Cantonese Opera
History
In the beginning, Cantonese Opera was spread from Northeastern of China to Guangdong province.These opera troupes were seen as more cultivated and were patronized by an elite segment of Guangdong society. As a result, it moved to Foshan to further into more creation. Foshan has been the home for most of the Cantonese opera troupes and they have set up an association called “ Qionghua Guild”. Near the Qionghua Road, there were Red Boats. “Red boats” were some wooden yachts mainly painted in red. Its major function was to transport the staff and the chests for the troupe, including the costumes and ornaments for the stage performances. During the Cultural Revolution, Opera suffered along with the other performing arts in China. Anything reflecting earlier Chinese society was banned. After 1968, the revolution ended, the Cantonese Opera started to explore again.
In Cantonese Opera, there is two main type: Mou and Man. Man means martial arts in which represented highly educated. It also evolved in poetry, and cultural expression. Mou plays emphasize war, the characters usually are Generals or Warriors. These works contain a lot of action scenes and involve a lot of weaponry and armor. Through video, I have learned that in some school, the small actors must learn body movement since they were young. They have the school which only provided for learning Cantonese Opera. Then, the kids should do basic skills such as pushing their legs in front, so the body can be soft and available to do other skills. The Cantonese instrumental music was another huge part that involved in the opera. The use of instruments in Cantonese opera is influenced by both western and eastern cultures. The reason for this is that Canton was one of the earliest places in China to establish trade relationships with the western civilizations. For instance, the use of erhu, saxophones, guitars and the congas have demonstrated how diversified the musical instruments in Cantonese operas are.
The musical instruments are mainly divided into melodic and percussive types.
There are six set roles in the opera, mun mo sung (文武生) the clean-shaven scholar-warrior, siu sung (小生) 'young gentleman'; young scholar, fa dan (花旦) 'flower' of the ball; young belle, yee fa (二花) transliteration: 'second flower'; supporting female, chou sung (丑生) clown, and mo sung (武生) bearded male warrior. Costumes also indicate the status of the character. Lower-status characters, such as females, wear less elaborate dress, which those of higher rank have more decorative costumes. But then the actors will blend with different costumes. Later, with increasing exchange between the artists of Cantonese and Beijing operas, costume design became heavily influenced by Beijing opera. As for makeup, artists heavily made up with very crude cosmetics.One of the most common makeup styles is the "white and red face", that is, an application of white foundation and a red color around the eyes that fades down to the bottom of cheeks. The eyebrows are long and the lipstick is usually in bright red. Before talking about voices, I have to mention about the four skills and five methods. The "four skills" apply to the whole spectrum of vocal and dramatic training: singing, acting and movement, delivery of the "speech-types" and martial and "gymnastic skills," while the five methods are categories of techniques associated with specific body parts: hands, eyes, body, hair, feet or walking techniques. The Four Skills put the singing at first because of the importance in the Opera. In the Opera, singing comes first with clear voice, accurate in rhythm, put enough energy on words and feelings(What is the play about, and what’s the feeling of the character) on the stage. Also, the actors should also focus on the words that are they pronounce the right tone or not. Moreover, actors should also focus on their body on stage, making sure that every move is in the right rhythm, so it must use a lot of basic skills for grasping the right pace. The last one is hitting skills that many actors should have the ability to do harder skills such as roll down and difficult techniques. Five methods are corresponding with body, within the rhythm, how would the actor react with their body movement such as using their hands, eyes, gestures, and pace. I am talking about the most vital techiniques in Cantonese Opera which is singing style. A vocalist sings principally in the head voice and develops brighter and lighter tones resonating mostly in the hard palate, the nose cavity, and the head cavities. Therefore, the resonance of sounds is mainly fixed in the anterior part of the head. When singing, there is more laryngeal muscle tension. As every syllable has to be enunciated precisely, the pronunciation of a vowel is never modified for the sake of optimum resonance. Also, it will goes through the apprentince and pedagogue system: an apprentice learns the skills based on subjective comments given by the pedagogue( shi fu). Some pedagogue suggested a traditional shouting method known as hang sang which helps to expand the pitch range. Apprentices have to maximize their pitch with the help of shouting and breathing method. I mentioned about actors would sing in their head voice with the help of hard palate, nosal capacity, so the traditional way hurt their voice dramatically. During traditional Cantonese opera vocal training, pedagogues teach their apprentices how to sing by listening to the voices, based on which verbal feedback is provided.
My character will be Fadan in Cantonese Opera, it is a young, unmarried female character. Her class might be lower than the noble family: Fadan is always a servant character which has a handkerchief. In my opinion, she is kind of delicate and fragile in some way because of holding the handkerchief. She speaks quickly and clearly so that people can understand. Also, she is innocent and naive in the opera. She is the most important women figure in the Cantonese Opera: she certainly has more
movement, higher pitch voices, and more gestures. Fadan in the singing part has a more lively and natural voices. People usually describes her as the prettiest, but she can be also cunning. In the voice part, Originally, the song was written in two version, One is for male and one is for female, and it refers to seng and dan. Voice is mainly produced in the throat(hou). There are three types of hou are used today. One is pinghou--natural voice production. From C below middle C to G above. Zi hou is the falsetto voice production and its vocal range from middle C to higher G(Fadan). So for my part of Fadan, I am just going to sing it in my nasal and hard palate within the higher pitch.
In the beginning, Cantonese Opera was spread from Northeastern of China to Guangdong province.These opera troupes were seen as more cultivated and were patronized by an elite segment of Guangdong society. As a result, it moved to Foshan to further into more creation. Foshan has been the home for most of the Cantonese opera troupes and they have set up an association called “ Qionghua Guild”. Near the Qionghua Road, there were Red Boats. “Red boats” were some wooden yachts mainly painted in red. Its major function was to transport the staff and the chests for the troupe, including the costumes and ornaments for the stage performances. During the Cultural Revolution, Opera suffered along with the other performing arts in China. Anything reflecting earlier Chinese society was banned. After 1968, the revolution ended, the Cantonese Opera started to explore again.
In Cantonese Opera, there is two main type: Mou and Man. Man means martial arts in which represented highly educated. It also evolved in poetry, and cultural expression. Mou plays emphasize war, the characters usually are Generals or Warriors. These works contain a lot of action scenes and involve a lot of weaponry and armor. Through video, I have learned that in some school, the small actors must learn body movement since they were young. They have the school which only provided for learning Cantonese Opera. Then, the kids should do basic skills such as pushing their legs in front, so the body can be soft and available to do other skills. The Cantonese instrumental music was another huge part that involved in the opera. The use of instruments in Cantonese opera is influenced by both western and eastern cultures. The reason for this is that Canton was one of the earliest places in China to establish trade relationships with the western civilizations. For instance, the use of erhu, saxophones, guitars and the congas have demonstrated how diversified the musical instruments in Cantonese operas are.
The musical instruments are mainly divided into melodic and percussive types.
There are six set roles in the opera, mun mo sung (文武生) the clean-shaven scholar-warrior, siu sung (小生) 'young gentleman'; young scholar, fa dan (花旦) 'flower' of the ball; young belle, yee fa (二花) transliteration: 'second flower'; supporting female, chou sung (丑生) clown, and mo sung (武生) bearded male warrior. Costumes also indicate the status of the character. Lower-status characters, such as females, wear less elaborate dress, which those of higher rank have more decorative costumes. But then the actors will blend with different costumes. Later, with increasing exchange between the artists of Cantonese and Beijing operas, costume design became heavily influenced by Beijing opera. As for makeup, artists heavily made up with very crude cosmetics.One of the most common makeup styles is the "white and red face", that is, an application of white foundation and a red color around the eyes that fades down to the bottom of cheeks. The eyebrows are long and the lipstick is usually in bright red. Before talking about voices, I have to mention about the four skills and five methods. The "four skills" apply to the whole spectrum of vocal and dramatic training: singing, acting and movement, delivery of the "speech-types" and martial and "gymnastic skills," while the five methods are categories of techniques associated with specific body parts: hands, eyes, body, hair, feet or walking techniques. The Four Skills put the singing at first because of the importance in the Opera. In the Opera, singing comes first with clear voice, accurate in rhythm, put enough energy on words and feelings(What is the play about, and what’s the feeling of the character) on the stage. Also, the actors should also focus on the words that are they pronounce the right tone or not. Moreover, actors should also focus on their body on stage, making sure that every move is in the right rhythm, so it must use a lot of basic skills for grasping the right pace. The last one is hitting skills that many actors should have the ability to do harder skills such as roll down and difficult techniques. Five methods are corresponding with body, within the rhythm, how would the actor react with their body movement such as using their hands, eyes, gestures, and pace. I am talking about the most vital techiniques in Cantonese Opera which is singing style. A vocalist sings principally in the head voice and develops brighter and lighter tones resonating mostly in the hard palate, the nose cavity, and the head cavities. Therefore, the resonance of sounds is mainly fixed in the anterior part of the head. When singing, there is more laryngeal muscle tension. As every syllable has to be enunciated precisely, the pronunciation of a vowel is never modified for the sake of optimum resonance. Also, it will goes through the apprentince and pedagogue system: an apprentice learns the skills based on subjective comments given by the pedagogue( shi fu). Some pedagogue suggested a traditional shouting method known as hang sang which helps to expand the pitch range. Apprentices have to maximize their pitch with the help of shouting and breathing method. I mentioned about actors would sing in their head voice with the help of hard palate, nosal capacity, so the traditional way hurt their voice dramatically. During traditional Cantonese opera vocal training, pedagogues teach their apprentices how to sing by listening to the voices, based on which verbal feedback is provided.
My character will be Fadan in Cantonese Opera, it is a young, unmarried female character. Her class might be lower than the noble family: Fadan is always a servant character which has a handkerchief. In my opinion, she is kind of delicate and fragile in some way because of holding the handkerchief. She speaks quickly and clearly so that people can understand. Also, she is innocent and naive in the opera. She is the most important women figure in the Cantonese Opera: she certainly has more
movement, higher pitch voices, and more gestures. Fadan in the singing part has a more lively and natural voices. People usually describes her as the prettiest, but she can be also cunning. In the voice part, Originally, the song was written in two version, One is for male and one is for female, and it refers to seng and dan. Voice is mainly produced in the throat(hou). There are three types of hou are used today. One is pinghou--natural voice production. From C below middle C to G above. Zi hou is the falsetto voice production and its vocal range from middle C to higher G(Fadan). So for my part of Fadan, I am just going to sing it in my nasal and hard palate within the higher pitch.
Now I will perform the voice of Fadan.
I watched a lot of videos so that I could acknowledged the character Fadan. Moreover, I have a voice lesson teacher in which she helps me in most of the case. Because there is a little about the music score, we almost listen to the music a thousand time, so we can comprehend the music notes right. She also adjusted my notes and singing techniques, telling me I should have a higher and sharper voice in the performance.
I watched a lot of videos so that I could acknowledged the character Fadan. Moreover, I have a voice lesson teacher in which she helps me in most of the case. Because there is a little about the music score, we almost listen to the music a thousand time, so we can comprehend the music notes right. She also adjusted my notes and singing techniques, telling me I should have a higher and sharper voice in the performance.
The challenges for me is that there is less information about Cantonese Opera in the Internet. Because of the lack of information online, I can only use YouTube(singing operas) as one of my source. And that’s not enough for me to do the singing. Also, because the voice of Cantonese Opera is definitely hard to imitate: they use their nasal and head voice as their vital singing techniques. This is so hard for me to sing it with Cantonese Opera.
The comparison I want to make is between Cantonese Opera and Commedia dell’arte. Cantonese Opera and Commedia dell'arte both depict the family's stock characters. For Cantonese Opera, it focus more on the myths and historical stories. Moreover, It gives a deeper meaning than Commedia dell'arte. The two are all made up of music, yet Cantonese Opera will sing afterward as a background sound.The reason that I choose Cantonese Opera to be my theatre is because I seldom get to know the culture in my hometown. As a Chinese, I have affection toward my country, and my city. Everytime, I will argue with my friends about in my heart China is the best. That's the nationalism in me I think. When I first saw the name, I just want to know about the Cantonese Opera because the origination only 2 hours away from my city. It's really close to my place, so I think because I didn't really acknowledge the history of my country, then I have to know the theatre tradition around my city. I like my city, like the culture, like cantonese as languages, so I think it might be good for me to try it. Also, my grandma lives around that place, so sometimes when she came to Shenzhen, she will take me to the stage. I get really excited about their singing techniques because it is hard for me to sing in that sharp voice, so I always ask my grandma like what is the techniques of singing Cantonese Opera. Nevertheless, my grandma never learned about Cantonese Opera, so she didn't know it. And now I have the chance to get to know the culture that I am interested in. However, as I explore deeper, I find out many things about the traditions, the techniques they used such as using head voice rather than the whole body to sing the lyrics. Moreover, I realized that the actors actually pronounce every words correctly when they were singing. Unfortunately, according to the statistics, only the old participate into the Cantonese Opera, so the young people don't care about the destruction of the culture. Actually Cantonese Opera is more interesting than any of the games, because our ancestors used thousand years to experience, to create this just for us to enjoy. Cantonese Opera is more important than anything else. As teenagers, we must restart and pick up our culture.
I also learned thing from Cantonese Opera: different from the western opera, Cantonese Opera used different techniques in singing. Actors tend to use their head voice more, but not much about the whole body. In their mind, the anterior of the body is the most essential that can actually change the voice, so we can, as a result, hear the sharp voice as we are going to the Cantonese Opera. Also, I have learned that the actors also say the words precisely because they think it is better for the audiences to understand the entire play, rather than just focusing on the singing. I am in the choir in the school, from saying every words precisely, I can do this in the choir, so the audiences can hear me clearly. Moreover, The basic skills means a lot to the actors, they have to be picked by the agency, practicing their basic skills such as bending, doing the splits etc. As a result, I can use these techniques when I get into the stage. I am doing a little character in les miserable: I can practice my basic skills, so I can move around without any hurts and I can move more naturally in the play.
评论
发表评论