Famous Peking Opera master Zhao Yanxia. Photo by Pan Xulin
Beijing, 18 Sep (China News Service) -- Zhao Yanxia, a famous Peking Opera master of ninety years old, received Wang Jing and Wu Haoyi as apprentices in Beijing on 18 September, and held a grand ceremony to pay homage to the teacher under the sponsorship of the Beijing Xiqu Art Foundation.
Zhao Yanxia is currently the only remaining "Peking Opera Old First-class" art master in the country. She founded the unique style of Zhao Pai art, which is deeply loved and appreciated by the audience. Zhao Pai's art pays great attention to voicing words and making sounds, and all singing will be clear in the ears, and the artistic image she has created is vivid and vivid, deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Over the years, a set of systematic performance experiences and artistic theories personally summarized by her have played a very important role in the dissemination and popularization of Peking Opera.
Zhao Yanxia (front), Wang Jing (back row left), Wu Haoyi (back row right) and Zhao Yanxia's daughter Zhang Yanyan took a group photo. Photo by Pan Xulin
According to reports, Zhao Yanxia was 15 years old and "picked the curtain red" because he starred in plays such as "Thirteen Sisters" in the Beijing Zhonghe Theater. That is, the self-organized "Yanming Society" performed in the north and south of the great river alone, and the box office remained high, and successively cooperated with Jin Shaoshan, Yang Baosen, Ye Shenglan, Hou Xirui, Ma Fulu, Qiu Shengrong, Wang Qinsheng, Gai Mingtian and Mao Yunke. In 1960, after the merger of the Beijing Peking Opera Troupe, it was ranked with Ma Lianliang, Tan Fuying, Zhang Junqiu and Qiu Shengrong as the five top cards and five major leaders, and successively rehearsed the classic plays of the Zhao school such as "Bibo Fairy", "Legend of the White Snake", "Yutang Spring", "Mei Yupai", "Sha Jiabang" and "Breaking the King Banner".
Wang Jing graduated from beijing Xiqu Art Vocational College and played the leading role in "Red Lady", "Sitting on the Building to Kill Pity" and "Mermaid", which was highly praised by the audience and peers, and won many awards in various national art competitions and television competitions. He has twice gone to the United Kingdom, Japan and other places to appear in "The Flying Phoenix", "Three Dozen Tao Three Springs" and "Three Kingdoms" and other dramas have been well received. After a long time to learn drama from Zhao Yanxia and performed "Ludang Tinder", "White Snake Legend", "Bibo Fairy" and other plays, zhao Yanxia appreciated, full of expectations and confidence in her learning and inheriting the art of Zhao Pai.
Wu Haoyi has always admired the art of Zhao Pai, has been learning drama from Teacher Zhao for many years, and has starred in Zhao Pai dramas such as "Bibo Fairy", "Ludang Tinder", "Xiaoxiang Night Rain" and "Legend of the White Snake" with the assistance of Teacher Zhao's daughter and assistant teacher Zhang Yanyan, and stage practice has proved that Wu Haoyi is the ideal inheritor of Zhao Pai art. (End)