Yu Opera

Yu Opera (豫剧), one of the five Chinese operas, originated in Kaifeng, Henan province. Based on the Bangzi opera in Henan province, Henan for short "Yu", so-called Yu opera.
 

a brief Introduction to Yu opera (Henan opera)

Henan Opera, formerly known as Henan Bangzi (河南梆子), is also named as the Roaring by the Hills (靠山吼). It is so named as Henan Bangzi because it uses the Jujube tree rod to beat the clappers. 

As in the western areas of Henan Province, there are many hills, the performance stages are mostly erected on a piece of small flat ground in front of the hills, and as at the back of the hills, Henan Opera here are also known as the Roaring by the Hills. 

As time goes by, the opera alias is gradually being forgotten by people. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Henan is referred to as Yu (the Chinese character 豫), people collectively call the local operas popular around the Henan areas Yuju (Henan Opera). 

In the past, Yuju (Henan Opera) was popular mainly around China's Yellow River and Huai River watersheds, but now, Henan Opera with fans from all over China is the largest local Chinese opera genre in terms of the quantities of theatres, actors and audiences.

the origin of Henan opera

In China, the vast area in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River taking Henan Province as the core is known as Zhong Yuan (the Central Plains). 

This region is the birthplace of Chinese civilization, where was known by the ancient Chinese as the center of the world. It was Kaifeng, a city of the Central Plains of China (it was the capital city of the Song Dynasty, called Bianliang) and its surrounding counties where Henan Opera originated. 
 

The earliest tutor was the famous Bangzi Opera artist Jiang Zhazi, living near the north gate of Zhuxian town, south of Kaifeng City during the years under Qianlong's reign of the Qing Dynasty, who widely gathered disciples within 10 years and trained a large number of Bangzi Opera actors. From then on, Bangzi Opera began to grow up.
 

the features of Henan opera

Henan Opera is always famous for its singing, and there is a saying that it would more willing to sing a play of a thousand sentences, rather than say one sentence of dialogue.

In Henan, performing a drama is called singing a drama, and enjoying a drama called listening to a drama. It is very common to see an aria with tens or hundreds of sentences in Henan Opera, and usually, at the critical juncture of the plots, there is a large section of aria, smooth and rhythmic.

The lyrics of Henan Opera, with strong local characteristics, are so colloquial that even an old peasant and a village woman could understand.

The root cause why people love it so much is because its agrestic flavor and Bangzi taste are quite heavy, and can be directly absorbed even without being tasted. 

Henan Opera is formed in the folk, and it grows and develops together with its audience. It performs whatever the audience likes and demands. What has been portrayed on the stage is the audience’s passions of pleasure, anger, sorrow, and joy. and also their dreams and aspirations: and they know, understand, and love the characters walking on the stage not only the actors but also the ancient or modern figures in the play, as they are closely related to each other.

culture background

Fanners in the Central Plains area have no leisure time or carefree mood to sit in the richly ornamented mansions and houses enjoying and savoring those genteel words, as they have to bend their body to farm and cultivate the land and cope with years of natural calamities and man-made misfortunes. 

Therefore, people in the Central Plains areas must be open-minded and of strong physique, to fully and delightfully sing their emotions down from the bottom of their hearts. Even though they can't sing, the actors on stage may sing out for them, and they feel contented. 

So. Henan Opera needs not only singing, but also singing loudly, singing sonorously and forcefully, and singing passionately, in order to show the true qualities of people in the Central Plains and the true colors of Henan Opera! Just imagine, in a vast open plain, how could the actor dominate the mass audience if the actor does not sing an octave?

In the past, the bold and lively Henan Opera is an indispensable part of people's lives in Henan. In the 1970s or 1980s, there might be a small troupe in villages nearby. At each of the slack season, or the market fair or meeting (the day when people of the countryside or a town transact), the villagers set lip a stage to sing for over 10 days.

On the stage, once the male actors sang a sound to start the performance, their sound went so far to the sky that it would not fall even after a long time, and the characters wearing armor-clad and holding spears were valiant and vigorous; once the actresses showed up. they enunciated an octave and were not inferior to the men. 

Once went the sound of gongs and drums to begin a theatrical performance, as orders for all sides, people gathered and crowded together, and it was very lively! If someone wanted it to be livelier, he might simply invite another troupe, to sing a rival show! It was quite often that people who were listening to the redfaced character's singing at this stage swiftly ran to the other to listen to the black-faced character’s singing once his sound burst out, and people suddenly moved back when the character Qin Xianglian at this stage burst out a cry to the ears of the crowd. Both the actors and the audiences interacted and exhilarated, and it was extraordinarily lively!

nowadays

Nowadays, although this lively scene no longer appears in the villages, people could still adequately enjoy such a lively scene at the Liyuanchun site of Henan TV Station. 
 

In addition, radio, television, and the Internet can always help people who love operas enjoy at any time the repertoires they like. In the cities of Henan such as Luoyang and Zhengzhou, whether in the morning exercise or in the evening walk, we can see Henan Opera fanciers in small groups gather together, playing the Banhu fiddle, beating Bangzi, and singing with a horse-riding gesture. 
 

When you walk on the street, you do not have to listen carefully, and often there comes one familiar Henan Opera aria from a certain paragraph of a certain act. It may come from the street shops, may also come out of the mobile phone of a middle-aged person who just passes by, or even a boy three or four years old who happens to go by may also sing "The air in Chaoyang Valley is truly fresh..."
 

Of course, what’s lively is also the story on the stage! It can cause you cry, make you laugh, let you frown, and arouse you dance with joy! As to all these, it has already had enough reasons for more friends to know and understand Henan Opera.

Henan opera in the world

In 1968 when a French Jesuit father Joseph Henri Marie de Premare came to Guangzhou, China to preach his religion, he got to know the Chinese Zaju of the Yuan Dynasty The Orphan of Zhao and translated it into French, hoping the Europeans to understand the Chinese civilization through this Chinese tragic drama. 

However, he omitted in his translation the lyrics (words of the songs) which was very difficult for the Europeans to understand because he might not understand what the characters were singing in the opera. 
 

Although the translated and adapted drama The Orphan of Zhao did have discrepancies in the plots, it retained the kernel of the drama - the frame of the plots and the spirit to rescue the orphan. From this point, Chinese drama really went out abroad.

It has been three hundred years, and we don't know whether in the European theatres The Orphan of Zhao is still playing on the stage. In China, nevertheless, the large Henan Opera with ancient costumes Cheng Ying Saves the Orphan adapted from The Orphan of Zhao by the 2nd Henan Opera Troupe of Henan Province is certainly out of the ordinary and has been performed for over 1,000 times since it was brought onto the stage in 2001. 

And it has almost taken all the national stage art awards, stepped on behalf of China on the international stage for many times, and won the best foreign drama prize at the fifteenth session of Los Angeles of the United States of America International Family Film Festival. As one of China’s largest local drama genres. Henan Opera just like Beijing Opera has obtained more custody from overseas friends.