The+Early+History+of+Beijing+Opera

=Beijing (Peking) Opera in the 18th and 19th Centuries=


 * In China the art form has been known by many other names in different times and places. The earliest Chinese name was a combination of the Xipi and Erhuang melodies, and was called //Pihuang//. As it increased in popularity, its name became //Jingxi// or //Jingju//, which reflected its start in the capital city, Jing, and the form of the performance, Xi. From 1927 to 1949, Beijing was known as Beiping, and Beijing opera was known as //Pingxi// or //Pingju// (平劇) to reflect this change. Finally, with the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the name of the capital city was reverted to Beijing, and the formal name of Beijing theatre in Mainland China was established as //Jingju//. In Taiwan, this type of opera is known as //Guoju//, national theatre style, reflecting disputes over the true seat of the Chinese government.




 * Beijing Opera is a mixture of many different styles and forms of art, and reflects the rich and varied cultural history of the Chinese state.
 * Beijing opera was born when the "Four Great Anhui Troupes" came to Beijing in 1790 to celebrate the emperors birthday. Beijing opera was originally staged for the court and came into the public later. Beijing, or Peking Opera, stems from many traditions of various classic art forms, and has continued to develop and become more complex throughout the centuries.
 * The majority of Beijing opera plays have simple, easily understood, and well-known plots which were anonymously created or adapted, often by the performers themselves, from novels, popular stories, and earlier "lit- erary" plays. Focused neither on script nor plot, these plays feature the mental and emotional lives of characters. They reveal the "miracle of moments," and do so in several complexly layered "languages" which are presented simultaneously. One of these languages is Mandarin Chinese, performed as much for its aesthetic values as for its denotative meaning. Other languages include the pihuangmusical language of song and orches- tral accompaniment, the language of percussive patterns (luogudian), and the language of conventional stylized movement all of which are capable of expressing dense and specific affective meaning. (Wichmann)
 * The music in Beijing Opera comes from many different regions of China, and this is evident in the original blending of numerous regional styles to create pihuang music itself, and in the numerous additions and adaptations of other musical styles and orchestrations to the form, such as Mei Lanfang's inclusion of the erhu, a deep-toned two-string spike fiddle, to broaden the timbre of accompaniment. (Wichmann)
 * Early plays were often adaptations from earlier Chinese theatre styles, such as //kunqu.//
 * "Beijing opera was born when the "Four Great Anhui Troupes" came to Beijing in 1790. Beijing opera was originally staged for the court and came into the public later.

Beijing Opera in the 18th Century


In 1828, some famous Hubei troupes came to Beijing. They often jointly performed in the stage with Anhui troupes. The combination gradually formed Beijing opera's main melodies. Beijing opera is generally regarded as having fully formed by 1845. Although it is called Beijing opera (Beijing theatre style), its origins are in the southern Anhui and eastern Hubei, which share the same dialect of Xiajiang Mandarin (Lower Yangtze Mandarin). Beijing opera's two main melodies, //Xipi// and //Erhuang// originated from Shanxi but developed in Anhui and Hubei. Xipi literally means 'Western Skin Puppet Show', referring to the puppet show that is originated from Shaanxi province. Puppet Shows in China always involve singing. Much dialogue is also carried out in an archaic form of Standard Mandarin, in which Zhongyuan Guanhua (Zhongyuan Mandarin) dialects in Henan and Shaanxi are closest. This form of standard Mandarin is recorded in the book Zhongyuan Yinyun. It also absorbed music and arias from other operas and local Zhili musical art forms. Some scholars believe that the //Xipi// musical form was derived from the historic Qinqiang while many conventions of staging, performance elements, and aesthetic principles were retained from Kunqu, the form that preceded it as court art. Thus, Beijing opera is not actually a monolithic form, but rather a coalescence of many older forms. However, the new form also introduced its own innovations. The vocal requirements for all of the major roles were greatly reduced for Beijing opera. The Chou, in particular, rarely has a singing part in Beijing opera, unlike the equivalent role in Kunqu style. The melodies that accompany each play were also simplified, and are played with different traditional instruments than in earlier forms. Perhaps most noticeably, true acrobatic elements were introduced with Beijing opera. The form grew in popularity throughout the 19th century. The Anhui troupes reached their peak of excellence in the middle of the century, and were invited to perform in the court of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom that had been established during the Taiping Rebellion. Beginning in 1884, the Empress Dowager Cixi became a regular patron of Beijing opera, cementing its status over earlier forms like Kunqu. The popularity of Beijing opera has been attributed to the simplicity of the form, with only a few voices and singing patterns. This allowed anyone to sing the arias themselves. Beijing opera was initially an exclusively male pursuit. The Qianlong Emperor had banned all female performers in Beijing in 1772. The appearance of women on the stage began unofficially during the 1870s. Female performers began to impersonate male roles and declared equality with men. They were given a venue for their talents when Li Maoer, himself a former Beijing opera performer, founded the first female Beijing opera troupe in Shanghai. By 1894, the first commercial venue showcasing female performance troupes appeared in Shanghai.

Beijing Opera in the 19th Century


Modern Beijing Opera took form during this period. It was at this time that Beijing Opera began to combine many different art forms to come to be known as present day Beijing Opera. And during the first half of the 19th century, one such combination was written by the Manchu nobleman Wen Kang who wrote a novel in the Beijing dialect entitled //The Gallant Maids//, which achieved wide popularity at the time. This novel recounts the story of a love affair between He Yufeng, an errant swordswoman, and the scholar An Ji. Ever since this story of how the heroine carried on a tender romance with the hero and battled despots to protect the weak and downtrodden was first performed on stage, it has been warmly received by Chinese audiences and has become a standard item in the repertoire of traditional Chinese operas.

Bibliography 1. http://www.einaudi.cornell.edu/curriculum/monkey/opera/ 2. Tradition and Innovation in Traditional Beijing Opera Performance by: Elizabeth Wichmann 3. http://wapedia.mobi/en/Peking_opera

Pictures 1. http://www.cultural-china.com/chinaWH/html/en/27Arts622.html 2. Google Search.