Quick Answer: What Is Lu Opera?
Lu opera (吕剧, Lǚjù) is a Shandong form of Opéra chinois that grew from sung storytelling and local tunes. Many plays put a family or village dispute onstage and use phrasing close to everyday speech.[1][3]
- Place: The genre took shape in Shandong, with early accounts from the north of the province.[1][2][3]
- Music: Listen for a bowed fiddle that follows the singer’s phrase.[1]
- Story: A journey, disagreement or marriage decision can be enough to drive a play.[1][3][4]
A short early play and a later film show how the genre moved from a few performers to a provincial repertoire.
A performer steps into a donkey-shaped frame and the stage becomes a road. The rider’s turns and the driver’s answers carry the scene along the imagined route.
From Sung Storytelling to Roles
The Dongying gazetteer describes performers adapting Shandong qinshu (山东琴书, Shāndōng Qínshū), a sung storytelling tradition, for costumed roles. They chose Wang Xiao the Donkey Driver (王小赶脚, Wáng Xiǎo Gǎnjiǎo), a compact story with few characters. One performer played Wang Xiao and another played the young woman he was taking on the journey.[3]
Accompanists played a bowed fiddle, a hammered dulcimer and bamboo clappers. Giving each character a performer put the exchange in front of the audience. A reply could now come with a look, a step or a change of distance.[3]
What to Hear in a Lu Opera Scene
The zhuihu (坠胡, zhuìhú) is a bowed fiddle that features in the Shandong ensemble. The national listing also names the erhu (二胡, èrhú), another bowed fiddle, and the plucked sanxian (三弦, sānxián). The guide to Chinese musical instruments puts the bowed and plucked sounds in their wider families.[1]
Two basic patterns are siping (四平, sìpíng) and erban (二板, èrbǎn). Listen for changes in the pulse beneath the voice as a phrase draws out or gathers pace. Its small-scale plays often revolve around the young man, the young woman and the clown, familiar Chinese opera role types with local ways of speaking and moving.[1][2]
Two Plays Across Two Generations
In the early donkey play, watch how actors make the trip readable without much scenery. The outline of the animal and the way the two performers move tell you who is traveling and who is guiding the journey.[2][3]
In 1951, a theater research group adapted a story by Wang Anyou (王安友, Wáng Ānyǒu) as Li Ersao Remarries (李二嫂改嫁, Lǐ Èrsǎo Gǎijià). The music incorporated material from other theater forms, including Pingju. The borrowed material helped give individual characters a distinct sound. A provincial troupe took shape in the early 1950s. The work was filmed in 1957 with a revised musical arrangement.[4][5][6]
FAQs About Lu Opera
Why is it written Lu opera and Lü opera?
Both spellings represent the same Shandong form. The pinyin for 吕 is lǚ, with the dots distinguishing that vowel from u. English titles often drop the dots and tone mark.
Did the donkey prop give Lu opera its name?
The Binzhou heritage entry records an account that links the donkey prop to an earlier nickname. The Dongying gazetteer describes the prop and the early play. The derivation is one explanation for how the formal name came into use.[2][3]
Sources
[1] China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network. Lu Opera in Dongying
[2] China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (Réseau chinois du patrimoine culturel immatériel). Lu Opera in Binzhou
[3] Shandong Provincial Gazetteer. The Origins of Lu Opera
[4] Shandong Provincial Gazetteer. Lu Opera Performers and Inheritors
[5] China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (Réseau chinois du patrimoine culturel immatériel). Li Yu
[6] Shandong Provincial Gazetteer. Lu Opera in Jinan