Huangmei Opera

Huangmei Opera, formerly known as huangmeidiao and Tea Picking Opera, originated from Huangmei in Hubei Province and developed stronger than Anqing in Anhui Province.

Huangmei Opera, together with Beijing opera, Yue opera, Pingju opera and Henan opera, is one of the "five major operas in China". It is also the main local operas in Anhui Province. Professional or amateur performing groups of Huangmei Opera are also popular in Hubei, Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Huangmei Opera is a kind of opera gradually formed and developed from folk song, Yangko, tea song, tea picking lamp and flower drum tune, which first came into the countryside and then into the city. It absorbed the factors of Han Opera, Chu opera, Gaoqiang opera, Tea Picking Opera, Peking Opera and so on, and gradually formed its own artistic characteristics. Huangmei Opera is characterized by simple and fluent singing, bright and lyrical, and rich expressive force; its performance is simple and meticulous, and it is famous for its authenticity and liveliness. A piece of "Tian Xian Pei" has made Huangmei opera popular in all parts of the country and has a high reputation overseas.

On May 20, 2006, Huangmei opera was listed in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list with the approval of the State Council.

A brief introduction to operas

Huangmei opera originated in Huangmei, Hubei Province, formerly known as huangmeidiao and Tea Picking Opera. Now it is popular in Anqing City, Anhui Province and Huangmei County, Hubei Province.

In the late Qing Dynasty, the tea picking tune in Huangmei County of Hubei Province was introduced into Huaining County of Anhui Province. It was combined with the local folk art and used anqing dialect to sing and recite. It gradually developed into a new type of opera, which was called huaiqiang or huaidiao at that time. This is the early Huangmei Opera. After that, Huangmei Opera began to perform "this opera" by absorbing the music, performance and repertoire of Qingyang tune and huidiao. With anqing as the center, Huangmei Opera has become the main local opera in Anhui Province and the national famous opera after more than 100 years of development.

The singing style of Huangmei Opera belongs to the type changing style, which includes coloratura, coloratura and main tune. Coloratura is mainly for performing small operas. The melody is healthy, simple, beautiful and cheerful, with a strong flavor of life and the color of folk songs. Coloratura melody is cheerful, which has been widely used in coloratura small operas. The main melody is the common singing of Huangmei Opera, which is divided into Pingci, huogong, Erxing and Sanxing. Pingci is the most important singing in the original opera, and the melody is serious, solemn and beautiful Fang. Huangmei Opera is good at lyricism, rich in charm, simple and fresh in singing, delicate and moving, good at lively lyricism, rich in expressiveness, easy to understand, easy to popularize, and deeply loved by people all over the world. In terms of musical accompaniment, in the early Huangmei Opera, three people played percussion instruments such as drums, cymbals, small gongs, big gongs, etc. at the same time, they took part in banqiang, known as "three dozen and seven sing". After the founding of the people's Republic of China, Huangmei Opera formally established the accompaniment system with Gaohu as the main instrument.

The role system of Huangmei Opera is developed on the basis of "two minor operas" and "three minor operas", including Zhengdan, Zhengsheng, Xiaodan, Xiaosheng, Huadan, clown, laodan, Laosheng, Hualian, daomadian, wuerhua and so on. Although there is a division of labor, there is no strict restriction. Actors can often play other roles. The performance of Huangmei Opera is singing and dancing, simple and meticulous, real and lively, full of life flavor, famous for advocating emotional experience, with a fresh and natural, beautiful and fluent artistic style. There are many well-known excellent plays in Huangmei Opera, among which the most representative ones are Tianxianpei, nvfuma, Niulang Zhinv, husband and wife watching lanterns, beating pig grass and spinning cotton yarn.

Huangmei Opera is one of the five major operas in China, which has far-reaching influence. The popular area of Huangmei Opera is shrinking, and the survival of Huangmei Opera Troupes at all levels, especially at the county level, is increasingly difficult, which needs the concern and support of the government and the whole society.

Chinese PinYin : Huang Mei Xi