The Origin of Lu Opera

The Origin and Development of Lu Opera

Dongying City is the birthplace of Lu Opera, and Shi Dianyuan, a folk artist from Shijia Village, Niuzhuang Town, Dongying District, is the main founder of Lu Opera.

Dongying City is the birthplace of Lu Opera, and Shi Dianyuan, a folk artist from Shijia Village, Niuzhuang Town, Dongying District, is the main founder of Lu Opera.

Lu Opera is a folk rap art evolved from Shandong, which originated in the southwest of Shandong and later evolved into three schools: South Road, North Road and East Road. In the sixth year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (1880), Qin Shu was introduced to the north of Guangrao. At that time, there were no levees in the north of Guangrao County and the east of Lijin County in the Yellow River estuary, allowing the Yellow River to flood into the sea. Every flood season, the poor have to leave their homes, escape from the desert and beg for a living. In order to beg for more charity, many victims sang folk songs while begging, and the number of folk artists gradually increased. After the introduction of Shandong Qin Shu, folk artists scrambled to learn to sing for a living. In the 22nd year of Guangxu reign (1896), Qin Shu became popular in Guang Bei, and there were more and more professional Qin Shuyi people, such as Zhang Lantian, Zhang Zhitian, Shang Lingxiu and Shi Dianyuan. Among them, Shi Dianyuan, a Qin Shu artist at the northern foot of the mountain, pioneered a unique path. On the basis of widely absorbing other operas and artistic elements of Quyi, he transformed Shandong Shuqin from a singing form into a costume performance, initiated the costume dulcimer, and became the main founder of Lu Opera.

Shi Dianyuan lived by singing folk songs and begging since he was a child, and later became famous by singing Qin Shu. His voice is sweet, his performance style is natural and free, and his humor is exaggerated. He was praised as a "big speaker" by people of his time. After the 22nd year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (1896), Beijing Opera, Wuyin Opera, Hebei Bangzi and other troupes competed with Qin Shu in Shandong for the folk performance market, and the audience in Qin Shu in Shandong decreased, and the income of artists decreased. In order to increase the competitiveness of Qin Shu, Shandong, Shi Dianyuan decided to improve Qin Shu, Shandong. He got inspiration from costumes, props and performances of Beijing Opera. After consulting with Cui Xinqing, Cui Xinyue, Tan Minglun and others, he decided to change the form of Shandong Qin Shu from sitting singing to cosmetic performance. On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month (190 1 February 1 1) in the 26th year of Guangxu reign in Qing Dynasty, Shi Dianyuan led "Le Tong Class" to perform the piano music "Wang Xiao Grabbing Feet" for the first time in his hometown. At that time, Dian Yuan played a porter, Wang Xiao, driving a donkey with a whip. Cui Xinyue plays two girls in Tsing Yi, riding donkeys in painted donkey-shaped props. The two sang and danced, and the performance was lively and harmonious, which was a great success. Since then, they have successively changed the names of Wang's 10 plays, such as "Borrowing the Year", "Crying for Wife" and "Going to the Soviet Union", making rap an important step towards Lu dramatization. In the thirty-second year of Guangxu (1906), when the "* * * and Ban" was first built in the temple, it began to perform on stage from "Latan". * * * Heban has performed in Guangrao, Boxing, Zhangdian, Changle, wei county and Jiaodong counties for a long time. In the early years of the Republic of China, he entered Jinan, the provincial capital, and performed in theaters or theaters. Around 193 0, Shi Keyuan, Liu and Liu Lixian, disciples of Shidian Academy, formed the "Le Tong Class" to perform in the Grand View Garden in Jin 'an, Quanyechang and other theaters, and began to adapt some plays with more roles and more complicated plots, such as "Parents Changed", "Legend of the White Snake", "Qin Xuemei Watching Paintings" and "Today's Women" into dulcimers. Soon, "Le Tong Class" and "Qinghe Class" merged into "Yihe Class". Shi Dianyuan and his disciples Shi Keyuan, Yu (Lijin people), etc. In artistic practice, we constantly reform, innovate and enrich the contents, playing techniques, singing and music accompaniment of the repertoire, making it more and more perfect.

After the success of the first dulcimer in Shidian Garden, other piano and calligraphy artists followed suit, and the dulcimer in disguise was widely spread throughout Shandong. Especially after entering the city, in order to meet the appreciation requirements of urban residents and compete with other operas, the disguised dulcimer has become more dramatic in terms of roles, singing, costumes, props and dance beauty, and has gradually developed into a drama with distinctive regional characteristics. There are three reasons for the origin of the name of Lu Opera. First, the local people named the disguised dulcimer "Donkey Play" with donkey-shaped props according to "Wang Xiao Catches Feet"; Second, according to the characteristics of fingers constantly paddling when playing the piano, it is called "paddling bomb"; Thirdly, because there are many love stories in the play, people call it "lovers' play". 1952, Wang Tongzhao, deputy director of the Shandong Provincial Department of Culture and Education, proposed that the word "Lu" in the Yin Rhythm "Six Rhythms" in the Twelve Rhythms of Ancient Music in China was officially named "Lu Drama" according to the homophonic sounds of "donkey", "strokes" and "husband and wife".

From 1950s to 1960s, "Lu Opera" was widely spread in China, and it became a custom to sing it during festivals and celebrations. During the Cultural Revolution, Lu Opera was banned. After 1976, Lu Opera was revived. 1979, Guangrao County Lu Troupe and Kenli County Lu Troupe began to stage traditional repertoires. 1982, in order to cooperate with the family planning propaganda, Guangrao County Lu Troupe rushed to arrange a new drama "Family Happiness" and toured inside and outside the county. 1987, Lijin County Peking Opera Troupe was renamed Lijin County Lu Opera Troupe. From 65438 to 0984, the Municipal Cultural Bureau organized some literary and art workers to study Lu Opera, went deep into the countryside to visit old artists and collect historical materials. /kloc-in the winter of 0/985, a symposium on historical materials of Lu Opera was held, and more than 20 old artists of Lu Opera were invited to participate. 1986 spring, invited 14 old artists to make imitation videos. On this basis, 1987 compiled the manuscript of Music Integration of Shandong Opera in Dongying City, and 1988 compiled the Compilation of Historical Materials on the Origin of Shandong Opera in Dongying City at the end of 1988. These two manuscripts are important achievements in the study of Lu Opera. In the process of compilation, we received enthusiastic guidance and help from relevant leaders of Shandong Provincial Department of Culture, many experts such as Li Yu and Lang Xianfen, and famous actors in Shandong Province. 1991From March 5 to 8, 2000, "The First Shandong Opera Exhibition in Dongying City" was held. Eight teams and 240 people participated in the performance, divided into professional group and amateur group, and performed a new drama 12. 1994, based on Guangrao Road Troupe, Dongying Road Troupe was established. By the end of 1995, a total of 15 Lu opera actors in the city had won the title of provincial excellent actors.