Vietnamese theatre
Encyclopedia
Introduction
Vietnamese theater is strongly influenced by Chinese operaChinese opera
Chinese opera is a popular form of drama and musical theatre in China with roots going back as far as the third century CE...
and other forms, and includes genres like Hát tuồng, Hát chèo
Hat cheo
Chèo is a form of generally satirical musical theatre, often encompassing dance, traditionally performed by Vietnamese peasants in northern Vietnam...
and Cải lương
Cai luong
Tuồng cải lương or cải lương in short, which can be roughly translated as "reformed theater" or "renovated theater" in English, is a form of modern folk opera in Vietnam...
.
Hát chèo
Widely believed to be the oldest extant form of Vietnamese opera is hát chèoHat cheo
Chèo is a form of generally satirical musical theatre, often encompassing dance, traditionally performed by Vietnamese peasants in northern Vietnam...
, which has existed since the 11th century in the Red River Delta
Red River Delta
The Red River Delta is the flat plain formed by the Red River and its distributaries joining in the Thai Binh River in northern Vietnam. The delta measuring some 15,000 square km is well protected by a network of dikes. It is an agriculturally rich area and densely populated...
. Stories typically revolve around popular legend
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
s and are accompanied by a repertoire of adaptable music. Flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
s, stringed
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
and percussion instrument
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
s are common. The audience in a chèo performance applauds using a drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
; this is often in response to a stock buffoon character who comments on the events of the story, and of the day, leading to an anti-establishment reputation which earned chèo the ire of 15th century rulers of the Lê Dynasty
Lê Dynasty
The Later Lê Dynasty , sometimes referred to as the Lê Dynasty was the longest-ruling dynasty of Vietnam, ruling the country from 1428 to 1788, with a brief interruption....
, as well as other, later rulers. Modern chèo often relies on libretti for its stories.
Chèo features costumes appropriate to the specific storyline, and combines theater, music and dance. It was seen as the "Opera of the masses" as compared to other musical forms enjoyed more by a select few, such as Ca trù
Ca tru
Ca trù is an ancient genre of chamber music featuring female vocalists, with origins in northern Vietnam...
.
Tuồng or Hát bội
Hát tuồng or "hát bội" was imported from China around the 13th century and was used for entertaining royalty for a time before being adapted for traveling troupes of actors. Stories in the opera tend to be ostensibly historical and frequently focus on the rules of social decorum. Like chèo and other forms of opera from around the world, tuồng employs the use of stock characterStock character
A Stock character is a fictional character based on a common literary or social stereotype. Stock characters rely heavily on cultural types or names for their personality, manner of speech, and other characteristics. In their most general form, stock characters are related to literary archetypes,...
s who are recognizable from their make-up and costumes, which are typically very elaborate and extravagant.
Cải lương (modern folk opera)
Compared to tuồng and chèo, cải lươngCai luong
Tuồng cải lương or cải lương in short, which can be roughly translated as "reformed theater" or "renovated theater" in English, is a form of modern folk opera in Vietnam...
is more popular in modern Vietnam. Originating in the early 20th century, cải lương includes historical and contemporary themes. Cải lương has remained adaptable for modern innovations and now includes electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
and other new inventions. It is accompanied by nhạc tài tử, which is a complex and partially improvised form of chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
.
Cải lương singing utilizes a great deal of vibrato
Vibrato
Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation and the speed with which the pitch is varied .-Vibrato and...
; the words are extended when singing and the vibrato follows. A common melody used in cải lương is Vọng cổ.
Although cải lương remained extremely popular as late as the 1970s and the 1980s, nowadays this popularity has dwindled, especially among the younger generation, and the remaining troupes are only able to preserve the art because of government funding.
Rối nước
Water puppetry, or rối nướcRoi nuoc
Water puppetry is a tradition that dates back as far as the 11th century CE when it originated in the villages of the Red River Delta area of northern Vietnam. Today's Vietnamese water puppetry is a unique variation on the ancient Asian puppet tradition....
, is a distinctively Vietnamese art form which arose in the 12th century. In water puppetry, a split-bamboo screen obscures puppeteers, who stand in water manipulating the puppets in front of the screen using long poles hidden beneath the water. Due to strict restrictions on learning the art of water puppetry, the form had nearly died out before the Maison des Cultures du Monde intervened in 1984 and helped reinvigorate the genre.
Today, water puppetry is popular with tourists to Vietnam.
See also
- Music of VietnamMusic of VietnamTraditional Vietnamese music is highly diverse and syncretistic, combining native and foreign influences. Throughout its history, Vietnam has been heavily impacted by the Chinese musical tradition, as an integral part, along with Korea, Mongolia and Japan....
- Traditional Vietnamese danceTraditional Vietnamese danceTraditional Vietnamese dance includes several different forms. These include: dance as performed in Vietnamese theatre and opera, dances performed at festivals, and royal dances of the imperial court...
- Culture of VietnamCulture of VietnamThe Culture of Vietnam, an agricultural civilization based on the cultivation of wet rice, is one of the oldest in East Asia; the ancient Bronze age Dong Son culture is considered to be one of its most important progenitors...
- History of VietnamHistory of VietnamThe history of Vietnam covers a period of more than 2,700 years. By far Vietnam's most important historical international relationship has been with China. Vietnam's prehistory includes a legend about a kingdom known as Van Lang that included what is now China's Guangxi Autonomous Region and...