At 7:00 a.m. on April 13, 2022, Hua Wenyi, a famous actor in Kunqu opera, died in Los Angeles at the age of 81.
Hua Wenyi (1941 – April 13, 2022), was the first graduate of Shanghai Opera School. She was taught by Zhu Chuanming and other "Chuan" character artists and famous teachers such as Yu Zhenfei and Yan Huizhu, focusing on Boudoir Dan, exquisite skills and outstanding talent, and enjoyed the reputation of "Little Mei Lanfang" in the 1960s.
Hua Wenyi has loved opera since he was a child, and after graduating from primary school, he was admitted to the "Kunqu Opera Actor Training Class of Shanghai East China Research Institute" and was the first graduate of Shanghai Opera School. In the training class, she studied Kunqu opera, and was taught by Zhu Chuanming and other "Chuan" character artists and famous teachers such as Yu Zhenfei and Yan Huizhu, with exquisite skills and outstanding talents. After 8 years of hard training, she was already a well-known "boudoir" in Shanghai when she graduated. She uses her eyes to grasp the emotions of the audience, and when she makes a monologue, she throws her eyes out to cover the whole scene.
After graduating from the Shanghai Opera School, which was upgraded to a training class, Hua Wenyi became an actor in the newly formed Shanghai Youth Jingkun Opera Troupe.
In 1961, she went to Hong Kong with the troupe to perform, playing the white lady in "The Legend of the White Snake". On the stage, her temperament and appearance are very similar to Mei Lanfang when she was young, and she immediately conquered the audience, and the Hong Kong newspaper called her "Little Mei Lanfang".
During the Cultural Revolution, some of the classic dramas of Kunqu opera were beaten into the cold palace. With no drama to sing, Hua Wenyi had to sing Peking Opera. She once played an inconspicuous small role of "Ordinary People in The Skin Ditch" in the model play "Wise Tiger Mountain", and also played "QiaoLian" in "Rock Bay".
Du Li Niang
In 1978, the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe was proclaimed. Hua Wenyi finally got his wish and could go back to singing Kun opera. Since then, she has prospered in her career, not only being recommended as the head of the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe, but also winning numerous awards at home and abroad.
She starred in "Cai Wenji", which won the Performance Award from the Chinese Ministry of Culture; "Peony Pavilion" and "Chaotou Feng" won the grand prize at the Shanghai Theater Festival; the TV art film "Qingwen" won the Best TV Drama Art Film Award in China; in 1986, she played Chen Miaochang in the Kun opera "The Tale of the Jade Hairpin" and won the "Plum Blossom Award", the highest artistic award of the National Dramatists Association. Liu Housheng, vice president of the China Dramatists Association, called her "the daughter of Kunqu opera."
In terms of art, Hua Wenyi also has a breakthrough, that is, to integrate Kunqu opera performances into drama performances. In 1988, the Guangzhou Repertory Theatre adapted the novel "Dream of Visiting the Garden" by the famous Taiwanese writer Bai Xianyong into a drama. Among them, the heroine Lady Qian is a singer, a complex figure who married a noble lady for a long time, but unfortunately lost her husband and lost power. The plot requires "Lady Qian" to sing a few Kunqu songs. Bai Xianyong had previously seen Hua Wenyi's Kun opera and admired it so much that he invited her to join the performance. This drama auditioned by Hua Wenyi has become a touch of brilliance in her artistic career. Bai Xianyong watched Hua Wenyi's performance and commented: "Kunqu opera actors acting in dramas is cross-cutting. She (Hua Wenyi) understands everything at once, integrates the taste, stature and gestures of Kunqu opera into the drama with ease, and is a very intelligent person. ”