The native opera “Meihu” in my home city Xi’an, China

 

           I am familiar with the native opera of my home city Xi’an China. The opera and its music accompanied with all my early life, and it gave me most of my traditional education, music education. For me, the opera and its music is like a music legend, and it reflects all the typical characters of our native people and our nation.

                For the reason I had relatives who were a couple and both worked in an opera institute, I got a lot of chance to show up in their theatre to see the shows, which was sometime official show, sometime a rehearsal, and it lasted all my elementary school period. The native opera is called “Meihu”. It is like singing and acting with a full storyline. A real opera.

            I really appreciated the actresses’ singing part: The songs were very gentle and sweet, and the lady sang like a spoiled girl complaining something  with a smile, always with wonderful costumes style of 300 years ago or further. Sometime the main character was a female general, sometime a princess, being very pretty and attractive when acting. Accompanied with the song, the music was changeable too. The instruments included  ”hu qin”, ”ban xian”, ”erhu”, and others. The instruments made the opera more dramatic, sometimes it was like a river flowing peacefully , and sometime it was like a storm with a light, showing the internal  feel of the character, the restless ,and stress, and hard to make decision mood. Actually the opera originally came from the nearby countryside several hundred years ago. The opera group often visited the countryside area to give shows for the farmers after their harvest. The opera is so popular in Xi’an Shaanxi province China. You would hear it everywhere, from the radio broadcast, or in the corner of a park, or in a tearoom afternoon show. Sometimes, there is only one actress with one instrument player, and they will be a show. The opera makes the native people’s life thrilled with its beautiful lyrics and music, and stories inherited from the history.

              “Meihu” opera will last forever and nurtures the native residents, the residents will keep their music legend to represent their self-identity and culture identity.