A study of Kunqu opera adaptations of the PeonyPavilion (from 1957 to today)

陳春苗(Chun-miu Chan)

香港大學/Master of Philosophy/Chinese/碩士(2011年)

並列摘要

On the stage of Kunqu Opera, The Peony Pavilion has been the best accepted masterpiece and the script has been adapted frequently by performing groups throughout the history, but those adaptations have not arouse much attention among researchers. This study will focus on the Kunqu Opera adaptations of The Peony Pavilion after the People’s Republic of China was established. By analyzing different modes of adaptations of the script and the characteristics of performances in different periods, I attempt to evaluate the work of inheritance of Kunqu Opera since the 1950s and to propose solutions to the difficulties the Kunqu Opera artists faced with today.

The adaptations are greatly influenced by the dominant political ideology and aesthetic ideas. The early ones were, to a large extent, based on the main excerpts (Zhezixi) of the original script and the performance was traditional, but the endeavour came to an end with the advent of the Cultural Revolution. After the Cultural Revolution, different performing groups developed various modes of adaptation. Some of them presented the main plot of the original script and traditional performance, while most other adaptations aimed to transform the tradition: in the 1980s they mainly revise the scripts and tunes and in the 1990s they began introducing elements of the drama, the symphony and the TV play in the performance of The Peony Pavilion. The new trend reflected that the Kunqu opera artists lost confidence in their performing art and began to deviate from the aesthetics of traditional Chinese opera.

Since the new millennium, Chinese began to attach more and more importance to traditional Chinese culture and under the influence, Kunqu opera artists also gradually turned back to the tradition. However, as the opera had to be staged on the modern theatre rather than the traditional one, the artists also had to cope with the tension between the performance of the ancient opera and the new performance conditions. This burgeoning endeavour, on the one hand, modernised the traditional opera, and on the other hand, sacrificed the traditional performing art. To find an appropriate way to inherit and develop the Kunqu Opera is still a challenge task for the artists and scholars.

並列關鍵字

Operas, Chinese - China - Jiangsu Sheng