Shaoxing Opera is a newcomer among the Chinese local operas. It developed from local musical plays that used only the ban-clapper as the accompaniment in East China's Zhejiang Province. As the province belonged to the Yue State in the ancient times, it is popularly known as Yue opera.

Shaoxing Opera has a history of more than 80 years, and has its origins in a rough and ready kind of drama told by actors in fields. At the turn of the century, this basic drama began to make its way from the fields to the stage, and developed from a small group of actors to larger and larger troupes accompanied by musicians.

The popularity of this art form began to grow in 1916, when it was performed in Shanghai to large audiences of Shaoxing origin. Gradually, first string instruments and later other instruments were added to the orchestra, although the music was still based on the same Shaoxing melodies. The performances were, in fact, very successful.

In 1923, the training of female actors for this art form was set up. Since 1928, the Shaoxing opera troupes, consisting of solely female actors, began their performances in Shanghai. In a few years, females impersonating males had become the most important feature of this opera form, and at the same time the yue opera became well known all over China. In the Qing dynasty China (1644-1911) mixed troupes consisting of both male and female actors had been prohibited, and even in Peking opera, the lady-actors were not allowed to enter the stage together with men before 1930.

From the 1940s on, Shaoxing Opera developed a great deal and the melodies were enriched, and performances enhanced. It was a period of great innovation, and many famous actors established reputations at the time. One of these actors was Yuan Xuefen. She became famous for her performances of female characters that were decent and kind-hearted, but suffered tragic fates nonetheless.

Characteristics

It was derived from a kind of story-singing. At first, it was performed with a small drum and hardwood clappers for rhythm, and later choral and orchestral accompaniment was added. It drew some musical elements from other operas and subsequently formed its own characteristics.
Shaoxing Opera is noted for the lyricism of its melodies, and singing is a dominant part of it. Its tunes are sweet and beautiful and the performance vivid and full of local color. And as the opera has grown, its basis in reality and everyday life as well as the use of colloquial language has remained strong.

Originally Yue opera was only performed by males and then changed to all female performances. After 1949, males and females work together. With the entry of television and movies into family entertainment in the lives of people in Zhejiang Province and neighboring provinces and cities, the number of Yue opera performances are on the decline.

Besides, Yue opera is sung in local dialect and may not be understood by people from other parts of the country. As a result, Yue opera still remains as a local opera. However, it is very popular in countryside, especially during festivals such as the Spring Festival. Open-air performances are commonplace with crowds gathering in a large square, sitting or standing, watching and listening to the actors and actresses.

The texts of Yue opera are based on romantic love stories, and they do not include acrobatics or fighting scenes. In Yue opera, stage properties and light effects are used and the costumes imitate the light-colored clothes, fashionable at the beginning of this century in China. The most famous plays performed in Shaoxing style are "Butterfly Lovers", which is a kind of Chinese version of "Romeo and Juliet", and the love dramas "A Dream of Red Mansions " and "The Romance of the West Chamber ".

Every play of Yue opera is divided into several acts, each of which depicts an inseparable part of the whole story. The ending is usually a happy one.
Repertoire

** Butterfly Lovers

The Chinese lover story -- "Butterfly Lovers", or "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" - has been adapted into many kinds of opera genres, and the Yue opera version of the story is among the most successful. The story goes like this:

In order that she may travel to Hangzhou, a city in Zhejiang Province, to study, Zhu Yingtai impersonates and takes on a male identity. There she meets Liang Shanbo and in the course of their studies, they become extremely close friends.

When the time comes for Yingtai to return home, the pair hesitate greatly in departure, entreating each other with much ceremony and suppressed sadness. Yingtai offers 'his' younger sister's hand in marriage and entreats Shanbo to visit 'his' residence soon to raise the issue of marriage with 'his' parents. Shanbo is unaware that Yingtai does not have a younger sister and is in fact offering her own hand in marriage.

A year passes before Shanbo makes his way to the Zhu Residence. Liang Shanbo is overjoyed to realize Yingtai's true identity and that she is in love with him. However, happiness turns into sorrow as the two soon discover that Yingtai has been betrothed to another man. In great sadness, the two lovers meet at the tower and lament their great misfortune. Upon his return to Hangzhou, Shanbo falls ill in his great misery and dies. Yingtai hears of this on her marriage day and flees to his grave. There, folklore has it that her crying so moved the heavens that the clouds themselves shed tears at her grief. Further, the earth beneath her cracked apart, and the ill-fated Yingtai commits suicide by jumping into the opened grave. Miraculously, the pair are transformed into butterflies. Arising into the air, they flutter and dance side by side among the flowers, never to be separated again.

** The Liuhua Brook

The play focuses on the tragic fates of four women in four generations of a large feudal family at the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

The plot revolves around Qiuhua who suffers from the harsh and cruel treatment of her mother-in-law Donghua.

When Qiuhua gives birth to a daughter, Donghua feels so unhappy that she abandons the little girl in the mountains and tells Qiuhua her daughter is dead. Meanwhile, the cold mother-in-law gets a boy to take the place of the poor girl and orders Qiuhua to bring him up as the male heir of the family.

Bitter days come to an end at long last when Qiuhua herself becomes a mother-in-law. Her "son," a young revolutionary, brings his wife Chunhua into the closely guarded feudal family, along with new ideas from the modern world.

The young Chunhua, who could not bear the torture of life in the feudal family, refuses to show obedience to Santaipo, Donghua's mother-in-law and the head of the family.

Recalling her bitter experience, Qiuhua protects her from Santaipo's harshness.

Chunhua later dies during childbirth in the arms of Qiuhua. Just before her death, Qiuhua finds that her daughter-in-law is actually her long-lost daughter.

Bao Chaozan, a veteran playwright from Zhejiang Province, shows great concern about the fate of Chinese women, and has written several stories on this theme.