Comic Opera Funny opera

Comic Opera Funny opera

Funny opera is one of the local dramas in Shanghai. It is now mainly popular in Shanghai and its surrounding Wu dialect areas.

Most of them use Shanghai dialect as their expressive language, and imitate Taihu dialect of Wu dialect in large quantities. Occasionally, they imitate other dialects such as northern dialect, Cantonese and so on.

On June 20, 2009, comedy (Suzhou comedy) was listed in the second batch of provincial intangible cultural heritage list in Jiangsu Province.

On May 23, 2011, comedy was listed in the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage list with the approval of the State Council.

Origin of drama

In the mid-period of the Anti-Japanese War, comedy, farce and local operas in the south of the Yangtze River were gradually influenced by Shanghai's opera "one-man drama". It is popular in Shanghai, southern Jiangsu, Zhejiang and many other areas, and is welcomed by the broad audience. From 1957 to 1965, the Nanjing Municipal Comic Troupe often performed along the ports of the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River and in Hunan, Guangdong and Guangxi. The footprints of Suzhou Funny Troupe also cover Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Anhui, Hubei, Henan and other provinces and cities.

Development History

The formation and development of comic operas are inextricably linked with civilized dramas (new dramas) and one-legged dramas. Civilized drama, also known as popular drama or dialectal drama, is differentiated from "new drama" (also known as love American drama). The characters in civilized drama have a funny line, which is called "Four Courtyard Pillars and One Main Beam" in conjunction with pupils, sad dans, pudans and Laosheng.

When comedy was just derived from civilized drama, its performing arts and roles were still civilized. It was only led by the actors of big comedy, and more jokes were arranged in the play. The combination of post-one-legged drama and civilized drama has formed a special theatrical performing art with rap and singing focusing on making jokes. In the early stage of its formation, the funny operas in Suzhou were mainly composed of dialogues, with few singing insertions. Later, the composition of singing in the operas gradually increased. Zhang Faner opposed "hard comedy" and advocated that everything was reasonable and unexpected before the audience burst into laughter. His pursuit of humor and meaningfulness of jokes makes the audience laugh after watching them, which is the consistent style of Suzhou comedy.

Famous artist

Early famous actors: Wang incompetence, Jiang Xiaoxiao, Liu Chunshan

Modern famous actors: Yao Mushuang, Zhou Baichun, Wu Shuangyi, Wang Shuangqing, Tong Shuangchun, Weng Shuangjie, Li Qing, Fang Yanhua, Gu Qin and Chen Qin