Ten years of grinding a sword to sing "Ballad of the Canal" | young artists of that year have become independent

▲ Stills from the opera "Ballad of the Canal"

From April 14th to 17th, the opera "Ballad of the Canal", starring well-known singers Lei Jia and Wang Hongwei, will be staged again at the National Centre for the Performing Arts. This is not an opera rehearsal in the conventional sense, but a commemorative journey from a new play to a classic. 10 years ago, the National Centre for the Performing Arts launched the original opera "Ballad of the Canal", and for the first time used the national singing method as the carrier. From its premiere in 2012 to the present, 10 years have passed in a hurry, and 22 performances in 5 rounds have made it stand on the opera stage as a classic work, and countless audiences love this play and the classic melody in the play.

Presents the unique artistic texture of Chinese national opera

On June 21, 2012, the first original national opera "Ballad of the Canal", which took two years to create, was unveiled. The drama takes the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal with a long history of 2500 years as the background, tells the moving love story of the ups and downs between Qin Xiaosheng, a Jiangnan scholar, and Shui Honglian and Guan Yanyan during the Ming Dynasty, taking the canal as a clue, praising the human love of the world's cangsheng who sacrificed their lives for righteousness and sacrificed themselves for others, and also showed a magnificent picture of nature and history for the audience. This is another original opera with Chinese themes launched by the National Centre for the Performing Arts after "Xi Shi", "Mountain Village Female Teacher" and "Zhao's Orphan", but "Ballad of the Canal" does not adopt the bel canto singing method of Western opera, but instead has a strong Chinese national bel canto style of singing, and draws nourishment from the essence of Chinese culture such as opera, folk songs, and folklore, showing the unique artistic texture and artistic charm of Chinese national opera.

On the night of the premiere, Lei Jia, Wang Hongwei, Wang Li and Sun Yan, four "gold medal singers" who came out of the CCTV Youth Song Contest, not only gave superb singing, but also infected the audience with their deeply devoted performances. Interestingly, the entire performance team was basically bao Yuan'er, the singer of the Gold and Silver Award of the Green Song Competition, in addition to the 4 "gold medal singers" in group A, the group B singing actors Wang Zhe, Wang Zenan, Jin Tingting and Wang Hexiang, who had won the silver medal of the Green Song Competition, also performed remarkablely, showing the overall strength of the young generation of singers.

In people's eyes, in addition to this epic drama with the theme of the Grand Canal, the stage of "Ballad of the Canal" is also a work of art. The stage designed by the well-known stage designer Liu Xinglin draws on the techniques of scattered perspective and blank space in traditional Chinese painting in terms of artistic expression, and pursues the charm of "no painting is a wonderful place" in traditional Chinese aesthetics.

Stepping out along the Grand Canal is a great national drama

In that year, after the construction plan of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt, the Great Wall Cultural Belt and the Xishan Yongdinghe Cultural Belt was proposed, people had a new understanding of ancient Beijing, and "Ballad of the Canal" brought people unlimited reverie and moving with ancient and moving legends and beautiful and touching music. "Ballad of the Canal" brings together domestic first-line artists such as composer Yin Qing, screenwriter Huang Weiruo and Dong Ni, director Liao Xianghong, stage designer Liu Xinglin and so on. In the early stage of creation, the main creator went all the way north from the Hangzhou Gongchen Bridge at the source of the canal to collect wind from many cities along the canal, looking for valuable creative prototypes, and bringing back a large number of vivid visual images. For example, the landscape of Hangzhou presented on the opening stage of "Ballad of the Canal", the Gongchen Bridge, which symbolizes the beginning of the canal, and the thrilling "winch through the gate" are all from local prototypes. Huang Weiruo said: "At the beginning, we went all the way north from the source of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, visited and visited Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Yizheng, Huai'an, Liaocheng, Dezhou, until the Tongzhou Canal Wharf and other nodes along the coast, and experienced the main project trend and cultural environment of the Grand Canal in that year. After the return of the wind, Huang Weiruo and Dong Ni went through 5 creative drafts and 14 script revisions, and finally based on the humanistic background of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, they structured this romantic and lyrical style plot story.

Creator talk

In 10 years, 5 rounds of running-in, 22 performances, young opera artists take turns, whether it is the actors of Shui Honglian, Qin Xiaosheng and Guan Yanyan on the stage, or the young directors and stage executive teams behind the scenes, they have now become the backbone of the opera industry.

Yinqing:

Created for Chinese audiences, contemporary audiences

Yin Qing grew up by the canal, and after joining the army in Jiangsu Binhai, he worked in Hangzhou, the source of the canal, for more than ten years, during which he often went to the canal to collect wind and collected a large number of folk songs along the canal. The canal is as kind to Yinqing as a childhood companion and a friend who has never been far away. Yin Qing said: "I have heard a lot of stories about the canal since I was a child, and I have heard a lot of folk songs, boatmen's trumpets, folk songs, and even sing these songs. These elements helped me a lot in the later creation of "Ballad of the Canal". ”

In the play, there are many good-listening, ear-piercing, and heartfelt singing segments. At the same time, yinqing has done a lot of exploration in the structure of the song according to the characteristics of the Chinese four voices and the national singing method, and strives to strengthen the dramatic performance of the music, among which, the aria created for Shui Honglian, Qin Xiaosheng and Guan Yanyan has great emotional tension and personality charm, and the chorus "Canal Water", "La Fiber Song" and "Shipwright's Winch Song" embodying the theme of the whole play are full of breath and moving, while the choruses such as "Colorful Dragon Boat" and "Soybean White Rice Peanuts" fully display the regional characteristics and folk customs of the north and south of the canal, "We are the flowing water of the canal". Wonderful singing sections such as "Love You in the Afterlife" can be called the finishing touch of the whole play. Yin Qing believes that writing about the canal should have a sense of strength and epicness, reflecting integrity, and writing "ballads" must be kind, good to listen to, and can be sung, and the two are indispensable, and the melodiousness of folk songs and the tension of opera are well integrated and reflected, so that Chinese audiences can listen well and listen to their ears.

Yin Qing once said: "'Ballad of the Canal' is created for Chinese audiences and contemporary audiences, and it is more in line with the appreciation taste of modern audiences. I hope to compose works that truly have a modern style and national charm. The national opera of the National Centre for the Performing Arts should have its own signature and benchmarking! Today, "Ballad of the Canal", which has been sung for 10 years, has become a benchmark stage work.

Shen Liang:

After 10 years, we are all different

As an incubator of Chinese opera, the National Centre for the Performing Arts has not only produced 10 Chinese and foreign opera works, but also cultivated a large number of opera performance and production talents. In 2012, the talented young director Shen Liang appeared on the list of creators of "Ballad of the Canal", she is the project leader and the assistant director of the show's director Liao Xianghong. This time, she has already independently directed many big plays, and she is still the rearrangement director of this round. "'Ballad of the Canal' is the first original national opera of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, and although 'Xi Shi' and 'The Orphan of Zhao' predate 'Ballad of the Canal', the first to use ethnic singing was 'Ballad of the Canal'." Shen Liang said that this is the special significance of the drama "Ballad of the Canal". In the blink of an eye for 10 years, the memories of that year flashed clearly in Shen Liang's mind, "In 2011, I followed several teachers such as director Liao Xianghong, screenwriter Huang Weiruo and Dong Ni from the southern source of the canal to the north to collect wind, at that time I was a newly married bride. We went all the way from south to north, and in retrospect, it was a particularly solid creative process. For the performance team full of youthful atmosphere 10 years ago, Shen Liang also sighed with emotion, "Lei Jia, Wang Hongwei, Wang Li, Sun Yan and several other gold medal winners of the Youth Song Contest, Wang Zhe, Wang Zenan, Jin Tingting and Wang Hexiang and other silver medal winners, have grown and experienced on the stage of "Ballad of the Canal", after 10 years, most of them have changed their identities and jobs, some have gone to the academy, some have entered the academy, they have improved their understanding of art and life, and their skills in art and life have been upgraded in a higher dimension. There is also a greater social responsibility in the role of life. But fortunately, everyone is still sticking to the front line of art and exerting greater artistic energy. ”

Lei Jia:

The water red lotus has become a classic

As one of the water red lotus actors in that year, Lei Jia, who is now the vice president of the China Conservatory of Music, is a national vocal leader. Remembering the premiere of that year, Lei Jia felt a little like yesterday: "10 years ago, I was honored to participate in the premiere of this play, 10 years later, the role of Shui Honglian has become a classic artistic figure in contemporary Chinese opera. These 10 years can be said to be the 10 years of vigorous development of Chinese opera, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts, as the vanguard of Chinese opera, has also experienced a 10-year process of intensive cultivation, and we opera art practitioners have caught up with this good era of growth. "The Ballad of the Canal" has carried out an in-depth exploration of the nationalization of Chinese opera, and many of the singing sections created by Yin Qing, as a melody master, have now become classic songs that are popular among professional college competitions and popular with the people. Lei Jia believes that "Ballad of the Canal" is a phenomenon-level opera, an opera that is appreciated by both elegant and popular, professional and popular, and many of the singing sections in the play use the plate cavity of traditional Chinese art creation, as well as the core characters created through national folk music. Although the play "Ballad of the Canal" is a historical theme, it has a special practical significance in the current performance, and she hopes to dedicate this play to all those who are wandering and uncertain, especially those who are working outside. "As long as there is kindness in the heart, as long as it is sincere and selfless, as long as it is full of compassion and love, and people constitute the spiritual home of others, they can bring light and warmth to the world." Lei Jia said, "After 10 years of acting in this play, both the content of this play and the experience of the role of Shui Honglian will be more profound, and I believe that on the stage, a classic role of national opera that has been more pondered and thought about and carefully polished will be presented." ”

Wang Zhe:

Acting in "Ballad of the Canal" is like going back to the furnace to take a big lesson

For the opera singer Wang Zhe, "Ballad of the Canal" has a special significance. As a student of opera at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, her first opera was "Ballad of the Canal", and it was the heroine Shui Honglian. Moreover, she was fortunate to meet the director Liao Xianghong, she said: "Liao Xianghong is both a teacher of Chinese opera and the director of the play, which is like a re-engineering for me who stepped onto the opera stage for the first time, this rehearsal and learning laid a solid foundation for my future opera stage practice, and the recognition of the industry and the audience also built up confidence for me." After that, she successively starred in operas such as "Long March" and "Jinsha Riverside" at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, and successively created opera roles that were different from those of Shui Honglian. Wang Zhe said that for her, the National Centre for the Performing Arts is both an artistic temple for opera practice and another school, where she has grown up while studying. In the past 10 years, every performance of "Ballad of the Canal" has made her feel different in terms of timbre, performance, expression and embodiment of the role. "I hope that through continuous artistic creation and the experience of time, the audience can feel the artistic growth of opera singers." Wang Zhe said.

April 7, 2022 "China Culture News"

Special reports were published on the 5th edition

"Ten Years of Grinding a Sword Singing "Ballad of the Canal"

The young artists of that year have become independent"

Editor-in-charge: Chen Xiaoyue