A Comparison Of The Artistic Images Of Oriental Women In Chinese And Western Opera

Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly is one of the most classic repertoires in the history of world's opera.It has been playing and been popular till now.National opera Canal Ballad was firstly played in National Grand Theater in June,2012,and has required love and approve from audiences.It is regarded as a representative work of Chinese national opera artistic culture's succession and innovation.The characters in these two operas,Cho-Cho-San and Water Lotus are both oriental women and there are similarities and differences between these two characters.The author systematically studies the similarities and differences of the creative background between these two operas,analyzes the characterization of Cho-Cho-San and Water Lotus from the aspects of dramatic image and musical image,and summarize the enlightenment from contrasting.There are five parts in this article:The fist part includes introduction of background and significance of selection,literature review,research approach,innovation and insufficiency.The second part mainly introduces Western opera Madame Butterfly and National opera Canal Ballad,which includes the introduction of the composer,creative background and plot overview,the analysis of character's traits of Cho-Cho-San and Water Lotus and summary of the oriental femininity reflect on those two characters.Cho-Cho-San is naive,loyal,brave and Water Lotus is smart,kind,loyal and brave.The third part mainly contrasts the oriental female dramatic image building of Cho-Cho-San and Water Lotus between two operas and analyzes the similarities and differences of dramatic image between those two characters such as different historical backgrounds and similar realistic theme,different surroundings and similar emotional encounter,different characters and similar tragic fate,and different conflicts and similar shaping technique.The fourth part mainly contrasts the musical image building of Cho-Cho-San and Water Lotus between two operas.The article summarizes the similarities and differences of musical image building of Cho-Cho-San and Water Lotus by analyzing three pieces of arias under three emotion: the stage of first sweet love,the stage of persistence for love and the stage of sacrifice for love.The similarities are that both of operas shows oriental feminine characteristics in shaping the work,absorbs the elements of national tune in melody and uses instruments to foil for characters.The styles and characteristics of singing and body expressions of those two operas are different.The fifth part mainly discusses enlightenment and contribution of the contrast of Chinese and Western opera artistic image to the development of future national opera creation.A successful opera reflects the perspective of seeing big things through small ones from the material selection,reflects the characters' personalities and focus on the characters' aesthetic characteristics by characterizing.A successful opera needs to unity the inheritance and innovation,history and times.