Yue Opera is a major genre of opera in South China, prevalent in Guangdong and Guangxi,
Hong Kong, Macao and overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Its singing and
dialogue are all in Cantonese dialect. It combines four regional types of traditional
music with Guangdong folk music and popular tunes. In addition to Chinese traditional
instruments, such as the erxian and gaohu bowed string instruments and
the sanxian abd yueqin plucked string instruments, its orchestra has
adopted Western instruments such as violin, saxophone, cello and double bass. In
acting, stage scenery and lighting, it has borrowed techniques used in modern drama,
Western opera and film, and gradually formed its own distinctive features. Originally
its characters were divided into 10 categories, but later on reduced to six: civilian
and military, male scholar-lover, major female, secondary female, clown and military
male. The repertoire is 5,000 to 6,000 traditional pieces. Hong Xiannu is probably
the best known actress of this genre.
The following is a list of famous synopses:
Crafty Princess, A(Diaoman Gongzhu): Princess Fengxia of the Huaxia Kingdom
is artful and wilful. On her wedding day, her husband, Meng Feixiong, a border marshal,
means to subdue her by forcing her to enter his house on her knees. He threatens her with a
golden mace given to him by the emperor. Fengxia is indignant and that very night she shuts
her door and defies Feixiong. After lots of twists and turns, both of them realize they can
not enjoy true happiness unless they respect each other.
Fatal Opera, The(Guan Hanqing): Dramatist Guan Hanqing writes the opera
"Wronged Dou Er" and casts actress Zhu Lianxiu as the lead. Because the opera criticizes
social evils, the local authorities sentence Guan and Zhu to death. In prison, they fall
in love. Because the local people protest their death sentence, authorities banish Guan
to a desolate place instead. In tears, Zhu gives her lover a farewell dinner.
Search the School(Sou Shuyuan): The daughter of the Hainan governor loses
her kite, which is found by Zhang Yimin, a student at the Qiongtai School. Zhang writes a
poem on the kite and then returns it to Cuilian, a maid of the governor. When the governor
finds the poem on the kite, he suspects that Cuilian has had a love affair with Zhang. The
governor beats Cuilian black and blue and then locks her inn a cabin. Cuilian disguises
herself as a man and escapes. On the way to the Qiongtai School, she encounters Xie Bao,
a teacher there, who takes Cuilian to the school. Hearing the news, the governor leads his
men to search the school. Xie helps Cuilian and Zhang escape the school. In the end, the
two get married.
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