Drama appreciation, about 300~400 words will do.
At present, Cantonese opera is in a weak position, but the towns and villages around Wuchuan and Dianbai County have the "treasure land" of Cantonese opera, attracting professional Cantonese opera troupes from Guangdong and Guangxi provinces to perform "Spring Class" and "Autumn Class". In particular, there are 20 to 30 professional Cantonese opera troupes performing in the "Spring Class" every year, reaching more than 40 in 1985. Together with local amateur troupes, temporary troupes organized by diaspora artists and old troupes, there are no fewer than 70 to 80 Cantonese troupes performing in this area. It's really the sound of gongs and drums in each village and orchestral music in each village. Unprecedented and amazing.
The performances of Spring Class and Autumn Class mainly include: 1 and Year after Year; 2. Festival drama (including some major traditional festivals celebrating the Lunar New Year, such as the Spring Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival in May and the Mid-Autumn Festival in August); 3, entertainment (farmers get rich, in the slack season or at an appropriate time to collect money to ask the troupe to act and live an entertainment life); 4. God's birthday drama (superstitious activities left over from the old society). Especially in the performance of the "annual drama".
"New Year Festival" is a unique folk festival in Wuchuan and Dianbai. Except Wuchuan and Dianbai counties, Maoming, Huazhou, Lianjiang, Zhanjiang and other counties and cities only have this festival in some towns and villages adjacent to Wuchuan and Dianbai. Yangjiang, Gaozhou, Suixi and other counties have few or no such festivals. The date of the "year example" is decided by each village and town. Generally speaking, the dates of streets in the same town and rural areas in the same area are rarely the same. In February and March of the lunar calendar, the "flavor of the year" is relatively strong, and performance activities reach their peak in February and February, and gradually become scarce after mid-March. Most foreign professional troupes (especially provincial and municipal troupes) gradually withdrew, and only a few foreign county troupes and local troupes still performed a few performances. It is coldest in June of the lunar calendar, and the troupe usually takes a vacation at this time. After July, the peak season is approaching, and more and more troupes come to perform "Autumn Class", but they are far less prosperous than "Spring Class". Except those amateur troupes and team leaders, only about ten professional troupes can be accommodated, and the performances can't be connected. On average, each troupe can only perform more than ten performances a month.
Why do villages and towns in Wuchuan and Dianbai have the special festival "New Year Festival"? It was founded in what year and generation, and there is no exact historical data to test. According to the old man's account, it is estimated that Ye Meiwei (Wuchuan County) had a "Year" festival when it was established in the middle of Qing Dynasty, and invited the troupe to perform, and then gradually expanded to the countryside. The forming factors are estimated in several aspects:
1. The customs and habits brought by people who moved to Mei from other places were imitated by others.
At first, it was a day when a street or village prayed for God's blessing. In the old society, people were superstitious and pinned their happiness on God's blessing, so every year after the Spring Festival, they would choose an auspicious day to pray to the Bodhisattva to eliminate disasters. On this day, we should offer sacrifices to God, hold banquets and drink wine to celebrate. In the second year, the reward god became more lively, which is the case every year. Since then, this day has become the "annual" festival in this village.
3. Because this town has a "Nian" festival, nearby towns follow suit, especially some people are invited by relatives and friends to drink Nian wine every year. (Wu Chuan doesn't need to give a wedding present first to drink the wine of "Year of the Year". The village where he lived felt humiliated because there was no "year-old" in return, so he chose a different day from the neighboring village as the "year-old" festival in his village, and invited relatives and friends to drink and watch the play at that time.
4. Take this village, Zhen 'an Temple or other memorable festive days as the "Year" day of the village and town, pass it on to future generations and celebrate it every year.
With the emergence of this festival, a lot of entertainment activities are needed to help celebrate. Before liberation, because the troupe (Cantonese Opera Troupe) was very expensive and there were many people (a large troupe usually had 60 or 70 people), it was difficult to entertain, and only some wealthy towns and villages could afford it. Puppet shows are usually held in small towns, so there are many puppet shows in Wuchuan and Dianbai, ranging from large (one to twenty people in a class) to small (. Except a few puppet classes can sing Cantonese opera, most of them sing the local dialect "Puppet Room" and speak the local dialect. Most of the performances are adapted from folklore or widely circulated historical stories. (such as "Jade Kui Bao Fan" and "Xue Dong Zheng Ji". A play takes at least five or six hours, and some plays take several nights to finish. Because most of his stories are loved by the masses, they are also quite popular.
In the early days of liberation, most of the troupes (Cantonese troupes) were dissolved and replaced by amateur troupes organized by towns themselves. Professional artists are hired as masters to teach opera, and simple clothing equipment is also provided. They perform "Nian" operas or entertainment performances in rural areas, regardless of the treatment of theater money. In addition to the meager subsidies, they generally entertain meals and accommodation, and the repertoire of the performance is "Jiufu".