Since the 1980s, although new screenwriters have emerged in an endless stream, any troupe is still playing "old plays" when facing ordinary audiences, otherwise, the audience will not buy it; and from the perspective of actors, they also like to act in "old plays", thinking that only by acting old plays, they have spent several years or even more than ten years to learn the kung fu to come in handy, and they can only enjoy acting. As for the new screenwriting, the purpose of the show is mostly to win various awards, which has nothing to do with the market. As a result, a situation of "old drama and old acting, old drama" has been formed. Many people explain this phenomenon as follows: the audience loves to watch old plays, which is a manifestation of a low cultural level and aesthetic concepts that have not kept up with the times; actors like to act in old plays, which is caused by ideological arrogance and artistic lack of enterprising. If opera is to be revitalized, it is necessary to change this situation, and use new screenplays that integrate advanced culture and have the aesthetic spirit of the times to attract old audiences and win over young audiences.
But I think there are three reasons for this
First, the theme ideas expressed in the old dramas still coincide with the moral requirements of the broad masses of the people at this stage
The theme of all "old dramas" is basically to praise the traditional excellent virtues - loyalty, benevolence, filial piety, righteousness and other qualities, and vigorously criticize adultery, cruelty, arrogance, selfishness and other behaviors. For most ordinary viewers, they have little interest in new screenplays characterized by cutting-edge ideas and complex characters, because they are not thinkers, and they will not follow the screenwriters to explore what kind of responsibilities society should bear for Pan Jinlian's husband, and they will not study the deep psychological reasons why Cao Cao and Yang Xiu cannot cooperate despite their common ideals. What they want is a wise and wise man who can give the small people a peaceful and happy life, a lang lang who no one dares to blatantly bully men and women, and a harmonious family that has children and old people, and the "old drama" can fully meet their needs for these social morality. For example, "Pearl Tower" stands on the position of the weak and small people, criticizes the attitude of the rich and noble people who despise the poor, and uses the story of Fang Qing's denial of Ji Tailai to increase the morale of the bullied people and destroy the prestige of the rich and unkind.
Second, old opera embodies the aesthetic characteristics of opera art
The aesthetic characteristics of opera art are the emotional nature of singing, the procedural nature of action, the technicality of performance and the slang nature of language. A play needs to use several pieces of music, and the principle of determining what piece to use is to be suitable for the industry, but also to match the emotions of the characters played in a particular situation. The same is the song sung by Zhengdan, when the newlywed Yan'er, when he is separated from the groom, when he misses each other for a long night, when his life is difficult, when he is reunited with his husband, etc., and the vocal color of his songs is different, classic old drama, and truly achieves "song as the voice of the heart". The tune seemed to flow out of the hearts of the characters, and every sound and word was tightly tied to people's heartstrings. The reason why the audience of the opera can't help but shout "yes" when watching the drama is mostly because they are deeply moved by the actor's singing. Singing is so valued and loved by the audience that the weight of singing will be very heavy. After a play, the protagonist usually has to sing about twenty songs, sometimes a song for five or six minutes. Only in this way can we meet the audience's appreciation requirements for the protagonist.
The stylism of action is the basic requirement of opera art, and the reason why it is difficult to learn drama is because it is not easy to grasp the systematic and rich procedural movements. However, only when performed with normative procedural movements, the gesture of raising hands and feet is beautiful. Because each procedural action is formed by how many generations of artists have been explored for a long time and tested by successive generations of audiences. A general's appearance can only be majestic and the momentum of the storm when he uses the procedural action of "starting to dominate"; a show can only appear to be graceful and gentle and affectionate only by holding a folding fan and looking forward to the god's programmed action. The reason why the performance of the old drama is beautiful is that every action is procedural, and it is maintained by the teacher in a way that maintains the beauty of its movements. In addition to the procedural nature of the action, the performance of the old drama also has the technical nature. For example, simple blanket skills, handle skills, and some "unique skills" that only a few artists have achieved after hard practice, such as a person playing the posture of eighteen arhats, passing under ordinary stools, and so on. Of course, these technical movements are not performed for the sake of performance, but are integrated into the plot and serve the character of the characters.
The language of opera is definitely not an ordinary language, it is national, slang, dramatic, with a special rhetorical way. For example, a passage from Fang Qing's aunt Fang Duohua in "Pearl Tower": "If Fang Qing you have a high official to do, the sunrise goes eastward; if Fang Qing you have a high official to do, the sky is full of stars; Fang Qing, if you have a high official to do, Moso Zhu bian bears tender shoots, iron trees blossom and knot copper bells, and boiling water pots can freeze; Fang Qing If you have high officials to do, frogs at the bottom of the well are on the clouds, dried carp jumping dragon gate, yellow dogs out of horns and unicorns, rats are good riders..." Such language is the language of Chinese, the language of opera, and the language appreciated by Chinese audiences.
In comparison, today's new screenwriting repertoire is not highly literate because the composer, director, and screenwriter have a low level of opera literacy, so that the songs they sing are both distant from the requirements of the industry, and they cannot truly express the inner feelings of the characters in a specific situation; the actions performed do not conform to the norms of the program, nor do they have much or even a difficult technical action; the way in which the lyrics and the words are made up are neither national, slang, nor opera, and some are even patchworked together in order to rhyme, and the meaning is unclear. How can the audience like such a play?
Third, the old drama provides a "place for the actors to use"
When opera actors learn opera, whether they sing songs or perform, they use old opera as teaching materials, and they master the performance system of opera by practicing old drama. An actor knows how to perform scenes of pavilions on an empty stage, how to perform the process of a thousand miles of trekking, how to perform a night when you can't see your fingers. In their long-term training and performance, they have a deep affection for old opera, believing that only old drama can reflect the beauty of opera. The newly edited repertoire, the singing voice into a lot of fashionable music, there is a fixed and almost real set on the stage, the original flat performance venue is uneven, and some costumes have removed water sleeves and robe belts in order to show the characteristics of the times. Some of the new screenwriting projects are directed by people who are born as drama directors or who are obedient to realism, so there is a gap between the freehand performance system mastered by the actors and the realistic performance system required by the director. The mixture and contradiction of the two performance systems will make the actors confused and even cause mental pain. Under such circumstances, how to play the new screenwriter well, and how can the actor not be attached to the old drama, and the "old drama is the old act"?
Don't look down on our audience, let alone look down on our opera actors, it's not that they insist on watching old plays and acting old plays, but they have no choice. In the 1950s, there were so many new screenplays, such as "After the Reunion", "Yangmen Women's General", "Dream of the Red Chamber", etc., the audience did not reject them, but completely accepted them, because although they were newly edited, neither the content nor the form exceeded the aesthetic characteristics of opera, which could give people the beauty of opera. If today's newly compiled plays can also comply with the aesthetic requirements of opera, rather than carrying out irrational "reform" at will, the audience and actors will definitely like to watch and like to act.
Author: Zhu Hengfu (opera historian and opera theorist)
Source: Liberation Daily
EDIT: Mingming
Review: Yan Wei
Final Judge: Wang Mei