Chinanews.com, Fujian Ningde, March 7th, title: Fujian Fu'an curtain drama: an artist and a pair of actors

　　Author Ye Mao Su Xi

　　The graceful Xiaodan, the stable and upright old student, the majestic martial artist, the witty and funny buffoon... On March 6, in Tangxi Village, Tantou Town, Fu'an City, Fujian Province, a special performance of the vivid curtain drama attracted many villagers to watch.

　　Fu'an Manting Opera, also known as "Puppet Opera", originated in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.

　　Lei Futuan, the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of Fu'an Manting Opera, told reporters that the uniqueness of Manting Opera is that it is a one-man show, which integrates blowing, pulling, playing and singing.

An artist has a pair of actors, no matter whether it is big or small, literary and martial arts, clean and ugly, blowing, playing, singing, and playing, all rely on the artist to use one hand, foot, mouth, and tongue together, and the ten fingers can be adjusted flexibly, forming a genre of its own.

　　The 60-year-old Lei Futuan began to learn the curtain play with his master at the age of 16.

Lei Futuan said that the most important things in the curtain show are the story, puppets and dubbing; if a good show is to be attractive enough, it must first have a good story.

　　As far as the repertoire is concerned, its sources may be borrowed from local repertoires, or absorbed from the scriptures of lectures, or compiled by themselves.

According to their themes, there are romance dramas, historical dramas, and mythical dramas. The theme content is generally through the interpretation of chivalrous love and hatred, and the game of loyalty and treason, good and evil, to preach loyalty and filial piety, benevolence and righteousness, punish evil and promote good, and instill good and evil in the audience. At the same time, it has strong entertainment.

　　In the stage with a burden of less than one meter in width and less than half a meter in height, Lei Futuan sat on the stage and used his hands, feet and tongue to interpret the ups and downs of the plot in the authentic Fu'an dialect.

His theatrical vocals are sometimes cadenced, sometimes prioritized.

　　On the stage, with the skills on the fingers, palms and wrists, the puppets of different characters in the hands of Lei Futuan showed stunt actions such as crowning, appearing, horse racing, sparring, turning over, pouring tea, etc. Flexibility.

　　"The traditional stage is a big show, while the puppet show is called a small show." Lei Futuan said that the puppet is the soul of the curtain show, and different costumes and different eyebrows distinguish the puppet from the five corners of the ugly.

　　The reporter noticed that the step stools that carried the stage were made by Lei Futuan, "controlling" the sound of the curtain play.

During the performance, Lei Futuan's percussion instruments produced different sound effects. They held drumsticks and tapped the drum surface, and stepped on small bamboo pieces to make various musical instruments slamming sounds. There were high-pitched cymbals and clear and melodious cloud gongs.

　　Lei Futuan said that after a long period of cultural accumulation, today's mantle opera has a strong national style and a strong flavor of life, and has also become a treasure of Chinese local art.

　　According to reports, although Fu'an Manting Opera has been preserved in its "original" form, and has preserved its artistic authenticity relatively completely, it has become one of the "living fossils" of puppet shows, but "no successor" has also become a pity for the old artist. .

　　"Although Mantet Opera is not my main business, it is also a part of my life that I can't give up." Lei Futuan said that because of his love for Mantet Opera performances, he has persisted until now, hoping that more young people will join Mantet Opera. In the inheritance, let the mantle opera be passed down from generation to generation.

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