- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804778312
- eISBN:
- 9780804782623
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804778312.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter concentrates on a series of performance scripts about the “sisters-in-law.” “I, Sister-in-Law” operas report the woman's estrangement from her husband, her thwarted attempt to seduce her ...
More
This chapter concentrates on a series of performance scripts about the “sisters-in-law.” “I, Sister-in-Law” operas report the woman's estrangement from her husband, her thwarted attempt to seduce her husband's brother, her subsequent adultery with a different lover, and the final retribution inflicted upon the woman for her licentiousness. The plots of these operas developed out of the Water Margin story cycle. Commercial kunju “I, Sister-in-Law” plays have tended to evoke sympathy for the transgressive woman; later pihuang operas sided with the male bravos. Record of the Water Margin, Righteous Hero, and Cuiping Mountain had a formative effect on later performance versions of the plots. The roles performed by the dan actors in Water Margin have traversed a continuum from qing authenticity to comic burlesque. The study of the transformation of the sister-in-law episodes from this story kept currency in public entertainment genres through the end of the imperial era.Less
This chapter concentrates on a series of performance scripts about the “sisters-in-law.” “I, Sister-in-Law” operas report the woman's estrangement from her husband, her thwarted attempt to seduce her husband's brother, her subsequent adultery with a different lover, and the final retribution inflicted upon the woman for her licentiousness. The plots of these operas developed out of the Water Margin story cycle. Commercial kunju “I, Sister-in-Law” plays have tended to evoke sympathy for the transgressive woman; later pihuang operas sided with the male bravos. Record of the Water Margin, Righteous Hero, and Cuiping Mountain had a formative effect on later performance versions of the plots. The roles performed by the dan actors in Water Margin have traversed a continuum from qing authenticity to comic burlesque. The study of the transformation of the sister-in-law episodes from this story kept currency in public entertainment genres through the end of the imperial era.
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804778312
- eISBN:
- 9780804782623
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804778312.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter considers opera genre as a contested cultural field in which various agents—the court, Jiangnan music sophisticates, marginalized men of letters, and acting troupes—each held a stake. ...
More
This chapter considers opera genre as a contested cultural field in which various agents—the court, Jiangnan music sophisticates, marginalized men of letters, and acting troupes—each held a stake. Opera genre became a cultural field in which both the Manchu court and Han connoisseurs attempted to maintain authority. Yabu and huabu can be understood as a response by diverse commentators to the variety and mixture of musical genres within the metropolitan opera marketplace. The court had a growing interest in huabu (more specifically, pihuang) in the nineteenth century. Court patronage of the once lowbrow pihuang was helpful in eliciting the genre to elite status, acknowledged empirewide. In general, the court patronage, court oversight and management of commercial troupes via the Jingzhong Temple Actors' Guild, and the unintended consequences of war all influenced the rise of pihuang opera.Less
This chapter considers opera genre as a contested cultural field in which various agents—the court, Jiangnan music sophisticates, marginalized men of letters, and acting troupes—each held a stake. Opera genre became a cultural field in which both the Manchu court and Han connoisseurs attempted to maintain authority. Yabu and huabu can be understood as a response by diverse commentators to the variety and mixture of musical genres within the metropolitan opera marketplace. The court had a growing interest in huabu (more specifically, pihuang) in the nineteenth century. Court patronage of the once lowbrow pihuang was helpful in eliciting the genre to elite status, acknowledged empirewide. In general, the court patronage, court oversight and management of commercial troupes via the Jingzhong Temple Actors' Guild, and the unintended consequences of war all influenced the rise of pihuang opera.
