Cai luong (Reformed Theatre) - Cai luong (Reformed Theatre)

Tradition & Culture » Traditional music and instruments

Source: vietnam-beauty - 2009/12/29, 04:53 GMT+7 - Total view: 747

Cai luong (Reformed Theatre)

Cai Luong (roughly translated as “renovated theatre”) is a form of modern folk opera, particularly famous in Southern Vietnam. It is the convergence of southern Vietnamese folk songs, classical music, tuong (a Chinese-based classical theatre form) and modern spoken drama.

It took origin in Southern Vietnam in the early20th century and blossomed in the 1930s as a theatre of the middleclass under the French colony. Listening to cai luong songs, one can feel their beautiful lyrics praising Vietnamese moral values. Hence, as time went by, cai luong has been preserved and become a national theatrical form desired by both Vietnamese people and foreign visitors.

An ancient cai luong play

Main traits. Cai luong is more or less similar to Western operettas, yet easier to depict thecharacters’ feelings. It has about 20 main songs, but each may beretuned with different emotional tempos, making various versions. Theprincipal supporting songs in cai luong is the vong co - (literally, “nostalgia for the past”) - a special type of singing with the background music of either the “dan tranh” (16-chord zither) or the guitar. Cai luongowes much of its success to the sweet voices of the cast, muchappreciated by the audiences. Upon hearing the first bars of thedesired vong co, the audience reacts with gasps of recognition and applause.

Perfomance.There are normally two types, independent song performance and playperformance. A Cai luong performance always includes dances, songs andmusic, whose influences is originally drawn from southern folk one. Themusic of Cai luong has so far been enriched with hundreds of new tunes.A cai luong orchestra mainly consists of guitars with concavefrets. Regarding a Cai luong play, the scenes are changed frequentlythroughout the play. In a typical play, the actresses and actors woulduse a combination of regular spoken dialogues and “vong co” to express their thoughts and emotions.

Cai luong types. There are mainly two types of Cai luong: ancient cai luong and modern cai luong.The latter consists of stories of modern Vietnamese society. Its plotsrefer to romantic love stories blended with family or socialrelationships. The stories also explore cultural norms, social normsand other aspects of Vietnamese society. This type can be somehowdescribed as tragedy but happy ended.

If you watch a play in which the actors and actresses dress old fashioned costumes, it is ancient cai luong.The plot is based on tales, legends or historical stories of the feudalsystem with ancient kings and warriors, while the plots come fromnumerous Chinese historical or ancient legends. Watching a vong coplay, you may see that, in addition to regular speeches, severalmelodies are incorporated into the play. These melodies are reusedthrough different plays; however the words are changed to fit thecontext.

Up to now, although cai luong had passed through the bright period but it still has a lot of loyal listeners. Throughout one hundred years of development, cai luong had claimed its important role in the Vietnamese traditional art cradle!

Shouldyou are fond of tradition and culture, listening and exploring Cailuong is such an ideal way to have good understanding. You can enjoy a cai luong play in the Ho Chi Minh Theatre or on the TV art programs.

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