Town Gala

Town Gala

Text by Guo Dan Translation by Shi Yu Illustration by Liao Jie

It is a tradition that people go to the town gala on the night of the fi fth day of a lunar New Year, when people get to break all the taboos they have followed during the Spring Festival.

Every year I kept asking the performing crew to put on two Beijing Opera shows, The Hero and Beheading General Shan, and every year my old fellas kept telling me it would bring bad luck watching such a tragedy during a Spring Festival. Well, I didn't care about the “bad luck”, every year I would go ahead and request these two shows and I wept every time I watched them.

I liked The Hero particularly. It is a must for any classic town gala or big celebration during the period of the late Qing Dynasty. All of genres of the Laosheng (old male roles) and Qingyi (a faithful wife role, or a lover or maiden in distress) particularly like to put on this show. This story actually features two roles, a hero and a fair lady. As a matter of fact, this show would have different names depending on who is leadingthe show. For example, if it is Master Mei Lanfang, who is one of the best Qingyi actors throughout history, to lead, then the name of the show could be The Fair Lady, where you can directly catch the selling point of the show—the Qingyi performance. In the old times, the town gala would start before dinner, and last all the way to midnight. It is meant to be a joint performance of many Sheng (male role) and Dan (female role) roles. The gala usually starts from The Love between a Beggar and the Premier's Daughter, featuring young performers from a new generation, which would then be followed by Engagement at the Colourful Tower (Choose a Husband), where the way of ascending and descending on the stairs of the tower becomes a special performance genre lasting for a long time. Then, the gala presents Father and Daughter Become Enemies, usually played by Wusheng (combatants) and Qingyi with a characteristic vocal performance. What's next would be a sequence of the Hero's Farewell to the Humble Home, Mother and Daughter Meet, the Battle of Yinkong Mountain, and Tao Ma Tan (a female warrior role), where we get to see a series of combat performances. Then comes the keynote performance of the night, Wujia Slope (Reunion of Husband and Wife), which would be performed by known names. Then it would be followed by Settlement of the Combat Feud, and The Upheaval Against Chang'an, and fi nally, we get another keynote performance led by famous performers, the Coronation of Pinggui the Hero. Wujia Slope and the Coronation of Pinggui the Hero are the most amazing episodes throughout the night.

But many people did not know that the Coronation of Pinggui the Hero is better when it is played using Qingqing Opera techniques. In Qingqiang Opera, it is called the Meteoric Rise.

Kallen Guo Senior filmmaker, socialite and bestselling author, authored Don't Fall in Love with Zurich, the winner of The Best Foreign Language Novel.

郭丹

資深影視人、名媛、暢銷書作家。代表作包括最佳外語小說獎獲得作品《別愛蘇黎世》等。

堂會

破五晚上看堂會是慣例。

我還是點了《紅鬃烈馬》和《斬單童》，大家年年都說不吉利，我年年都點，邊看邊流淚。

尤其《紅鬃烈馬》，民國時期有名的堂會或者大義演好多時候都演此戲，所有老生青衣流派都唱該戲。這個戲其實薛平貴的戲比王寶釧的多，但舊時挑班唱的話看是誰演。梅蘭芳貼演此戲，這個戲不叫紅鬃烈馬，直接叫《王寶釧》，觀眾一看就明白，肯定突會顯梅老板，老生的戲會削減一些。

舊時堂會從晚飯前唱起，一直唱到凌晨，由好幾個生旦合演。從花園贈金唱起，開始的都是年輕的后輩，接著彩樓配，王瑤卿的設計的上下樓臺步，流傳到以后派生的流派。再接著三擊掌，這折程派的比較有特色，跟罵殿一樣唱腔比較有特點。再就是平貴別窯，多為武生和青衣合演，有跪搓和屁股座子等好多表演的地方，再就是探寒窯，老旦有點唱。緊接著誤卯三打，多為過場戲。然后銀空山、刀馬旦出來了，帶點武戲。接下就是重點場次，武家坡，這場一般都由大名角演，唱比較多。接下算軍糧，多為二路旦角老生演。再到反長安，也是過場戲，現在都把這點省去了。最后大登殿，喜慶團圓。當然，唱這場的都是大牌，舊時大各作，旦行重量級的一般都是唱武家坡和大登殿兩折，這兩折又是最精彩的重點。

其實，這出戲秦腔唱更合適。在秦腔里，它還有個吉利的名字——《一步登天》。