Zhao Yanxia, the founder of the Zhao Sect, took the stage at the age of 5 and sang for 80 years, but prevented his 18-year-old daughter from learning to play

Zhao Pai is a Peking Opera Danjiao art genre founded by Peking Opera performance artist Mr. Zhao Yanxia. On the basis of inheriting the performance style of the Xun School, Zhao Yanxia combined with his own conditions, broke through the traditional skills, and sang and did a unique style, which was deeply loved by the audience. In her early years, she studied under Xun Huisheng, a master of Peking Opera and founder of the Xun School. Some Peking Opera actors always follow a certain genre every time they perform a play, and in Zhao Yanxia's artistic career, she has performed Xun Pai plays from more to less, from less to nothing, but her original repertoire has grown from scratch, from less to more, and finally formed the Zhao School, which has become a common practice. At the performance site of "Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of Zhao Yanxia's Stage Career", a theater fan said with deep emotion: "Teacher Zhao has been on stage since he was 5 years old and has sung for 80 years, who can still have such a long artistic career now?" ”

80 years of artistic career, no matter how profound Mr. Zhao Yanxia's artistic achievements are, only in terms of the breadth of the drama road, today's young actors are difficult to match. Daughter Zhang Yanyan said that her mother's play path is very wide, and she is not blocked by literature and martial arts, especially known for her clear words and fluent singing. Qingyi, Hua Dan, Dao Ma Dan, Wen Wu Xiaosheng and other different types of roles can be played. Today's young actors learn from the Zhao Pai, it is difficult to do everything they can, or learn the Zhao Pai's Qingyi opera, or learn the Zhao Pai's Huadan drama... At this point, I suddenly remembered the novel "Tianlong Babu" written by Mr. Jin Yong - several masters of tianlong temple could only study one of the six-vein excalibur due to their limited ability. Nowadays, the art of the Zhao School is exactly like Jin Yong's martial arts mastery, it is broad and profound, but it needs extremely talented people to carry it forward.

Maybe you don't believe it, when Zhang Yanyan remembered as a child, she didn't know that her mother, Zhao Yanxia, was a Peking Opera performance artist, and she didn't even know what she was doing. My mother never sang a single joke at home, nor did she have the habit of hanging her throat, even after 1976. "My mother was very thin at the time and came home every few weeks. I had been to the place where she had been placed, and there were about a dozen people living in a room. There were very few people there who spoke to her, and she told me later that if someone was willing to talk to her for a while, she could remember the good of others for a lifetime. Zhang Yanyan said.

After 1976, Zhao Yanxia returned to the stage of Peking Opera. Zhao Yanxia, who was persecuted by ultra-leftist ideological trends, radiated artistic youth and rehearsed the first new play "Breaking the King's Banner" in the country, which caused a sensation in the country at that time and had a very far-reaching impact. Daughter Zhang Yanyan discovered that her mother was such a popular and beloved Peking Opera performance artist. She often went to see her mother's plays, was touched by the characters performed by her mother, and was fascinated by the art of Peking Opera, and came up with the idea of learning Peking Opera. But the mother did not approve of it when she found out. The reason is not like the current parents, because learning Peking Opera is not to let children learn. It was precisely because I learned Peking Opera that I suffered for 10 years between 1966 and 1976, so when 1976 ended, I didn't want my children to touch Peking Opera again. And there is another important reason, at that time, the daughter Zhang Yanyan has graduated from high school 18 years old, obviously missed the age of practicing basic skills in childhood, that is, halfway out of the house.

However, there is a saying in the movie "Overlord Farewell" called "not crazy devil, not alive". At that time, Zhang Yanyan was already fascinated by Peking Opera, and if she wanted to learn it, no one could stop it. In 1980, Zhao Yanxia went to the United States to perform for three months, and before leaving, he said to Zhang Yanyan: "Since you want to learn, then listen to the recording first." After her mother went abroad, Zhang Yanyan listened to the recording at home and taught herself a play of "Yutang Spring". This play is one of the representative works of the Zhao Pai, and Premier Zhou watched Zhao Yanxia's performance of "Yutang Spring" and once said with deep feeling that this play was China's "Resurrection". When her mother returned to China, Zhang Yanyan sang "Yutang Spring" for a while. My mother felt that she was still singing like that, and she had a voice and said, "Then if you are willing to learn, just follow it." See if it can't be done, and then change your career. ”

Zhao Yanxia, who has just toured triumphantly from the United States, saw that the troupe was plagued by institutional problems, especially the phenomenon of "big pot rice". With the support of the Minister of Culture, the Mayor of Beijing and the President of the Theater, she was the first to stand up and, together with Mr. Tan Yuanshou, initiated the establishment of the "Reform Pilot Group" and performed 340 times in Zhengzhou, Wuchang, Hankou, Jilin, Harbin, Changchun, Shenyang, Benxi, Liaoyang, Anshan, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Zhao County, Nangong, Ningjin, Xingtai, Baoding, Changzhou, Wuxi, Suzhou, Shanghai, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Zhangzhou, Feiwan, Beidaihe, Qinhuangdao, Shanhaiguan, Xingcheng, Jinzhou, Huludao, Jinxi and other places in 14 months. Saving more than 80,000 yuan for the country not only increased the income of the actors, but also restored the vitality of the troupe. In the end, he performed 27 more performances in Sichuan and Chongqing, which fully demonstrated the superiority of institutional reform. Although this reform did not end in the praise of the superior leaders, it has accumulated important experience and lessons for the reform of the Peking Opera performance system in the future.

Zhang Yanyan has been following her mother during this time and witnessed the grand performance of her mother. In the "Reform Pilot Group", she went from practicing basic skills, watching plays, learning plays, and finally being able to sing on stage, during which she paid a lot, because there was no early skill, so learning drama was more difficult than others. Every morning when the sky is polished, I get up to hang my throat, and in the afternoon I practice: pressing my legs, kicking my legs, and running round the field. The leg presser rose little by little from the table tennis case. The mother said, "You can't learn martial arts, just learn to 'shoot'." Therefore, Zhang Yanyan began to practice "shooting", even if the calf was tied to a cotton mat to kick the gun, the kick was particularly painful for a long time. The last cotton mat was plucked, covered in blood. "Shot" should be practiced every day, and after the calf scab is practiced, it is kicked and broken. Because of practicing "shooting", the calf broke the scab, the scab was broken and broken, and Zhang Yanyan was most impressed, so there were 6 times of reciprocation. Her mother's requirements are very strict, Zhang Yanyan is also particularly stubborn, the more others say that she is halfway out of the house, the more she has to practice well. One morning Zhang Yanyan went to hang his throat, and a teacher in the regiment passed by and wondered: "Hey, Zhao Yanxia hasn't hung her throat for many years, how did you hang your throat this morning?" The teacher came over to take a look and found that it was Zhao Yanxia's girlfriend, because the girl's voice was particularly similar to Zhao Yanxia, so she did not recognize it.

At the Beijing Opera House in Beijing, Zhang Yanyan is still in a troupe with her mother, she is near the water tower, and she has learned a lot of Zhao Pai plays from her mother at work. "Her teaching method is more unique, not like the sentence by sentence in the drama school. She usually let me listen to the recording first, and when I was familiar with it, she clicked again, said the main points, and told me how to portray the characters in the play. Zhang Yanyan recalled, "I followed her to perform, and found that she had to summarize every performance, where the performance should have been effective for the audience, but there was none, she would think seriously after the performance, she has been learning." When she plays this play in the next scene, she tries to change it, and she will be particularly happy when she finds that it has an effect. ”

During her days at the Beijing Opera House in Beijing, Ms. Zhang said her mother had never worn a microphone to sing, and that she had told the other actors in the troupe not to wear it. Although Zhao Yanxia sings without wearing a small microphone, she can make the audience hear clearly. My mother said to Zhang Yanyan: "Originally, Ma Pai, Mei Pai, and Cheng Pai each had their own tastes, and now every microphone they wear has a taste - the taste of the microphone." I remember when I was a child, I secretly squeezed into the theater garden to listen to the play, and often felt that I couldn't hear a word of a slow board, so I began to practice my mouth hard at that time, and I must let the audience hear it clearly. ”