The same song. Selection of Modern Peking Opera Singing Styles: Selection of Modern Peking Opera Singing Styles

Author: Meng Xin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-01
Features: Revolutionary Modern Peking Opera broke through traditional Peking Opera in terms of performance style, the tunes and formats of singing, accompanying music, and spoken parts. For example, in Revolutionary Modern Peking Opera, spoken parts were performed in Mandarin instead of the Zhongzhou (a traditional tonal system that blended Huguang and Beijing accents). Additionally, Revolutionary Modern Peking Opera adopted the act-structured format of Western plays. It also borrowed and adapted the leitmotif technique from Western opera. To this day, these practices still hold certain reference value for contemporary theatrical arts. In this collection of Peking Opera arias, we have selected some outstanding singing excerpts from modern Peking Opera for our readers. From the perspective of themes, the selected works are all related to the various revolutionary and construction phases led by the Communist Party of China. During a certain historical period, these works were collectively referred to as "Revolutionary Modern Peking Opera." Many people assume that these Peking Opera works are closely associated with the "Gang of Four." They believe these works were produced under the guidance of Jiang Qing, which is not historically accurate. In fact, plays like Red Lantern, Sand Creek, and Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy were created before the Cultural Revolution and achieved great success upon their premieres, producing a profound social impact.