"Li Hongyan's skills are exquisite, although there are many scenes, they are all safely completed, and she plays a good girl who is strong and soft, has feelings and righteousness, and forgets death for the country and the family!" "The 'Monkey King' Sun Wukong, played by Zhan Lei, has a vivid performance, a tight rhythm and a humorous and witty performance." On March 2nd and 3rd, the Peking Opera "Yang Qiniang" and "Qi Tian Dasheng" were staged as the opening drama of the Beijing Opera House "Wu" Cai "Jing" Hua - 2022 Martial Arts Exhibition in Beijing National Centre for the Performing Arts. The actors ignited the atmosphere and enthusiasm of the audience with their stunts and wonderful interpretations. This spring, Peking Opera martial arts heat up with the weather.
The development of Peking Opera art has experienced more than 230 years, of which martial arts, as the "half of the country" of Peking Opera, accompanies the whole process of the occurrence, development and maturity of Peking Opera art, which has distinct uniqueness. Many previous artists have created a large number of colorful classic martial arts repertoire, which has become a valuable heritage of Peking Opera art.
▲ Stills of "Yang Qiniang" (Courtesy of Beijing Opera House)
"Over the years, due to the changes in the performance market and the restrictions of box office revenue, there have been more literary dramas, and it is gradually difficult to see the performances of excellent martial arts plays. The shrinking of the martial arts market and the reduction of practical opportunities have also caused a decline in the level of professional teams of martial arts actors in art academies. In view of the marginalization of Peking Opera martial arts in recent years, many people such as Peking Opera master Ye Jinyuan have called for "attaching importance to the development of martial arts."
In this regard, the leadership of Beijing Opera House attaches great importance to it, and after in-depth research and careful planning, it launched the annual key brand performance activity of "Wu" Cai "Jing" Hua - Martial Arts Exhibition, which builds an important platform for martial arts actors to promote their growth with drama and merit, and comprehensively displays the superb skills of the actors, the lofty posture of the theater and the charm of martial arts art through excavation and collation of classic martial arts.
After layers of screening, the repertoire and actors of this exhibition were finally selected to participate in 51 classic martial arts and 40 martial arts talents. The repertoire includes 17 large-scale plays, 9 medium-sized plays and 25 small plays; the cast covers several generations of actors in the theater, and Wusheng, Wudan, Wujing and Wuugou are all on the dam. The exhibition will be performed 30 times in March, June, July, September and November at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Chang'an Grand Theatre and Jixiang Theater in Beijing.
In fact, this is not the first time in recent years that the Beijing Opera House has made efforts in martial arts. Liu Tong, president of the Beijing Opera House, introduced that in 2021, the Beijing Opera House cooperated with the Art Research Institute of Beijing University of Foreign Chinese to complete the "Peking Opera Ye (Shengzhang) Sect Martial Ugly Art Performance Talent Training" project, focusing on the processing and polishing of a number of martial arts drama repertoire such as "Three Thieves Nine Dragon Cup", "Borrowing Fan", "Thorn Bajie", "Pirate Armor" and so on, which won wide acclaim. In December 2021, the newly compiled Peking Opera "Big Knife King V" of Beijing Peking Opera House was successfully premiered at the Chang'an Grand Theatre. It depicts the story of the "Great Sword King Five" loyal to the liver and righteousness, saving the survival of the people, and finally becoming a generation of heroes in the historical period of the "Penghu Change" historical period, with the wonderful and hot martial arts scene as the biggest highlight, the traditional Peking Opera martial arts with martial arts, dance organic combination, swords, two-hand belts, three-section sticks and other weapons are displayed, and techniques such as head and hair, as well as single pairs, large and small swingers and other scenes are colorful. The play has become a useful exploration of the Beijing Opera House to promote the creation of martial arts.
The Beijing Opera House has a large contingent of martial arts actors nationwide. The theater has built various platforms to insert wings for every aspiring martial arts actor to pursue his dreams; martial arts actors have stuck to their positions, worked diligently, and contributed their own strength to the contemporary promotion of Peking Opera martial arts.
▲ Stills of "Qi Tian Dasheng" (Courtesy of Beijing Opera House)
The 48-year-old Li Mengjia was born into a Liyuan family, and his grandfather was Li Hongchun, who was good at acting Guan Gong and was known as the "Red Life Taidou". In recent years, Li Mengjia has sorted out a number of Guan Gong plays, striving to carry forward the "Li Pai" Guan Gong plays created by Li Hongchun. In November 2020, he sorted out the play "Fengjin Picking Robes" and performed them at the Chang'an Grand Theatre as a separate folding play; in August 2021, he finished the two-fold plays of "Ancient City Society" and "Training Brother", and even performed them together as a whole night drama after "Fengjin Picking Robes"; in March this year, the four plays of "About Three Things", "Giving Robes to Horses", "White Horse Slope" and "Jie Wen Ugly" were finished and participated in the martial arts exhibition of the theater; in April this year, it is planned to perform "LinjiangHui" at the Auspicious Theater.
Li Mengjia plans to put "Taking Xiangyang", "Scraping Bone to Cure Poison" and "Walking Maicheng" on the stage next year after the finishing is completed. After performing "Walking MaiCheng", he immediately sorted out "Chopping the Bear and Tiger" and "Three Knots of Righteousness", and combined the two plays together to become "Guan Gong Was Born". "From the birth of Guan Gong to the return of Guan Gong to heaven. At this point, the Guan Gong drama in our hospital has a beginning and an end. Li Mengjia felt that the heavy responsibility was on his shoulders and the responsibility was unshirkable.
This time, the Peking Opera "Yang Qiniang" made a good start for the Beijing Opera House "Wu" Cai "Jing" Hua - Martial Arts Exhibition. It is a play created by the Beijing Opera House in 2011 and premiered in 2012, 10 years ago. This time, the Beijing Opera House has re-excavated and rearranged the play to improve its stage presentation and artistic standards. The main actors of the play, Li Hongyan and Huang Yanzhong, who are national first-class actors, are more than 50 years old, and they have adhered to the rehearsal field for decades, never quitting in cold and summer, and their original intentions have not changed, and they have achieved today's stage dream with full of enthusiasm and persistence. Peking Opera master Chen Junjie has been retired for many years, and he still has no hesitation in carrying a knife to help.
On the evening of March 2, on the stage of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Li Hongyan's style did not diminish that year. In particular, the last "Blood Battle LiaoBing" is the essence of the martial arts drama of the whole audience, as a sword and horse Dan, Li Hongyan's dashing and capable martial arts skills were fully displayed, winning the applause and applause of the audience. After watching the performance on the spot, Ye Hongzhu, a famous Peking opera artist, was deeply proud of his beloved apprentice Li Hongyan, and lian lian said that such a good play should be performed more and practiced more, so that it could be retained and spread on the Peking Opera stage.
Like Li Hongyan, Li Mengjia and other backbones, young actors at the Beijing Peking Opera House are also making unremitting efforts to inherit martial arts.
The newly compiled Peking Opera "Big Knife King V" was selected for this martial arts exhibition. At the beginning of the creation of the play, its lead actor Zhan Lei, after receiving the task, visited the ruins of the Yuanshun Dart Bureau and the former residence of Wang Wu for the first time, and met wang Wu's neighbors and descendants in the west half of the street, and the exchange with them enabled him to know and understand the character image more deeply. After the performance of "The Great Knife King V", it was generally praised by experts and audiences.
The "Three Thieves and Nine Dragon Cup", which was selected for this martial arts exhibition, was once a play performed by Ye Shengzhang, a master of peking opera ugly arts. In the more than half a century since Ye Shengzhang's death in 1966, Ye Pai's martial arts and even Peking Opera martial arts have gradually fallen into a crisis of inheritance for various reasons, and big plays rarely appear on the stage, there is a lack of inheritors, and the repertoire is on the verge of being lost. In December 2020, the "Peking Opera Ye (Shengzhang) Sect Martial Ugly Art Performance Talent Training Project" was launched in Beijing. In March 2021, the results of the project took to the stage of the Chang'an Grand Theatre. As a project student, starring in "Three Thieves and Nine Dragon Cups", Cao Yangyang, a young actor at the Beijing Peking Opera House, benefited a lot, truly felt his changes and improvements, and said that he would be more confident and calm on the Peking Opera stage in the future.
In recent years, many plays rehearsed by the Beijing Opera House in Beijing can be seen behind the scenes. As an art director and an apprentice, he has been busy with the art of Peking Opera. "The martial arts exhibition held by the Beijing Opera House is of great significance, which can be called a happy event in the art world and a grand event in the pear garden. The golden period of the artistic career of martial arts actors is very short, and young martial arts actors should firmly grasp the opportunity to show off, work hard during rehearsals, show their true skills on the stage, and complete each performance perfectly. His words were long and serious.
Ma Wen, second-level inspector of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, said that the martial arts exhibition and performance activities fully demonstrated the important position of martial arts in the history of the development of Peking Opera, and is another important measure for the Beijing Opera House to continue to build a cultural business card of "Big Opera to See Beijing". "Strive to build this exhibition into a 'martial arts storm', drive the upsurge of performances, and make the 'spirit' of martial arts shine in the new era." He said.
March 17, 2022 China Culture Daily
The 2nd edition featured a special report
"Striving to Revitalize Peking Opera Martial Arts"
Editor-in-charge: Zhang Haining