On October 27, "Peony Pavilion" of Kun Opera House in Jiangsu Province was performed in the New Tsinghua Academy. The winter night in Beijing is fierce, but when the flute sounds together, Shan Wen is dressed in a light green cloak, and what comes out is a touching spring color. "Dreams return to the warblers, chaotic years of light everywhere", just like the March willow wind blowing, soft and clear voice makes people's hearts sway.
With a ponytail and a backpack, Shan Wen walked in Tsinghua University like this, no different from the young students on campus. But that unique temperament and agile eyes still make it easy for you to find her from the crowd.
On the Kunqu opera stage, Shan Wen, who did not stand up before, has been famous for many years.
In addition to the most well-known Du Liniang, Shan Wen has also created many flesh and blood boudoir images. The eye waves are flowing, the peach blossoms are dyed, it is Li Xiangjun, the famous Qin Huai in "Peach Blossom Fan", singing in the shallow chant; the apricot eyes are round, the quinoa staff is waving, and see the kneeling pool of the Hedong Lion Liu Clan punisher in "The Lion Roar"; the long eyebrows are picked, the heroism is compelling, and the sword Ma Dan in "A Hundred Flowers Giving the Sword" is so heroic and refreshing...
"Peony Pavilion" is often performed
"Dream of Visiting the Garden" is her enlightened play and the kunqu opera that is most well known to the audience. The scene was tempered a thousand times on stage, and her "golden partner" Shi Xiaming (as Liu Mengmei) joked that "you can act with your eyes closed." Even so, they still maintain their dedication and reverence for the repertoire, and for ten years, with the most serious attitude, they have led the audience into this piece of Zi Yan Hong again and again.
The water sleeves are swaying, the story is telling, for Shan Wen, even the most familiar drama, when standing on the stage, will naturally immerse herself in it. "Interpreting the character with the heart is the actor's instinct."
When he was a teenager, he began to learn "Peony Pavilion", when the teenager did not know sorrow, "Wounded Spring" could only imitate the teacher's every move carefully, and at that time, learning drama was "like" Du Liniang. "At that time, we would understand the love in the play, how the teacher taught, we did it." With the increase of life experience, she can gradually experience the feelings expressed between the lines in the play, and she can slowly "become" Du Liniang in the performance.
"Opera is wonderful, and there will be different feelings in the performance of different ages." Shan Wen said. Those traces of deliberate imitation have been polished away, and Du Liniang's charm has become natural. "Wounded Spring" is naturally not only a wounded spring, but also a lament and pity for himself, "all over the green mountains cry red cuckoo" how amazing and beautiful, but unfortunately "although the peony is good, how to take the lead in his spring return". I want Du Liniang to be beautiful in her youth, but she is alone in the ruins of the broken wall and no one loves to pity, just like the spring color of this garden that will eventually end, how can people not be sad.
On the basis of such an understanding of the characters, dialectically absorbing the opinions of the audience is more helpful for the actors to polish their roles. Some people think that Du Liniang should be sick when painting herself in the mirror, but Shan Wen explained to us, "Du Liniang is sick but does not know it, it is through Chunxiang's reminder that she knows that yanye has lost weight in the past, and when she draws, she is immersed in her appreciation of herself, and she will return to a sick state after putting down her pen." So we see Du Liniang lightly sweeping and lightly drawing, "cherry, dyed wicker", and completed the establishment of self-consciousness in the observation outside the mirror. The contradiction between this girl's self-sufficiency and narcissism and the gradual widening of the belt in reality makes Du Liniang's role more three-dimensional and plump, which makes the audience's heart break.
"Of course, the most important thing in shaping the character is the vocal cavity. The theater is very large, the audience in the back row can't see your face, the body language and breath need to be consistent, don't let the audience see the traces of the performance, let them feel that you are this person. Shan Wen expressed her performance experience. Especially in the song "Leaving the Soul", "Ji Xian bin", "Jade pestle Autumn Sky, by whom to steal medicine to give Chang'e?" "The fountain of the pharynx seems to be broken, and several sobbing sounds under the stage are moving.
From "Garden" to "Leaving the Soul", this version of the small book "Peony Pavilion" is inherited from the Kunqu performance artist Zhang Jiqing, Shan Wen remembers that Zhang Jiqing's teacher once taught her, "If I shed tears on the stage myself, it is not enough, it should be through my interpretation, let the audience shed tears." ”
As Shan Wen herself said: "The first creation of Kunqu opera is a script, the second creation is a song, the drama and the song can convey a lot of emotions, and when we interpret the female image outlined in our minds, it is the third creation." We're going to be limited a lot, but in stylized techniques, we use our emotional bets to turn characters on paper into flesh and blood characters. ”
Four-fold play, two and a half hours, showing the essence of "Peony Pavilion". In one song and three sighs, Shan Wen sang the love, hate and joy that belonged to Du Liniang. Whether it is a fan who is familiar with her or a student who is watching Kunqu opera for the first time, it is difficult not to be impressed by her performance. As Tang Xianzu said, "Love does not know what to do, it goes deep, the living can die, and the dead can live", her joy, her pain, can also involve the nerves of every audience in the audience, with her joy, with her pain.
"Multi-faceted" boudoir Dan
On stage, let the audience burst into tears, offstage, but people are "crazy". After the performance, Shan Wen encountered the students' "round-up and blocking" in the dressing room, and the melancholy mood was suddenly swept away. Dressed in a sportswear, she agreed to every request for autographs and group photos, and in the face of the students' thanks and praise, her reaction was: "Oh I'm so hungry, I heard my stomach grunting when I was acting." ”
In Shan Wen's circle of friends, in addition to Kunqu opera is food, talking about firewood wontons, rice dumplings, pot stickers in her hometown of Nanjing... Shan Wen's eyes lit up. Completely different from the fairy Du Liniang on the stage, she talked about the delicious taste of Jiangnan cake balls, and when she talked about salty lard cakes, she had a full aftertaste appearance, and there was a kind of real and cute pyrotechnic gas.
The cheerfulness and generosity of the personality allows Shan Wen to play freely in various images. When it comes to her favorite character, Shan Wen didn't even think about it and said that it was Liu Shi in "The Lion Roar". Her "Kneeling Pool" is less arrogant than a jealous woman, more delicate and cute than her daughter's family, and the patriarchal idea in the original work is diluted, but the audience can see the resistance of feminism and more tension. "Phoenix Mountain • Hundred Flowers Gift Sword" is also a fold that Shan Wen loves, a Hundred Flowers Princess in a military costume wearing a pheasant plume, heroic on the stage, with a heroism and stretch that is different from the general show.
"Lion Roar: Kneeling Pool"
A Hundred Flowers for the Sword
Born in the Jingkun family, from a young age, and so diligent and self-motivated, Shan Wen seems destined to become the focus of the stage. For more than ten years, her play path has become wider and wider, creating many moving roles, and has also accumulated a lot of experience in character shaping - "Du Liniang has a little bit of fireworks in the world, she has a bookish atmosphere, and with a fairy atmosphere, beautiful and ethereal, all the actions and breath must be contained, and the acting is too real to be like her." But other roles can't, the voice should be more solid, the confidence should be more sufficient, and the strength of one hand and one foot should be more powerful. ”
Chen Miao in "The Book of Jade Hairpins" is often not familiar with the world, has the shyness of a young girl, and has a sweet voice; Yang Guifei in "The Hall of Eternal Life" has a little more dignity of a mature woman, and when she sings the northern song in "Silk Pavilion", her voice is more calm. Without jumping out of the boudoir framework, Shan Wen used her voice and many details to distinguish them. "The size of the eyes, the sharpness of the eyes, and how to make the strength of the eye sockets are all different, and the actor needs to use technology to achieve it on the basis of understanding the character." Whether the water sleeve is hanging down or thrown out, how much amplitude is thrown out, this is the basic skill, the strength is not the same, the mood is not the same. When necessary, it should be broken and learn from the performance methods of other trades. "The role of "Drunken Flower" borrows some of LiuDan's figures, which are more lively and lively.
"The Tale of the Jade Hairpin"
Drunken Flowers
The charm of Kunqu opera is often reflected in the seemingly careless idle writing, and every generation of actors in Jiangsu Kun Opera Can grasp these delicate tastes. In "The Book of Jade Hairpins", Pan Bizheng and Chen Miao often frowned, and each interactive interface was interlocked, small and flexible. In the compromise of "Qin Pick", Pan Sheng shook his head and chanted "Ah Ah Buddha, you don't care about my business", Miao Chang stood aside, obviously very concerned and pretended not to care about "Amitabha Buddha", and the little girl who was duplicitous was shy. And when Pan Bizheng said that she wanted to worship heaven and earth together, she would immediately react "I would not", "If you are still as stable as Du Liniang, your emotions will not come out." The second 'will not' slowed down, with the intention of refusing to return the favor. Such an urgent and slow rhythm and tacit understanding of cooperation not only benefit from the years of running-in between the old partners of Shi Xiaming and Shan Wen, but also rely on their wholehearted investment on the stage and give every feedback in a timely manner.
Off the stage, Shan Wen talked about acting, radiant, and was a big grinning Nanjing girl. In life, like all girls in their twenties, she likes to brush Taobao and watch Korean dramas. When "Yanxi Raiders" was popular, Shan Wen was chasing the drama and liked the sophisticated costumes in the play. For the Kunqu elements that appear in it, Shan Wen's attitude is very tolerant, "The overall effect can be achieved, and there is no need to chew words harshly." ”
A dialogue between heritage and innovation
In 2018, the Kunqu opera "Drunken Flower", adapted from "Romeo and Juliet", opened a new round of touring, and Shan Wen used the traditional art of the East to interpret the classic role of the West. "The director wants to combine some Western expressions, and the old audience may not be able to accept it, and we are quite difficult, but for the actors, this is an attempt, a leap."
In the bridge section of the "LoutaiHui", Ying Ling, played by Shan Wen, poured out his admiration for Ji Can. "The expression of traditional opera must be face-to-face, but in the play it is a monologue, I sing to the audience, and Ji Xian, played by Shi Xiaming, is behind her back. Although this is a new form of performance, I think it can be integrated with Kunqu opera, and we can also learn from it when we rehearse other plays in the future. ”
Kunqu opera has been passed down from generation to generation, but it is not static, Shan Wen said, "The basic singing voice and song card of Kunqu opera are unchanged, but everyone has a sense of the times and their own breath, and they do not have to stick to the rules." ”
Her famous work "1699 Peach Blossom Fan" at 16 hours had made a bold breakthrough, and director Tian Qinxin borrowed the thinking of drama and presented the structure of the play within a play. "There's a reason why this 'Peach Blossom Fan' removes the carpet on the traditional stage, and the light hits the marble-like ground, showing the ripples of water on the Qinhuai River."
"Nanke Dream" also has such an innovation. Tang Xianzu built an imaginary ant world in "Nanke Dream", and when Lai Xuanwu was working as a costume designer, he did not design the dragon and phoenix pattern for the empress's clothing, but embroidered flowers, birds and mountain stones, because in the eyes of ants, the mountain stones were the largest. On the new dress of Chun Yu And Princess Yaofang's marriage, the sloping flowers and birds of their respective figures are put together to form a queqiao bridge, and the outside is covered with a layer of big red yarn, just like a modern wedding dress. Shan Wen said, "The clothes have not changed at all, it is still a traditional state that can make the actors most comfortable, but each piece is very exquisite." We support such innovations, and the audience will feel the intuitive beauty. ”
"The form can be new, the content must be passed down." Shan Wen introduced, "The mode of going in and out of the picture can be changed, and the sound and light of the stage can also be used, but the content of the performance cannot be changed, if the performance is real, then the audience is good to watch the movie, why watch Kunqu opera?" ”
Shan Wen and the other actors in "Drunken Flower", most of whom graduated from the 98 Kun opera class of Jiangsu Provincial Drama School, are the fourth generation of the provincial Kun opera, and Shan Wen, born in 1989, is the youngest child in the class. Now exactly twenty years later, they are in the year of their establishment, and their youth is "just right". In 2006, they performed the blockbuster "1699 Peach Blossom Fan", and now they have their own masterpieces, inheriting the classics and creating new plays, constructing a dialogue between tradition and modernity.
End
Teacher Wen Masun said that shan Wen came to Beijing to participate in the competition when she was 13 years old, and once took a car through Chengfu Road between Tsinghua and Peking University, and at that time, she sighed that her daughter who had learned drama may not have a chance with these two institutions of higher learning, but now, in another more gorgeous way, she has stepped onto the stage of the new Tsinghua Xuetang and Peking University.
Shan Wen as a teenager
Because of her arrival, Tsinghua students were excited in the circle of friends, the performance tickets were sold out early, and the three-story coliseum was full, which was a scene she had not expected. "When I first graduated, there were not many audiences, and there would still be people in the theater who sniffed melon seeds and chose leeks, and as young audiences liked Kunqu opera, the atmosphere in the theater was different." This side of the stage is small but also vast, on the stage, is a kind of artistic inheritance, offstage, is the harmony of an era. She watched Kunqu turn from a niche art to a cultural phenomenon, and the audience also witnessed her transformation from a youth idol to an industry leader. With the rebirth of 600 years of ancient Kunqu opera, this generation of young actors and this group of young audiences have grown up together.
At the end of "Leaving the Soul", Du Liniang sang "The Moonfall Rebirth Lamp is Red Again", wearing a big red cloak, holding a green willow branch, frozen on the stage, you will clearly know that although the performance of this day is over, the affectionate outpouring in "Peony Pavilion" and there are hundreds of turns, just like her story with Kunqu opera, and like our story with Kunqu, it is not yet finished.
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About the author
Circumference
Tsinghua Master of Journalism, a salted fish who likes to watch dramas and exhibitions
To retreat an inch is to retreat an inch
Zhu Junyan
Graduated from Tsinghua University, he aspires to eat all the world's delicacies
In the twenty-first century, why can't human beings evolve to eat only and not get fat!
Image & Reviewer: Shan Wen
Revised Draft: Soul Studio
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