Qiu Shengrong and Yuan Shihai are two shining names in the history of Peking Opera. In the 1950s and 1960s, they were a bit of a bright light in peking opera.
Qiu Shengrong is a member of the Pear Garden family, and his father Qiu Guixian gong copper hammer flower face is also a Jinghu master. He entered the Science and Fortune Liancheng and also worked in the net line, giving full play to his own voice characteristics, promoting his strengths and avoiding weaknesses, working the charm of singing, and in the 1940s he had already played the banner of Qiumen Benpai. After the founding of New China, Qiu Shengrong entered a period of vigorous artistic creation, and representative works such as "Will Xianghe", "Eliminating the Three Harms" and "Chisang Town" were continuously launched, and "Yao Period" became the peak of the "Qiu Pai". Its influence continues to this day, forming a situation of "ten net nine qiu".
Yuan Shihai also entered the science of Fu Liancheng at an early age, one branch later than Qiu Shengrong. Yuan Shihaigong's rack flower face is also "Corey Red". After leaving the department, he successively took Shang Xiaoyun, Ma Lianliang and other famous masters to the team and received praise. Since then, he has cooperated with Li Shaochun, a veteran of Wenwu for a long time. In 1940, he worshiped under the name of Hao Shouchen and received the true transmission of Hao Pai's art. After the liberation of Yuan Shihai, he joined the Peking Opera House of China and created and arranged such dramas as "Black Whirlwind", "Li Kui Visits His Mother", and "Jiujiangkou". His artistic achievements and influence have continued to expand, forming a unique Yuan school performing arts style.
Qiu Yuan and Yuan both sing flower faces, but the special workers are different, Qiu Shengrong is a copper hammer flower face, and Yuan Shihai is a shelf flower face. The emphasis of the copper hammer and the shelf is different in performance, if you use singing to do the four skills (the beating belongs to Wu Jing, regardless of the reason), the emphasis order of the copper hammer is to sing, read, and do, and the shelf is to do, read, and sing. From this, we can basically see the different characteristics of Qiu Yuan's two arts. Qiu Shengrong re-sang gong, playing roles such as Bao Zheng, Xu Yanzhao, Wei Chi Jingde, etc.; Yuan Shihai re-performed, playing roles like Cao Cao, Li Kui, Ma Wu and so on.
Qiu Yuan is different, but sometimes he also plays the same play, the same role, and Lian Po in "Will Xianghe" is an example. This is a new drama, originally starring Li Shaochun Yuan Shihai, and later Tan Fuying Qiu Shengrong was also arranged, but from the plot to the lyrics have been adjusted. In the scene where Lian Po's thinking changed, Yuan Shihai's Lian Po was read to his son: "In order to seal the affair, my heart is indignant. "And Qiu Shengrong is a complete set of singing voices of the guide plate, the huilong, and the original board. After Lian Po was persuaded to change his mind, he sang a passage of two six, which was very beautiful. After watching Qiu's performance, Yuan frankly said that his performance was flat and not as wonderful as Qiu's. He has since added singing to the scene.
The Dou Erdun of "The Thief of the Royal Horse" has a large section of Sipi singing in front of it, and the stealing horse in the back is heavy workmanship. This is a family drama by Yuan Shihai, but Qiu Shengrong is also good at acting in this play, the singing voice in front of him is full of charm, and the work in the back is also very good, and he raises his hand and throws his hands to the side style. It is said that Qiu once said triumphantly, "If I can move his "Thief royal horse", he will not be able to move my "The Case of The Beauty of The Beauty". Naturally, this statement was a whim.
However, Qiu Shengrong is not "all-round", and he has also encountered the situation of "wrong work". In 1960, the Beijing Peking Opera Troupe rehearsed a new play "The Battle of Guandu", and Qiu Shengrong played the number one character Cao Cao. Although this play was performed and Qiu also created a new image of Cao Cao, he was not calm in his heart. Qiu once confided in Yuan privately: "I play Bao Zheng, how to act and how to get used to it." In "The Battle of Guandu", Cao Cao was played, wearing a big red python, pressing forward on his head, as soon as he came out, I had six gods and no master, shaking my sleeves, and feeling vague everywhere... This Cao Cao drama is not in line with my 'folding'. Yuan Shihai, who has the reputation of "living Cao Cao", explains that Qiu Shengrong's Bao Zheng, Yao Qi, and Xu Yanzhao have been recognized by the audience and have become a type, and Cao Cao in this play is complex and multi-faceted, and it is difficult to portray this Cao Cao by copying some copper hammer techniques. This insight is very pertinent.
"The Orphan of Zhao" is a new play created by the four top players of the Beijing Peking Opera Troupe Ma Tan Zhang Qiu in 1959. At first, Qiu Shengrong played Tu Anjia, in order to create this villain, he mobilized a variety of performance methods such as single plucking, double plucking, big turn, singing voice and using explosive tones to show the brutality and treachery of the characters. After the performance, the reaction qiu Shengrong heard was to let him "be more fierce, the more fierce the better.". Qiu said, "I'm fierce, I really can't be cruel, you look for Yuan Shihai to play..." This is the role of the shelf flower, and Qiu is obviously not working. Later, the role adjustment, Tu Anjia's role was played by Zhang Hongxiang, who was a shelf flower and Wu Erhua, which was very outstanding; And Qiu Shengrong re-played the old general Wei Dai, who was just and righteous, mainly based on singing, gave full play to the characteristics of the copper hammer flower face, and in the "baby beating" he and Ma Lianliang cooperated tacitly, and created the "I Wei Dai heard this and dreamed of waking up" That Han tone erhuang, which became the classic of Qiu Pai's singing voice.
It can be seen from Qiu Shengrong's change of role that the personality characteristics of a character can be roughly determined by what industry to play, if it is not the right work, then the play is difficult to play well. An actor with profound artistic attainments like Qiu Shengrong is also difficult to get rid of this law.
Yuan Shihai once got a script "Three Requests for Yao Period", which said that Liu Xiu went out of the mountains to achieve a great cause together in the three yao periods. Yuan Shihai thought twice and decided to give up the play for two reasons: First, the core of this play is to keep filial piety for the mother, which requires a large section of singing to express emotions, which is not his own strength; Second, Qiu Shengrong's Yao period has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and it is a bit laborious and unflattering to shape a new Yao period by himself. Yuan Shihai retreated in spite of the difficulties, and his abandonment was justified.
After Yuan Shihai's "Black Whirlwind" became a hit, Qiu Shengrong also had the idea of rehearsing this play, but finally gave up. Because if you follow Yuan Shihai's path, "Li Kui went down the mountain and folded, looking at the mountains, looking at the water, looking at the peach blossoms, thinking of poetry... This scene is over, and I can't sing the next scene." Qiu Shengrong is also wise.
This small article about Qiu Shengrong and Yuan Shihai is more about the gains and losses of the two masters in the choice of roles in the play. It is not difficult to see that a good actor must have self-knowledge, be able to use his strengths and avoid weaknesses, and be good at hiding clumsiness in order to give full play to his own advantages and dedicate more wonderful plays to the audience.