Hunan’s characteristic opera culture: Chenhe Opera

Hunan not only has vast resources, but its traditional opera culture is also loved by many people. Chenhe Opera is one of the great operas in Hunan. It is popular in many places. Its formation is the result of a long historical precipitation. Its main feature is the local language, and the combination of folk songs and religious music.

This issue of Hunan Culture brings you Hunan opera Chenhe Opera, let’s take a look.

Chenhe Opera is one of the great local operas in Hunan. It is mainly popular in the vast areas in and upstream of Yuanshui River, including Huaihua area, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, as well as Tongren area in Guizhou Province, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Youyang and Xiushan in Sichuan Province, Laifeng and Xianfeng in Hubei Province, etc. county.

The formation of Chenhe drama has gone through a long historical development. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, many immigrants from Jiangxi came to the Chenhe area to reclaim wasteland and manage new areas. During the migration, work, and business, they also brought the local opera tune Yiyang tune to their new home. After Yiyang tune was introduced to the Chenhe area, it was combined with local language, folk songs, chants, Nuo tune and religious music to gradually form the distinctive Chenhe Gao tune.

In the early days, Chenhe often sang the opera Mulian with a high accent. This artistic tradition was preserved until the 1940s. Qingyang tune also played a certain role in the formation of Chenhe Gaoqiang. Early Qingyang tunes such as "Finding the Moon in a Golden Bowl" are still retained in Chenhe Gaoqiang's performance repertoire. During the Qianlong and Jiaqing years of the Qing Dynasty, Chenhe's high-pitched tunes in conjunction with religious sacrificial activities became extremely popular. Singing Chenhe high-pitched opera has become an indispensable part of various sacrificial activities to honor the gods. During this period, Yuanshui was also an important transportation route between my country and Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar and Laos. During foreign exchanges, Chenhe's high-pitched singing activities were often performed.

While Chenhe Gaoqiang is popular in Yuanshui River and the towns along the upper reaches of the river, it has also developed in the surrounding minority areas. The Tujia settlement area in the Youshui River Basin, the largest tributary of Yuanshui River, as well as the surrounding Miao and Dong areas, all have high flow of Chenhe River. In terms of performance formats, Chenhe Gaoqiang not only performs on the high stage, but also has puppet performances on the low stage.

The "low stage troupe" is mostly composed of semi-professional artists, and the repertoire, music, and pomp are the same as those of the high stage troupe. Sometimes the two performance forms appear simultaneously in folk sacrificial entertainment activities. "Playing drums" is also an important performance form of Chenhe Gaoqiang. People in urban and rural areas who like to sing high-pitched Chenhe opera will go to their neighbor's home to sing high-pitched opera together on their happy days without makeup. At that time, many political and cultural figures liked to participate in such performances.

Chenhe Opera also includes Chenhe Kunqiang, low tune and Tanqiang. Chenhe Kunqiang originated from Kunshan Qiang. Around the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Kunshan dialect was introduced to the Chenhe area. The singing style of Chenhe low tune is very similar to that of Kunqu tune. The difference is that Kunqiang is accompanied by flute, while low-pitched tune is accompanied by suona. After Daoguang and Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty, Hongjiang became a prosperous commercial port with numerous guild halls and theater troupes.

During the reign of Tongzhi and Guangxu, brothers Zhou Shuangfu and Zhou Songgui, two Jinghe opera performers, came to Hongjiang successively to participate in the performances of Chenhe Opera Troupe, which brought the art of opera to Chenhe Opera. Many Chenhe artists came Learn art. In addition, the influence of Qi opera in the adjacent area also promoted the formation of Chenhe opera. Since then, Chenhe Opera has gradually developed into a multi-voice opera with mainly high-pitched tunes, Kunqiang, low-pitched tunes and elastic tunes.

During the Republic of China, Chenhe Opera artists lived in poverty. By the 1940s, many Chenhe Opera Troupes had dispersed, and Chenhe Opera began to decline. After the founding of New China, Chenhe Opera regained its vitality, and a number of professional troupes were established, as well as more than 200 private amateur troupes. The party and the government attach great importance to the excavation and arrangement of the artistic heritage of this ancient drama, and a number of distinctive plays have been put on the stage again. After editing and adapting Chenhe's high-pitched dramas "The Broken Kiln" and "Li Huiniang", they were reported and performed in Beijing. Since the 1980s, Chenhe Opera teaching performances have been held to save and inherit the traditional art. Hunan Provincial Art School has also opened a Chenhe Opera Department, and Chenhe Opera has a specialized school to cultivate talents.

Chenhe Opera has a rich repertoire. The existing high-qiang plays include 6 continuous script plays, 47 complete plays, 57 scattered plays, and 71 outline plays with partial final versions. It is the most high-qiang repertoire in Hunan. type of drama. "Mu Lian" is known as the "drama queen", firstly because it shows its antiquity, and secondly because it includes all the prototype tunes of Chenhe Gaoqiang and the gongs and drums of Dagu opera, and the performance is rich in pomp and circumstance. The complete plays and single-fold plays are mostly from ancient legends of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.