The Second Half Of The Xinjiang Region Of Opera In The 20th Century Record Speech And Music Introduction

The Xinjiang area of China is a multi-ethnic region, there are plentiful ethnic folk music, however, the opera which is a large-scale comprehensive artistic form, did not appear until the 20th century.Since the 20th century, the Xinjiang area has experienced alternation of different political power which was from the Qing government, Republic of China to People's Republic of China. In the 1930's, during the rule of Shicai Sheng of Republic of China, the Xinjiang area and its neighbor Soviet were in a close relationship by the effect of his pro-Soviet and pro- Communist policy, Xinjiang once has a short-lived upsurge of Xingjiang ethnic opera creation under the influence of Soviet culture. Under the difficult condition, some ethnic group such as the Uygur, Kazak and Mongolian, created and performed several ethnic operas with its own language and traditional music, and using its own historical stories and the legends as the theme. Though it fell into a decline soon by the transformation of political situation.From the second half of the 20th century, with the peaceful liberation of Xinjiang and the foundation of People's Republic of China, the Xinjiang area entered for a brand-new time, the Central Government gave substantial support to the construction of Xinjiang, especially took seriously at the cultural and art undertakings, and dispatching large-scale cultural and performance troupes to supported the local art groups' development. In the 1950's and the 1960's, a large number of outstanding mainland new opera were reproduced, which promoted the growth and development of opera in Xinjiang. The opera which reflected the new times and the real life combined with the characteristics of the minority groups' music in Xinjiang continued to mature, and the modern grand opera in Chinese Two Generations, Deserted Village, The Course of Fight, etc. which composed by Luobin Wang and other composers, and the Uygur ethnic opera Ailifu and Sainamu had certain influence on society of Xinjiang.During the "Cultural Revolution", according to Premier Enlai Zhou's instruction, Xinjiang Ensemble of Songs-Dances and Drama Theatre created the Uygur opera "The Red Lantern" in the 1970s which is based on the model play of Peking opera of the same name. Set in mind to take the folk music as the material ahead of schedule, the composers used the folk song of Uygur and "12 Mukamu" as the basic materials of The Red Lantern, and used its own native language to sing. In terms of orchestration, they used a mixed orchestra which is the combination of the Uygur folk music orchestra and the regular orchestra, and established the Xinjiang first opera troupe based on it. Affected by that, during this period, the cultural and art troupe of the lower local organizations of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, all followed this trend, created and performed a great variety of Xingjiang ethnic operas. In the 1980s, along with implementation of the reform and open policy, the development of ethnic opera in Xinjiang entered to a prosperous time. Not only several popular operas, such as the Uygur ethnic opera Ailifu and Sainamu,had the opportunity to re-perform, but also constantly emerging ethnic operas of various subjects which were created and performed by the Xinjiang opera troupe. A series of grand ethnic operas followed, such as Rebiya and Dzaiddin, Tashiwayi, Amannisha (the name changed for The Mukamu Pioneer later), Saliha And Samman, and Return to the East. These ethnic operas which use native language and folk songs, presenting the ethnic tradition and the real life won widespread acclaim. The music composition also showed different styles, and the composing technique made unceasing progress, therefore, many operas won big prizes which were issued by the nation.This dissertation makes a general observation of the development of ethnic opera in Xingjiang in the second half of the 20th century. It systematizes the history according to the characteristics of operas of different times, and proved that, under the instruction of the unprecedented support policy which the new Chinese Central government gave to the development of the culture and art of ethnic minorities, along with the development of social culture of various minorities in Xinjiang, the Xinjiang ethnic opera has achieved great success, and has also gained numerous successful experiences in opera creation, as well, it demonstrated an unusual path of development of ethnic opera.