Chinese opera
The Chinese Opera (Chinese戏曲/戏曲, Pinyin Xìqǔ ) developed during the Tang Dynasty ( 618-906 ) from preforms of musical theater. In contrast to the European operatic tradition since the beginning is, however, a populist art and expression; later also found higher levels and needle liking to her. Music and lyrics were handed down orally for a long time or from the performance practice out. Text books and scores are created only since the early 20th century (see Drama (China) ).
In contrast to other forms of musical drama ( in Europe, India and Japan) combines the Chinese opera expressions of music, singing, drama, dance and acrobatics in typical local forms. Thematically, there are usually well-known legends and myths, on the basis of social, political and spiritual aspects are represented, formerly often with great timeliness content.
The Chinese opera dates back to the Tang Dynasty back, when Emperor Xuanzong ( 712-755 ) the pear garden ( Liyuan ;梨园) founded, the first known opera troupe in China that used to occur mainly to the Emperor's own amusement. In it, the still in use today for actors called " student of the Pear Garden " (梨园 子弟) goes back.
In the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) forms found as the Zaju (杂剧, variety ) entrance in the opera house, on certain rhyme schemes as well as the newly introduced specialized roles like " Dan " (旦, female), " Sheng " (生, male) and " Chǒu " (丑, Clown ) is based.
The Opera of the Yuan Dynasty lives on today as Cantonese opera. It is generally assumed that this was imported from northern China and slowly migrated by the end of the 13th century to the southern province of Guangdong. In the 12th century a form of theater existed called Narm hei (南 戏), also called Nanxi ( Southern opera ), which was performed in public theaters of Hangzhou, the capital of the Southern Song. After the invasion of the Mongols Emperor Gong (恭帝) 1276 fled with hundreds of thousands of supporters in song Guangdong Province. Among them were Narm hei artists from the north, who thus laid the foundation for later Cantonese opera were. Many still listed operas such as The Purple Hairpin and Rejuvenation of red plum blossom originated in the Yuan Dynasty, their words are traditionally written in Cantonese. By the 20th century, women's roles were traditionally played by men.
The best known form of Chinese opera is of course the Peking Opera. They evolved from the Kunqu Opera (昆曲kūnqǔ ), which was considered in the 16th century as an art form of national importance. Especially opera troupes from Anhui Province enriched the Kūnqǔ tradition with acrobatic body match and colored choreography in the 19th century. The result was a well Jingju (京剧) shall form the Peking Opera.
Their heyday was the Chinese Opera from around 1830 until 1960. During the Cultural Revolution, she was at least frowned upon in the People's Republic of China and there were no performances take place, instead glorifying Revolutionsepen were performed and the performance practice dominated naturalism, only in 1977 was again a first official performance instead. Today she enjoys at least the tradition-conscious and often older crowd again and more popular.