Luju or Lu opera (, formerly known as daoqixi (), is a variety of Chinese opera from the east-central province of

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

, China. Luju's name came from the former name of Hefei, Lu Zhou. In 2006, Luju was regarded as Intangible cultural heritage in China.

Artistic characteristics

The aria of Luju consists of two main types, homophony and coloratura. Homophony is for narrating and coloratura is for operetta. A lot of falsetto is used in the aria. In some occasion, artists on the stage or backstage would sing together to exaggerate the atmosphere. The instruments played in Luju are gongs, drums and

Gaohu The ''gaohu'' ( 高胡; pinyin: ''gāohú'', ; Cantonese: gou1 wu4; also called ''yuehu'' 粤胡) is a Chinese bowed string instrument developed from the ''erhu'' in the 1920s by the musician and composer Lü Wencheng (1898–1981) and use ...

, etc. The performing approaches of Luju draw on the experience of other Chinese operas, such as

Peking opera Peking opera, or Beijing opera (), is the most dominant form of Chinese opera, which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics. It arose in Beijing in the mid-Qing dynasty (1644–1912) and became fully developed and recognize ...

and

Huiju Hui opera, or ''Huiju'' (), is a regional genre of Chinese opera originally from southern Anhui. It is popular in the area around Huangshan City and Chizhou, as well as Wuyuan County, Jiangxi, and was formerly also popular in neighboring Zhejian ...

Genres

Because of regional characteristics, Luju can be divided into three genres: West Road Genre, Middle Road Genre and East Road Genre.

Lu'an Lu'an (), is a prefecture-level city in western Anhui province, People's Republic of China, bordering Henan to the northwest and Hubei to the southwest. As of the 2020 census, it had a total population of 4,393,699 inhabitants whom 1,752,537 liv ...

is the center of West Road Genre. This genre has a more resounding music. Hefei is the center of Middle Road Genre. It's a combination of the west and east genre.

Wuhu Wuhu () is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Anhui province, China. Sitting on the southeast bank of the Yangtze River, Wuhu borders Xuancheng to the southeast, Chizhou and Tongling to the southwest, Hefei city to the northwest, Ma'ansh ...

is the center of East Road Genre which is exquisite and sweet.

History

The birth year of Luju is inconclusive yet, but it can date back to the middle of

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...

.庐剧走过两百年衰荣时光
/ref> In early years, artists in Luju were less professional, and their actings were simpler. Singing was the most important way to portray characters. From 1920, Luju has been absorbing advantages of other Chinese operas and becoming more mature.
/ref>

Famous people

Famous Luju players are 黄冰, 武克英, and 丁玉兰, etc.

Organization

Active Luju organizations are 合肥市庐剧院 and 皖西庐剧团."西路庐剧"大旗不倒

References

{{Chinese opera Culture in Anhui Chinese opera Hefei