But you and I may not estimate it. At first, Cantonese opera was sung in "Guilin Mandarin" instead of Cantonese. Later, it was changed to Cantonese because the revolutionary propaganda in the late Qing Dynasty overthrew the Qing court. What's going on here? Come and listen to "Goodboy"!
The formation of Cantonese opera can be seen from the book History of Cantonese Opera and the Report on the Application for the Heritage of Cantonese Opera, which has a history of more than 300 years and originated in the middle of17th century. Its origin and formation are quite complicated, and it is formed, developed and expanded on the basis of constantly integrating various foreign traditional operas, local Cantonese operas and folk rap arts.
Opera studio Putonghua, that is, "Guilin Putonghua" which is neither salty nor light, is also called stage Putonghua.
During the reign of Qing Qianlong (1736- 1795), hundreds of provincial troupes came to Guangdong to perform. These troupes are collectively called "Waijiang Troupe". Because at that time, most of the official gentry in Guangzhou came from other provinces, and the foreign businessmen in the foreign firm invited their hometown troupes to sing.
At that time, the theatrical troupes organized by local people were called "local excellent" and "local classes", which were unpopular among officials and businessmen in Guangzhou and mostly performed in towns outside the city.
During this period, "local classes" borrowed from foreign operas and gradually formed a kind of opera with the combination of Bang and Huang as the main part on the basis of absorbing various voices.
The early Cantonese opera was similar to Huizhou Opera, Han Opera, xiang opera Opera, Qi Opera and Guangxi Opera in repertoire, singing music, performance programs and stage language.
Later, the "local class" gradually gained an advantage in the competition with the "Waijiang class" and its performance center gradually moved to Guangzhou. However, because Bangzi and Pihuang originally used Huguang dialect and Kunqu opera used Wuzhong dialect, both dialects belong to Mandarin, and Guangdong artists have to use Mandarin to learn Bangzi and Kunqu opera, which determines that Cantonese opera must speak Mandarin in the early stage.
The basic characteristics of Cantonese opera aria music are banqiang, namely Bangzi and Huanger, commonly known as "Banghuang". Then why not Huguang dialect and Wuzhong dialect?
It turned out that it was too difficult for Cantonese to learn Huguang and Wuzhong at that time. As a result, the play is neither fish nor fowl, and it often makes a fool of itself.
So what should we do?
According to Tsui Hark's "Clearing the Banknotes in the Barn", Cantonese people were very afraid of speaking Mandarin at that time, and certainly would not take the initiative to learn it. Only those who want to be officials are invited to teach them. Most of the teachers in Guilin are from Guilin. Knowing that Cantonese people can't speak Mandarin well, they brag about the authentic Mandarin in Guilin, which won the appreciation of the emperor and ranked first in the country. So I sent a letter to all officials to learn Guilin Putonghua.
The authenticity of this matter remains to be verified, but it may be because Guilin is close to Guangdong! In the end, Cantonese learned Guilin Mandarin (Zhongzhou accent) from Guilin people.
Cantonese opera artists also sing in the learned Guilin Mandarin, but it is not authentic, and it becomes the "drama shed Mandarin" (also known as stage Mandarin) in the official (dialect). Then a two-part allegorical saying was derived: "Opera House Putonghua: neither salty nor light". It means that Cantonese opera is sung in Mandarin, which is neither Mandarin nor Cantonese. It is difficult to define which dialect it is.
However, this kind of "drama studio Mandarin" is very studious in Guangdong, and it is also considered to be a masterpiece of its own. Artists have learned to use it to bang the yellow, and have been singing for more than 200 years.
Then what happened? Why does Cantonese opera turn to Cantonese?
This should start with the "Shi Zhi Ban" in the late Qing Dynasty! The so-called "Shi Zhi Class" is actually an improved new type of drama organized by revolutionaries at the end of19th century and the beginning of 20th century.
They used the form of Cantonese opera, infiltrated drama elements, performed and improved Cantonese opera, and publicized revolutionary ideas. Calling them "Shi Zhi Troupe" means that they are different from the old-fashioned theatrical troupes in general.
The earliest drama club that established Shi Zhi Class was called Cainan Song, which was founded by Cheng Ziyi and Li Yu 1904. They originally wanted to turn the Southern Song Dynasty into a drama school, which specially recruited some teenagers to train and teach drama knowledge and culture.
After the failure of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, imperialism set off a frenzy to carve up China, arousing the strong dissatisfaction of the people of the whole country with the Qing government and imperialist powers. At that time, Chen asked Comrade Cheng Ziyi for advice, thinking that although newspapers and periodicals had propaganda functions, the general public had a low level of education and did not read many newspapers. In order to improve the publicity effect, it was decided to set up drama classes and compile patriotic dramas.
At the beginning of its establishment, Shi Zhi was originally a dramatic actor. At that time, some class clubs had already performed in Cantonese, but the audience was far less than Cantonese opera, which spoke stage Mandarin. Because of the colorful singing forms and vocal music of Cantonese opera, it is more loved by the general public, so opera can't compete with it in fashion.
Shi Zhi class deeply felt the need to change course, so in order to expand the publicity effect, they decided to sing and improve this new drama in the form of Cantonese opera. The earliest group that tried to sing Cantonese opera was Youtian Shadow Society organized by Huang, Huang and others.
When she staged "Aunt Zhou's Feet", "Ask M Blindly" and "Smoke-Free" in the form of Cantonese opera, she simply changed all the stage Putonghua of Cantonese opera into Cantonese, sang with her real voice, and absorbed the rap arts such as Nanyin, Muyu and Dragon Boat.
This bold change has achieved unexpected results, and the research on the makeup and scenery of the play has made the public feel refreshed and popular.
At that time, the monitor of Cantonese opera artists and artists saw that Ban's new drama adapted to the social trend at that time and was very popular after being staged in Cantonese. Therefore, driven by economic interests and social situation, they gave up the studio Mandarin they sang for more than 200 years, gradually switched to Cantonese opera and moved to the class to perform.
So all the Cantonese operas we hear today are sung in Cantonese!