Opera is a comprehensive art that integrates poetry, drama, vocal music, instrumental music, dance, etc. Modern Western opera originated in Italy at the end of the 16th century during the era known as the "Renaissance". Later it gradually spread throughout the world. In 1919, after the May 4th Movement, Chinese music workers began the exploration of Chinese opera by learning from Western operas. After his speech at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art in 1942, the new Yangko movement emerged that was very popular. With the performance of dozens of Yangge operas including the first new Yangge opera "Brothers and Sisters Opening up Wasteland" and later "A Red Flower" and "Couple Literacy", there has been a craze for the creation and performance of new Yangge operas across the country. In the mid-1940s, the birth of the national-style opera "The White-Haired Girl" marked a breakthrough in the creation of Chinese opera and created a new stage in the development of Chinese opera. The opera "Sister Jiang" based on the novel "Red Rock" is a monumental work of Chinese national opera. The Opera Troupe of the Political Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force premiered in Beijing in 1964. The play is written by Yan Su, a famous playwright and lyricist, and composed by famous composers Yang Ming, Jiang Chunyang and Jin Sha. The play's beautiful music melody, distinctive characters and strong artistic power have conquered the hearts of countless audiences. It dominates the national opera stage and has become a long-lasting national opera masterpiece. After 1964, the opera "Sister Jiang" has been rearranged four times and has been widely performed across the country. It is well-known at home and abroad, including "Ode to Red Plum Blossoms", "Embroidered Red Flag", "Spring Silkworms Silk to Death" and "People from Five Continents Laugh Together". Classic arias have influenced generations of audiences.
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Opera
Opera is a combination of music (vocal and instrumental music), drama (script) A comprehensive art that integrates performance), literature (poetry), dance (folk dance and ballet), stage art, etc., usually composed of arias, recitatives, duets, choruses, overtures, interludes, dance scenes, etc. (Sometimes speaking and reciting are also used). As early as ancient Greek dramas, there were chorus accompaniments, and some recitations even appeared in the form of singing. In the Middle Ages, miracle plays based on religious stories and promoting religious views were also popular and continued. But modern Western opera, which can truly be called "musical drama", came into being with the secularization of music culture during the Renaissance in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
The Origin of Opera
It is generally believed that European opera originated at the end of the 16th century. The first opera recognized in the West is "Daphne" (also translated as "Daphne"), which was produced under the influence of humanism in an attempt to restore the spirit of ancient Greek drama. It was written by O. Rinuccini and composed by J. Perry. With J. Corsi, it was performed in the court of Count G. Bardi in Florence in 1597 (some say it was completed in 1594). Due to the loss of the original manuscript of the play, some people also believe that it was performed in 1600 to celebrate the wedding of Henry IV. He wrote "Euridice" as the earliest Western opera. Due to the public's popularity with opera, the world's first opera house was built in Venice in 1637.
The development of opera
At the end of the 17th century, the Neapolitan opera school represented by Asia 6?1 Scarlatti had the greatest influence in Rome. This music school did not use chorus and ballet scenes in the play, but highly developed the solo singing technique known as "Bel Canto" in later generations. When this "singing-work-first" approach goes to extremes, the opera's original dramatic expressiveness and ideological connotation are almost lost. As a result, in the 1720s, the comic opera genre, which was based on daily life, had humorous plots and simple music, emerged. The first classic example of Italian comic opera is Pagolesi's "The Housewife" (premiered in 1733). The play was originally an interlude of a serious opera. When it was performed in Paris in 1752, it was He was slandered by conservatives, thus setting off the famous "Comic Opera Controversy" in the history of opera. The first comic opera in France, "The Soothsayer" written by Rousseau, was born under the inspiration of this debate and this opera.
Italian opera was the first to be transformed in France and combined with French national culture. Lully was the founder of French opera ("lyrical tragedy"). In addition to creating solo melodies that were closely integrated with French, he was also the first to use ballet scenes in opera. In England, Purcell created Britain's first national opera, Didon and Aeneas, based on the country's masquerade tradition. In Germany and Austria, folk singing dramas were developed into German and Austrian national operas by Haydn, Dietersdorf, Mozart and others. Representative works include Mozart's "The Magic Flute" and so on. By the 18th century, Gluck, aiming at the mediocrity and superficiality of operas in Naples at that time, insisted that operas must have profound content, music and drama must be unified, and the performance should be simple and natural. His ideas and works such as "Orfeo and Eurydice" and "Iphigenes in Olyd" had a great influence on the development of opera in later generations.
After the 19th century, Italy’s G. Rossini, G. Verdi, G. Puccini, Germany’s R. Wagner, France’s G. Bizet, Russia’s M.I. Glinka, Opera masters such as M.P. Mussorgsky and P.N. Tchaikovsky have made important contributions to the development of opera. "Opera" (operettta, meaning: little opera), which was formed in the 18th century, has evolved and developed into an independent genre.
Its characteristics are: short structure, popular music, in addition to solo, duet, chorus, and dance, it also uses spoken language. The Austrian composer Sobey and the French composer Offenbach, originally from Germany, are the founders of this genre.
Among the opera composers of the 20th century, the early representative figure was Richard Strauss ("Salome", "Den Rosenkavalier") who was influenced by Wagner; after the First World War, Berg ("Wozzeck") who applied the principle of atonality in opera creation; since the 1940s, there are: Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Milhaud, Manotti, Barbier, Orff, Janastella, Henze, More and the famous British composer Britten, etc.
Vocal music
The vocal part in an opera includes solo, duet and chorus. The lyrics are the lines of the characters in the play (depending on the style, they may also be spoken); the instrumental part is usually in the whole song. There is an overture or prelude at the opening of the play, and early operas also occasionally have a dedication prologue (including vocal music). In each scene, instrumental music not only serves as accompaniment to singing, but also plays a connecting role. Interludes are often used to connect acts, or each act has its own prelude. Dances may also be inserted into the progression of the play. The musical structure of an opera can be composed of relatively independent pieces of music connected, or it can be a unified structure that continuously develops.
The important vocal styles in opera include recitative, aria, aria, recital, duet, chorus, etc.; its genre styles include serious opera, comic opera, grand opera, operetta, operetta, Musical comedy, chamber opera, soundtrack drama, etc.
Aria
Arias are the main arias in operas where the protagonists express their emotions. Their music is beautiful, the structure is complete, and they can express the singer's vocal skills. Therefore, we often also Hear them in concert, such as the aria "On a Clear Day" from Madama Butterfly, the aria "Why does my heart so beat" from La Traviata, and the aria "There is a voice in my heart" from Rosina, among others .
Recitative
Recitative is a paragraph that unfolds the plot. The story often proceeds in the recitative. At this time, the characters have more dialogues. This kind of paragraph is not suitable for singing. The sex was too strong, so I used a half-speaking and half-singing method called recitative, which is very similar to the rhyme in Peking Opera. In Peking Opera, Qingyi, Xiaosheng or Laosheng all have a kind of recitative with exaggerated pronunciation tone. Although it is not very melodic, it can make the narration easy to connect with the singing before and after. Its function is very similar to the recitative in Western operas. . The early recitatives of European operas were very non-singing and were called "dry recitatives". They often used a harpsichord to play a chord to a key, and the singer used many homophonic repetitions to narrate in this key. The repeated translation of this same sound into Chinese is very unpleasant, because the Chinese language has four tones in ups and downs, and we Chinese cannot sing in a flat tone: Have you eaten today? It sure sounds funny. So when we encountered this kind of "dry recitative", we simply removed the rap and replaced it with dialogue. But by the 19th century, with the gradual melodicization of opera recitatives, for example, when we sang operas such as "La Traviata" and "Carmen", the recitatives were also translated into Chinese. You can follow the pitch of the melody to find the four appropriate Chinese tones.
Duet singing
Double singing is when several different characters sing at the same time according to their specific emotions and dramatic plots. When two people sing at the same time, it is called a duet. Sometimes they hold opinions for and against role, organized in a work; it may be a trio, quartet, or quintet. There is a sextet in Rossini's "The Barber of Sevinia" and even a sextet in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro." In a septet, more than a dozen people sing together, sometimes in groups of three or five people, each with his own opinions. Some sympathize with Figaro, some sympathize with the count, and some laugh at the joke. The composer's outstanding skill is It is manifested in the ability to organize so many different dramatic and musical images into one musical passage with harmonious sound and expressiveness, which is very different from our opera.
Another form is the chorus in mass scenes. As mentioned before, it can be male, female, mixed, or children's according to the requirements of the plot.
Opera has a storyline and singing has lyrics. Its lyrics are inseparable from the development of music and drama. Therefore, when introducing Western operas in China, is it better to use translation, or to sing the original text to maintain its "original flavor"? There have always been two opinions, each with its own merits. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chinese opera workers made great efforts in translation when introducing Western operas. Here, there is an important issue, that is, the literary language must not only be translated well, but also when it is set to music. Only when it conforms to the rules of music can the audience feel comfortable and be accepted. This is a science and a very arduous job. It requires a translator with high musical accomplishment, or the cooperation of a translator and a musician. good. My personal point of view is: since the audience comes to the theater to watch a play, people must understand it. When introducing Western operas in China, it is best to translate them into Chinese so that people can more easily understand the drama of the plot and opera music at any time, and enjoy performances that are both singing and acting. It can at least make us Chinese audiences feel that our musicians are I really hope they understand the charm of Western opera.
In recent years, the social fashion is to use the original text with Chinese subtitles to sing. Although it can show the level of our actors singing the original text, and it may be noticed by foreign agents and invited to perform abroad, but As far as I know, for the audience, the acceptance of Western operas is further away, and the audience is narrower. People will think that forget it, you don’t want us to understand it anyway, not to mention that the original language level of some actors is not high. , in fact, no one can understand it, which is not conducive to promoting the spread of Western opera in China.
A form of drama. It consists of dramatic text (lyrics) set to music, usually with musical accompaniment when sung. In addition to soloists, duets, chorus and orchestra members, from its earliest days, opera performances often included dancers. This complex, expensive form of musical theater entertainment has been popular with audiences for five centuries. Its obvious difference from other drama forms is that its lines are sung rather than expressed in words; its difference from musical drama-style dramas, such as operettas and musical comedies, lies in the solemnity of its works, the tight structure and the seriousness of the accompanying sounds. .
In ancient times, there were works that combined poetry, drama and music. Ancient Greek playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides already used choruses in their plays. Medieval religious dramas based on the Bible, such as miracle plays and miracle plays, generally also had some kind of musical accompaniment. These and other forms of musical theater can be considered the forerunners of opera. Opera originated in Florence, Italy, at the end of the 16th century. The first opera was "Dafne" co-written by Renaissance pastoral poet Ottavio Rinuccini and composer Jacopo Peri, which has been lost; the earliest extant opera libretto is "Dafne" Euridice is also their work. However, the works of these two fathers of opera were exploratory in both genre and structure. About 10 years later, Claudio Monteverdi's opera masterpiece "La favola d'Orfeo" came out. Among them, instrumental accompaniment became a dramatic factor; the themes of operas at that time were mostly Greek and Roman myths, legends and fictional historical stories.