Zhang Ping, an old artist of Huangmei Opera, talks about the artistic life of Master Yan Fengying
Huang Mei opera generation grandmaster Yan Fengying
She, with Yan Fengying, the grandmaster of the Huangmei Opera generation, is not only a master-apprentice relationship, but also a work colleague, a sister + fellow countryman in life, a good partner on the stage, intimate with each other, and has been getting along day and night for fifteen years. Her memory of Master Yan Fengying not only has a voice and smile that has always been engraved in her heart, but also a noble art that the master will always leave in the history of Youth and a personality force that is difficult for ordinary people to reach.
She once participated in the filming of the movies "Tianxian Match" and "Huai Yin" with Yan Fengying. In his decades of stage career, he has performed nearly 100 large and small opera plays such as "Liu Hai Drama Golden Toad", "Xi Rong Gui", "West Building Society", "Dream of the Red Chamber", "Xi Xiang Ji", "Jasper Hairpin", "Daughter of the Party", "Liu Sanjie", "Sister Jiang", "Daughter of the President", and accompanied the troupe to Hong Kong with "Tianxian Match", "Female Horse" and "Luopa Ji", which were widely praised by Hong Kong and Macao audiences. She is the old artist Zhang Ping, who has been retired for many years and is known for her low profile.
Master Yan Fengying's apprentice Zhang Ping
Born in 1938, Zhang Ping, a native of Tongcheng, Anhui Province, is a national second-class actor of the Huangmei Drama Theatre in Anhui Province, a member of the China Association for the Promotion of Democracy, and a member of the China Dramatists Association. In 1953, he was officially transferred to the Huangmei Opera Troupe in Anhui Province, and rehearsed and performed the whole play "Sending Fragrant Tea" under the personal guidance of Master Yan Fengying. The following year, he participated in the First Literary Congress of Anhui Province and participated in the first East China Literary and Art Conference. After that, he engaged in the tutoring work of the learners of various literary and art groups across the country. In 1956, he officially worshiped Mr. Yan Fengying as a teacher, and thus began a mentoring career of more than ten years.
Yan Fengying starred in "Cowherd Weaver Girl"
Recently, at the invitation of the "Lecture on the Inheritors of Yanpai Art Course" held by the Anhui Art Institute, The 84-year-old teacher Zhang Ping made a report entitled "Inheriting the Art of Yanpai and Exchanging Learning Experiences - My Feelings" for the trainees who participated in the training, using her personal experience to restore some unforgettable memories of the period when she and Master Yan Fengying worked together. Among them, some of the memories are disclosed for the first time and have valuable reference value.
Chairman Mao once boasted that "Yan Fengying is a good actor," and Yan Fengying firmly said, "I will strive to be a good actor."
In the blink of an eye, it has been 53 years since the People's Artist Yan Fengying left us, and her short 38-year artistic life has often aroused people's endless nostalgia and remembrance, and has also become the source of motivation for urging people to engage in the research and inheritance of Huangmei opera art. Yan Fengying once lamented that "the old society regarded me as grass, and the new society regarded me as a treasure." When the Huangmei Drama Troupe of Anhui Province was established in 1953, she joyfully stepped onto this stage, and with a grateful heart, she worked hard to learn drama, rehearse, act, and devote herself to various work. In 1956, the movie "Heavenly Immortal Match" came out, which suddenly caused a sensation in the land of Shenzhou. Subsequently, "Female Pony" was successfully adapted to the screen, and huangmei opera music was raised to a new height, thus consolidating the foundation of the Chinese opera stage.
Yan Fengying was studying the script
As a female artist from the old society who was deeply bullied, Yan Fengying gradually became a leader in the field of Huangmei opera art through the cultivation of the party and the state. Her bright, sandy, emotional voice is the gospel of Huangmei Opera, which gives Huangmei Opera a new vitality, and her perseverance in pursuing progress also gives her the political determination to "be the master of the house".
Chairman Mao once received and watched Yan Fengying's performance, and enthusiastically praised "Yan Fengying is a good actor." In fact, the encouragement of the leader is even more the motivation for Yan Fengying to work hard, and she always abides by the firm determination to "strive to be a good actor" until the last breath of the battle for life.
People have talents, and they must learn to cultivate themselves in order to release their potential and talents
At the age of fourteen, due to the compulsion of life, Yan Fengying followed Master Yan Yungao to learn drama, but in the career of wandering around before liberation, she endured the unbearable suffering of ordinary people, and she accumulated a certain amount of performance experience with her unremitting pursuit, absorbing the strengths of the family, and accumulating a certain amount of performance experience.
Stills from "The Female Pony"
After liberation, under the guidance of the party's literary and artistic policy of "a hundred flowers blooming and a hundred schools of thought contending", Huangmei opera ascended to the hall of elegance, and the play "Heavenly Immortal Matching" became famous, and Yan Fengying also became a "Huangmei heavy weapon". From "jade" to "baoyu", from "jade" to heavy equipment, the most important link is "polishing". She endured the hardships and hardships of the entire polishing process, from confusion to sobriety, from blindness to wisdom, and gradually achieved her as an opera elite. She races against the clock, she often gets up early and goes to bed late, hanging her throat and practicing her body. Attendance is harder than the youngsters. Even when eating, I often put on a few chopsticks and carry the rice bowl around to discuss and ask colleagues for performance experience. She humbly analyzed and explored each singing word and the arrangement of each line with the actors and band comrades until each action was satisfied.
Yan Fengying's artistic life is the fruitful result of "hard work, hard study, and diligent questioning". From "bits and pieces, details" to perfectly shape the character. But whenever she performs, she will come early, and the time spent on makeup is almost two or three hours.
"Conveying affection with sound" and "sound and emotion" is the most perfect combination of Huangmei opera in terms of musicality and language, and Yan Fengying exerts it to the extreme
Yan Fengying is a model of "reverence for art and cherishing sound", she "sings with affection, promotes singing with affection, combines singing and affection, and complements each other". The study found that in the long-term artistic practice, the "word sound" she sang out of each word was not exactly the requirement of "word sound", but the "word sound" sung out transformed the "word meaning" into the "word meaning" through the "word sound". In all of Yan Fengying's singing voices, there is no musical theory failure, no ugly words. Yan Fengying knows her shortcomings in culture, and she will make up for the shortcomings in the processing of singing language.
Stills from "Daughter of the Party"
After the establishment of the Provincial Huangmei Drama Troupe to the first East China Conference, Yan Fengying became a "famous horn", and the communication between the "famous horns and famous artists" of various drama genres across the country increased. She never put up a "big brand" shelf, with a humble heart to seek advice in various dramas, and carefully absorbed the essence for use in Huangmei opera.
Learning to ponder the artistic characteristics of other genres of drama is another major measure for Yan Fengying to take from the road of art. She can imitate and learn to sing Peking Opera, Yue Opera, Commentary, Yu Opera, Lu Opera and Pingtan Opera. Even the songs of the time can be sung beautifully. Its purpose is to understand the characteristics of the classic singing voices of various dramas, figure out how to graft their essence into the melody of Huangmei opera, and enrich the musical elements of Huangmei opera.
"Light, heavy, fast, slow, and slow, suppressing ups and downs", it is necessary to shape the corresponding language and singing voice according to different roles
"Light and heavy, fast, slow, and slow, the eight-character opera people all know. But it is not easy to apply to the line cavity, and most people only stay in the literal understanding. Huangmei opera is all a language of life, and it has rich emotional colors. These "eight words" are to enrich the musical language", "MONOSG, onion, ginger, garlic".
Zhang Ping and others took a group photo with Master Yan Fengying
Listening to Yan Fengying's singing voice and confession, the words are clear and clear, such as several family treasures, and the sorrows and joys are all affectionate. In her performance, she put her understanding of the role, through the emotional processing of the inner activities of the characters, and integrated the opera singing voice and recitation with the characters and feelings, laying a solid foundation for shaping a vivid character image and reproducing the true and credible character image. Especially in the singing section after the establishment of the Provincial Huanghuangmei Theater Troupe, the eclectic change in tone and temperament is a breakthrough in the inner world of her characters.
It is easy to enter the play, it is difficult to enter the play, and it is even more difficult to enter the characters. The characters are carefully crafted, and the details determine success or failure
"Enter the character" is a jargon. Generally speaking, as long as the songwriter, director, and role are all assigned. How to "enter the play", in addition to the director's careful layout, that is, the role of the actor. Ken research and love to use his brain are Yan Fengying's personality characteristics, and the characters she portrays are all personalities. After each acceptance of the role, the communication with the director, lyricist, and composer is all-round, after having an understanding of the script, she puts forward her own opinions, adds her own thinking to the understanding of music, overcomes the limitations of low culture, pays attention to the cooperation with the director and other characters, and has a bottom in mind. When performing the play "Sister Jiang", she and the cast first carefully read the "Red Rock" novel. When performing "Daughter of the Party", everyone followed her to consult many materials to find out the experience and feelings of the corresponding characters.
In rehearsals, Yan Fengying often explains to Zhang Ping and other actors the logical principle of "entering the play", "entering the play", and finally "entering the role", as long as you enter the role, the lines and confessions will naturally remember that this is a "water to water"; she also told everyone that the "appearance" on the stage is to shape the character, not to "debut" and appear, not to show their good-looking face and cuteness.
Never let go of a single detail of negligence. I remember that when rehearsing "Sister Jiang", Yan Fengying took a cheongsam and shouted to Zhang Ping to untie the hem seams together and make it into a shabby look. Zhang Ping did not understand what this meant, Yan Fengying explained, "This cheongsam was worn in prison, after being severely tortured by the enemy, it is impossible to be intact, I changed it to better meet the needs of the plot." ”
Because the performance is too devoted, after performing a play to end the curtain, Yan Fengying is still stuck in the plot, dazed on the side, and finally Zhang Ping and Jiang Ming'an pulled her on the stage to close the curtain, so the actor who is obsessed with "entering the role" is estimated to be difficult to see now.
Opera is the expression of characters, and characters are inseparable from the rich experience and induction of life
Yan Fengying was 14 years old and performed on the rural tutai stage, from "Playing Pig Grass" to "Flower Lantern" to "Little Dictionary", which was deeply loved by the majority of the people.
The opera characters on the stage are varied, and how to accurately show the temperament of various characters for the audience is a problem that makes the actors quite brainy. The stylization of costume drama, Yan Fengying will be familiar with it, and the roles of "Sister Jiang" and "Daughter of the Party" Li Yumei of modern drama are not stylized, and they need to design and ponder by themselves. Due to the accumulation of long-term interaction with people, from the costumes, decorations, appearances to the inner world of the characters, as well as the singing voice, she has a bottom in her heart. For example, the two temperaments of the "Spring Silkworm to Death" and "Looking at the Yangtze River" Jiang Jie image she showed on the stage, and the character temperament of "Daughter of the Party" singing "Yesterday I" are different performances, but also very realistic. The "Jiang Xueqin" and "Li Yumei" in her performance can repeatedly eat the role thoroughly and deeply imprint it in her heart, so as to achieve the artistic effect of free rein and control in the performance.
Treat others with a benevolent heart, and treat the world with peace
According to Teacher Zhang Ping's recollection, yan Fengying let everyone call her "Seven Sisters" in the movie in weekday life or work. If you call her "Commander Yan" at work, her eyes will widen, and she will be very unhappy, afraid of shouting herself into a split. Sometimes, when she is childish with the masters and students, she does not mind, haha a smile will pass. When she "raised the bar" with Wang Guanya, Zhang Ping and Jiang Ming'an became "peacemakers", and as the days went on, everyone treated like sisters and a family.
Participate in local volunteer labor between performances
Yan Fengying never put up a shelf, did not tell lies, and never sloppy in his work. She humbly accepts the opinions of connoisseurs and even ordinary audiences. She was older than her sisters, and when she practiced the basic skills of lying fish, she often squatted down and couldn't get up, and everyone wanted to help her pull up, but she stubbornly practiced until she could get up. Yan Fengying became famous before and after the same, performing outside with everyone like backpacking, rolling on the floor. Meetings are held without being late or leaving early. When encountering "words and words" in the drama text, they still do not have the shame to ask questions, sincerely ask for advice, and are consistent with words and deeds. Her affinity has brought people closer together, and she has the same attitude towards superior leaders and ordinary people. Her rigorous work attitude inspires the people she works with to be responsible, and people respect her and take care of her because of her pattern and heart. She often warned her sisters that only when the "feet" stood firmly could things be done well.
Stills from "Heavenly Immortals"
In life and work, Yan Fengying has the most contact with workers, farmers, and SOLDIERs of the People's Liberation Army, and she is always so approachable and quickly mingles with them. After the establishment of the Provincial Huanghuangmei Theater Troupe in 1953, she was almost inseparable from Zhang Ping and Jiang Ming'an and other sisters. The party and the government saved themselves, an artist who had suffered from the old society, to become a great artist, and also gave generous material treatment. Yan Fengying, who knows ento newspaper, gave all this selflessly to the public in various forms. In the countryside, in the mines, in the army, her friends are all over the world, and to some extent, her personality charm has crossed the genre she is engaged in.
Exploring Yan Fengying's singing experience, restoring Yan Pai's singing style, and discovering and cultivating the successors and inheritors of the true Yan Pai art are the top priorities for the revitalization of Huangmei opera
In order to study the "Yanpai" singing voice, we must pay attention to how her "words, sounds, feelings, and rhymes" can be perfectly combined, which is the core element of the focus. In the cast of Huang Mei Opera, there are many people with good voice conditions, but those who can sing beyond Yan Fengying have not yet been discovered. In the past, some people who were close to and close to each other left the stage due to such factors, and these phenomena caused the loss of talents in Huangmei Opera. Today's teaching and training work is expected to be established as a benign mechanism that can discover and retain talents. Experienced practitioners should do a good job of "Bole", discover and cultivate outstanding performing arts talents, so as to revitalize and prosper huangmei opera art.