"Enchanted as a dream, as picturesque as a song, as picturesque as a butterfly swaying the fragrance of flowers, who cares about whom... You are my Everest, you are my Shangri-La..."
This is the classic singing section "Love Words" in the opera "Dust Settled", I believe that every audience who has watched this repertoire, seeing the lyrics will ring out that beautiful melody in their ears, the bright figures of two young Tibetan men and women will appear in their minds, and the poetic lyrics are a portrayal of the beautiful love between the Second Young Master and Dolma.
The opera "Dust Settled" is full of magical realism, thick stage tones, saturated and thick colors, making the whole stage look mysterious and rich, and full of the thickness of history. The actors' vocal singing and performances take the audience back to a story that dates back more than 70 years...
Adapted from the novel of the same name by writer Ah Lai, the play tells the legendary story of the last Khampa Tibetan toastmaster in history. Chongqing Opera House began to create and plan in 2017, creating and rehearsing it as an opera for the first time, and premiering it in 2018. He has successively participated in the "National Excellent National Opera Exhibition and Performance Week", "National Stage Art Excellent Repertoire and Excellent National Opera Exhibition" sponsored by the State Nationalities Commission, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and other units, the Sixth National Ethnic Minority Literary and Art Performance, the Fourth China Opera Festival and other major national events. It was selected as a key and rolling support project of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in the 2018 and 2019 "Chinese National Opera Inheritance and Development Project", and was shortlisted for the key support works of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism "Stage Art Creation Project Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China". In 2021, the play won the Cao Yu Script Award, the highest award in Chinese dramatic literature, the Best Repertoire Award and the Best Screenplay Award of the Sixth National Ethnic Minority Literary and Art Festival.
Less than 3 years after the debut, "Dust Settled" can be described as a flower all the way, and the "prosperity" is inseparable from the careful cultivation and carving of the main creative staff. "Our initial positioning was to make it a fine product that can reflect the spirit of the times and the demands of human nature." Liu Guangyu, president of the Chongqing Municipal Opera House, told reporters. Such an original intention is doomed to create this drama must be a complicated and difficult process. It is understood that "The Dust Has Settled" has been polished and upgraded 12 drafts, nearly 30 creative seminars have been organized, and more than 20 revisions have been made... It is precisely with the spirit of "craftsman" who strives for excellence that the opera house has gradually polished "Dust Settled" into a work that adapts to the times and is loved by the masses, and gradually advances to the height of classic works. So far, the play has been performed nearly 50 times in the country, and the number of viewers has reached more than 60,000, and the audience generally reflects: "Good sound, good looking, shocking!" ”
Liao Xianghong, former vice president of the Central Academy of Drama and director of the play, introduced that on the basis of respecting the original novel, the opera "Dust Settled" selected and merged many characters in the novel, with the "Second Young Master" as the core, constituting a character image system of Sangji Dolma, Mai QiTusi, Toshi's Wife, Grand Young Master, Solang Zelang, Silversmith Quza, Little Executioner Eryi, Tana and many Tibetan masses, and highly refined and adapted the plot of the novel, focusing on the open and secret struggle around the position of Toast. The arrival of the People's Liberation Army hastened the collapse of the toast system and brought freedom and peace to the Tibetan masses. In terms of artistic expression, the play makes full use of the singing forms of duet, solo, heavy singing and chorus to narrate, and the singing of chants, arias and lyricism, and multi-voice and multi-voice repetition are the highlights of the musical layout of the play.
Meng Weidong, an adviser to the Chinese Music Association and composer of the play, said that the creation of this play is a challenge, not only to consider its special historical background, national tone, character personality and musical drama, but also to take into account the appreciation habits of most audiences for national opera.
Undoubtedly, good repertoire is constantly polished. "The Dust Has Settled" has been continuously tempered to have today's appearance. "In the end, it is almost a matter of careful consideration, in order to temper the fine products, we always insist that Qingshan will not relax!" Liu Guangyu said.
Mrs. Toast is a typical negative character in the play, she is proud of the status advantages of the old system, high above, the slaves take lives, and deprived her son of the innocent love of the second young master, originally before she committed suicide, there was a paragraph reviewing her own life, the purpose is to let the evil people have a little awakening, in the character portrayal to avoid one-sidedness, the character personality has progress and change. But an expert from the State Nationalities Commission put forward his own opinion, such an expression will make the audience feel sympathy for Mrs. Toast, so should she die? The direct cause of her death was the People's Liberation Army's democratic reform of Tibetan areas and the emancipation of slaves. The old system is bound to fall apart, so logically here there should be no sympathy. "To this end, we have been entangled for a long time, from the promotion of dramatic contradictions and the artistic ontology, the characters have changed to be more vivid and plump, whether to change or not, how to change, we have been competing with ourselves. In the end, it was changed to: at the last moment, she was still stuck to the old system, she was always stubborn, and she pushed Mrs. Toast's face and personality characteristics one step further. In this way, her death is a deserved and logical thing, and the effect of the change is very good. While considering the laws of art, we must also take into account the ideological nature, at this time, we put the ideological nature in the first place. Liu Guangyu said.
When asked if there was anything painful about the changes, Liu Guangyu stayed for a few seconds: "Yes, it is to take away Tana's last singing voice." "In the play, Tana has a very beautiful aria of 5 minutes at the end, but in order to make the plot more exciting and not cumbersome, the time is locked within two hours and a quarter of an hour, which can only be deleted." Now that I think about it, it hurts, if I only play half a scene, I will immediately restore this singing voice. The reporter could hear Liu Guangyu's reluctance between the lines. Since it is such a classic singing voice, why must it be deleted, not other content? The reporter also questioned, "Tana is a hidden line in the play, and the content of other main lines cannot be moved." At first, the actors and composers were firmly opposed, but in many discussions, for the sake of the overall situation, everyone could only "endure the pain and cut love" and expressed understanding, "We are shedding blood to delete ah! Speaking of this topic, Liu Guangyu is slightly heavy, and he also sees his cherishing of art.
In addition, Liu Guangyu also told reporters that in addition to orchestral music, in 2019, Tao Flute was specially added to the music, and the timbre of Tao Flute was very consistent with the special temperament of the Second Young Master's "silly", and a total of 4 times the Tao Flute was used throughout the play. "He 'didn't know the fireworks of the ruling class' and didn't play cards according to common sense, and as soon as the music of the pottery flute sounded, the audience could immediately appreciate the personality characteristics of the Second Young Master." Liu Guangyu said that such a musical form was used to represent and even enhance the special character of the Second Young Master. The timbre of the pottery flute makes the second young master's wild and primitive character more clear.
With regard to the success of "The Dust Settles," Liu Guangyu said: The chongqing Opera House has always adhered to the humanistic spiritual pursuit of "unlimited art," used art to reflect life, painted portraits for the people, and established a biography for the times, turned the typicality of life into a universal value of society, aroused the emotional resonance of the audience, brought into play the role of Bacon in casting the soul, and closely integrated the historical process of peaceful liberation of Tibet, embodying the state's firm safeguarding of national unity and the general policy policy. "Dust Settled" draws on the essence and style of traditional culture and national opera, implements the people-centered, and observes the habits of the public to watch opera, so that national opera becomes an artistic style that the public likes to hear. In order to reflect the story of the Tibetan nation, portray the psychological journey of the Tibetan nation, and enhance cultural and artistic exchanges with ethnic minorities, the cast and crew went to Malcom for more than half a month before creating, digging deep and refining the changes of characters and life, society and the times, and collecting a large number of first-hand materials.
In order to better promote, Liu Guangyu said that in addition to the classic version, "Dust Settled" will also launch a resident version, "just perform in our small theater, there are touring versions, concert versions, story club versions, and lecture-style versions." ”
(The pictures in the text are all stills of "Dust Settled", courtesy of Chongqing Opera House.) ）
January 11, 2022 China Culture Daily
Special reports were published on the 5th edition
"Twelve drafts polished, revised more than twenty times
〈The dust has settled〉Firmly believe that the green mountains will not relax"
Editor-in-charge: Chen Xiaoyue