The "416 Women's Group", composed of 5 post-00s girls from the Shanghai Theater Academy, has twice triggered "breaking points" with a song "Exploring the Window", which has attracted widespread attention and heated controversy: those who praise it expect it to be "the hope of opera reform", hoping that this "refreshing way" can attract more young people to love and pay attention to opera and revitalize the ancient opera art; those who play the bullet dismiss it as "vulgarization of elegant art" and "tampering with Peking Opera", believing that this form is the "evil road" of opera revitalization.
So, how should we view opera reform? Is the "416 Women's Group" the ultimate shortcut to opera reform?
It must be pointed out that today's opera, which is considered an "ancient art", is almost all the product of many reforms and "modernizations".
Peking Opera, the local opera variety with the largest influence and the largest "population" of actors and audiences in China, is based on the "Huiban Into Beijing" in the fifty-fifth year of the Qianlong Dynasty (1790 AD), which combines and innovates by singing "Erhuang" as the main Hui opera and the Han opera based on singing "Xipi", and takes this opportunity to overwhelm the original advantageous opera varieties in Beijing such as Kunqu opera and Qin Cavity in one fell swoop, and has become a "national opera" that has swept China for more than a hundred years; Yue opera, an influential large opera in the south, yue opera, It was through Yuan Xuefen and others who made bold reforms drawing on Peking Opera that they became a drama with national influence in one fell swoop; the commentaries in the north were originally slang and extensive "bungee plays." Through the unremitting efforts of several generations of actors such as Old Little Bai Yushuang and Xin Fengxia, as well as literati and drama writers with hearts, while retaining the tradition of "grounding the atmosphere" and "being popular and close to the people," they eliminated the excessively rough points and made it a "big drama" that was once popular in half of China; the Huangmei opera, which was originally a minor tune on the border of E-Anhui, would not have been "purified" by Yan Fengying and others before and after the founding of the People's Republic of China. And modernization, may not have the opportunity to become an influential "regular" opera variety; Shanghai opera, born in the early 20th century, from the repertoire to the stage norms have borrowed a lot of foreign imported drama "civilized drama" (drama) that was popular in the Ten Mile Ocean Field at that time; there are also some small dramas (such as opera), if there is no excavation, collation and modernization after the founding of the People's Republic of China, I am afraid it is impossible to become a standardized local drama variety... Even kunqu opera, which is recognized as "classical and elegant", is actually a product and beneficiary of reform: if it were not for the writers and artists of the Yuan and Ming dynasties who boldly changed the tradition of "only one character per play" of the old miscellaneous opera (Beiqu) and staged the Southern Opera of "anyone can sing", the Kunqu opera, which is now known as the "ancestor of Chinese opera stage performance art", I am afraid it would not be what we see today, let alone be passed down for hundreds of years.
It can be seen from this that reform is the premise and guarantee for the continuation of the vitality of opera, and any Chinese and foreign opera varieties can only accelerate "fossilization" if they cannot be constantly reformed, often innovated, and blindly stuck in their own ways. In fact, today, Kunqu opera and Peking Opera, which are revered as "high art" by many "traditionalists", were once popular for mass entertainment such as fake exchanges, and the real "Gagaku" such as "Shao Le" did not serve society and the audience from the beginning of its birth, they did not care about reform, and they did not care about "life and death".
But what kind of reforms are the reforms that will help opera to be revitalized?
This has long been controversial, especially in recent decades. The popular song "Rap Face" borrowed the mouth of "young people" to propose "no change", believing that modern music, dance, musical instruments and rhythms that young people like to hear should be added to Peking Opera, so as to "invite young people back to the theater"; and the popular Spring Festival Gala sketch, the late veteran critic Zhao Lirong", satirized the packaging of "changing the drama to no taste of the drama" through the mouth of the old actor of the opera, believing that if it loses its true color, it will be even more unwatched, and in fact it is equivalent to "brain death".
Since the reopening of the society, the rich variety of entertainment, the rapid loss of opera audiences, the debate around "where the opera reform is going" will be hot every three to five years, the "Peking Opera Disco" dispute in the 80s once quarreled with the "big platform" and decision-making departments, and even the "opera and song controversy" similar to the "416 Women's Group" is far from the first time - even if the "old accounts" that have alarmed Mr. Mei Baojiu and other opera masters are now forgotten, friends who like to "sing K" always know that the "Pear Blossom Song" that detonated the last "drama controversy bomb" Right?
It must be recognized that any art form (including any kind of opera) has its vitality and life cycle, and there will always be a cycle of budding, development, prosperity, decline and demise, which is not subject to human will. The pace of contemporary society is accelerating, the entertainment is rich, even the more "modern" pop music is changing with each passing day, and it is unrealistic to force the ancient opera genre to endure, and the purpose of the opera reform is not to "revive the dead" (in fact, it is impossible to do), but to give the ancient opera a new source of vitality, so that it has a longer life cycle and "adolescence".
The source of vitality of this complex artistic expression of opera is its close connection with life, society, the times and the fate of countless people. Yue opera performance artist Yuan Xuefen recalled that when she was a child in her hometown, when she was rushing to the scene in the small opera class in her hometown, there would always be a couplet on both sides of the stage: the stage is small and the world is small, the big stage of heaven and earth, which is the true meaning of the source of the vitality of the opera.
It is precisely for this reason that among the various elements that make up opera, the content is the "essence", and only the "modernization" of the content is the real, effective modernization that can effectively extend the life cycle of the opera, while the "modernization" of external factors, including sound, light, dance, and beauty, can only be the "end" and is a relatively secondary reform direction.
Taking Peking Opera as an example, from the entry of Huiban into Beijing to the "Eight Plays", the reforms that are recognized as effective are reforms that not only pay attention to content, so that they are always close to life, society and the times, but also pay attention to the reform of form with the times and the introduction of new ideas, and also pay attention to the reform of organizational forms, actor training, script processing and other aspects. For example, Niu Zihou hosted the "Xiliancheng" and reformed the traditional "guild-oriented" mode of actor training; Mei Lanfang and others founded a new-style troupe and changed many bad habits in the industry; the "Haipai" Peking Opera launched the "organ set and the stage of this drama" to meet the entertainment needs of the Shanghai audience seeking new and changing; the new Chinese organization force standardized the arrangement of the script, created a new historical drama and a "fashion drama", abolished many unreasonable programs on the stage, greatly enriched and enriched the connotation of Peking Opera, and made it look brand new. It is a road of "both internal and external repair", but "internal strength" is the focus of reform and the foundation of the continuation of the vitality of opera, the Qing Dynasty "Zhang Wenxiang stabbed the horse", "Yang Naiwu and the little cabbage", "iron rooster". The "news" of the Republic of China, such as "Yang Sanjie's complaint", "Sun Meiyao's robbery of the train", "Shi Jianqiao's revenge on his father", etc., will soon be put on the stage by dramatists with hearts, and the success of the "box office" of Peking Opera "Fishing and Killing The Family", "Mu Guiying Hangs The Commander", and the Yue opera "Mountain and River Hate" is also more based on the content of giving ancient dramas and traditional themes to fit the times, get close to society, and reflect the people's sufferings and the voices of the people.
The biggest and most controversial innovation in the theater industry after the founding of the People's Republic of China was the creation and performance of "model plays", eliminating the "noise" imposed by the times and certain groups and individuals, and the biggest success of this innovation was still to make the content of the opera more in line with the life, society and times at that time, and such as "protagonist light", "symphony orchestra accompaniment" and even "piano accompaniment to singing red lights", which only played the role of icing on the cake - in the years when "model plays" blossomed throughout the country, the vast majority of them rehearsed "Sha Jiabang" and "Red Lantern" with great interest. The caotai team "doesn't even have half a huqin, so why talk about orchestras, pianos, and lights?" However, the interaction between the stage and offstage is so warm that today's hottest "heavenly group" is afraid that it is beyond the reach of the dust.
If you ignore the "modernization" of the content and blindly stare at the "one leg" of the form reform, it is like revitalizing an old restaurant, not to reform the dishes to meet the changes in customer tastes, but to blindly make a fuss about "plating" and "setting the table", or keen on engaging in "eyeball economy" and "Internet celebrity marketing", even if it is lively for a while, it is difficult to last after all. At the end of the day, an obsolete form of performing arts, far from life, the times, and society, is like a beautifully decorated, empty box, and even if it is painted with new paint, it will not have a greater and more lasting appeal.
In the 1980s, a young audience member at the time was asked by the media about "why Peking Opera disco can't arouse your interest in Peking Opera" and replied that if the content of Peking Opera itself was not asked, blindly adding disco elements and trying to "attract young audiences", then what they actually wanted to attract was "just an audience that likes disco", "then I might as well go directly to the disco". Nowadays, around the debate between the "416 Women's Group" and opera songs, have the participants ever thought about asking whether they are passionate about Peking Opera, "Tiantuan", or idol consumption? If the "416 Women's Group" or any other girl group does not "play" Peking Opera tomorrow but still continues to play idols, do you follow the "transfer", or do you continue to stick to the contemporary Peking Opera stands and box office that are empty?