Lingling Flower Drum Opera, also known as Yongzhou Flower Drum Opera, is one of the six major flower drum opera schools in Hunan, with a history of more than 100 years. Lingling Flower Drum Opera is high-pitched and elegant, graceful and elegant, with a strong local flavor and artistic appeal, and is deeply loved by the masses. In 2008, Lingling Flower Drum Opera was identified as the second batch of intangible cultural heritage list projects in Hunan Province. [Historical Origin of Lingling Flower Drum Opera] Lingling Flower Drum Opera, formerly known as flower lanterns, or tunes. There are two artistic paths, Qiyang Flower Drum Lantern and Daoxian Tuozi Opera, which are local small dramas developed on the basis of folk singing and dancing. After the founding of New China, the Qiyang and Daoxian two paths merged and were named Lingling Flower Drum Opera. Qiyang Flower Drum Lantern originated from two different forms of singing and dancing. One is derived from the folk "carriage lantern". In the first month of each year, the "carriage lantern" follows the fish dragon and the Suanni, with a clown riding a horse in front, and once riding in the car, gongs and drums and orchestras accompany the singing and dancing. The second is that it originated from the "face show" of the wizard. According to the custom of Qiyang, in order to pray for the safety of people and animals and to drive away plague and disasters, the masses invite wizards to sing "celebration drama" before the beginning of winter, which is held every three or five years, and every village does so. Daoxian Tune Opera originated from the folk song and dance singing of "playing with lions". Every year in the first month of the year, the villagers sing "lion major tune" and first play lions, then martial arts, and finally a clown sings "couplet tune", which gradually develops into a "lion drama" with a simple plot, which is the prototype of Daoxian Tune Opera. Lingling Flower Drum Opera has a history of more than 100 years and can be roughly divided into three evolutionary periods: origin, formation, and development. The performance period of ground flower drum. This is the embryonic stage of flower lanterns and tunes. The Hetangping and the courtyard wall are both its performance venues, so it is called ground flower drum. The performance period of grass stage opera. This is the formation stage of flower lanterns and tunes, that is, the transition from the singing form of song and dance to the opera form dominated by rap. At this time, the ground flower drum has been transferred to the temporary earthen platform, which is called "grass stage opera". The period of performance in town theaters. This is the stage when Qi and Dao merged, formed Lingling Huagu Opera and tended to be mature and perfect. After the founding of New China, Huagu Opera troupes began to enter town theaters (theaters) for performance. With the strong support of the government, a professional troupe was established to carry out the three reforms of personnel, system and opera, improve the political awareness of artists, eliminate old conventions and bad habits, improve the organizational structure, and put Lingling Huagu Opera on the road of comprehensive development. [The main content of Lingling Huagu Opera] The stage language of Lingling Huagu Opera, Huagu Lantern speaks Qiyang dialect, with a steady tone and soft voice. Diaozi Opera speaks Daoxian dialect with a high tone. The same word, Qiyang dialect reads flat tone, Daoxian dialect reads oblique tone. After the founding of New China, Qi and Dao merged, the stage language gradually standardized, and the stage language of Qi Opera Yonghe Road was unified. Lingling Flower Drum Opera has a rich repertoire, most of which are from the folk and native. Most of them are adapted from real life, folk legends, and myths, and are mixed with the promotion of traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, such as punishing evil and promoting good, advocating frugality and refraining from extravagance, praising diligence and despising laziness, filial piety and respect for teachers, helping the weak and the poor, and many other aspects. These repertoires not only reflect the national wisdom and philosophy of life, but also allow people to learn a lot of knowledge and are deeply loved by the masses. The music of Lingling Flower Drum Opera is mainly formed by the confluence of Qiyang and Daoxian Diaozi Opera, including vocal music and instrumental music. Vocal music is singing music, which is composed of various vocal structures with different characteristics. Instrumental music is accompaniment music, including orchestral music and percussion music. Singing. The music originated from folk music such as mountain songs, folk songs, minor tunes, witch songs, and rap. It belongs to the tune tune and is a combination of tunes. It is divided into three types: walking tune, Sichuan tune, and minor tune (divided into local minor tunes and string minor tunes). The accompaniment music is divided into two scenes: civil and military. Wenchang is an orchestral music, with the Piqin (Daoxian tune is Wanhu) as the main instrument. Wuchang is a percussion music, with the war drum as the characteristic. It is a high-pitched instrument with strong color, thick pitch, crisp and bright. The war drum is covered with high-quality buffalo leather on both sides. The diameter of the drumhead is about 2.4 decimeters, the drum body is round, and the barrel is 1 decimeter high. It is assembled with several pieces of 0.33 decimeter wide miscellaneous wooden boards. The cowhide drumhead is tightly nailed to the drum body with bamboo nails. The drumstick is generally more than 2 decimeters long, with a diameter of 1 cm at the large end and a diameter of 1.6 cm at the end. It is mostly made of sheep thorn wood. In addition, its small gong is bowl-shaped, so it is called "Wanluo", which is also a high-pitched instrument with strong color. Lingling Flower Drum Opera developed on the basis of the song and dance singing form of "paired tune". Its performance is a lively singing form in which the female dancer dances with a handkerchief, the clown waves a paper fan, walks in front of the short man, circles around the female dancer, and sings to each other. Therefore, short steps and fan flowers have become the most important basic skills of Lingling Flower Drum Opera performance art. In terms of language, Lingling Flower Drum Opera has developed from the local dialect to Lingling Mandarin, which is easy to understand. In the northern Qiyang style, different roles are expressed with different voices: for example, the old man uses sandy sounds; the young man uses consonants; the female role uses narrow sounds; the painted face uses domineering sounds or shouting sounds. In the southern Daozhou style, more supporting words such as "yoyiyo" and "nahehai" are added, which has a strong local flavor. Lingling Flower Drum Opera has four major roles: clown, female, male, and painted face (painted face), and different characters are created from several aspects such as age, gender, origin, and occupation. Lingling Flower Drum Opera performance techniques and skills absorb the strengths of many schools, integrate the skills of national dance, martial arts, and acrobatics, and form four types of singing, reciting, acting, and fighting, and refine further artistic skills of hand, eye, body, waist, and step coordination. Lingling Huagu Opera mainly uses fan dance and dwarf dance as performance methods. Fan dance is used by all roles, but it is more used by female roles. Different fan dances are used to express different emotions and scenes of characters. Dwarf dance is a very expressive technique of Lingling Huagu Opera. The actors bend their knees or half bend their knees, squat, raise their heads, straighten their waists, hold a fan in their right hand and dance on their heads or waists, swing their left arms back and forth, and walk in a running and jumping rhythm. They can be fast or slow, left or right, forward or backward, or they can also step on the spot. Dwarf dance is only for the clown role, and the skills are in the waist, legs, and feet. The singing of Lingling Huagu Opera is mellow and smooth, pleasant to the ears, very beautiful, and has a touching artistic appeal. The facial makeup of Lingling Huagu Opera is very distinctive. Usually red, black, and white are used as the base colors, and delicate patterns and clear lines are drawn on the face, which makes the images of different characters vivid, lifelike, and full of dynamics. Although Lingling Flower Drum Opera is one of the six major schools of Hunan Flower Drum Opera, it is composed of two different styles in terms of drama, music, singing, and performance methods. For example, the southern school performs songs and dances, while the northern school performs dramas; for another example, in the same drama, the southern school uses the Shang mode, while the northern school uses the Jiao mode. These individual characteristics are not found in other dramas and schools. Lingling Flower Drum Opera depicts the thoughts and feelings of the characters and shapes their images through the four performance methods of singing, acting, reciting, and fighting, and the distinction between the four roles of Chou, Dan, Sheng, and Jing. The form of Dan dancing with a handkerchief, Chou waving a paper fan and walking in short steps, circling around Dan, and singing to each other is very lively. Lingling Flower Drum Opera, with its rich life atmosphere and local flavor, infects the audience, pleases the mood and is of great viewing value. Lingling Flower Drum Opera has outstanding social value. Lingling Flower Drum Opera has many repertoires, which are native to the region and mostly come from folk legends, myths, philosophies, and famous sayings. Through stage presentation, the audience can see the wisdom of the nation and comprehend the philosophy of life, which is helpful to cultivate people's moral qualities and enlighten their thoughts and wisdom. Lingling Flower Drum Opera has historical and cultural value. Lingling Flower Drum Opera has a history of more than 100 years and is a classic chapter in Hunan culture. Its generation, language, and music are closely related to the environment. With the progress of the times, local music will also evolve into modern music. Therefore, Lingling Flower Drum Opera will inevitably become a historical and cultural heritage. In 2008, Lingling Flower Drum Opera was identified as a project in the second batch of intangible cultural heritage list of Hunan Province.