On April 21st, Yuan Guoliang Kunqu Special Session, sponsored by the Northern Kunqu Opera Theatre, was held at the Meilanfang Grand Theater, and the classic traditional folding drama "Changshengdian • Bullet Words", "Qianzhongjie • Soshan Taxi", "Qingzuka Ji • Zhaojun Out of the Jam", "Rotten Keshan , Forced Rest" were all unveiled. The performance was led by Yuan Guoliang, and performed by Zhang Yuanyuan, Zhang Belle, Shi Shuyue, Yu Xuejiao and so on.
"Immortal Hall • Bullet Words" touches the "tenor forbidden area"
The title of the special session, "A Song of Neon Clothing Broadcast for a Thousand Years", comes from the "Bullet Words" in the legendary play "The Hall of Eternal Life" by the Qing Dynasty dramatist Hong Sheng, which tells the story of the Chaos of Anshi, Li Yuan taught Li Guinian to live in Jiangnan to sell art, singing Tianbao's relics with pipa, generous and sad songs, and songs and mournful intestines. The music scene is known as the folk proverb of "every family cleans up, every household does not guard against", and the second half of the sentence refers to the lyrics in "Bullet Words" "Do not beware of the chaos of the value of the remaining years", which shows the fame of this play, and the play as a complete set of songs along the Song and Yuan rap skills of the "Nine Turning Goods Lang'er", so that this play can be used as a measure of whether the actor can be called one of the yardsticks for kunqu old masters.
Yuan Guoliang played the role of Li Guinian in "Bullet Words", and the whole play advanced layer by layer in the emotional collision of sadness and joy, and the high and low tones changed with the ups and downs of emotions. His first song card "A Branch of Flowers" directly faced the "examination point" in the play, and there were many openings such as the "road" of "the wrong way was poor", the "sigh" of "sighing", the "gradual" of "high gradual departure", etc., and its pitch price was often called "High C" in the Western vocal system, which is often called "tenor forbidden area", and the difficulty coefficient can be seen.
"Qianzhongjie • Sozan Taxi" shows the aesthetics of the performance with songs and dances
Unlike "Changshengdian Bullet Words", which has a small body and is a one-fold singing opera, "Qianzhongjie Soshan Taxi" is a typical work-making drama and does not perform much on the stage. "Qianzhongjie" is a legend written by Li Yu in the Qing Dynasty, set in the Battle of Jing in the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di called the emperor to exclude dissidents, and "Searching for Mountains and Taxis" is the story of Emperor Jianwen who was arrested in the mountains on the way to escape in disguise, and Cheng Ji, a Scholar of Hanlin, was rescued from a prison cart. Cheng Ji, played by Yuan Guoliang, has a heavy body, such as throwing hair, shaking hair, throwing water sleeves, shaking water sleeves, kneeling steps, etc., as well as the round field of fast walking, and under such a large amount of action, it is still necessary to control the breath and ensure the quality of the singing section, which can be said to be a kind of "physical examination" for the actor's cardiopulmonary function.
One of its core songs, "Folding Gui Ling", from the soothing emotional narrative of Cheng and Yan Erren Jianwen during his reign, was an official of the same dynasty, and gradually promoted the rebuke of him for "turning his eyes and being ungrateful", listing the loyal and filial servants in history, and angrily mocking him for only "leaving a stink for ten thousand years". Then he played with his hair and knelt down to walk to Jianwen's body, and then sang "The Fall of the Wild Goose", which impressed And persuaded Yan Zhenzhi's important singing section for Cheng Ji, and there was still a body with a hip and a kneeling step in the middle of the singing section to set off the fierce emotions. Finally, "Gu Mei Jiu" expresses the ecstasy of Cheng Ji and Jianwen's successful escape, and at first the two people's axially symmetrical body is a typical Kunqu stage aesthetic, and then the two people's escape and the combination of the lyrics are also the typical artistic characteristics of kunqu opera "carrying songs and dancing".
"Rotten Keshan Snow Tree Forced to Rest" makes people forget the program with emotion
Zhu Maichen, a ming dynasty scholar of the ming dynasty's "Rotten Keshan", was impoverished and fell, was forced by his wife Cui To write a letter of resignation, and then worked hard to read the official Bai Taishou, Zhu Maichen returned to his hometown to meet the Cui family, the Cui clan begged to reconcile in front of the horse, Zhu Maichen refused with "covering the water and difficult to harvest", and the Cui clan died in shame. As a classic repertoire of Zhengdan and Lao Sheng, "Rotten Keshan" drama is highly conflicting and the reading is very rich, this time played by Yuan Guoliang as Zhu Maichen.
As a cutscene before "Forced To Rest", "Snow Tree" mainly sets off Zhu Maichen's sloppy hardships with the harsh environment of wind and snow, and returns empty-handed to pave the plot for "Forced Rest". Traditional drama is mostly minimalist in terms of choreography, and the explanation of the environment is almost entirely dependent on the actor's singing performance. With the appearance of Zhu Maichen, who said "good snow", holding an empty flat shoulder, there is no "plug-in" of the snow machine, and only through the reasonable combination of kneeling steps, hair swinging, hanging hair, back grabbing and other figures, the "no physical performance" snow road is difficult to slide.
"Forced To Rest" belongs to a "emotional drama". In this play, Zhu Maichen's emotions can be summed up as "three laughs and three cries": half-believing and embarrassed laughter at the beginning of being forced by Cui To write a letter of resignation, a bitter smile that gradually realizes that Cui is not a joke, a strong smile when he sees Cui's taking out silver; Zhu Maichen faints and wakes up after Cui's departure, cries of sadness and bitterness when he sees Hugh's book, and howling and crying that people feel that they are reading poetry books in vain but have fallen to this point. This series of psychological activities needs to be externalized to the stylized performance of Kunqu opera, and it is also necessary to make people forget the program with emotion.
In plays such as "Bullet Words" and "Searching Mountain Taxi", Lao Sheng often gives people a thick and heavy impression, while in "Snow Tree Forging a Break", he is like a poor student with a beard, his clothes are torn and patched, and his body is less "dignified and heavy and temperamental", and a little more "shoulders and necks". Kunqu opera has always been known for its ShengDan drama, although there is a part of the play with Lao Sheng as the protagonist, it is rarely known to the audience, and many of them have important plays that have highlights in singing and performance, and this "a song of neon broadcast for a thousand years" is such a three-fold play.
As a representative of the young and middle-aged students in Kunqu opera, Yuan Guoliang, an actor in Beikun, has a loud voice, a polite appearance, a delicate and generous performance, stable and fierce, especially for shaping characters. He will bring the three-fold play in this Kunqu opera special in one go, which can be called the epitome of many plays of Kunqu Laosheng, as the beard of the props, the color also changes from white, flower white to black, age, identity, and characters have rich layers, which will vividly show the thick and heavy aesthetic characteristics of Kunqu Laosheng.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Guo Jia
Editor/Bow Lifang