| The popularity and spread of"The Peony Pavilion"are"luck for the literati instead of the common sense that a good piece of writing can be spread."Tang Xianzu was a poet first of all, and then an ideologist and dramatist. Although Tang Xianzu was finally recognized as a"dramatist"with the legendarily spread of"The Peony Pavilion", his work,"The Peony Pavilion", was more likely to be a piece of writing to be read instead of a play to be played on stage. The reason is that"The Peony Pavilion"disaccords to the regulations of Chinese operas being played on stage, which can be specified as follow: disagreement of temperament, the absonant of tone, miscellaneousness of structure, the obscurity of diction. Among these unsuitabilities, the disagreement of temperament is mostly criticized, for music is the soul of opera. If the temperament does not accord to the opera, it would be difficult to be put on stage, thus is excluded from the stage and lose the life as an opera.What's worthy of thinking is that though"The Peony Pavilion"is not regarded as staged opera, it has been active on stage and became the classical reservation of Kunqu Opera since its completion. The reasons for this are considerable. In the late Ming Dynasty which advocated literati and the culture of opera. The literati were fond of and conceited with their talent, thus Chinese opera writing was popular among them. Therefore, when Tang Xianzu who was famous for his talent and excellent writing, composed"The Peony Pavilion", it became an immediate favorite to the literati. Meanwhile, the literati made various adaptations in the hope of a better on-stage of"The Peony Pavilion", which promoted the spread of"The Peony Pavilion"more or less. Since the late Ming Dynasty,"The Peony Pavilion"has been famous on the stage of Kunqu opera for more than four hundred years, and especially raised to a climax of a whole-play performance at the turn of twenty-first century. Among several whole-play adaptations, the Young Lover's Edition of"The Peony Pavilion"composed by Bai Xianyong is undoubtedly the most successful. In the principle of modernized inherence of classical Chinese opera and the cultivation of young actors, actresses and audiences, the production of the Young Lover's Edition of"The Peony Pavilion"can be well referred to by the Chinese opera community. Though Tang Xianzu's"The Peony Pavilion"is criticized to be disaccording to the temperament and tone, he had a well grasp of the temperament and certain knowledge of Chinese opera. However, in his understanding of Chinese opera, the meaning, interest, verve, and color of the production valued more than its temperament, thus the opera could not be confined by temperament."The Peony Pavilion"shaped a poetic world of sensation and emotion thus born with enduring charm, while its distinctive way of spreading by boudoir is the main reason for its popularity among the females of Ming and Qing Dynasties.The life of Chinese opera lies on the stage. The one who finally settled the music problem of"The Peony Pavilion"was Ye Tang whose"Opern of Nashuying"accorded the tone with words, thus endowed"The Peony Pavilion"with enduring life on stage in the premise of doing no impair to the meaning, interest, verve and color of the original play, thus realized the combination of literature and stage perform. The success of the stage spread of"The Peony Pavilion"is only a cultural case of the development of Chinese opera, as well as a unique case of the study of legend of Ming and Qing dynasties. |
