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The play "Suolin Capsule" is one of the plays created by my teacher, the famous Peking Opera performance artist Mr. Cheng Yanqiu, which attaches equal importance to singing and doing, is widely circulated, and is well received by the audience. Teacher Cheng wrote and performed nearly thirty new plays before his death, and this play is also a work that he considers proud of in terms of artistic creation.
"Suolin Capsule" has a strong "Cheng School" artistic characteristics, especially in the singing voice has a very rich innovation and creation. It highlights that Cheng Lu is based on inheriting the excellent tradition of creation, absorbing the strengths of all, integrating into one, and creatively developing the singing art of Peking Opera "Danxing". Take the last singing in the play, although it uses the plate style of "Xipi 26", it dissolves into the melody of the "original board", "slow plate", "Nan Zizi" and other modes, especially the two "crying heads" that are cleverly added. It can be said that it is a pioneering move in the singing voice of Peking Opera. I would like to make a brief introduction to this singing segment for the reference of Chengpai art lovers.
Cheng Yanqiu", "Suolin Capsule"
In general, the thoughts and feelings of the characters expressed in this singing are more complicated, and the emotional changes are relatively large. The rich woman Xue Xiangling was devastated by the flood, and the whole family was separated, had no food and clothing, and left a maid to make a living. Unexpectedly, the owner she met happened to be Zhao Shouzhen, a poor girl she had given away with a suolin bag. When Zhao knew that the new maid was his benefactor, he changed her new clothes, made her a guest, and found her lost mother, husband and young son for her. This singing section is sung by Xue Xiangling when he changed his clothes and reunited with his family, it uses [two six], but this tune is far from meeting the needs of expressing the feelings of the characters, because what is to be expressed at this time is the intersection of sadness and joy, shame and coexistence, quite complex character feelings, not simply happy emotions. It must therefore be applied in a different way.
Xue Xiangling changed into a Chinese costume, stepped on the small gong point on the field, and sang out, "Changing the bead shirt is still rich and noble, is it not a fantasy, I am in sleep?" ”。 These two sentences use the basic tune of "Two Six", showing Xue Xiangling's confusion due to the sudden change after the disaster, thinking that he is in a dream. When she suddenly looked up and saw her mother with a "smiling face", she added a surprise and rhythmic "crying head", followed by a question sentence "Ask where the old mother-in-law came from?" Because of the short cavity of "two six", it is difficult to express this kind of intimate mood, so the melody close to the "original board" is dissolved in the four words of "where it comes from".
When Xue Xiangling saw her husband, she sang "Looking at the officials and people to blame me for doing things absurdly", here to show Xue Xiangling's hesitant inner activities, because of the reasons why she was treated favorably, she was difficult to be clear at one time, and she could not use one or two sentences to explain things clearly, so in order to express thinking and seeking understanding when singing, it should be lightened, then the simple [two six] board is difficult to bear this task, Teacher Cheng when dealing with this sentence, he will rub the tune of "slow plate" into it, low back to wanwan, emotional, but still use [two six] The rhythm of the board was sung, so that it was more appropriate to express Xue Xiangling's complex emotions at this moment.
Zhao Rongchen's "Suolin Bag" "Guining" a fold of Xue Xiangling
Unexpectedly, Xue Xiangling's deep moaning and thinking caused her husband to misunderstand her, and she felt a little ashamed and embarrassed in front of everyone, but she also believed that as long as Zhao Shouzhen told the truth, everything would disappear and be forgiven by her husband, so when arranging the sentence "Mangguan is ashamed of my face like a begonia", she also absorbed the melodic melody of "Nan Zizi" tune, which sounded both shameful and unspeakable, such as "seeing my son is not happy and laughing very much", and also used a "crying head". Xue Xiangling should have been happy to see his son, but why was he crying here? This is because when people are most happy, they will shed tears, and even cry bitterly, and this [crying head] is to express such a delicate and subtle feeling, and it is indeed used just right.
In addition, there is a "crying head" at the end, "O mother of the child! Although this [weeping head] is handled according to the general loose board [weeping head], it absorbs the melody of foreign songs, uses the "cough" tone of the Danjiao singing cavity, and replaces it with the "vibrato" of the Western vocal method, which is both novel and familiar, and the whole singing cavity sounds both chic and not strange, and the whole singing cavity is integrated, quite smooth, without the slightest sense of stiffness and awkwardness.
From the design and arrangement of this singing voice, it can be seen that Teacher Cheng has become an excellent Peking Opera performance artist precisely because he is an innovator who has the courage to create and does not follow the old ways.
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This article is excerpted from People's Drama, No. 11, 1980
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