Pingju Opera

A banqiang opera grown from lianhualao and Tangshan laozi, with banhu accompaniment and colloquial text.

Related

Banqiang FormShengqiang (Vocal Tradition)BanhuBangu (Peking-opera drum)

Time and place

Pingju began in the lianhualao of the Luan county area in Tangshan, Hebei. In the late Qing it absorbed the metre of Tangshan laozi, Peking opera and clapper opera, and matured in Tianjin, Beijing and the northeast during the twentieth century. Cheng Zhaocai was an important early reformer, and modern-dress plays helped it take root in cities. Its speech and singing stay close to standard Mandarin, which made it easy for audiences outside the region to follow.

Musical features

The singing belongs to the banqiang family, with slow, erliu, flowing and free metres. Slow metre suits narrative and grief, while flowing metre carries rapid dialogue. A banhu leads, bright in tone and closely shadowing the voice. Texts are colloquial, and duoju or shuban push the narrative forward. Early plays were often modern-dress, close to urban life, with speech near the Tangshan and Beijing accents.

Repertoire

Flower as Matchmaker, Liu Qiao'er, Qin Xianglian and Yang Sanjie's Lawsuit are the most performed. The first two centre on courtship and domestic life; the latter two lean toward crime and grief.

What to listen for

Hear how the banhu supports the voice, then follow the change of speed between slow and flowing metres. In duoju, listen to the crowding of syllables; in shuban, the line comes close to speech.

Common misunderstandings

A common mistake is to confuse Pingju with pingtan. Pingju is a northern opera, pingtan a Jiangnan narrative art. Nor is Pingju a branch of Peking opera; it grew from lianhualao and Tangshan laozi.

Sources

• 《中国音乐词典》编辑部编，中国音乐词典（人民音乐出版社）— 剧种与年代核对，未引用
• 《中国戏曲音乐集成》编辑委员会编，中国戏曲音乐集成（中国 ISBN 中心）— 板式与唱腔核对，未引用

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.