23.京剧趣谈

Beijing Opera Fun Talk

Horse Whip

1. Ancient Chinese people often had to ride horses.

2. But there is no way to ride a horse on stage, the stage is too small for a horse to gallop.

3. When a real horse appears on the stage, the actors are also afraid that it will lose control.

4. Peking Opera inherited and developed the expression of traditional Chinese opera, and finally overcame this embarrassment - it was completely solved with a small horse whip, and it was solved incomparably beautifully.

5. This way of performance is very much in line with Chinese aesthetics.

6. The huge horses are omitted in their entirety, but the specific and graceful posture of the horse rider is distinctly revealed.

7. At the same time, this virtual horse whip gives the actor endless freedom of performance: it can be raised high, it can be lowered; it can run for half a day and still be at the doorstep, and it can go a hundred miles with one hand raised.

8. The whip itself has a decorative beauty, and different characters in the use of the whip, each formed a set of conventional methods.

9. The whip is a real prop, which can be felt and used.

10. Beijing opera also has some virtual props, but they can be felt and used as well.

For example, the sole of the little girl's shoe in "Pick Up the Jade Bracelet" is real, but the needle and thread are virtual, but in the hands of the actor, "nothing" is far better than "something".

12 Another example is the wine jug and wine cup at the banquet.

12. The host gave a command, "Set up the banquet--"

13. The servant immediately brought the wine jug and wine glass to the stage.

14. The host and the guests raise their glasses and drink, one after another, but they do not see the food, but the guests are also "full".

15. Beijing opera is generally not the rice bowl on the stage, once really used, it will have to "do the show hard".

For example, there is a detail in "Jin Yu Nu" where the actor uses his mouth to lick the chopsticks after drinking bean juice from the rice bowl, without this "licking", the rice bowl would not have to be brought on stage at all.

Appearances

1. There is a peculiarity in Peking Opera: both sides are fighting each other, so fierce that it is simply impervious to the elements, the people watching on stage are very nervous, one dare not come out of the atmosphere, all eyes are wide open, lest in the blink of an eye, who will "kill" the other side.

2. However, it is also strange, on both sides of the fight is unbearable, the tension and neat sound of the gong suddenly stopped, the movement of the characters also abruptly stopped - the two sides face to face, eye to eye, weapon to weapon, everything is like some kind of immobilization to subdue!

3. Children and foreign guests can't help but ask: "If one of them 'wakes up' first and picks up a weapon and stabs it toward the other, won't the other side be 'finished'?"

4. That's a reasonable question, but that's precisely the beauty of the art of Peking Opera.

5. As the saying goes, "a movement is better than a stillness", and the old poem also says "no sound is better than a sound at this time", which is about this situation.

6. Quiet, the more you can show the martial arts, the more you can show the confidence of victory.

7. There is also a "knife (gun) under the field", can be regarded as a dynamic appearance.

8. The two sides are fighting, one side was defeated and ran down.

9. But the victorious side does not chase, but stays in the same place, swinging the arms round the hands of the weapon (knife or gun) played a weatherproof.

10. this, where or drama?

11. Isn't it too much like acrobatics?

12. You are absolutely right, this is the acrobatic element in Peking Opera, which has existed since ancient times and is still preserved today.

It exists to highlight the heroism of the characters.