In the theater, the Peking opera "Thief of the Royal Horse" is being staged, and the blue-faced Dou Erdun, who stole the Royal Horse, is very excited. He sang proudly: "Triumphantly I turn back to the mountain." Then, dou zhai lord, wearing thick-soled boots, waved his horse whip, kicked his legs and crossed his legs, and was majestic and full of spirit, a large "round field", in the warm applause of the audience, like a gust of wind galloping down.
The actor closed the curtain, took off his helmet, and revealed a green silk. yes! This majestic Dou Zhai lord was actually played by an actress! Whether it is from the voice, the frame, there is no bit of a woman's characteristics, it is completely a bearded man... This actress is Li Xiaopei, a female flower face of the Beijing Opera House, and her "Thief royal horse" was first taught by the famous shelf flower face Zhang Dehua. Later, he was again given processing improvement by Yang Zhengang, the son-in-law of Qiu Shengrong, the founder of Qiu Pai Flower Face, so every move has a quasi-place, and the frame is beautiful and courageous, so it is praised by the audience.
Flower face is the common name of pure line. The characters played by the flower face are mostly rough, grumpy, straightforward, and strong, which is not an endowment for ordinary women. So why in the past hundred years, many female flower faces have been born in the Peking Opera circle? That's a long story.
Women took the stage to open the prelude to equal rights
The Qing Dynasty had strict rules for actors who took the stage to act, regardless of role. Males, females, old, and young are not allowed to play the role of female talents, that is, the right of actresses to participate in performances is banned. Until the end of the Qing Dynasty, the corrupt Qing Dynasty rule was weakened; the democratic demands for women's rights and for equality between men and women increased day by day, so that in some coastal cities that were popular first, first Shanghai, then Tianjin, broke through the shackles of women's tyranny, and with the influx of a large number of foreign women, some Western books, rituals, costumes, and dances on equal rights for men and women also followed, and at the same time, girls' schools specializing in providing girls with education appeared.
At this time, on the Peking Opera stage in Shanghai, actresses also appeared, and the Shanghai Qing government, which had a relatively weak ruling power, could only turn a blind eye, and was later forced to announce that actresses could participate in the stage, but did not allow male and female actors to perform together. Soon after, a pi-yellow troupe composed of girls appeared, the Hipster Class. According to the regulations of the Qing Dynasty government, this fashionable class is all actresses of the same color, whether it is birth, dan, net, end, ugly, or whether it is the protagonist, supporting role, or even the dragon set, in addition to the band and stage workers, all played by the girls of the drama class. This is also no way to do it, who called the Qing government to have this authoritarian regulation? Therefore, the earliest actresses had to learn any profession, in addition to the key professions of their own art, other professions must also be learned, and they can sing on the stage.
En Xiaofeng
At that time, the famous actress En Xiaofeng in Beijing and Tianjin was such a typical example. Beijing was the capital of the Qing government, and the ruling power was relatively strong, so it was also one of the last places to open up actresses to perform on stage. En Xiaofeng was a Manchu nobleman in Beijing at the end of the Qing Dynasty, a small Gege of Zhenghuangqi, who often performed hall plays in the palace, and many famous Peking opera singers came to her house to sing. She was well-informed, so she also followed suit, she especially liked Tan Xinpei, who had the reputation of "the king of the lingjie", even to the point of obsession, learning Tan was very similar, she sang on stage in the church play, and actually had the idea of singing in the sea. This, of course, was strongly opposed by the noble family. En Xiaofeng is a woman with a rebellious personality, usually wearing men's clothing, combing her hair with a small braid, and speaking in a rough voice, so she broke through the family's shackles and resolutely participated in the Mingfeng Society in Tianjin and officially hung up her head. In addition to performing Tan Pai and Wang (Laughing Nong) Pai Laosheng dramas, she is also famous for a flower face drama "Thief Royal Horse", which is the first time for a woman to perform a flower face drama.
Her contemporaries also included Yao Peilan, whose stage name was Xiao Lanying. She is also an old-fashioned, face-kicking celebrity. In addition to being good at acting in Tan and Sun (Ju Xian) old sheng plays, she is also famous for dou erdun in "The Thief of the Royal Horse". Once, she co-starred with Wusheng Taidou Yang Xiaolou in "Baishan" in "Serial Set". Her Dou Erdun, quite bold, rough and majestic, her voice is loud and vigorous, not only does not have a female tone, but also makes an explosive sound, so it is very popular with the audience at that time. In the early 1950s, I saw Xiao Lanying's Sun Pai's "Wen Zhaoguan" at the old enlightened theater. At that time, she was 70 years old, her voice was still so loud and straight, although there were some sand sounds, but Dantian was full of vigor, his voice was not hoarse, inexhaustible, very admirable, and the applause from the audience was thunderous.
The first person to perform Peking Opera in English
In the early years of the Republic of China, there were female classes of the Kuide Society and the Chongya Society in Beijing, and a number of female flower faces were trained, the famous ones were the so-called "Four Great Female Purities", that is, Yu Kuiguan, the sister of the famous Huadan artist Yu Lianquan (Xiao Cuihua), as well as Wang Jinkui, Wang Qingkui, and Zhang Zishou. This "four female purity", whether it is a copper hammer or a shelf flower face repertoire, can be performed, and the skill is not weaker than that of the male name jing at that time. This Zhang Zishou also recorded two records, singing "Exploring the Yin Mountain" with a large high-pitched singing voice. Several other female flower faces, according to relevant material records, are also crisp and bright voices, accurate board eyes, direct work, meticulous, and have a lot of audiences in Beijing and Tianjin.
Qi Xiaoyun
In the 1950s and 1960s, there was a famous female flower face Qi Xiaoyun, born with a flower face throat, with the boldness of the golden flower face and the charm of the Qiu Pai flower face. Qi Xiaoyun is a native of Tianjin, graduated from Yenching University, is proficient in English, specializing in foreign trade. In 1959, Qi Xiaoyun went to the sea and in 1972 joined the Peking Opera Troupe of Lanzhou City, Gansu Province. She studied under Hao Shouchen, Qian Baosen, and Qiu Shengrong, so she knew a lot of plays, such as Bao Gong opera and Dou Erdun opera, and she was good at both literature and martial arts, and all of them performed well. In 1986, Qi Xiaoyun was transferred to the Beijing Opera House of China at that time, and there were no less good plays in Beijing, such as "General Xianghe", "Fighting the Dragon Robe", "Removing the Three Harms", "Stealing the Royal Horse" and so on. In the early 1980s, the author once enjoyed her and the famous Lao Dan performance artist Li Mingyan's "Chisang Town", the two actors are good voices, the so-called "iron voice steel throat", high pitched and loud, loud and cloudy, and mellow charm, outstanding genre characteristics, so that the audience feasted. Qi Xiaoyun can also sing Peking Opera in fluent English, especially the adaptation of Shakespeare's famous play "Othello" into Peking Opera, and sing in the Beijing dialect of Peking Opera, with remarkable achievements and great success, and is the first person in China to sing Peking Opera repertoire in English.
Qiu Yun
Qiu Yun, the daughter of Qiu Shengrong, is also a remarkable female flower face. Perhaps because of the relationship between genes, Qiu Yun's singing especially has the charm of his father Qiu Shengrong. Whether it is line cavity, luck, rhythm, word sound, it is similar to its father. In particular, Qiu Yun's head cavity and nasal cavity resonance are in line with his father. Although she did not go to the sea to become a formal actress, whenever the CCTV opera program of the festival, she must be invited to be a guest and sing a few classic songs of Qiu Pai to feast on the fans and friends of Qiu Pai. At the moment, she also accepted apprentices and inherited the art of Qiu Pai.
Why is the female flower face of the main sect?
Since the reform and opening up, many excellent female flower faces have emerged on the Peking Opera stage. All of them are basically Qiu Sects.
Among the five major schools of Peking Opera flower faces, the Jin school requires a loud voice and even a loud shock house tile; the Hao school is known for playing white-faced traitors, such as Cao Cao, Yan Song, Yi Li, etc.; the Yuan school created by his disciple Yuan Shihai is the best at portraying characters with a straight and violent personality, such as Li Kui and Zhang Fei; the Hou school created by Hou Xirui is known for playing green forest characters with martial arts and complex personalities, and pays more attention to the shelf flower face that focuses on reading white, such as Dou Erdun, Cai Tianhua, the great eunuch Liu Jin and other villains, and pays attention to the qi YuXuanang of the frame. The sound was loud in the sand. And Qiu Pai flower face, although it also pays attention to the sound vocabulary of the straight, sharp, vigorous and powerful, but also pay attention to the creation of charm, both strong and crisp side, but also a euphemistic and colorful side, especially Qiu Pai according to the character to absorb some of the old students, lao Dan's good cavity, so that it is both good and suitable for the character, this is the so-called "rigid and soft together", word, taste, rhyme three take into account, these characteristics are relatively suitable for the female flower face of the endowment, so the current female flower face is the descendant of the Qiu school.
Li Xiaopei as "Bead Curtain Village" Li Keyong
The famous female flower face in Beijing is Li Xiaopei of the Beijing Opera House. She graduated from the Beijing Vocational College of Opera Arts, studied in the school for 7 years, guangyi multi-teacher, and later worshiped Qiu men disciples Meng Junquan and Li Changchun as teachers, assiduously studied Qiu Pai repertoire, she often staged plays, such as "The Case of Zhenmei", "Erjin Palace", "Meet the Empress • Dragon Robe", "Broken Secret Stream", "Sitting in the Village and Stealing Horses" and so on. Her voice is thick, wide and bright, and her rhythm is accurate, and she is a promising female flower face. Another female flower face Cui Xinyue, born in the Pear Garden family, since childhood by her grandfather Ha Hongjun (formerly Yun Nanjing Theater flower face starring, Qiu Shengrong's third brother Shi Rong into the room disciple), at the age of nine, he learned flower face, graduated from the Chinese Academy of Opera, received many famous teachers, and finally worshiped Qiu Men disciple Yang Bosen as a teacher, deeply under the Qiu Men art of Samadhi, and the repertoire he was good at performing include "Da Tan · II", "Tan Yin Mountain", "Lock Five Dragons", "Mu Hu Guan" and so on. Her voice is high-pitched and crisp, dantian is full of energy, and her standing voice is firm and pleasant. She has held solo concerts and is now a teacher at the Beijing Xiqu Vocational Art College.
In addition, Tianjin has several outstanding female flower-faced actors, of which Liu Jiaxin and Zuo Honglian are the third generation of Qiumen. Liu Jiaxin first visited Qiu Men's disciple Qiu Yunhong, and then received teachings from Qiu Yun, Yang Zhengang and other Qiu Men descendants; Zuo Honglian was also a famous female flower face of the Tianjin Peking Opera House, learning from Qiu Men's disciples Xi Yanhong and Yang Bosen. The common feature of these two excellent female flower faces is not only that the voice is rushing, the strength is sufficient, and the charm is strong, but also in the singing voice of Huang Zhong Dalu, the use of some small cavities is particularly delicate and dexterous, which makes up for the shortcomings of the actress's lack of physical strength. They are good at performing Qiumen's literary and martial arts dramas, such as "Serial Set", from "Sitting in the Village" to "Baishan" Dou Erdun can perform alone to the end, and their skills are so good that they have a large number of fans in Beijing and Tianjin.
In addition, female flower faces include Ren Siyuan of Dalian Peking Theater and Geng Lu of Shanghai, who are also students of Li Changchun, the third-generation disciple of Qiumen. They all have a particularly good voice, loud and loud, yu gang yu soft, very local edge. Recently, there has been a fourth generation of Qiumen female flower faces in Tianjin, that is, Ma Li, a female disciple of the famous flower face performance artist Meng Guanglu, her acting skills have been quite mature, and she can sing the famous flower face drama "Judge" and is also a fairly powerful female flower face.