Guided by the Propaganda Department of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and the Department of Culture and Tourism of Jiangsu Province, produced by Jiangsu Performing Arts Group, and jointly performed by the Opera and Dance Theater of Jiangsu Performing Arts Group, the Symphony Orchestra and the Stage Company, the opera "Zhou Enlai" will land at the Beijing Tianqiao Art Center on March 1 and 2, showing the legendary life of Premier Zhou in the form of opera.
The opera "Zhou Enlai" was created in 2019 and composed by the famous composer Tang Jianping, written by the famous playwrights Feng Baiming and Feng Bilie, and directed by the famous director Xing Shimiao. The performance in Beijing was specially invited by conductor Tan Lihua, the famous tenor Wu Pan played Premier Zhou Enlai, and the famous soprano singer Zhang Jiayu played Deng Yingchao, the wife of Zhou Enlai, and performed together with outstanding young actors such as Tong Mao, Xin Bayar, and Zang Yan.
The play premiered at the Yan'an Grand Theater as the opening ceremony of the "Central Conservatory of Music Yan'an 10.15 Art Festival" and won warm praise from local audiences, praising "returning a wish of Premier Zhou and fulfilling the dream of the people of Yan'an for 46 years". Subsequently, as a newly created stage play of the 2019 Zijin Culture and Art Festival, the play made its debut on the Jiangsu stage and won the "Special Award" of the 2019 Zijin Culture and Art Festival.
After more than a year of polishing, the play has been selected by the Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles "Outstanding Stage Art Works Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China" and the "Excellent Repertoire" of the Fourth China Opera Festival. On January 8, 2022, the drama began a national tour in Huai'an, Jiangsu Province, the hometown of the Premier. This literary and artistic masterpiece dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China is the first operalized expression of Premier Zhou's image, and it is also a new achievement of Jiangsu opera in recent years.
Set against the background of the Withdrawal of Experts by the Soviet Union in 1960 and the great difficulties encountered by the domestic economy, the drama tells the story of Premier Zhou's imminent order to build the country's heavy weapon "two bombs and one star" to succeed; in 1972, with a terminal illness, he negotiated with Nixon with difficulties and finally reached the Sino-US "Shanghai Joint Communiqué"; in 1975, when his condition deteriorated, he still insisted on making scenes such as the "Fourth People's Congress Government Work Report" as a realistic space, with the "Battle of the Xiangjiang River", the "Battle of Zunyi" and the "Bandung Conference" as the flashback space. And with his heroic poem "Dajiang Song Strikes the Tune of the East" written when he was a teenager, he used artistic language to show the historical scenes of Premier Zhou's several "turning crises into opportunities", reproduced his outstanding merits and lofty demeanor, and expressed his glorious life of striving for happiness for the Chinese people, rejuvenation for the Chinese nation, and progress for mankind. Create the image of a big country premier who is wise and stoic, diligent for the people, and adheres to independence and self-reliance.
At the beginning of the creation, the main creative team conducted in-depth interviews with party history experts, consulted relevant materials in detail, and went to the Zhou Enlai Memorial Hall, Zhou Enlai's Former Residence, and Nanjing Meiyuan Xincun Memorial Hall several times in Huai'an City, Jiangsu Province, to search for the traces of great people and learn the spirit of great people. "The biggest difficulty in composing the opera 'Zhou Enlai' is that there are too many important deeds of the premier." Feng Baiming and Feng Bi lie, screenwriters of the opera "Zhou Enlai", said, "The opera itself is not suitable for expressing too complicated stories. Therefore, we decided to select premier Zhou's historic scenes of "turning crises into opportunities" several times at important junctures in China's history, such as the 'Xiangjiang Campaign', the 'Zunyi Conference', and the 'Wanlong Conference', and interpreted the demeanor and temperament of the premier of a big country with fragmentary lenses. ”
"Premier Zhou is a character we are very familiar with, and it is very difficult to put such a real character on the opera stage," said director Xing Shimiao, "to let the audience resonate with the storyline, and sing naturally and sing well is what we have to consider." ”
"I've written more than 20 operas, and I think what each play has to stand is the charisma of the characters, and in the plays I've written, everyone's image is unique." The famous composer Tang Jianping said of the creation of the opera "Zhou Enlai", "Premier Zhou is a great man of a generation, he is Chinese and the world, so when composing music, the pattern should be larger, covering his various images and personalities. It is reported that at the beginning of the rehearsal, Tang Jianping went to the Zhou Enlai Memorial Hall in Huai'an to collect style, watched a large number of historical materials and documentaries, after seeing the video materials played on the projection, Tang Jianping was very emotional, and had some notes in his heart, "After many adjustments, I found a musical theme suitable for describing the premier, both passionate and long, and the connotation is deep, closer to the image of the character." The opera "Zhou Enlai" is undergoing a re-rehearsal, and Tang Jianping has adjusted some details in the play to make it more infectious.
Zheng Zeyun, secretary of the party committee and chairman of the board of directors of jiangsu performing arts group, said that the national tour of the opera "Zhou Enlai" is not only to follow the footsteps of Premier Zhou in those years, walk around and see the prosperity and prosperity of today's China, but also a practical measure for Jiangsu literary and art workers to bear in mind the mission and continue the spiritual blood of Chinese communists with excellent stage art works.
After Beijing Tianqiao Art Center, the play will also enter the peking university lecture hall on March 4 and 5.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Tian Wanting
Editor/Ying Qiao