The three-fold path of contemporary small theater opera creation

During the 2021 China Small Theater Opera Exhibition, when the author once again walked into the Yangtze River Theater, the main theater of the exhibition, he couldn't help but think of 2018, which was also the same season, when the relevant authorities in Shanghai announced that the Performing Arts Area in Huan people's Square would be named "The Great World of Performing Arts" and launched the "Outline of the Three-Year Action Plan". In the past three years, the "Big World of Performing Arts" has become a large-scale stage showbiz circle with both commonality and personality, scale and characteristics. Under such background and trend, as a cultural brand with great characteristics and potential in the core position of the circle, the Performance of Chinese Small Theater Opera can present what kind of works, what kind of aesthetics to contribute to opera, and what kind of cultural landscape to show for Shanghai, which is full of expectations.

Among the 15 plays performed in this exhibition, the author only watched 3 - Peking Opera "The Death of a Small Official", Liyuan Opera "Chen Sanwuniang" and Han Opera "Goodbye Zhuo Wenjun". In addition to regrets, there are also gains, because these three plays represent different theme sources, creative concepts and stage presentations, pointing to the most important three-fold path of contemporary small theater opera creation.

One

The Peking opera "The Death of a Small Official" is adapted from the novel "The Death of a Small Civil Servant" by the Russian writer Chekhov, and the protagonist changes from a small civil servant in Russia to a nine-pin petty official in the County of the Ming Dynasty. The character's cowardly personality, humble psychology and tragic fate are in the same vein, and the main plot, dramatic contradictions, and themes are the same, so the focus is on how this Peking Opera ugly one-man show is expressed. Only to see the actors on the narrow stage, in front of the audience to hook their faces, hang their hair, dress, when the time comes, directly start the performance. In the performance, there is no longer a change of clothes, no mask or even no foreshadowing, the actor "jumps around" between the protagonist and multiple secondary characters, arranges the voice cavity and body of different professions according to different characters such as inspectors, county officials, wives, etc., and "jumps back" between the clown and the old student, the young student, and the caidan. Even when playing the wife, the actor also sang a commentary, which made the audience feel relieved. Although the whole play is only half an hour, under the profound script literature and skillful performance skills, it presents a strong dramatic tension and exquisite artistic charm, and what is more rare is to play the theme of the novel's satire, criticism and compassion.

Adapting Chinese and foreign classic literature is a tradition of opera creation and performance, and there are many famous dramas. Due to the profound literary nature of the classics, it provides a solid foundation and free time and space for the play of opera art in character shaping, plot setting, and line design. The small theater opera is no exception, and in this exhibition, the same as "The Death of the Little Official" are the Pu opera "Odi King" and the Huangmei opera "Mr. Blue Robe". Looking back in the past, such small theater opera works are large in quantity, high quality and good in market, such as Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe's "Wounded Death" based on Lu Xun's novel, "Chair" adapted from Ionescu's drama, as well as Qin Cavity's "Faust", Dian opera "Madame Macbeth", Yue opera "Letter from a Strange Woman", etc. The adapted works are consistent with the theme of the original work, and the artistic presentation is often innovative. Contemporary small theater opera takes "the avant-garde nature of thought" and "the experimental nature of art" as its purpose and pursuit, adapts Chinese and foreign classics, and must be original in singing and dancing, which means that the "experimental nature of art" has been guaranteed and is stable in one of the two purposes and pursuits. If we can also dig a little "the avant-garde nature of thought", it is even more ideal.

"The Death of a Little Official" premiered in the Tian toad Stage Theater as early as 2007, and from the perspective of creative thinking and expression techniques, it was obviously influenced by the new Peking Opera "Lear Here", but it showed a very different creative ability and artistic charm. Similarly, the Coliseum was the stage on which they first appeared, and the experimental nature of art was their common pursuit. It can be seen that from the generation of wishes to the verification of practice to the final name, small theater opera has taken a path from vague to clear. "The Death of a Little Official" was named "Peking Opera Little Drama" when it came out, and participated in the National Small Drama Sketch Competition, Peking Opera "Ugly Line Performance", etc.; when it reappeared at the Sixth Contemporary Small Theater Opera Art Festival in 2019, it was already named "Little Theater Peking Opera"; this time it was also the opening "Small" play of the 2021 China Small Theater Opera Exhibition, which can be described as a legitimate and "acting" smooth. There are many small theater operas along the way, such as Kun opera "Wounded Death", Sichuan opera "Zhuo Wenjun" and so on. It can also be seen from this that the original opera small drama is the closest creative performance carrier to the "small theater opera"; it can be found that in the past ten years, the small theater opera creation and performance has been from germination and rise to popularity.

Two

The Liyuan opera "Chen SanWu Niang" was performed in the renovated Wanping Theater Small Theater. For this kind of drama, Shanghai audiences are not unfamiliar, because from the first session to the present, Fujian Liyuan Opera is a regular guest of the exhibition, and there have been "Royal Monument Pavilion", "Zhu Wen", "Liu Zhiyuan", "Zhu Maichen" and "Lü Mengzheng" landing in Shanghai and every time the guests are full and the box office is red. The author found that in addition to the original "Royal Monument Pavilion", the later plays from the script to the performance are all on the retro road. As a measure to protect and inherit local opera, in 2016, the relevant departments in Fujian launched the "Fujian Hundred Fold Traditional Folding Opera Exhibition", which restored many "living fossil" level ancient dramas. As one of the achievements, "Chen Sanwuniang" is extremely simple from the script, performance, costumes, and accompaniment, especially the ancient program of "Eighteen-step Mother", which makes people feel a strong sense of isolation from the contemporary cultural context in addition to being amazed. This sense of isolation evolved into a discussion of "what is a small theater opera" in the expert group— you should know that hundreds of years ago, these plays were often performed in "small theaters" such as private halls and deep courtyard backyards. So, is there a need and possibility to separate or separate "classical small theater opera" from "contemporary small theater opera"?

The definition of the concept is the premise of the controversy. But at the beginning of the advent of something new, it is difficult to make a strict model of the concept, and perhaps this is the more appropriate thing in the future. The small theater opera originated in the early 21st century and was influenced by the small theater drama. After the latter entered China from Europe and the United States, it set off a boom in the mid-to-late 1980s and indirectly spawned small theater opera. The proposition of Western small theater drama is to get rid of the human spiritual dilemma with the rebellion of thought, realize the independence of personality, break free from the shackles of traditional models with artistic vigor, and complete cultural innovation. In short, welcome to "pioneers" and "experiments". According to this, some experts believe that small theater opera should also follow this path, and should not accept traditional folds and rural small dramas, but should focus on "deviance", express the social trend of the new era, and shape new aesthetic attributes of opera; some experts believe that small theater opera is also opera, and should rely on tradition, learn from tradition, express tradition, and always maintain the mentality and posture of paying tribute to tradition. The author initially favored the former, but after years of observation, he changed to the latter, and at the same time reflected and adjusted both.

In fact, the presentation of traditional opera and the construction of contemporary opera are not two poles that cannot be tolerated, but the intersection of mutual intervention, and the two constitute a contemporary opera community. Among them, traditional dramas and folding plays, historical dramas and modern dramas of newly compiled dramas belong to the "grand theater" system; original small plays, as mentioned above, if one of the pioneers and experiments is satisfied, it can be named small theater opera. In the same way, the stretching and extension of the old folding sub-drama, such as the Kun opera "Bai Luo Shirt" performed in this exhibition, although it follows the tradition in the theme but has developed artistically, should also belong to the small theater opera; only the "new performance of ancient opera" is controversial. The reason why the author advocates including it in the category of small theater opera is that in the context of "intangible cultural heritage", the small theater is a precious platform for displaying and protecting the "living fossils of Song and Yuan southern opera", and cannot be actively lost; second, the characteristics of the "new performance of ancient opera" itself are caused. I remember that when the whole book of Shangkun was premiered in 2007, the critic Liu Housheng wrote that the text on paper from 300 years ago was put on the contemporary stage without video materials and performance descriptions, and it was bound to go through a "highly creative artistic process" ("Kunqu Opera Complete Book Creation Review Collection"). This comment also applies to the ancient pear garden play. For contemporary audiences, these plays seem to be ancient, but if you look deeply, they are bound to be different from ancient performances, and these plays and creations hidden in "repairing the old as old" are not a kind of inheritance experiment unique to the art of opera?

Not only that, since opera is unique to China, then small theater opera is also unique to China. In view of the long history of opera, rich in skills, the heyday of the past, and the difficulty of innovation, especially the knowledge structure, technical reserves, creative thinking and aesthetic pursuit of opera artists, compared with dramatists, there are also differences, and they should respect their history, analyze their reality, and broaden their future, so as to provide sufficient time and space for the exploration and creation of opera artists and the definition and positioning of small theater opera. In short, in the initial stage of small theater opera, it is not appropriate to frame it too harshly, let alone to copy the Western concept in its entirety. The author welcomes "pioneers" and "experiments", but also advocates that in the category of contemporary small theater opera, there is a place for "classical small theater opera" - this is the right to have a long tradition and a broad hidden opera art.

Three

The critic Ji Guoping once described the small theater opera as follows: "The small theater opera is the product of the grafting of Western and Chinese small theater drama with Chinese traditional opera, which is both traditional and modern. (The Yihe Collection) This statement is very true. However, according to the above point of view, the author believes that what this statement refers to is only a certain type of drama in small theater opera, such as the Chinese opera "Goodbye Zhuo Wenjun" performed in this exhibition.

The love story of Zhuo Wenjun and Sima Xiangxiang has been interpreted by many opera dramas. In "Goodbye Zhuo Wenjun", the original character plot accounted for only one-fifth, and the three characters of the ancient and modern two groups realized free docking and dialogue on the same stage under the "crossing" technique, and sang popular songs, danced tap dances, and stepped on the balance car, which is a comedy drama with modern content and absurd style, conveying contemporary people's views on the relationship between love and money, marriage and career.

Since the debut of the first small theater Peking opera "Splashing Water in Front of the Horse" in 2000, "old bottles of new wine" has always been the "main road" for the creation and performance of small theater opera. By the way, this is also the embodiment of the Chinese literati spiritual tradition of "using the wine cup of the ancients and pouring the block of the heart" in the creation and performance of small theater opera, and its banners or slogans are roughly "to generate new concepts for tradition" and "to inject contemporaryity into classics". The Cantonese opera "Golden Lotus", the Yu opera "Nanhua Jing", the Huangmei opera "Beauty", the Huai opera "Xiucai Zhen wife", and the Sichuan opera "Gui Ying and Wang Kui" all belong to this category.

Such works are often not small in the courage and scale of using the past and the present, and the combination of ideological pioneers and artistic experiments, and the fit with the pioneers and experiments of Western small theater dramas, is the closest of all kinds. It should be noted that the injection of contemporary concepts and the deformation of traditional art are full of confidence and vigor, which not only provides a strong constructiveness for contemporary opera, but also brings violent subversion to traditional opera, and it is easy to appear alienation or vulgarization caused by subversion and criticism, deep and mysterious, and joke for funny. The author believes that the creation and performance of such plays must be based on the premise of respecting the Chinese aesthetic spirit, following the rules of opera creation and performance, and not exceeding the upper limit of the aesthetic tolerance of most people. If there is no profound thinking and no excellent creativity, I am afraid that we will only leave the name of "small theater" and lose the reality of "opera", and become a short-sighted and a pseudo-act of buying and returning pearls.

Looking at the three-fold path of contemporary small theater opera creation, it is both relatively independent and intersects with each other, showing full vitality, charming charm and strong potential in both integrity and innovation, and the status quo is gratifying and the future is promising. However, the above three paths are still not enough. To paraphrase the "Book of Rites" "Wang Tianxia has a triple yan" as "walking the world is three-fold", the author believes that the construction of a comprehensive original repertoire in the editing, directing and acting is more important and long-term. In this exhibition, such plays include dian opera "Pink Waiter" and Peking opera "A Smoke and Rain". But it is precisely this type of drama that is relatively weak in terms of quantity and quality, and there are only a few good works in the past. Kunqu opera "319 · Looking Back at the Forbidden City" has the legend of Ming as its reliance, but there are almost no traces of old dramas, and the original concentration is extremely high; the circle can also be circled by gaojia drama "A sister-in-law" and Huangmei opera "Xiang Ru Gu". The author believes that such pure and original repertoire is the most able to contribute to the conceptual definition and cultural positioning of small theater opera. It is precisely because it has done less that it is more extensive; it is precisely because it is difficult that it is even more difficult to advance.

Four

In the continuous exploration and controversy, the small theater opera has gone through a process of more than 20 years. Although the whole is still in its infancy, from strange to mature, from sparse to prosperous, it shows the sunrise-like present and splendid future of small theater opera, and it is more related to the prosperity of the entire opera art and affects the overall cultural construction. The author believes that small theater opera has great hopes to become a main track for the creative transformation and innovative transformation of traditional Chinese opera, and it is very likely to become a large platform to show the recognition and identity of national culture and reflect the inclusiveness and internationality of urban culture. Specifically manifested in four aspects -

First, the number of creative and performing subjects is increasing. Small theater opera first appeared in a few large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Ningbo, and Sui, and many troupes launched many powerful works, which can be described as a fruitful harvest in "source" and "going out". With the passage of time, various dramas from all over the world have followed suit. Due to the low threshold, small cost and high degree of completion of small theaters, the producer has also extended from state-owned theater groups to private theater groups, cultural enterprises and institutions, further promoting the diversity of creative performances.

Second, the pattern of a hundred flowers blooming is highlighted. In the past, many large theaters and troupes focused on heavy creation and performance, limited strength and resources, and often could not take into account the theme, theme, genre and style. The emergence of small theater opera has made up for this shortcoming with new ideas, less investment, short cycles, and more categories, ensuring the "three simultaneous moves" of the theater troupe in traditional drama, modern drama and newly compiled historical drama. This is not only conducive to cultivating echelon-shaped opera talents and carrying out diversified opera undertakings, but also conducive to the cultivation of subdivided audience groups and the construction of a hierarchical performance market.

The third is the sustainable development of the exhibition platform. Two national small theater opera exhibition platforms, the China Small Theater Opera Exhibition in Shanghai and the Contemporary Small Theater Opera Art Festival in Beijing, echo each other from one south and one north, and after years of operation, they have a high reputation and strong influence. Just as the shanghai exhibition was preparing, Hangzhou's "Good Tone • 2021 Small Theater Opera Season" suddenly rose up. Unlike the previous two, the "Xiqu Season" features online display and online voting, which is novel and controversial, but its attractiveness and competitiveness have been highlighted in the anti-epidemic environment. The author believes that although the increase of the platform is good, it is necessary to establish the expertise, characteristics and style as soon as possible, through different angles and different levels to stimulate the local and promote the construction of foreign opera forces to create performances, markets, reviews, and theories, and make breakthroughs and win results in career development and industrial marketing.

The fourth is to promote the construction of cultural ecology. As a new type of opera performing arts model that is gradually growing and matures, the attraction of small theater opera to contemporary theater audiences is getting stronger and stronger, and its role in urban cultural construction is also increasing. It has become a reality for small theater opera to enter the mass performance market, and as for entering the mainstream cultural category, I am afraid that it is also a matter of time, so the government and society need to pay more attention and greater support.

Source: Liberation Daily