When you walk on the way to school or after school, and rub shoulders with a beautiful sister who is fashionably dressed and has a good temperament, have you ever thought that it may be a chinese character unit and a good kung fu opera actor? Teacher Jiang Meiyi, the interviewee of this issue of Xuetong Column, is such a charming young Peking opera person. Let's follow her story and get a glimpse of the mysterious world of opera!
Jiang Meiyi: Outstanding young actor of the National Peking Opera House, graduated from the Secondary Drama School affiliated to the China Academy of Drama and the China Academy of Drama. Professional level one level is great! On April 30, 2022, Teacher Jiang Meiyi had a special performance at mei lanfang grand theater (theater public number and barley can be viewed), if you are interested, you can go to the scene!
Q1
How did you get into the opera industry? What about your colleagues and classmates?
A
I came into contact with opera because my parents were engaged in opera, and they learned it naturally from an early age. Some of my colleagues and classmates around me also do this from their families, and then some people have attended a relatively good Peking Opera training class when they were young, and they like it themselves, so they have been learning. Of course, there are also a small number of people who enter this line of work in a vacuum.
Q2
At the same time, as an opera artist and a "person who went ashore to study for graduate school", did the experience of examination and research help you?
I think that through the tempering of the period of examination and research, I can better withstand loneliness in my state of mind. When I graduated from my senior year, I was very stressed, I had to practice and study, and there was also a very anxious atmosphere among the students around me, so I had to put my mentality very flat and flat in order to persevere to the end. After surviving that period of anxiety, I can face the changes in my work more peacefully.
Q3
Recommend a Peking Opera to middle school students, right?
I recommend the play "The Lady of The Yangmen". The dramatic conflict of this play is particularly rich, there are tragedies and joys, and the martial arts scenes are also very exciting. And the most important thing is that this play is full of home and country feelings, which is more suitable for middle school students to watch when they enter.
The author said
It is no secret that when I was in elementary school, I once followed the school club to learn the "Tangu" fold in "Yangmen Female General", the singing voice is very good, the figure is very handsome, to use a spear and a horse whip, the performance is also very beautiful, the only fly in the ointment is ... "The wind and the mist are long and the stars are bleak" The "light" word until now, I have not sung it (laughs).
"Born in 1945, still teaching in Chinese opera", "one of the four Dans of Beikun", "Representative inheritor of the representative project of national intangible cultural heritage"... These descriptions make Mr. Zhang Yuwen sound very far away from us. So what if I say that Mr. Zhang Yuwen is actually a graduate of Beijing No. 2 Experimental Primary School more than 60 years ago? In the process of being interviewed, when the memories of those dusty Kunqu opera careers of more than 60 years were brought up again, Teacher Zhang gushed endlessly, like a number of family treasures. At the age of 77, she is still busy with the inheritance and dissemination of Kunqu opera, and she is willing to eat it. In this impetuous and fast-paced era, with a lifetime to adhere to a career, Teacher Zhang is a well-deserved example.
Zhang Yuwen: Kunqu opera actor and teacher. Gong Bo Men Dan, Zheng Dan, Assassination Dan, Dao Ma Dan. From 1958 to 1962, during his school years, he successively inherited the excellent traditional drama codes such as "Peony Pavilion", "Jade Hairpin Record", "Xi Xiang Ji", "Horse Dealer Record", "White Snake Biography", "Beiji", "Confession", "Lulin", etc., and rehearsed the whole book of traditional dramas such as "Hundred Flowers", "Jingchao Ji", "Wu Song" and other newly edited historical dramas of Kunqu Opera, such as "Qingwen" and "Princess Wencheng", which is known as one of the "Four Dans of Northern Kun". Years of stage practice, the formation of a distinct Northern School of performing arts style, the voice is loud and beautiful, the words are clear and euphemistic, the appearance is graceful and luxurious, and the culture and martial arts are both good.
How did you come into contact with Kunqu in the 1950s?
At that time, there was no other literary and artistic form, and my grandfather, father, and mother all liked to watch drama. I was infected by them, and I went with them when they went to the theater. At that time, our family was very close to the old Chang'an Theater, so I often spent every night in the theater garden, and I loved the drama very much.
My elementary school was in the second elementary school of the experiment, and our principal at that time was also a fan of the play, and paid special attention to the cultural education of our students, and I may have been guided by the cultural atmosphere in the school.
I first studied opera at the Beijing Kunqu Opera Study Club. A neighbor aunt heard that I liked to sing and introduced me there. Once I started learning, I had a goal: When would I be able to act on stage? In 1957, the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater was established under the care of Premier Zhou, and in 1958, when Beikun recruited students, I was officially admitted to the Northern Kunqu Theater.
When you applied for the Northern Kunqu Opera Theatre, you were one year younger than the required age, how did you get in?
It was the middle of the holidays, and school was about to start, so when I walked to the Xidan Theater with my classmates, I saw the admissions advertisement in Beikun. My classmates said to me, "Don't you know Kunqu opera?" Just people recruit you to try it? "I was a little hesitant when I saw the age limit, but I found that as long as I was admitted to this class, I could become a full-fledged actor after studying and practicing, which made me so happy that I decided to give it a try." At that time, there were very few children who could sing Kunqu opera, and when I first tried, I sang "Bubujiao" in "Peony Pavilion", and the second test was more complicated, but in the end I passed smoothly. At first, I did not see the list of admissions, thinking that I was not admitted, especially depressed, and then after being reminded by others, I saw my own name in the admission list, otherwise I may have missed the opportunity to study in the Kunqu class, and my life could not contact the industry of literature and art.
You are 77 years old this year, but you are still teaching at the China Academy of Performing Arts, and you have also opened a music club outside the school to cultivate amateur musicians.
People are willing to protect what they love and pass it on. Only in this way can this thing live forever. If in our ordinary primary and secondary schools, every student in each class can sing a paragraph, then this is amazing, this is the purpose I have always wanted to achieve in my heart. I've been attending classes at professional colleges since 1987, and now many of my former students are in their 40s and have returned to school. I feel that this is really the inheritance of art in blossoming.
In the scientific community, scientists die but the development of science is constantly advancing. The same is true in the field of art, as long as the teachers teach carefully and the students study hard, I believe that we will definitely make the students better than the blue, and make our Kunqu art better and better.
Speaking of which, the first Kunqu opera I saw in the theater was Shao Tianshuai's teacher's "Sending Jing Niang in a Thousand Miles", the beauty of the singing voice, who knows! Later, after watching Kunqu opera more often, I gradually became familiar with Shao Tianshuai on the stage: she was Du Liniang in "Peony Pavilion", Chen Miaochang in "The Book of Jade Hairpins", and Cui Jiyun in "Pity Xiang Companion"... This time, talking to Teacher Shao on the stage is a completely different feeling - she is no longer any role in the ancient script, but a professional opera worker who loves her job, thinks diligently and maintains feelings. (During the interview, Teacher Shao would patiently ask when we were stuck: "What else do you want to ask?") "Really lovely! ）
Shao Tianshuai: National first-class actor of the Northern Kunqu Opera Theatre, Gong Bo mendan. ps. Teacher Shao's performance can also be found in the public accounts of Damai Network and major theaters, and it is highly recommended to go and watch.
Recently, the Chinese style opera songs are very popular on the Internet, we know that you have also cooperated with different singers on some opera songs, why did you start to contact the opera songs? Do you have any experience in the innovation and promotion of opera?
We want to channel pop music into the theater of traditional cultural opera, which is equivalent to sowing seeds in the ancient style music online and then harvesting in our theater. We thought that for different eras, people in each period have their own music that represents a specific era.
In fact, what we want to do is to let people after 90, 00, and even 10 are familiar with the musical form of opera songs and feel the charm of traditional opera culture. I think the artistic combination of any form of opera is a good thing. For example, we know that the movie "Farewell to the Overlord" tells the story of Peking Opera and is a very classic movie. In the process of integration, as long as you find the rhythm and soul of the opera, you will not be said to be unsympathetic. The Cantonese opera movie "White Snake" released last year is very good, and the visual impact in the cinema environment is very attractive, even if everyone may not know Cantonese, but they do not feel unacceptable, but are happy to feel the spread of such opera.
As a graduate and teacher of the China Academy of Opera, what advantages do you think students of Chinese opera will gain after four years of university or more?
The various theoretical knowledge angles that the teachers have built for us are really rich. This wealth we could not understand when we listened to the lecture at that time, but when it was time to write a thesis after graduation, I would feel suddenly enlightened when I opened the notes I had written before. I still remember the "three-body theory" taught by teacher Li Chonglin, itself, the art body and the avatar. It refers to the actor's own conditions that determine his own profession, and the art body is to temper and improve his artistic level through the ten years from secondary school to university. For example, round field, turning over, singing, reading white, acting. And in the end, all of this skill is finally revealed, and the character is transformed into your own body to interpret other people's stories. This theory has benefited me a lot.
The performance of Chinese opera is very freehand, is there any performance design that is extracted from life?
There are a lot of scenes that are meant to be captured in life. The first is the overall character image. To perform on stage the state of a child, the state of a young girl, or the state of a middle-aged person, the imitation of the pace and posture of the characters of different ages is obtained through observation. If you don't observe the people in life, you are actually doing a shell, and the audience will not believe the role.
For example, in "Pity The Companion", there is a design in which the two hands of two people are wrapped together like lotus flowers. This is actually the use of the body to visualize the emotions of the characters, which not only expresses the lingering, but also gives the viewer the space to imagine, just like enjoying a painting exhibition, the understanding of the picture depends on the mood of the viewer at that moment, which is derived from life and higher than life.
Teacher Shao Tianshuai's words to the middle school students
The most important thing is to maintain the original intention of the cause that you love. This initial intention is more of your feelings, which determines your future path.
Wen | Li Yitian
Editor| Zhao Jie
![Young Peking Opera Kunsheng Wang Ruoding came to the fore, starring in "Wu Zixu" to dedicate to the audience of the capital[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)