Gao Zhiju
Xu Zhao Pingju
Xu Zhao Pingju is a traditional opera that has been performed, trained and organized since the Qing Dynasty. It is mainly distributed in Xuzhao Village, Xicheng Township, Xianxian County. In 2008, Xu Zhao Pingju was included in the municipal intangible cultural heritage list.
In a rehearsal venue in Xuzhao Village, Xicheng Township, Xianxian County, as the banhu and drums played loudly and loudly, several villagers dressed in clothing and stretched out their bodies took the stage one by one to sing Pingxi opera.
However, the singing voice of "Qin Xianglian" is low and graceful, dignified and grand, the singing voice of "Liu Qiaoer" is sweet, fresh and lively, and the voice of "Cui Hu", played by an actress, is bright and exciting.
"Sister-in-law Meng has been raising her younger brother for 18 years, and the grace of rebirth is better than that of her own mother..." When the 77-year-old "Bao Gong" played by Gao Zhiju, the sixth generation inheritor of Xu Zhao Pingju Opera, the city's intangible cultural heritage, came on stage, all around him There was applause, the crescent moon on his forehead was drawn up in a large and smooth manner, and his two white eyebrows were slanted into his temples. Not only did he look elegant and simple in appearance, but his singing was mellow, deep, and truly touching...
Xu Zhaocun is known as the "Village of Pingju Opera" , people here regard Ping Opera as a family heirloom, passed down from generation to generation.
Li Shuying (right) puts makeup on the actors
Pingju Opera has been sung for hundreds of years
"Pingju Opera is widely circulated in our north. In our village, adults and children can sing it twice, from those who can just walk to ninety-nine." Current Xu Gao Zhiju, the leader of the Zhao Ping Opera Troupe, introduced after stepping off the stage, "Xu Zhao Ping Opera was handed down by Yu Chouzi, a Qing palace eunuch in our village in the late Qing Dynasty. He used to stay in the palace for a long time and listened to a lot of plays. Love opera, understand opera..."
Pingju opera, one of the five major types of opera in my country, is popular because it is good at expressing people's lives. The original name of Pingju Opera was "Bengbeng Opera" and "Luozi Opera". In 1935, the name "Pingju Opera" was officially used. Back then, Yu Chouzi, whose ancestral home was in Xuzhao Village, took his two adopted daughters and four nephews and nieces-in-law to learn opera from the two central theaters in Tianjin, "Yanle" and "Tiangui".
Gao Zhiju said: "I heard from the elders in the village that when the Japanese army occupied Tianjin, Yu Chouzi took his family back to our village and formed the Yu family opera troupe to sing jumping opera. Two years later, he took his whole family back to our village. Returning to Tianjin, he performed on the stage with famous Pingju artists such as Liang Baoxiang, Li Yiting, Gao Lianggui, and Guo Shouyan. At that stage, their Pingju performance level improved very quickly."
After Yu Chouzi's death, his nephew Yu Xiaolou established a Pingju Opera Troupe. , singing in three theaters in Tianjin: "Xia Wafang", "Tian Gui" and "Yulai San". In 1942, Yu Xiaolou returned to Cangzhou and formed Peking Opera and Pingju Opera Troupes in the Chenghuang Temple. At that time, he broke the family concept and allowed young people with other surnames to join the troupe to learn arts in addition to the Yu family. At one time, there were more than 30 actors.
In 1948, Yu Xiaolou invited Liang Baoxiang, a drama educator from Shijiatuan Village in Xian County and a graduate of Tianjin Tianhuajing Class, to teach drama in Xu Zhao and standardize Xu Zhao's Ping Opera. "By the 1950s, the Xu Zhao Ping Theater Troupe had been able to perform more than 40 plays, such as "Yu Gongan", "Li Xianglian Selling Paintings", and "Tea Vase Story", etc., which were well received by the society. A number of outstanding actors also emerged, creating a great social influence. Influence." Gao Zhiju said, "At that time, the Ping Opera Troupe established in Xian County was mainly based on the Xu Zhao Ping Opera Troupe."
In the 1970s, veteran artist Liu Zeyi and others held Ping Opera training classes to train actors in the village, making Xu Zhao There are successors to Pingju Opera. They also rehearse modern plays such as "Ma Benzhai". At that time, veteran artists Wang Hexiang, Liu Huaru, Dai Guiyun, Liu Shuzhen and others who had retired from professional theater troupes did not forget their hometown and returned to their hometowns to teach opera on a voluntary basis.
The actors who are now active on the stage in the village learned Pingju opera from old artists such as Liu Zeyi, Yu Yinfu, and Wang Peide when they were young.
Gao Zhiju communicated with the band
Integrating it into the blood
59-year-old Li Shuying is the deputy leader of the Xu Zhaocun Pingju Opera Troupe. She is from a neighboring village, and she married here because she studied opera in Xuzhao Village since she was a child. When she was a teenager, she was selected to study opera in the county Ping Opera Troupe. Later, she returned to Xuzhao Village and sang in Ping Opera for half her life. In recent years, while she was singing and assisting Gao Zhiju in the village troupe, she also spent money and supplies herself, focusing most of her energy on the troupe.
"When we were young, we learned opera through oral instruction from veteran artists, unlike now where we have so many channels to learn professional knowledge. At that time, all singing was 'Liangzi Opera', there was no music score, and we could sing whatever the band wanted us to do. You can change the tune at will, with more words, less words, adding words, or deleting words. However, this allows for improvisation and is a lot of fun." Li Shuying said happily.
Since they were teenagers, Li Shuying, Cai Guizhi, Liu Sumei, Yang Zhanting and others have followed the village Pingju Opera Troupe to perform in four villages and eight towns. Everywhere they went, they performed for ten and a half days, at least twice a day.
"At that time, it was very hard for us to sing opera. We often slept in the open air when performing outside and earned work points in the village." Li Shuying said, "Although I missed a lot of things in order to sing opera, I don't regret it at all. We are from Xu Zhao, and it is worth it to pass on Ping Opera!"
After more than a hundred years of inheritance, Ping Opera has been integrated into people's blood, and Xu Zhao Village has become a well-known "Ping Opera Village". "Our village has a good reputation for singing and reviewing operas. As long as there are people from other places who come to the county to sing operas, they will invite people from 'Xu Zhao' to come and listen to the operas." Li Shuying said with a smile.
Actors in costume
Promoting opera culture
In recent years, with the rise of various forms of entertainment, the spread of Ping Opera has also been affected to a certain extent. In order to pass on Pingju opera, successive party branches and village committees in Xuzhao Village have done their best to support the opera troupe. After raising funds from various sources, the village's "Two Committees" built four spacious houses for the troupe, including a rehearsal hall, a cement stage and an open-air theater.
"The art of Pingju Opera is the heirloom of all the villagers in Xuzhao Village, and we will do our best to protect it." said Wang Heyi, director of Xuzhao Village.
Gao Huiqi, deputy secretary of the Party branch of Xuzhao Village, introduced that over the years, Xu Zhao Pingju has inherited and developed the art of Pingju and has trained more than 10 famous actors for the national professional theater troupe. In recent years, sisters Lu Mei and Lu Huahua, who studied opera in the village when they were young with Wang Hexiang, an actor from the Hami Ping Opera Troupe who retired and returned to his hometown, were selected to join the Hengshui Ping Opera Troupe and later became young leading actors in the Tianjin Third Ping Opera Troupe. Among them, Lu Mei studied in Qingyi and Xiaodan, and Lu Huahua studied in Wansheng.
Today, those active on the stage of the Village Review Troupe are mainly actors represented by Gao Zhiju, the sixth generation inheritor, and Li Shuying, the seventh generation inheritor. Many of these actors are attracted from other villages. Liu Shulan, who once served as the principal of a village primary school, became the director of the Village Women's Federation after her retirement. Because of her love for Pingju opera, she also joined the troupe.
Whenever there is a rehearsal or performance, two elderly people, Bai Chengfen from Du Kecun and Jin Lixian from Dongtun Village, who play huqin, will also come to join the band.
Lang Fushen, a 60-year-old actor from Xu Zhao Ping Opera Troupe, is from Dongtun Village. Not long ago, he participated in the city's opera evaluation competition, won the first prize, and was named one of the "Top Ten Famous Players in Cangzhou City."
At present, Xu Zhaoping Theater has more than 30 actors and staff, 7 large boxes of various costumes, and can perform 16 plays such as "Bao Gong Apologizes", "Flowers as Matchmakers" and "Third Sister Yang Complains", as well as complete sets of performance outfits and musical instruments. , props.
Today, living veteran artists can direct more than 30 dramas. They compiled the original traditional plays into volumes through oral narration by veteran artists, and selected valuable traditional plays to process and adapt into new plays with vitality.
Xicheng rural areas have always had the characteristic of having many folk performance groups. The more influential ones include the Xuzhao Village Pingju Opera Troupe, Cai Dongzhuang Repertory Theater, Xicheng Beicun Yangko Troupe, etc. The actors of Xu Zhao Ping Opera Troupe, with their love for opera, enrich the local cultural life and inherit the ancient cultural tradition.
(Photography report by Niu Jiancun, Cui Rujing, Wei Zhiguang, Zhao Fangyuan)
