Liangshan Lantern Festival
The singing music of Liangshan Lantern Opera mainly includes the lantern string tune of the fat tube type, the divine song tune of the Tu song type and the minor tune of the folk song type. Among them, the "Liangshan Tune" lantern string tune is relatively unique. The performance characteristics of Liangshan Lantern Opera are "laughing and making noise" and "twisting and jumping". Its repertoire is quite rich, with a total of more than 200 kinds. The most representative ones are "Eating Bran and Cutting Hair", "Sending Jingniang", "Xiangzi's Wife", "Please Long Years", etc. Most of these repertoires are adapted from folk operas or folk stories. Lantern Opera performances use dialects, and the lyrics are popular and natural, lively and full of life. In addition, because the lantern opera is very entertaining, the plot is exaggerated, the contradictions are prominent, and the playfulness is humorous, so the actors often perform exaggerated movements with dance characteristics, which are deeply loved by the local people. Festivals or weddings and funerals, the people are always inseparable from lantern opera. Lantern opera in northern Sichuan became popular in Langzhong, Nanbu, Yilong, Shunqing and other places in Nanchong in the Ming Dynasty. Like lantern opera in other regions, it has also experienced the development stage from holding lanterns, hanging lanterns, playing lanterns, dancing lanterns to lantern opera. Lantern opera in northern Sichuan is lively and vivid, and its content mostly praises justice, lashes out at ugliness, and educates people in fun. Its repertoire is generally dominated by comedy and farce, and comedy is often used to express serious drama and tragedy. The performance of lantern opera in northern Sichuan is rough and concise, humorous and popular, with singing and dancing, and full of fun. The lyrics are simple and healthy, with a strong local flavor. Because there are many small plays, comedies and farces, the clown role occupies a special position in the performance of lantern opera in northern Sichuan. The clown role of lantern opera is divided into male clown and female clown. Male clown is also called Xiaohualian and Sanhualian, while female clown is also called Caidan, Yaodan and Po. The clown plays both negative characters and positive characters and middle characters. Among the many lantern opera repertoires, more than half of them are indispensable for clown. The lantern opera in northern Sichuan developed from lantern songs and dances, which include folk songs, Qingyin, Shen Ge, and Duangong tunes in the mountainous areas of northern Sichuan, and also absorbs tunes such as Shaanxi tune and Wuxia Bugang tune. It has a system of regular tunes with changing patterns, and also a singing style with a combination of tunes. For example, the singing style of the play "The Tailor Steals Cloth" is a combination of tunes such as [Taiping Year], [Jin Niusi], [Yin Niusi], [Selling Flowers], [Broken Bridge], [Shilidun], and [Huabeigong]. The combination of patterns and tunes can also be used in the same play. The main accompaniment instruments of the lantern opera in northern Sichuan are "fat tubes" and huqin, which emit a deep and rich "hum" sound when played, so it is also called "hum tubes". In addition, there are lantern gongs and drums, and later, erhu, flute and other instruments were gradually added. The performance of Lantern Opera in Northern Sichuan incorporates folk dancing lanterns, puppets, shadow puppets, acrobatics and other skills to portray characters and express plots. At present, the performers of professional lantern opera troupes are aging, and there are only a handful of old artists who can sing lantern opera, and a large number of oral repertoires have been lost. In addition, lantern opera is accompanied by folk music such as yangqin, flute, pipa, and erhu. Due to the loss of musicians, it has to use electric instruments and folk music to "make do". Influenced by popular culture, young people have difficulty accepting traditional and folk things. The inheritance problem of lantern opera is becoming increasingly serious, and it is facing the risk of being lost, and it is in urgent need of rescue and protection.