1. Introduction Sizhou Opera, formerly known as Lahunqiang, is one of the local operas in Jiangsu Province. It is mainly distributed in most areas on the west bank of Hongze Lake and on both sides of the Huaihe River. It has a history of more than 200 years (Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty: 1736-1795). Because most of the artists are from ancient Sizhou and the singing style has the "Sizhou tune", it was named "Sizhou Opera" in 1952. It developed from the "Lahunqiang" together with Liuqin Opera and Huaihai Opera, and there is a certain blood relationship between them. In its initial stage, it mainly appeared in the form of rap. Artists went from village to village in groups of three or two to "sing door words", only using bamboo boards or wooden clappers to beat the beat, singing some farm words or "articles" reflecting rural life fragments. These "articles" are called "door words". Sizhou Opera has a deep mass base and rich cultural heritage. With beautiful singing and pleasant melodies, it is sung on the banks of Hongze Lake and both sides of the Huaihe River. It is a local opera that grew up from the soil of the folk. 2. Historical Origin Sizhou Opera originated from "Lahunqiang". Because it belongs to folk rap, there is no exact historical verification. It is said that the origin is in Haizhou (now Lianyungang) and Shuyang, Jiangsu. According to the artists, there were two popular tunes in the area at that time; one was a tune created by the working people in the harvest season due to their joy, based on the popular local yangko and haozi, called "Taiping Diao"; the other was a tune sung by the local hunters after hunting, based on the popular folk songs and haozi, combined with the artistic conception of the time and place, and the scene was emotional, and the tune was sung by the hunters. Later, local folk music lovers Qiu (Qiu) Lao, Ge Lao, and Zhang Lao collected and sorted out the "Taiping Diao" and "Liehu Diao" and continuously enriched them, forming the original "Lahunqiang". These three old men were forced to wander around and make a living by singing due to their lives. Qiu (Qiu) Lao wandered to the Huaibei area (Sihong County was under the jurisdiction of Anhui 55 years ago), and he absorbed the local folk music materials, created and sang, and finally formed the "Lahunqiang" with local characteristics of northern Jiangsu, which was loved by the local people. 3. Development and Evolution During the Qianlong period (around 1840), there were professional opera artists in the area of Sizhou (now Sihong County) in Huaibei, and the "Lahunqiang" introduced from Haishu had developed from a rap form to an opera form. During the Xianfeng period (around 1874), there were simple troupes with instrumental accompaniment. Artists began to perform in the temple fair square, forming a performance form of "Daditan", which had both rap and performance. And gradually developed from a pair of operas to three small operas (Xiaosheng, Xiaodan, and clown), and the female role was played by men. During this period, the prototype of the class society had appeared. A small class society composed of a family or a "leg" would sing day and night, and frequently move around to "run slopes". By the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were semi-professional and professional Sizhou opera artists. At this time, the Sizhou opera banqiang system was basically formed, with costumes and bands, and gradually moved from rural areas to cities. Around 1902, Shuyang opera artists Yu Dengyuan (stage name Yiwanyu) and Yu Erniang, a couple, led the "big gong troupe" to perform in Sizhou (now Sihong County). The troupe not only had sanxian, big gongs and small drums for accompaniment, but also had female actors who were good at singing and acting, which had a great influence on Sizhou opera artists. Influenced by them, Liu from Jiuzhuangtou Village, Shangtang Township, Sihong, and Huang Wu (stage name Wu Dahuaxie), the wife of Huang Zhaolin, a "Soul-pulling Opera" artist in Xiaowu Village, Meihua Township, Sihong, went on stage to learn art and became the earliest generation of female artists in Sizhou Opera. In 1941, the Huaibei Anti-Japanese Democratic Base organized a training camp for "Soul-pulling Opera" artists to promote anti-Japanese and anti-hegemony. In 1943, 1946 and 1949, the Huaibei Administrative Office organized Sizhou Opera artists to train several times. The Li family team also often performed on the same stage with the New Fourth Army Dawn Troupe, performing "Persuading Husbands to Join the Army", "Sending Sons to Join the Army", "Passing the Pass", "Xiao Erhei's Marriage", "Blood and Tears Revenge", "White-Haired Girl" and other plays. Leaders such as Chen Yi and Peng Xuefeng liked to listen to Sizhou Opera very much. After the founding of New China, under the care of the Party and the government, Sizhou Opera was further developed, and the artists ended their wandering life from village to village. On August 23, 1953, the Li family team (Li Caifeng's family) and the Ding family team (Ding Wanyu's family) merged to formally establish the "Sihong County Sizhou Opera Troupe", and Li Yu and Li Jiachuan were elected as the chief and deputy troupe leaders. In early September, the large-scale modern drama "The Son-in-Law" was performed for the first time at the Sihong Theater, which caused a sensation in the entire county. Soon, the Huo family team (Huo Congyou's family) was also incorporated into the county troupe. In 1955, Sihong County was placed under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province. It was registered and registered in accordance with national regulations and obtained a business license. It was a large collective. In 1956, the Huaiyin Special District held an opera festival. Li Caifeng from the Sizhou Opera Troupe of Sihong County starred in "Five Coins" and "Digging Wild Vegetables", and Luo Huizhu starred in "Frog Fairy". They won two first prizes and one second prize in this festival with their beautiful singing, vivid performance, and strong local flavor. Luo Huizhu's singing excerpt of "Digging Wild Vegetables" was published and distributed by Jiangsu Dramatists Publishing House. In August of that year, the county party committee organized the August 1st Condolences Group to visit the naval forces stationed in Lianyungang. In 1957, "Frog Fairy", starring Luo Huizhu, won the second prize in the Jiangsu Opera Festival, and the singing of "Fighting on the Bank of Hongze Lake" was recorded and broadcast by the Huaiyin Regional Radio Station. In 1958, the Sizhou Opera Troupe represented the county party committee and county government to visit the front-line miners of Hongshan Mine. In 1959, Jiangsu Province held a gathering of heroes. The traditional play "Tea Bottle" performed by Sihong Sizhou Drama Troupe was performed at the gathering. The leading actress Li Caifeng was cordially received by Governor Hui Yuyu. "Yang Paifeng Takes Command" was performed at the provincial three-level cadre meeting. During the period, it was also performed for Liu Shaoqi, Huang Kecheng, Peng Zhen and other central-level special performances. In 1960, in Huaiyin, Li Caifeng starred in "One Family" and was received by Minister Liu Ruilong. Chief of the General Staff Luo Ruiqing watched "Picking Cotton" and cordially received the leading actress Li Caifeng. In the same year, the Sizhou Drama Troupe went to Lianyungang No. 30 construction site to show condolences to the workers and performed "Dadabang". It was cordially received by the commander of the Xuzhou Military Sub-district, and on behalf of the county party committee and county government, went to Huainan Coal Mine to show condolences to the coal miners. In 1961, the Sihong Sizhou Opera and Huangmei Opera Troupes merged and were renamed the Sihong County Local Drama Troupe. They were later divided into two performance teams (i.e., the Sizhou Opera Troupe and the Huangmei Opera Troupe). In 1965, they merged again and became the Sihong County Sizhou Opera Troupe. After the Cultural Revolution began in 1966, the Sihong Sizhou Opera Troupe and the Huangmei Opera Troupe merged into the Sihong Sizhou Opera Troupe. In 1969, it was changed to the Sihong County Art Troupe. After the Cultural Revolution ended in 1977, under the auspices of the Sihong County Bureau of Culture and Education, a drama training class was held, and more than 20 Sizhou Opera students were recruited to join the cast in 1978. At this time, the Sizhou Opera Troupe had made great progress in terms of actors, band lineup, performing arts and troupe construction. In 1980, the original play "Luo Yuan Going Down the Mountain" began to be performed and became the troupe's reserved play. It was also performed in Xuzhou, Linyi and many other places. In 1984, the play "The Fate of Mother and Daughter" won the first prize of Huaiyin City Modern Drama Creation; at the end of 1986, the troupe participated in the first Liuqin Drama Festival of Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan and Anhui held in Xuzhou with the traditional play "Going to My Mother's Home" of Sizhou Opera and won seven awards. The large-scale modern play "Lakeside Family" created in 2003 was performed dozens of times locally and won the Outstanding Performance Award in the performance at the Huaihai Art Festival. The large-scale modern play "Qingyang Hongxia" created and rehearsed in 2005 won the first prize of the city's performance. With the development of society, some respected old artists have retired from the stage due to old age, and some have passed away one after another. Some skills have no successors and are difficult to be inherited. At present, the Sizhou Drama Troupe is accelerating the reform of management models, innovating development concepts, recruiting talents, and learning from others, in order to continuously improve the overall quality and professional level of the troupe and enable this traditional art to be inherited and developed. 4. Performance Form The original Sizhou Opera was often performed at temple fairs to attract audiences, and the owner of the meeting or casino took over to sing the meeting or casino play. Landlord Hao Kun also performed in the family for birthdays and weddings. In rural areas, when praying to gods to fulfill vows, they also invited groups to sing "wish plays" at home. Because continuous singing is tiring, they adopted the form of chorus and singing in unison. This performance form continued until the early days of liberation. When Sizhou Opera went from folk to stage, there was a division of roles. Its roles were not as clear as those of other operas. The main roles were divided into big male, small male, and old male; the female roles were divided into old man (i.e. old female), two heads (i.e. Qingyi), and small heads (i.e. Huadan); the ugly roles were divided into Wenchou, Wuchou, and Laochou. On the basis of rap, it absorbed folk dance performance forms such as "pressing flower field", "dry boat dance", "lantern dance", and "running donkey". It has the characteristics of being lively, simple, passionate and bold. It is closely related to the customs of the people in Sizhou (now Sihong County) and the popular folk music and dance in the local area, and is full of strong local flavor. "Pressure flower field" is the highlight of Sizhou Opera performance, which is divided into single and double pressure. Artists start to learn performance from "pressing flower field". When performing, actors must pay attention to the coordination and cooperation of hands, eyes, waist, legs, and steps. For example, when the actresses walk in the four corners and whirlwind style, they look like willows blowing in the wind, like lotus emerging from the water, and have graceful dancing postures. The postures and steps of Sizhou Opera include adjusting the hair, stopping the sleeves, crossing the legs and double-stepping, three-handed, stretching the waist, leaving the stage, walking in a diagonal way, turning cross-legged, hugging the waist and shoulder, duck and mud, board feet and legs, phoenix single wings, phoenix double wings, etc. There are dozens of them. 5. Characteristics of singing style The singing style of Sizhou Opera is derived from the local folk tunes, labor songs and the tunes of farmers' lives, and it absorbs the tunes of folk arts such as flower drums and qin books and transforms and develops them. The singing style is rich, and the language used is basically the northern Jiangsu dialect. The lyrics are straightforward and humorous, colloquial, and easy to understand. The daily drama uses local dialects, and the robe and belt drama uses dialect rhyme. The singing style is all in dialect. There are mainly "Sizhou tune", "Haizhou tune", "main tune", "She tune", "Yiyou tune", "Leide tune", "Yang tune", "basic tune", "flowers hidden in the leaves", etc. It is very casual, often singing and speaking, speaking and singing, so it is called "Yixin tune". There are many florid tunes and patterns in Sizhou Opera, generally including slow tune, which is convenient for lyricism; two-line tune, number tune, stack tune, tight tune, rigid tune, continuous tune, etc. For the same tune, actors can play freely, and each person's singing method is different. It is difficult for the same actor to standardize and stereotype the same lyrics. At the end of the singing, female voice often uses a small voice to turn up an octave, and male voice adds a backing word to drag the back tune. The rhythm is mostly a 1/4 beat with a rhythm but no eye. In addition to most of the singing starting from the second half of the tune, there is also a continuous syncopated variable rhythm, which gives people a sense of cheerfulness, liveliness and jumping. But it also often makes people feel uneasy and unstable. Since the melody of the singing style is closely related to the local language, large interval jumps often occur in the singing style, and the frequent modulation makes people sound both novel and colorful, and natural and harmonious. 6. Performance style Sizhou Opera has a strong sense of freedom and unrestrainedness in its singing style, and requires the accompaniment to "follow the actor's singing" to facilitate the actor's performance and creation. In the early days of rap, Sizhou Opera had no band. After the formation of opera, the band structure and accompaniment form were also extremely simple, with only 1-2 earthen pipa and one drummer, and some actors also played them. After liberation, small bands gradually appeared on the stage. There are earthen pipa, flute, suona, sheng, pipe, erhu, yangqin, small three-string, etc. in the literary field, and the "four major pieces" such as bangu, big gong, cymbals, and small gong in the martial field. The earthen pipa is also called Yueqin and Liuyeqin. Its style is like a reduced pipa, rough and simple, and is basically made by Sizhou opera artists themselves, with willow wood as the body, paulownia wood as the panel, and sorghum stalks as the product. Two strings can only play one and a half octaves, without semitones, so the range is small and not beautiful. After the 1970s, four-string Liuqin was used instead. Sizhou opera artists created a plucked instrument through long-term exploration and practice. It is very suitable for accompanying the rap characteristics of Sizhou opera singing. It can be used freely in accompaniment. Its timbre is round and thick, clear and uniform, penetrating, and has strong granularity. The main accompaniment techniques are divided into "holding, sending, flashing, supporting, and lining". It is very rare to use plucked instruments as the main strings of operas in opera troupes across the country. This is also a manifestation of the local characteristics of Sizhou opera. Nowadays, Sizhou opera music has been accompanied by electroacoustic instruments. Its main string instrument has been developed many times from the earthen pipa with only two strings, forming a variety of high and medium pitch Liuqin with three, four, five, and six strings, making the performance of Sizhou opera more mature. 6. Main tunes Sizhou opera music workers have created and adapted many accompaniment songs, some of which have formed new traditional tunes. Such as: [Happiness in Suffering], [Embroidered Card], [Water Dragon Song], [All Kinds of Brocade], [Chaotianzi], [Holding the Dressing Table], [Cloud Lantern], [Playground], [Building the Capital], [Sweeping the Spirit], [Crying in the Hall of Devotion], [Three Pure Songs], [Archery and Dispatching], [Appreciating Flowers], [Wawaling], [Song of Welcoming Spring], [Song of Expressing Love], [Mandarin Ducks Playing in the Water], [Happy Door], [Leaves Falling on Money], [Entering the Garden], [Meeting the Beauty], etc. VII. Main Repertoires There are many traditional repertoires of Sizhou Opera, including nearly 200 "Chapters", more than 40 traditional small plays, more than 20 excerpts, more than 60 traditional large plays, and nearly 30 continuous plays without fixed lyrics and dialogues. There are more than 60 large plays, and the plays narrated by old artists include "Flower Records", "Empty Coffin Records", "Big Book View", "Fishing for Golden Tortoises", "Fan Lihua Inspecting Soldiers", "Westward Dragon", "Popping Hongzhou", "Three The short plays include Beating Xue Pinggui, The Story of Luo Xie, Pi Xiuying's Four Complaints, Snow in June, Whipping Reed Flowers, etc. The short plays include Beating the Noodle Jar, Blocking the Horse, Going Down the Mountain Together, Drinking Noodle Leaves, Beating the Dry Stick, Going to My Mother's Home, Standing on the Flower Wall, Yingtai Convincing People to Fight, Picking Cotton, etc. The processed and edited plays include The Story of Gratitude and Revenge, Double Jade Cicadas, Twelve Widows Going West, White Lotus Fairy, The Legend of the White Snake, Fifteen Strings of Cash, Three Curls on the Cold Bridge, Butterfly Cup, Red Sister-in-law, Model Mountain Village, Three Phoenixes Seeking Phoenix, Family Joy, etc. The created plays include Yang Paifeng Takes Command, Luo Yuan Goes Down the Mountain, The Wind Unfurls the Red Flag, The Fragrance of Rice Flowers, Half an Opinion, Fighting by the Bank of Hongze Lake, Borrowing Bricks, The Fate of Mother and Daughter, Complex, People by the Lake, and Red Clouds in Qingyang, etc.