In June, when flowers are in full bloom, the Shanghai Oriental Art Center Concert Hall will be filled with stirring red melodies and classic Yue tones. In order to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, at 19:30 on June 20, two members of the Zhao Workshop, contemporary Yue opera performance artist Zhao Zhigang and contemporary Yue opera master Chen Xiang, will join hands with Shanghai Yue opera master Han Tingting, Ningbo Xiaobaihuayue Opera Troupe leader Hua Dan Xie Jinlian, young rookies Pan Qiaoqiao, Xu Qiuying, Zhang Huihong, and the children of Zhao's art teaching Xiaohua Class to join hands to launch the special performance "Red" at the 2021 Shanghai Asian Music Festival.
The entire performance is named after "Red". Zhao Zhigang, the performance planner and head of the Zhao workshop, said that "this is not only the pursuit of bright oriental red, but also the Chinese red of brilliant culture". The two main parts of the whole performance, "Red Good Voice and Classic "Dream of the Red Chamber", are the best embodiment of the dual connotation of "red": "Red singing pays tribute to the century-old style, and the oratorio "Red Chamber" inherits cultural self-confidence."
Zhao Zhigang and Chen Xiang's original Yue opera opening "The Most Beautiful is that Touch of Red" was specially created for this performance. The work uses romantic techniques to look back at the great leap forward of the Communist Party of China leading the people of the whole country to stand up, get rich, and become strong, stand at a new starting point of the past century, look back at the road ahead, and revisit the original intention. Yue opera musical "Red Detachment of Women" is one of the original red theme masterpieces of Zhao's workshop, and the singing of "Saying Happiness, Delaying Speech" sung by Zhao Zhigang and Chen Xiang is simple and affectionate, paying tribute to the party's century-old struggle of the blue wisps of the road, highlighting the original intention, the wind and rain have not changed. In addition, Han Tingting, a descendant of the Fan sect of Yue opera, specially sang "I Love You China", Xie Jinlian performed the Yue opera "Jiang Jie Xiu Hongqi", Pan Qiaoqiao's performance of "Zhong soul song remember that year Qingshuitang", and the children's version of the Yue song "Singing Mountain Songs to the Party" brought by Zhao Yijiao Yue Opera Xiaohua.
The performance of the Yue opera oratorio "Dream of the Red Chamber" is a move by the two presiding families of the Zhao workshop, Zhao Zhigang and Chen Xiang, to pay tribute to the master. Chinese Drama Plum Blossom Award, Wenhua Award, Magnolia Award winner, national first-class actor, contemporary Yue opera performance artist Zhao Zhigang and contemporary Yue opera master, national first-class actor, Shanghai Magnolia Drama Performing Arts Protagonist Award winner Chen Xiang will play "Yin (Guifang) Pai Baoyu and Lu (Ruiying) Pai Daiyu". Ningbo Xiaobaihua is the master of Hua Dan, a famous contemporary Yue opera artist, a national first-class actor, and a winner of the Zhejiang Drama Golden Gui Award, Xie Jinlian plays Yuan (Xuefen) Pai Baochao. The embodiment of the many characters in the rest of the "Grand View Garden", the atmosphere of prosperity to withering, is completed by the Chinese and Western big bands and twelve choruses on the stage. Simplifying complexity is one of the characteristics of this performance, only to better highlight the characters, highlight the feelings, but also the unremitting pursuit of "quality simplicity, expensive and prominent".
The so-called oratorio is a large suite structure with a certain dramatic plot, which is composed of a variety of vocal music and orchestras in the West, and is presented in the form of arias, narratives, repetitions, and choruses. On this basis, the Yue opera oratorio "Dream of the Red Chamber" has carried out exploration and innovation suitable for the performance of Yue opera, and the famous composer Zhu Lixi and the famous singing voice design Chen Jun have given a new interpretation of the play in terms of music and singing cavity, breaking the restrictions on the performance of the oratorio, skillfully using forms such as music and suites, with the help of stage art, lighting and singing team, giving full play to the singing advantages of the three main actors of "Bao Dai Chao", and enhancing the coherence, narrative and completeness of the plot with the interconnection and integration of classic and newly created singing segments. "Reading the West Chamber", "Burying Flowers", "Burning Manuscripts" and "A Hundred Years of Good Things And Tonight", etc., all originate from classics, but they are also new. This will make the audience feel refreshed.
The script of the oratorio drama "Dream of the Red Chamber" was personally written by Daniel Zhang, the playwright and screenwriter of the blockbuster TV series "The Pretender", and on the basis of Xu Jin's classic "Dream of the Red Chamber", he created new chapters such as "Baochao Dai embroidery", "Baoyu Listening to the Qin", "Too Vain dream hunting" and so on. In addition, the screenwriter Daniel Zhang also ingeniously added "Good Song Notes", which more profoundly interpreted the process of "turning from glory to decline" revealed by the novel "Dream of the Red Chamber", which made the play more warning. At the end of the play, it ends with a reunion of "too vain to find a dream", comforting those who have lamented and sentimentalized for the sadness of "Bao Dai".
Led by Lan Ling, the top design team of Chinese opera costumes has carefully designed and produced the exquisite and dazzling costumes of the three characters of Bao, Dai and Chao, and the yin lu genre cooperative version will present the audience with a refreshing and completely different audiovisual experience. The famous young conductor Ruan Mingqi and the performers from Zhejiang and Shanghai have excellent presentations. In the whole performance, the actors sang and the band presented by the combination of Chinese and Western, the singing voice was gentle and melodious, the music was full of qi and intestines, and the performance was meticulous, which will present an audio-visual feast full of traditional cultural characteristics and great innovation for the Shanghai audience. It reflects the strong underpinnings of the excellent cultural genes and cultural self-confidence of the Chinese nation, and makes the classic works "red" that have flowed through the ages come out of the new.
Zhao Zhigang said that he is a new generation of drama workers cultivated after the reform and opening up, and on the occasion of the centenary of the founding of the party, he hopes to sing his heart with such a performance. "I believe that all the artists, young actors and I have the same feelings on the 'red' stage. Similarly, the red voice, the classic "Dream of the Red Chamber", these two reds, also express our bacon casting soul, keeping the integrity and innovation, creating for the times and the people. ”
Author: Wang Xiaoli
Editor: Guo Chaohao