(提供沪剧妓女泪录音以及英文介绍)
If you’ve been reading this blog regularly, you will know that we get weird and wonderful sometimes. In celebration of Spring finally arriving, we’re going to do 妓女泪 – “Tears of a Prostitute” – with Tape History recordings of early Songhu (Shanghai) Opera provided in the link below:
https://c.mail.com/@649543521753114149/GRH3aJ1-TPWmTLAYKXshTg
Traditional music enters the tape history in a number of ways, with Songhu Opera (沪剧) being only one form of Chinese opera for which tape records exist. Not to be confused with its more widespread cousin, Yue Opera (越剧), Hu – 沪 – is the Chinese character for Shanghai. This particular opera using the Shanghai dialect originated from a folk style of music in the Pudong area, where it became known as 滩簧. In 1927, this style gained definition in local traditional opera presented in stage plays (文明戏), and then officially became Huju in 1941 (thanks Sogou Encyclopedia).
Chinese opera with printed lyrics is a fantastic way to learn dialect – Shanghainese in this case – and listeners will find that the music is quite good in most Chinese operatic styles, as their casts have traditionally represented a portion of China’s top musical talent.
Ji Nu Lei is a 1940s-era tale about a mother who becomes a prostitute to support her son after her husband is brutalized by the Japanese; the husband later commits suicide. She is predictably taken advantage of because of her status, but her son is able to finish school (him being out-of-school is seen as another nightmare scenario) and gets married, though he is too ashamed to see his mother. A real tear-jerker through and through, and different from other Chinese opera in its modern dialogue and contemporary settings and costumes.
Only tapes two and three from a three-part series that makes up the full performance are available in the tape history, but it gives you a flavor of this style of opera. The full Tape History is provided via the link below:
https://c.mail.com/@649543521753114149/A7iTxK5eS5ec797K4gH5rQ
