From Tradition To Modern

Anhui Huangmei Opera Theater House,previously known as Anhui Provincial Huangmei Opera Group,was founded in 1953 and subsequently renamed as it is now in 1987.Its erection was the goal and a result of the modernization of the opera art institution.The repertory development of the Theater links the past,present and future of Huangmei opera,even influencing its rise and fall.Based on previous researches and combined with related policies,this thesis,with the Anhui Huangmei Opera Theater as the case,systematically organized and studied nearly 460 repertoires created,rehearsed and performed in the Theater since its founding 66 years ago,and attempted to look into the mutual relation between the creation and the development of the types of opera.With that as the mainline,the frame of this doctorate dissertation was created.The creations of repertory in the Theater over the past about 70 years can be divided into two periods: the first was from its founding to the millennium and then the second phase lasted from the millennium to 2019.According to the themes,the creations of repertory in Anhui Huangmei Opera Theater House can be divided into four categories,which are the adaption of traditional Huangmei operas as well as the creation of adapted operas,newly-created and adapted historical operas,and modern operas.The adaption of traditional Huangmei Opera after the founding of the Theater promoted the emerge of many classic operas,contributing to the first revitalization of repertory creation of the Theater.Meanwhile,it also promoted the development of the development of “dan(leading actress)” and “sheng(leading actor)” performance,established a team of art talents and confirmed its representative position as the opera of Anhui province.From early 1980 s to the end of this century,the creation of historical and modern operas bred the new classic repertory of Huangmei Opera anddirectly promoted the second revitalization of Huangmei Opera.And also the development of “dan” and “sheng” continued to carry out.Compared with the adaption of traditional operas,the historical and modern ones witnessed new changes,which showed the trend of getting dramatized and also elegant.In addition,there appeared a positive interaction between the creation of repertory and the development of opera types in Anhui Huangmei Opera Theate Houser,which was mutual-promoting.In an inclusive manner,Huangmei Opera was actively combined with new media,and films and series featured Huangmei Opera gained considerable popularity at that time.With talents of operas flocking into this industry,the history witnessed many shining stars in this filed,rendering the Theater into the leader among its peers,which was quite remarkable.However,the creation in the second period was less satisfactory.It was generally left-behind and monotonic in creation;besides,there was much more demand for revitalization but less motivations.Not representative operas were promoted since then,no evident improvement in Huangmei Opera stage arts was made and no talents were willing to learn and achieve,all of which removed the Theater from its previous position as the leader of the industry.At the same time,the Huangmei Opear Theaters in Anqing City and Hubei Province welcomed many excellent works and talents,catching up with Anhui Huangmei Opera House.Despite losing the leading position,Anhui Theater House still witnessed over 20 new repertories,which provided the repertory establishment of the new ear with multiple angles of exploration and made the third revitalization possible and worth expecting.Through the research on the creation of the repertory in Anhui Huangmei Opera Theater House over the past seven decades,it can be found that there are also problems apart from these significant achievements.Some of these issues could even become the chronic diseases in the process of repertory creations.All in all,there is still a long way to go to realize the third revitalization.