A Preliminary Study Of Palace Festival Opera In Qing Dynasty

The Jieling Opera is a kind of drama in the palace of the Qing Dynasty.It is closely related to the ancient times and the imperial culture of the Qing DynastyThe Jieling Opera has short and long forms.The short opera is the single play,singing with the Kunqiang and the Yiqiang.The Lian Taiben Opera which is performed in the court during the festival,that has something to do with the festival culture,is also regarded as the Jieling Opera by contemporary researchers.In this paper,we call it long Jieling Opera.At present,some long Jieling Operas,singing in Kunqiang,Yiqiang and Luantan,have survivedDuring the festival,a half-day performance will be showed on the large and medium sized theater in the palace.The Jieling Opera is often used for opening and ending this kind of performance.And in addition,it also be performed at castle feasts,in sacrifice rite,and when the emperor is dined and winedThe Qing Palace Festival is mainly a national festival from the previous dynasty,and a few "festivals" are unique to the court.During the festival period,a large-scale opera performance will last about half a day in the daytime,which performs at the large and medium-sized theatres of the palace.The short Jieling Opera is often used for the opening or ending of performances.During the Dragon Boat Festival,Mid-Autumn Festival,the whole opera performances only play the long Jieling Opera,occasionally,another short opera will appear before it as the opening of the show.In addition,during the festival,when the court banquet and the emperor eat,drink and worship the gods,one or two Jieling Operas will be usedIn terms of content and theme,some Jieling Operas write the human story to show the festival life of ordinary people,and others write fairy deeds to express the congratulations on festivals and show the propitious omen.Under the guidance of the fantastic world outlook,the palace playwright constructs a world in which a person coexists with fairies and ghosts in the Jieling Operas.The overall language style of festival drama tends to be elegant.Different plays have different style tendencies in language,the language of some operas is fresh and plain,some operas have many embellishments in writing,some are of colloquial and humor styleMost of the Jieling Operas are the products of the Qing Palace's 'music system reform' in the Qianlong Dynasty.This kind of new operas which created by the Palace playwrights have enhanced the cultural color of courtesy and music in the performance of court operas,and make the performance of court opera,which is supposed to be entertainment,more embody the meaning of enlightenmentIn the form of artistic expression,the Jieling Operas has strong characteristics of music and dance.Many of the plays incorporate large-scale music and dance performances,which make the stage of the festival opera much more lively.The playwright tries to extol the good times by adding singing and dancing in the poera,and to heighten the festive atmosphere.