A Study On The New Plays And Adaptations Of Kunqu Opera(1949～2015)

Opera is China’s peculiar form of artistic presentation,as well as an important carrier of reflecting authors’ drama opinions and social ideology.Since the year of 1949,the newly-composed Kun Opera plays and the adapted ones have been frequently put on the stage,showing completely different patterns of manifestation and qualities from the traditional ones.This thesis makes a research on the two kinds of Kun Operas--during the period from 1949 to 2015--with the method of combining macro summary and micro analysis,and presents the development of Kun Opera from certain aspects,such as the cultural policy changes,the opera concept changes,the aesthetic concept changes and the dissemination way changes,etc.Regarded as a typical example of "creative efforts",the performance of Fifteen Guan gained a high praise---"a play saves a drama".But as the time goes,some shortcomings of its adaptation have also been revealed.In the first chapter,the thesis focuses on the background and strategy of Fifteen Guan’s adaptation and analyzes objectively the evaluations of it in different periods and its influences on other adaptations.The youth version "Peony Pavilion" was born after the success of the application for the list of world heritage.It is a totally different adaptation form from the Fifteen Guan.In the second chapter,with the heritage context and Kun Opera’s new aesthetic influence,the thesis takes the youth version Peony Pavilion as an example to evaluate its influence on modern Kun Opera’s adaptation and dissemination,then to analyze the youth version’s nonduplicability.In the globalized context,Kun Operas adapted from the foreign works are not only a cross-cultural practice,but also an important part of Chinese cultural diplomacy,a symbol for traditional culture’s confidence.The third chapter makes comparison and contrast of some Kun Operas adapted from foreign works then discusses the revaluing and aesthetic reconstruction of cross-cultural adaptation.From Chapter Four to Chapter Six,the thesis introduces three important and powerful authors in Kun Opera adaption:Guo Qihong,Zhang Lie and Zeng Yongyi.Mr.Guo’s Stories of Southern Tang represents the historical opera;Mr.Zhang’s Number One Scholar Zhang Xie is praised as "a play saved a kind of performance","renascence of the Kun Opera".Mr.Zhang’s adaptation gives a performance chance for the southern opera but a fresh and new form of the Kun Opera for modern audiences;while Mr.Zeng pays more attention on the rules and regulations in text and music.To sum up,the thesis chooses some typical Kun Operas and Kun Opera authors to make a research on their background,adaptation and motivation and to evaluate the newly-composed plays and adapted plays’strategies,aesthetic values,artistic values,theoretical values,etc.with the hope of providing some reference information for Kun Opera’s rescuing,inheriting and disseminating.