Opera Art Of The Twentieth Century Reform And Development

Yu Opera, originally named He Nan Bang Zi, belongs to the Bang Zi Opera Family. It has existed for two hundred fifty years since Qianlong Period. Rooted in Henan, it is famous for exciting tones, easy-to-enjoy styles, humorous conversations, and close-to-life background. This article is focusing on Yu Opera's arts during the 20th century. Yu Opera's development history during the 20th century is composed of some important phenomena.This article describes Yu Opera's history trend and special mode through some case studies on important phenomena.The first is Yu Opera's reformation. Fan, Cuiting and Wang zhennan made great and various contributions to Yu Opera's reform. They helped the self-reform and improvement of the art of Yu Opera. Yu Opera plays transitioned from teaching and learning by mouth and heart to the form of play script and performing art standardization. This transition means Yu Opera being more mature and complete.The second is the development of Yu Opera's modern plays in the new China. In early 1960's, Yu Opera's modern play"Chao Yang Gou";In 1980's, the modern play"The Marriage of Uncle Unlucky";The social transitions in the new period expanded life horizon and brought corresponding changes to the creation of modern Yu Opera plays. Being different from traditional mode of Yu Opera,"Xiang Hun Lady".They switched to the exploration underlying psychology.The third is the edition on traditional Yu Opera plays in the new China. During 1950's and early 1960's, some Yu Opera play writers themselves were active builders of the new period. The editions on traditional Yu Opera often seek the echo from history and reality. In late 1980's, there were some new performances on traditional plays. Editors tried to find a new cutting point to meet the customs and appreciation of modern play audience.The fourth is actress centering in the stage. This article explores the art characteristics of three famous Yu Opera actresses, Xiangyu Chang, Suzhen Chen, and Lantian Cui. They all represented their own genre, and enriched Yu Opera's performing arts with their uniqueness.The fifth is YuOpera's fifty-year development in Taiwan. To some extent, current Yu Opera in Taiwan exists for super star Hailing Wang.The above important phenomena picked up by the article have internal links, which standardize and create Yu Opera's general trend and unique style in the 20th century. From these cutting points that represent Yu Opera's rich contents and historical uniqueness during different time periods, we seek the internal logical links among them, in order to get general ideas about Yu Opera's development in the 20th century, and to understand the art of Yu Opera's development characteristics, and editors and directors'characteristics vertically (the development trend in Henan Province) and horizontally (development comparisons between Taiwan and Mainland).By analyzing the art of Yu Opera's successes and failures from multiple angles, we hope to get some clues on better improving and guiding current ongoing Yu Opera's reform, understanding the relationships between Yu Opera and its audience, Zhong Yuan literature psychology, and educations, and pass this ancient opera through our hands.