Min opera (simplified Chinese: 闽剧; traditional Chinese: 閩劇; pinyin: Mǐn jù; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Ban-kiok; Foochow Romanized: Mìng-kiŏk), also called Fuzhou drama (Chinese: 福州戲; pinyin: Fúzhōu xì; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Hok-chiu-hi; Foochow Romanized: Hók-ciŭ-hié), is one of the major traditional opera forms in Fujian Province. It enjoys a good popularity in Fuzhou, Middle Fujian, East Fujian and North Fujian where Fuzhou dialect is spoken, as well as in Taiwan and Malay Archipelago. Having been evolving for 300 years, Min opera became fixed in the early 20th century.
A variety of Min opera called Beilu opera (also called Luantan), is popular in the Min Dong region of Shouning County, near Zhejiang.
Famous quotes containing the word opera:
“If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves.... The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Brünnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)