Historic recording of Kunqu singer Yu Sulu 俞粟庐: The Peony Pavilion 《牡丹亭》
Historic recording of Kunqu singer Yu Sulu (俞粟庐, 1847-1930).
The excerpt sung here is from scene 24 (The Portrait Recovered, 拾画) of the most famous of all Kunqu plays, The Peony Pavilion (Mudan Ting, 牡丹亭), sung to the tune 【颜子乐】. It was recorded in 1921 and released on Pathé (百代公司唱片). Yu was 74 or 75 years old when this recording was made.
Kunqu (昆曲), China's classical opera form dating back to the Ming Dynasty, was recognized by UNESCO in 2001 as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
Yu Sulu, a native of Lou County in Jiangsu province (today the Songjiang District of Shanghai), was an important Kunqu master of the early 20th century. Spending most of his life in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, his achievements include notating and standardizing many Kunqu songs (published as the two-volume Sulu Scores 《粟庐曲谱》 by his son Yu Zhenfei in 1953) and instructing many Kunqu performers of the next generation. Among his students were his son Yu Zhenfei (俞振飞, 1902-1993), who became a prominent singer of Kunqu and Beijing opera.
The Shanghai industrialist, arts patron, and amateur Kunqu performer Mu Ouchu (穆藕初, 1876-1943) became acquainted with Yu Sulu in 1919 or 1920 and provided the funds for the making of Yu Sulu's gramophone records in the early 1920s. In early 1921, realizing that many of the best Kunqu singers were growing old (and most singers after 1900 were learning Beijing opera rather than Kunqu rather than both, as in the past), Mu, together with Yu, established the Kunqu Preservation Society in Shanghai.
Also in 1921, encouraged by Peking University professor Wu Mei, a Kunqu workshop called the Kunqu Teaching and Learning Institute was established in Suzhou. This school, which was supported by Mu after it experienced financial problems, provided free tuition, board, and lodging, trained more than 40 young Kunqu singers, all from poor backgrounds, including Zhou Chuanying, Zhang Chuanfang, Zheng Chuanjian, and Wang Chuansong, who became nationally famous after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. By 1925, upon their graduation, the young performers had learned more than 100 dramas from memory. Years later, these performers would be referred to as Kunqu's Chuan Generation (传字辈, chuan 传 meaning to carry on), those who successfully carried the art form into the 20th century. Yu Sulu's son Yu Zhenfei, also a prominent Kunqu performer, said, If not for Mr. Mu's efforts, Kunqu might have died out long ago.
In 1920 Mu sponsored the building of a villa beside Taoguang Temple, an age-old Buddhist establishment located halfway up the beautiful Mount Lingyin in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. He named it Tao'an (韬盦), after Yu Sulu's alias, and turned it into a summer resort for Kunqu fans. Mu often invited his friends to Tao'an to rehearse and enjoy their beloved Kunqu opera.
More about Yu's Kunqu Teaching and Learning Institute can be found in parts 8 and 9 of the 10-part CCTV documentary 600 Years of Kunqu, at the following links:
More information about Yu Sulu: