On the afternoon of January 4th, as one of the newly created large-scale stage plays of the 7th Hunan Arts Festival, the Qi opera "Seed Ark" created by the Hunan Qi Opera Protection and Inheritance Center was performed at the Hunan Opera Performance Center. Through a touching story, the drama shows the late famous botanist and Fudan University professor Zhong Yang's feelings of repaying the country after he bowed down and died.
The performance scene of the Qi opera "Seed Ark"
The Qi opera "Seed Ark" is based on the real deeds of Zhong Yang, an outstanding communist party member in the country, the 2018 person of the year who touched China, and the model of the times. Zhong Yang is a native of Xinning, Shaoyang City, Hunan Province, who was a cadre aiding Tibet before his death and was the dean of the Graduate School of Fudan University. In 2017, Zhong Yang was in a car accident while teaching ethnic cadres in Inner Mongolia and unfortunately passed away. The drama is divided into five sessions: "Entering Tibet", "Exploring camp", "Distress", "Rupture" and "Heavenly Road", telling the story of Zhong Yang overcoming the cold and dangerous natural environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, traveling 500,000 kilometers over 16 years to collect seeds, showing Zhong Yang's selfless dedication, pursuing dreams and science, and benefiting mankind's lofty faith and broad mind.
The Qi opera "Seed Ark" is created and produced by the Qi Opera Protection and Inheritance Center of Hunan Province, with Feng Zhi, a national first-class screenwriter, He Xijuan, a national first-class director, as screenwriters and directors respectively, and Xiao Xiaobo, a national first-class actor and winner of the Chinese Drama Plum Blossom Award, starring Xiao Xiaobo. The play was included in the 2020 Large Stage Drama and Works Creation Funding Project by the National Arts Fund, and premiered in Shaoyang on the evening of December 9, 2021.
During the performance, the actors on the stage were full of emotion, and the audience was very engaged, following the emotional ups and downs of the characters in the play, applauding the wonderful performances of the actors from time to time, and the applause and applause on the scene were continuous. "I didn't expect Qi Opera to perform so well, with strong artistic appeal and penetration, directly to the heart, which opened my eyes." Yuan Ye, a young actor at the Hunan Xiang Theater, was greatly appreciated after watching it. He said that Qi opera is an ancient drama genre, while "Seed Ark" is a modern drama that has been improved and innovated in the form of expression, such as the pace of the dramatic characters is very lifelike.
He Xijuan, director of the play, introduced that "Seed Ark" shows Zhong Yang's style and spirit with more than 500 years of ancient drama Qi opera, and uses dance, acrobatics, martial arts and other art forms, and also uses snowmen to simulate snowdrifts, exerting the skills and skills of Qi opera to the extreme, hoping to achieve the good effect of educating people, infecting people and inspiring people.
Xiao Xiaobo, director of the Hunan Qi Opera Conservation and Inheritance Center, who played Zhong Yang's former colleague Bai Yun in the play, introduced that "Seed Ark" has done a lot of exploration in Shouzheng innovation, such as using the "rolling dragon" in the mulian drama for the avalanche scene, which not only integrates the traditional performance skills of Qi opera, but also integrates the classical beauty of Qi opera with modern life, which is new and bright. The repertoire is small and big, and the ordinary is permeated with greatness. Through the performance of this modern play, the actors' hearts have been baptized and sublimated, and they have a new understanding.
In order to train young actors and let them hone their growth, the play boldly uses young actors. Most of the actors are "post-80s", and the youngest is only 14 years old. By bringing the old to the new, the "seeds" of Qi opera will be passed down from generation to generation. "We want to carry forward the seed spirit of Zhong Yang, which is very consistent with our spirit of inheriting traditional culture, and we hope that through our efforts, we will leave more seeds for Qi opera." Xiao Xiaobo said.
(Photo courtesy of Hunan Qi Opera Conservation and Heritage Center)
Editor-in-charge: Yang Xiaojun