A young girl appears as soon as the first notes of music are heard. Draped in a richly embroidered costume, she performs graceful hand movements. The elegance of her gestures is enhanced by her long silk sleeves. Accompanied by a flute, she begins to sing and the audience holds its breath.The scene is an excerpt from “The Peony Pavilion”, one of the classic plays of the Kunqu Opera. From September 22, 2008, such scenes can easily be accessed by every aficionado at the Kunqu Opera Museum. This joint effort to revive this traditional art form by Shanghai Kunqu Troupe and Kunqu Opera Museum, merges two of the largest Kunqu powerhouses in China.
The Shanghai Kunqu Troupe is home to a host of leading young performers, eight of whom have won the Plum Blossom award nine times, and a total of 10 actors and actresses of the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe who have been officially elected as national-class Kunqu artists and first-grade actors.
Kunqu Opera museum opened in 2003 in Suzhou, in Jiangsu Province. The exhibits include masks, costumes, manuscripts and ancient instruments. The design of the museum is mellow and exquisite. Carved beams and painted pillars echo with winding corridors, elegant pavilions and intriguing rockeries, recapturing the scene of Kunqu Opera in ancient times.
Teacher of Various Drama Forms
With a history of more than 600 years, Kunqu was dubbed the "teacher of various drama forms”, and is one of the earliest forms of traditional Chinese drama. Its operatic melodies originated from Kunshan in Jiangsu Province. After extensive exploration and reworking by its performers, it gradually developed into today's Kunqu.
Before the mid-Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Kunshan melodies were popular in central Jiangsu, until Wei Liangfu, a singer of melodies in the northern style, migrated to Kunshan from Nanchang, Jiangxi Province. Together with performing singers of southern melodies, he made major changes to the songs of Kunshan. In order to make the accompanying music suit these new songs, Wei Liangfu also adapted the musical instruments of the time. This was how Kunqu, a new form of drama combining both northern and southern musical characteristics, came into being.
During the early years of Emperor Wanli's reign, Kunqu spread to various locations in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, eventually becoming the dominant dramatic style. Later, Kunqu was introduced to Beijing, and became one of the two official forms of drama within the imperial court, and was soon a nationwide favorite. A large number of Kunqu plays and performers emerged, and were welcomed by both scholars and ordinary citizens alike. In Jiangsu and Zhejiang in particular, even the most illiterate rural inhabitants could sing one or two lines of the songs from major works. Kunqu maintained a position as the most popular national style of drama for more than 200 years, leaving a glorious page in the Chinese history of performing arts.
In its 600-year history, Kunqu has accumulated a repertoire of more than 400 "zhezixi" (highlights from operas). Some of their scripts were written by outstanding playwrights, which mainly include "The West Chamber" by Wang Shifu, "The Peony Pavilion" by Tang Xianzu, "The Palace of Eternal Youth" by Hong Sheng, and "The Peach Blossom Fan" by Kong Shangren.
Sophisticated Performing Art
In the performance of Kunqu, refinement and rigor are emphasized. A standard Kunqu scenario is very intricate. A Kunqu program not only details the arrangements of acts, verses, and the names of tunes to which verses are set, but also defines the roles, stage settings, costumes, props, and performers' movements, even going so far as to explain the significance of the position performers take on stage.
The most prominent characteristic of Kunqu performance is its lyricism, where the posture of each role is in a dancing mode. Almost all traditional Chinese drama has elements of dance, and in some plays dances have been added, but these are unlike Kunqu, where every physical movement from beginning to end is in the mode of dance, thus creating a complete scope of performance technique.
Mei Lanfang, a great master of Peking Opera, also learned Kunqu, and had a deep understanding of both. He said, "In Peking Opera, postures are relatively unrehearsed, with no structured choreography, but Kunqu is quite different in this respect. The performer matches specific postures to each aria. Kunqu truly integrates singing and dancing into each individual performance, with equal emphasis on singing and acting. Performing Kunqu is particularly demanding because the actor is, in effect, dancing from beginning to end."
In Deep Water
From its zenith, Kunqu gradually declined, due to external and internal factors. From the late Ming Dynasty onwards, Kunqu was most often performed for the privileged classes and members of the imperial court, and gradually became removed from the reality of the broad masses, to become excessively formal and stylized. In the mid-Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) it underwent a decline.
The lyrics of Kunqu were originally elegant and flowery, but later became obscure to the point of incomprehensibility, and its melodies slowed down to a funereal level. Kunqu therefore became unacceptable to all but a few dedicated aficionados. The scope of themes also became narrower, and some plays were overlong. "The Peony Pavilion," for instance, consisted of 55 acts, and one performance lasted more than 20 hours. All these factors restricted the continued development and popularity of Kunqu, and it lost most of its audience.
Kunqu has for several centuries, undergone ups and downs in popularity, but its supreme status has never been challenged. Furthermore it has played a guiding role in the creation of other forms of traditional opera, and generated a dedicated following. Its role in fostering the spirit of the ‘Chinese men of letters’, living within Chinese feudal society cannot be underestimated.
Striving for revitalization
After being proclaimed a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage in 2001, kungqu has experienced somewhat of a rebirth in the past few years. Four classical plays, including “The Peony Pavilion” or “The Palace of Eternal Life”, have been restored and updated. Following the rapid and dramatic change in concepts and lifestyles of the Chinese people, the survival of Kunqu has equally faced an enormous challenge.
Amid much anticipation, the intriguing cooperation between the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe and the Kunqu Opera museum will undoubtedly send ripples through the Kunqu circle, and wider theatrical appreciation circles, in one way or another. And for cultural connoisseurs this movement is welcomed.