 80 years since its formation, but its influence has spread all over Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu and other places. The birthplace of Yue Opera is Sheng County, Zhejiang Province. Yue Opera is a combination of local folk ditty and "circling tune". The earliest prototype of Yue Opera is a form of self-entertainment singing. The artist was a farmer, and later he was half-agricultural and half-artistic, and went out to sing in his spare time. Later, imitating Shao Opera, we left the pipe behind and accompanied it with bamboo, which was called "Dedu" class. Later, some artists began to organize classes called Xiaoqu classes. When 19 17 entered Shanghai, Yue Opera began to take a turn for the better. After entering Shanghai, in order to gain a firm foothold and attract the audience, the little brother class has carried out a series of reforms: First, the Daobai dialect has been changed into written Zhejiang dialect, and Shanghai dialect has been used, which has been understood by people in Wuyu District and attracted more and more audiences. In terms of singing, it absorbed some of Shao's vocals and combined smoothness with high-pitched roughness. Its singing reflects the characteristics of folk music in Jiangnan area. In the performance, I learned the performance skills of Kunqu opera, Beijing opera and other body movements, catwalk and appearance, especially the martial arts movements in Beijing opera. In this way, Yue Opera, through eclecticism, came from behind and became the most influential drama in the south of the Yangtze River.