Yue opera "Dream of the Red Chamber"
From October 2021 to the end of 2022, the number of performances of the professional theaters in the Performing Arts World region alone, the number of performances of the various theaters under the Shanghai Xiqu Art Center will reach about 450;
On September 29, 2021, Shanghai Yue Theatre opened the first round of performance season of 2021-2022 Yue opera "Dream of the Red Chamber", with a total of 20 performances by the end of February 2022.
Time goes back a decade, and it's almost an impossible task. It was an era when the development of opera encountered bottlenecks and was struggling, and the four theater troupes of Shanghai Peking Opera House, Shanghai Kun Opera Troupe, Shanghai Shanghai Theater and Shanghai Yue Theater performed less than 800 times throughout the year; looking at the whole country, about 60 or 70 kinds of dramas were left with only one troupe, becoming a veritable "first troupe in the world". In the urgency of finding a way out, some theater groups have fallen into the superstition of large-scale production and sound and light, and chaos has frequently appeared on the opera stage.
In this context, the Shanghai Xiqu Art Center (hereinafter referred to as the "Xiqu Center") was established, and now it is a full decade. "It should be said that this is a decade in which the policy environment of Chinese opera art has been improving, but it is also precisely the decade in which the development of opera needs the most scientific exploration." Cui Wei, secretary general of the China Dramatists Association and opera critic, told reporters. In the past ten years, under the premise of respecting the laws of opera art, the Xiqu Center has actively created an opera ecology, produced works, built brands, promoted talents, and expanded the market in the process of shouzheng innovation, and provided an effective path to a better future for xiqu.
Shanghai Opera "Dunhuang Daughter"
Respond to the needs of the party and the people with creation, and create works that the times need and the people love to see
This "better future" requires a large number of works that the times need and that the people love to see. In the past ten years, the Xiqu Center has played an obvious role in the creation of excellent works, and all kinds of plays of its theaters and troupes have realized the inheritance and innovation on the basis of traditional advantages and styles, and won more than ten original plays such as the "Five Ones Project" Award of the Central Propaganda Department, the "Wenhua Award", the "Top Ten Fine Plays" of the National Stage Art Excellence Project, the "China Arts Festival Award", the "Chinese Drama Award", the "Excellent Reserved Repertoire Award" of the Ministry of Culture, the "China Opera Society Award" and so on.
Literary and art critic Mao Shi'an noticed a phenomenon: over the past decade, at every important historical node, the Xiqu Center has responded to the needs of the party and the people with creation. Especially in the celebration of the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Party and the comprehensive poverty alleviation and well-off, he has successively created a series of works such as Peking Opera "Changing People", "Red Agent", "Dawn of The Bath fire", Kun opera "Own Descendants", Yue opera "Deep Love of Mountains and Seas", Shanghai opera "Dunhuang Daughter", "Chen Yi in Shanghai", Huai opera "Pudong Renjia", "Breaking into Shanghai", "Hanmei", and Pingtan "No Gun Smoke"; and in 2020, The Shanghai Opera Art Center has also extensively mobilized and accumulated strength to create short dramas such as Peking Opera "The Power of the Heart", Kunqu Opera "Ji Shixing", Yue Opera "Starting from Me", Shanghai Opera "Ala Shanghainese", Huai Opera "In This Spring", and Pingtan "Xiufa", truly practicing that literature and art should serve the people and serve socialism.
There are new repertoire, but also classic heritage. Xiqu is an important carrier of China's excellent traditional culture, and the six major theaters under the Xiqu Center have accumulated a large number of traditional preserved repertoire, condensing the artistic essence of various types of drama, and the contemporary presentation of classic works is also the proper meaning of "creation". In the past ten years, the Xiqu Center has not only rearranged many of them, but also activated the vitality of classics in contemporary times with innovative concepts and means. For example, in 2016, on the occasion of commemorating the 400th anniversary of the deaths of Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare, the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe for the first time put "Four Dreams of Linchuan" on the stage in its entirety, allowing the two major playwrights in the East and the West to achieve dialogue in the air; for example, the classic Kunqu opera "Jingyang Bell" and the Yue opera "Xi Xiang Ji" were made into 3D films, opening up a new dimension of opera appreciation and dissemination.
Peking Opera "Changing People"
Yesterday, today and tomorrow's "pillar" relay to revitalize the three generations of talents of the old, middle and young
This "better future" requires a talent team made up of yesterday, today and tomorrow's "pillars". In the past decade, the Xiqu Center has a total of 55 representative inheritors of national intangible cultural heritage projects, 35 people have won the "Plum Blossom Award" of Chinese drama and the "Peony Award" of Chinese opera art 39 times, and 40 people have won the "Wenhua Award" of the Ministry of Culture 43 times, forming an important talent base for the future development of opera. On this basis, in the past decade, the Xiqu Center has focused on promoting the maturity of young talents and formed a set of effective mechanisms.
In 2015, under the background of the reform of "one group and one policy" of the Shanghai state-owned literary and art academy, the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe implemented the "Academy System" training plan, which was personally led by the old artists of the "Kunda Class", the most valuable resource in Shangkun, to teach "open a small stove" by words and deeds, helping the young actors after the 90s who had just entered the troupe at that time to successfully complete the transition from students to actors. In fact, later, "Four Dreams of Linchuan" was able to "make dreams come true", and it was precisely by virtue of the "school system" that the three generations of actors of the old, middle and young generations were revitalized.
Kun opera "Purple Nobile"
In 2019, the Shangyin Opera House and the Shanghai Yangtze River Theater performed two rearrangement works of young people on the same night: "Kun SiBan" Hu Weilu, Luo Chenxue's "Jade Hairpin" and young Yue opera actors Yang Tingna and Li Xudan sang "Chunxiang Biography"; in 2020, Shanghai Shanghai Opera House created a new version of Shanghai opera "Sister Jiang" with post-90s actor Hong Doudou as the protagonist; Shanghai Huai Opera Troupe and Shanghai Pingtan Troupe passed their classics "Yangmen Female General" and "Wang Xiaohe" to young actors. Through the classic rehearsal, a group of young opera actors have gone from the practice room to the spotlight, and the classic rehearsal has become an "accelerator" for talent growth.
In August 2020, the four consecutive nights of "Drama and Gathering Classics" were staged at the Shanghai Grand Theatre, focusing on the results of the summer training of the six major courtyard groups in Beijing, Kunming, Vietnam, Shanghai, Huaihe and Pingtan. It is understood that the earliest summer training is the Shanghai Kun Opera Troupe and the Shanghai Peking Opera House, after the establishment of the Xiqu Center, this practice was promoted to all the theaters, and sweating in the air-conditioned practice room became a scene in the summer of each academy every year. What to practice? The first is naturally practice: the Kun Opera Troupe and the Beijing Opera Theater jointly train to break down the barriers of culture and martial arts and improve the professional skills of the band's choreography; the Shanghai Theater instructs young actors to speak out the method, combined with the unique biting rhyme of the Shanghai opera singing voice to adjust the atmosphere; the Yue Theater has opened a list of folded opera teaching plays that include ancient costumes and modern, classic plays and new choreographies, and improves the enthusiasm of the actors through the "group PK system". At the same time, it is also a practice of spirit, because opera is an art that has to endure hardships, and if you want to become a horn, you have to suffer hardships.
Commenting on "War Without Smoke"
When the curtain is turned on, the audience of the opera is not elsewhere, but among the broad masses of the people
This "better future", in the final analysis, requires a large number of audiences who are willing to go into the theater to see the play. Polishing first-class repertoire and cultivating first-class talents are ultimately aimed at seeing more audiences, especially young audiences, enter the theater of opera at the moment when the stage is lit up.
In 2015, the Xiqu Center and Wen Wei Po jointly held the Small Theater Xiqu Festival, and by 2021, it has been upgraded to the only national platform for small theater opera "China Small Theater Opera Exhibition". In the past seven years, the platform has received a total of 327 declared plays covering 60 types of dramas, and finally nearly 70 performances have been performed, and the number of declarations for the seventh session has reached nearly 100, an increase of 40% over the previous year, becoming a veritable "big pier". However, sitting in the theater, Rong Guangrun, a professor at the Shanghai Theater Academy and a theater critic, felt more deeply that the proportion of young audiences was much higher than that of middle-aged and elderly audiences, and many people even did their homework in advance. In his view, this is precisely the deeper meaning of the exploration of small theaters: whether it is reinterpreting the traditional texts of opera with contemporary ideas, reinterpreting the classic works of Chinese and Western writers in the form of opera, or completely creating new creations, it is through the practice of creative transformation and innovative development concepts that opera is more future-oriented in content and form, thus prompting more young people to re-understand and approach tradition.
Create for the people, perform for the people. "The audience of opera is not elsewhere, but among the broad masses of the people," said Gu Haohao, party secretary and president of the Shanghai Xiqu Art Center. In the past ten years, the Xiqu Center has gathered six major theaters to expand its territory, and through the "Oriental Rhyme" and other platforms that have become brand, through the theme practice of "going deep into life and taking root in the people", and through the "Red Literary and Art Light Cavalry" of each theater group, more and more audiences have felt the unique charm of Damei opera. In 2017, the artists of the Xiqu Center's theater troupe who won the Wenhua Award, the Plum Blossom Award, and the Magnolia Award traveled 5,000 kilometers deep into Ningshan, Shaanxi and Mongolia, sending the plays to the theater, the grassland, and the campfire, and the audience included the "grassland Eji" Du Guima.
Modern Kun opera "Self-descendants"
Author: Shao Ling
Editor: Guo Chaohao
Editor-in-Charge: Fan Xin
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.