Where did Huangmei Opera come from?

The origin of Huangmei Opera

Huangmei Opera, formerly known as "Huangmei Tune", is a folk opera formed in the late 18th century in the Piling area of Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces. Because people's social communication gradually spread eastward to the area centered on Huaining, Anqing City, Anhui Province, and developed and shaped around it, in its long process, it constantly absorbed the musical essence of Qingyang Opera, Huizhou Opera and other local folk songs and other operas, and gradually formed its own unique style today. Huangmei opera is sung in Anqing language, with simple and smooth singing, bright and lyrical, and rich expressive force; Huangmei Opera's performance is simple and meticulous, and it is famous for its truthfulness and liveliness. Huangmei Opera, which comes from the folk, enjoys elegance and vulgarity, and is enjoyable. It infects the audience with its rich flavor of life and fresh local flavor.

In the early Huangmei Opera, most of the plays were small plays written and performed by old artists, which reflected the bottom folk life. In the 195s, a large number of intellectuals who were interested in the cause of traditional Chinese opera joined in the exploration and re-creation of Huangmei Opera. Their participation greatly enriched the expression forms of Huangmei Opera, strengthened its literariness, developed its singing and accompaniment, and made its original folklore and popularity sublimated qualitatively, with more beautiful melody and expanded influence. Huangmei Opera really ushered in an artistic spring of letting a hundred flowers blossom and bring forth new ideas. That is, during this period, a large number of outstanding performing talents such as Yan Fengying, Wang Shaofang, Pan Jingli and Zhang Yunfeng appeared, and The Fairy Match, The Woman Xu and The Story of Ropa are the representative works produced during this period. With the continuous introduction of many excellent plays, audiences at home and abroad have recognized and accepted Huangmei Opera, which has made Huangmei Opera ascend from the rural grass terrace to the elegant hall of the city and finally become a famous drama at home and abroad. Our theatre's plays and actors have won numerous awards, and have performed in Hongkong, Macau, Singapore, Germany, Taiwan Province, the United States, Australia and other countries and regions for many times, which has won widespread praise and been praised as "China's country music" by foreign friends.

Pride and glory have become history, and the new century has opened the door to hope. Nowadays, many new people, such as Malan and Huang Xinde, have emerged in Huangmei Opera in Anhui. Facing the new century, we hope that the new generation of Huangmei Opera will inherit the past and carry forward the future, and create new splendor with youth, beauty and wisdom ...

The development history of Huangmei Opera

Huangmei Opera is the main local opera in Anhui Province. There are professional or amateur performing groups of Huangmei Opera in Hubei, Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Taiwan Province and Hongkong, which are widely welcomed.

Huangmei Opera, formerly known as Huangmeidiao or Tea-picking Opera, is a folk opera formed in the neighboring areas of Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces in the late 18th century. One of them gradually moved eastward to Anqing, Anhui Province, with Huaining County as the center, and combined with local folk art, it sang and spoke in the local language, forming its own characteristics, which was called "Huaiqiang" or "Huaidiao". This is the predecessor of Huangmei Opera today.

The development history of Huangmei Opera can be roughly divided into three stages:

The first stage, from the end of Qing Dynasty to around the Revolution of 1911. Tea-picking tunes, Jiangxi tunes, Tongcheng tunes and Fengyang songs, which originated and spread to Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces, were influenced by the performances of local operas (Qingyang tunes and Huizhou tunes) and combined with folk arts such as Lianxiang, stilts and dry boats, and gradually formed some small dramas. Further development, it absorbed the performance content and expression form from a folk art form called "Luohanzhuang" and Qingyang tune and emblem tune, thus producing the play with a complete story. There is also a transitional form from small play to this play, which is called "string play" by old artists. The so-called "string play" is a group of small plays that are independent and connected with each other, some of which are "string" by things, while others are "string" by people. The plot of "string play" is richer than that of small play, and the characters who appear have also broken through the three small ranges of clown, xiaodan and xiaosheng. Some of the older characters need to be played by Zheng Dan, Lao Sheng and Lao Ugly. This created conditions for the production of this play.

The second stage is from the Revolution of 1911 to 1949. At this stage, Huangmei Opera gradually became professional, and stepped onto the urban stage from the rural grass platform. After Huangmei Opera entered the city, it was combined with Beijing Opera, and was influenced by Yue Opera, Yang Opera, Huai Opera and Pingju Opera from the north in Shanghai, which changed a lot in both content and form. A number of new repertoires have been arranged and transplanted, including serial dramas such as Wen Suchen, Hong Bi Yuan, Gorgeous Yuan and The Tale of Bees. In the aspect of music, the traditional singing was reformed, which reduced the empty words in the old cavity, made it bright and smooth, and made the audience easy to understand the content of singing. Cancel the help, and try to accompany Hu Qin. In terms of performance, it absorbs and melts the procedural movements of Peking Opera and other brother operas, enriching the means of expression. Others, such as clothing, make-up and stage setting, have also developed compared with those in rural areas.

the third stage is from 1949 to the present. In 1952, Anqing Huangmei Opera artists went to Shanghai to perform with plays such as "Beating Pig Grass" and "Blue Bridge Club". Over the past decades, a large number of actors have been trained. In addition to the older generation of artists such as Yan Fengying and Wang Shaofang who have made outstanding achievements in the singing art of Huangmei Opera, young and middle-aged actors such as Malan and Han Zaifen have successively shown their heroic roles on the stage, on the screen and on the TV screen, attracting the attention of the audience. Yan Fengying and Wang Shaohang co-starred in "A Fairy Match", which was made into a film twice and caused a sensation at home and abroad.

Huangmei Opera is the main local opera in Anhui. Huangmei Opera, formerly known as Huangmeidiao or Tea-picking Opera, is a folk opera formed in the late 18th century in the Piling area of Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces. One of them gradually moved eastward to Anqing, with Huaining County in Anhui Province as the center, and combined with local folk art, it sang and spoke in the local language, forming its own characteristics, which was called "Huaiqiang" or "Huaidiao". This is the predecessor of Huangmei Opera today.

in terms of repertoire, it is known as "36 major plays and 72% off minor plays". The drama mainly shows the people's dissatisfaction with class oppression, the disparity between the rich and the poor and their yearning for a free and beautiful life. For example, Buckwheat Story, Gao Liang Guan, Tian Xian Pei, etc. Most of the operas show the life segments of rural laborers, such as Ordering Barley, Spinning Cotton Yarn and Selling Buckets.

After liberation, a number of traditional dramas of different sizes have been arranged and adapted successively, such as The Fairy Match, The Woman Xu, The Story of Ropa, Zhao Guiying, The Tears of Mother, The Three Searches for the Country's Mansion, etc., and the divine drama Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, the historical drama Lost Punishment and the modern drama have been created. Among them, The Fairy Match, The Female Xu and The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl have been put on the screen one after another, which have had great influence at home and abroad. Yan Fengying, Wang Shaofang, Wu Qiong and Malan are famous actors in Huangmei Opera.