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Guangzhou culture and arts » Yue Opera
In a addition to Chinese traditional instruments like Er Xian, Gao Hu, San Xian and Yue Qin (the former two are bowed string instruments, the latter two plucked string instruments), its orchestra has adopted Western instruments such as violin, saxophone, cello and double bass.
In acting, stage scenery and lighting, it has borrowed from the techniques used in modern drama, Western opera and film and gradually formed its own distinctive features. Originally its characters were divided into ten Hangdang (categories), but later on reduced to six: civil and military male, scholar-lover, major female secondary female, clown and military male. Included in the repertoire are 5,000-6,000 traditional items. Leading actors and actresses include Ma Shizeng, Hong Xiannu, Luo Pinchao and Bai Jurong. famous synopses: Crafty Princess, A(Diaoman Gongzhu): Princess Fengxia of the Huaxia Kingdom is artful and wilful. On her wedding day, her husband, Meng Feixiong, a border marshal, means to subdue her by forcing her to enter his house on her knees. He threatens her with a golden mace given to him by the emperor. Fengxia is indignant and that very night she shuts her door and defies Feixiong. After lots of twists and turns, both of them realize they can not enjoy true happiness unless they respect each other.
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is a major genre of
opera in the south of China, prevalent in Guangdong and Guangxi,
Hong Kong, Macao and overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia.
Its singing and dialogue are all in Guangzhou dialect. Based on
Banghuang Tune, it combines Kun Tune, Yiyang Tune, Guangdong Tune
with Guangdong folk music and popular tunes. |
In the history of the Cantonese opera, the two decades before the Pacific War have long been considered its golden age. As an operatic genre derivative from other regional theaters performing in Guangdong since the Ming-Qing era, the Cantonese opera evolved, in the 1920s and 1930s, into a very distinctive art form with the use of the Cantonese dialect in both sung and spoken passages, the invention of new aria types, and other unique performance styles. Instrumental to this development was the formation of the so-called Sheng-Gang Troupes based in Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
These troupes were undoubtedly successful in capturing a large local audience, and the great popularity of their famous actors like Xue Jiaoxian and Ma Shizeng attested to the rise of a mass entertainment in the urban milieu of Guangzhou and Hong Kong, and also to the vitality of an unfolding regional culture and identity centered on the twin cities. No less important in underlying the success of these troupes was their overseas circuitry which took them to perform frequently in the Cantonese communities in Southeast Asia and North America. These trips were rewarding not only financially but culturally, affording the opportunities for exposure to new theatrical practices and ideas. Moreover, they renewed and consolidated the imagination of a Cantonese identity among the fellow natives overseas. |
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Noted people in history |
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-Hongxiannv -Huangfeihong |
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