The difference between Qin Opera and Meihu Opera, an introduction to Shaanxi local Meihu Opera

Meihu is one of the main opera types in Shaanxi Province and Gansu Province, and is one of the national intangible cultural heritages. It is popular in Gansu, Shaanxi, Hubei and other places. Without the euphemism, it has the charm that makes people fascinated after listening to it. Qin Opera also originated from the Guanzhong area, so what is the difference between Qin Opera and Meihu? This issue of Qin Opera will help you understand.

Introduction to Meihu Opera

Meihu is also called Mei'e. Because its dialect is pronounced as "muddle", some people mistakenly think that it is also called "muddle", or "qu opera", " "Xianzi Opera" is one of the main types of Han operas in Shaanxi Province. Meihu is popular in Guanzhong, and is also popular in some areas such as Shanxi, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan, Gansu and Ningxia.

Origin

Meihu drama is named for its melodious and melodious tunes and its fascinating artistic charm. In the 1940s, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region was called "Meihu". Mei County and Hu County are located at the foothills of Taibai Mountain in the Qinling Mountains. Folk songs have been popular since ancient times. Meihu tunes originated from these Han folk songs and were called "Qing tunes" in ancient times. Meihu opera gradually developed into Meihu opera in Huayin and Huaxian areas.

Huayin and Huaxian are the areas of Zheng State in Zhou Dynasty, and Meihu may be affected by "Zheng Sheng". Therefore, Meihu is divided into east and west roads in Guanzhong. Regarding the Meihu on the east road, there is a popular saying that "Tongzhou's Bangzi Heyang's Line (referring to hanging string puppets), Erhua's Meihu Tianxia Zhuan".

During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, with the development of opera arts in various places such as Qin Opera, Meihu was gradually put on the stage and a certain number of plays were formed. In terms of singing form, Meihu still retains the folk art form of street stall singing. Most of his songs are excerpts from operas, such as "The Widow's Field Inspection", "The Meeting in the Ancient City", "The Royal Aunt Becomes a Monk", etc. They are often sung to the end, with few spoken words. The repertoire in the form of stage performances includes large-scale original plays such as "Against Datong" and "Flaming Horse", as well as excerpts such as "Zhang Lian Selling Cloth", "Fighting at Two Parents' House", "Du Shiniang", etc., both white and singing. , there are performances, and the selection of tunes is relatively free.

Features

Meihu’s accompaniment instruments are mainly three-stringed instruments, supplemented by banhu and sea flutes. Different from the high-spirited, bold and bold Qin Opera, Meihu's singing is more euphemistic, delicate, beautiful and full of expressions of depth, sadness and sorrow. The opera costumes are simple and the makeup is thick. The performance movements are real and life-like. The overall style is more modern. The tunes of Meihu are very rich, including "seventy-two major tunes and thirty-six minor tunes".

Major keys are mainly used to sing sad plots, such as "Old Dragon Crying in the Sea", "Luo Jiang's Resentment", "Lao Wu Geng", etc.; minor keys are mainly used to sing joyful and comedic situations, such as "Picking Flowers", " "Silver Red Silk", "A String of Bells", etc. Now Meihu's singing music has been refined to more than 50 tunes. There are 200 or 300 kinds of Meihu traditional plays collected and compiled, excluding the same songs and different songs from different places. Widely circulated ones include "Zhang Lian Selling Cloth", "Nun Sifan", "An'an Sending Rice", "Dingmu Encouraging Learning", "Du Shiniang" and so on.

The newly performed plays include "Brothers and Sisters Open up Wasteland", "Everyone Likes", "Twelve Sickles", etc. The modern drama "Liang Qiuyan" is one of the representative plays and enjoys an excellent reputation, so much so that someone praised it as "I didn't eat for three days after watching Liang Qiuyan".

Singing forms

Meihu singing forms are divided into two types:

First, the folk art form of street stall singing is still retained. Most of the songs are excerpts from operas, such as "The Widow's Field Inspection", "The Ancient City Meeting", "The Emperor's Aunt Becomes a Monk", etc. Such programs are often sung to the end and rarely spoken out.

One is the form of stage performance. Its repertoire includes large-scale plays such as "Against Datong" and "Flaming Horse", as well as "Zhang Lian Selling Cloth", "Fight at Two Parents' House", "Du Shi" Excerpts such as "Mother" include spoken words, singing, and performances, and the tunes can be freely selected.