I have seen such a martial arts play, in which various martial arts performances are designed, from somersaults to wrestling forks, from chair skills to hand fighting, almost everything is available, like a martial arts display. The actor's kung fu is quite magnetic, and the performance attitude is also very serious. However, I didn't feel too addicted, and most of the audience responded mediocrely. This phenomenon prompted me to think about the relationship between the "technique" of opera art and the "drama".
Drama proverb cloud: "Drama does not leave the skill, the technique does not leave the play", these two sentences are concise and comprehensive. The technicality of opera is both clearly affirmed and strictly restricted.
The problem is often in the two aspects of neglect and ostentation. The so-called "neglect" means that in some newly arranged repertoire, the inherent "drama does not leave the skill" of opera, not much research, lack of embodiment, can not be like Li Shaochun played Yang Bailao creatively mobilize martial arts, strengthen the vividness of performance. And "showing off" is to use martial arts in the play with blindness, acrobatic techniques, not to turn martial arts into the flesh and blood of technology, but to more or less turn acting into acrobatics.
Some previous artists said it well: Acting should pay attention to eating less and tasting more. In the relationship between "skill" and "drama", it is also necessary to "eat less and taste more", that is, do not "starve with the flapjacks on the pillow" and ignore the rich skills; do not blindly "eat", making more and less tasteful. When the ancients wrote, they said: "The flower blossoms in the short, and it ends in half a moment." I drink fairy dew, why a thousand bells. It can be seen that as a work of art as spiritual food, it should seek "refinement" rather than "more". However, how can we make the "skill" in the "play" as beautiful as a short flower, and the taste is better than the dew?
First of all, the skill must be exquisite. For example, the senior xiaosheng actor Dejun Ru played Lü Bu in "Yuanmen Shooting", sang with a bow when shooting, and sang an arrow when he turned around, he would shoot it, so that the arrow would fall. When Ximen Qing threw a wine glass to fight Wu Song, Gai Callian always used a knife to slash hard, like a baseball, the cup was cut straight, so that the wine glass "Dang" flew to the stage. Zhao Yun, a famous Peking Opera actor Li Huiliang, who played "Changsaka Slope" in that year, in the section "Scratching the Curtain", in order to show the characters sliding down from the well platform, he stuck a hard back to turn over the "upside-down tiger", and turned it as strong as a mountain, light and swift like an ape flying. Just think, if the above three cases become the shooting is not in the middle, the cup is not cut, and the tumbling is bulky, how can we achieve the best effect of "skill" on "drama"?
In other words, if an opera actor wants to embody a high degree of skill in his performance, he must first have excellent and amazing kung fu to meet the audience's aesthetic requirements of "eating a mouthful of peach rather than eating a basket of rotten apricots".
Second, it must be used appropriately. No matter how subtle your skill, if used inappropriately, let technology replace art, which is artistically shallow and incompetent, and it is not enough.
According to records, the outstanding veteran actor Yu Shuyan once played "Lianying Zhai" in Shanghai, playing Liu Bei. During the performance, the stage was silent, and in order to cater to the interests of some audiences with low appreciation, he "shook his beard and fought somersaults" when he burned the camp, so he won thunderous applause. Yu Shuyan said to people afterwards: "That time I played the Qi Tian Dasheng who made a big fuss in the Heavenly Palace, not Liu Xian, who was taking revenge on the xingbing army. "This is self-deprecation and a repudiation of this inappropriate approach to performance." However, when Yu Pai's "Zhan Taiping" shows that Hua Yun was captured, he used the martial art of "tiger jumping" by leaning over, which seemed very appropriate, making people feel that this ancient hero who could sing and cry also looked so magnificent and majestic at the moment when he fell off his war horse. Although the flip of this "tiger jump" is fleeting, it "flips" the aesthetic evaluation of the character, so it is not only amazing, but also has a touching charm.
In a word, the use of techniques in the play, one must be exquisite, the other must be appropriate. Relying solely on the richness and beauty of martial arts, only to make people get visual satisfaction, is not in line with people's real aesthetic needs.
The technical performance of "not leaving the play" that makes the audience pleasing to the eye also has a relatively independent aesthetic significance and should be carefully arranged. For example, in the appropriate situation, let the character twist dozens of spins in one breath, let the two warring parties accurately and skillfully fight, etc., although it does not match the reality of life, it is also allowable in the opera, as long as it does not violate the theme of the play and does not destroy the artistic infection that the audience should have. This is, as Diderot put it, within the "limits" of not "impairing the expression, the effect of the subject", the artist can and should "make certain sacrifices for the technology". In addition, the so-called "less to eat more" means not to use excess skills that are inconsistent with the prescribed situation of the play, nor does it mean absolutely less; on the contrary, as long as it is used appropriately, it is not tired of it.
In short, it is very important to solve the problem of "skill" to "drama", not only to carry forward the highly technical tradition of opera art, but also not to mistakenly believe that the setting of technical performance can replace the audience's demand for the artistic charm of the drama to impress people's hearts.
Source: People's Drama
EDIT: Mingming
Review: Yang Yao
Final Judge: Wang Mei