Qianjiang Evening News Hourly News Reporter Ma Li Correspondent Guo Nan
"Act innocently and earnestly sing opera", this sentence is the demand of Yuan Xuefen, the grandmaster of the Yue opera generation and the people's artist, and it is also one of the precious spiritual wealth she left to the descendants of Yue opera.
On February 19, 2011, Yue opera master Yuan Xuefen passed away at the age of 89. Today, March 26, 2022, marks her centennial birthday.
On March 26, 1922, Yuan Xuefen was born in a poor peasant family in Shengxian County, Zhejiang Province, and her ancestors farmed for generations, and Yuan Xuefen's father, Yuan Maosong, became a people's teacher.
At the age of 11, Yuan Xuefen entered the Four Seasons Spring Class and began her career of study. Eight years of science class life, she studied drama while performing in Hangzhou, Shaoxing and other places. In 1938, he came to Shanghai and co-starred with "Lightning Boy" Ma Zhanghua in "The History of Liang Zhu's Lamentations", which was known as the "new queen" of Yue opera. However, Ma Zhanghua died tragically in 1942, and Yuan Xuefen lost her partner and returned to her hometown for a time.
Yuan Xuefen and Ma Zhanghua
In Shanghai at that time, the stage stage was a random curtain play, the stage and the backstage were a miasma of black smoke, the horn wind prevailed, and the church banquet was the way for the class owner to make money. In order to maintain the proper physical and mental purity, Yuan Xuefen refused to socialize, began to eat vegetarian for many years, and since then has become a silent and self-reliant person.
What prompted her to germinate the heart of reform was when she watched the drama "Wen Tianxiang", and when the Chinese Tianxiang was righteous, she recited "Who has not died since ancient times, leave Dan's heart to take care of the sweat and green", and there was a round of applause from the audience. Such resonance on stage and offstage made Yuan Xuefen extremely shaken, and she secretly resolved: to sing a righteous song like "Wen Tianxiang", and to be a person with integrity like Wen Tianxiang.
Yuan Xuefen wants to use a whole set of drama choreographers, directors, beauty, and acting to transform Yue opera. With her own efforts, she removed all obstacles, and on October 28, 1942, Yuan Xuefen re-appeared on stage at the Tai Lai Theater to perform "The Wronged Soul of the Ancient Temple" and began the reform of Yue opera.
Yuan Xuefen's road to reform does not stop there.
Yue opera is good at ancient themes and love themes, especially the drama of talented women, and the audience also likes it. Yuan Xuefen believes that this is the advantage of Yue opera, but also the disadvantage of Yue opera, which limits the creative theme and the performance space of the actors, which is not conducive to the long-term development of the drama genre.
In March 1946, Yuan Xuefen read Lu Xun's novel "Blessing", and out of great sympathy for Xianglin Sister-in-law, out of a strong sense of social responsibility, and out of desire to break through the theme of Yue opera, she decided to adapt the novel "Blessing" into the Yue opera "Xianglin Sister-in-law". Yuan Xuefen believes that there are also many scenes in the traditional repertoire of Yue opera that show the suffering of women, and I believe that the audience will definitely sympathize with the tragic fate of Xiang lin's sister-in-law. More importantly, reflecting real life is also the responsibility of Yue opera, "playing Xianglin Sister-in-law is to make women in real life no longer repeat the fate of Xianglin Sister-in-law." ”
After receiving applause and many praises from the audience, Yuan Xuefen was not satisfied, and she believed that the role of Xianglin Sister-in-law was worth spending her life to shape. Sure enough, in the following forty years, she made four major revisions and processing of "Xianglin Sister-in-law", making it a milestone repertoire of Yue opera reform and a classic repertoire of Yue opera.
On April 12, 1950, the first national theater troupe in New China, the East China Yue Opera Experimental Theater Troupe, was established. Yuan Xuefen and Huang Sha were appointed as the regimental commanders and deputy commanders. After the establishment of the East China Opera Research Institute the following year, she served as vice president. During this period, she and Fan Ruijuan filmed the first large-scale color film in New China, "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai".
At the same time, Yuan Xuefen also put the Yue opera classic "West Chamber" on the stage.
When she got the script of "West Chamber", Yuan Xuefen felt that the character of Cui Yingying was inconsistent and very resistant. Later, Yi Bing said to her: "The warbler has performed well and has made a great contribution to the country." Inspired by Yi Bing, Yuan Xuefen carefully read the original work, calmly analyzed the background of the era in which Cui Yingying lived, and realized that her inconsistent appearance and duplicity in her handling of the problem were caused by specific circumstances, rather than the two-faced faction that people usually think, and only then did she psychologically accept this "Cui Yingying", and "The Tale of the West Chamber" has become one of the four classics of Yue opera.
Yuan Xuefen plays Cui Yingying
In order to create a high-grade modern art, Yuan Xuefen decided to establish a formal performance system. She studied drama and set up a drama department, with screenwriters and directors leading the whole process of artistic creation. Combining the realist performance of drama and film with the tradition of national opera, the creative collective centered on choreography and directing, and the integration of performance, music and choreography, makes Yue opera develop in the direction of comprehensive art. The full-time system of choreography and directing of opera also began. This not only laid the basic appearance of modern Yue opera, but also made a useful exploration of the modernization of Chinese opera, especially the modernization of local opera genres, and greatly promoted the process of Chinese opera modernization.
Yuan Xuefen's life truly originated from the people, never separated from the audience, committed to dedicating the best art and the most sincere feelings to the people, worthy of the title of people's artist.
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