In the early years, when many local operas were performed, the audience used to call "watching the performance" as "listening to the play", which means mainly "listening to the singing" and paying less attention to the performance.
This aspect was shorter than lyricism because the repertoire of the time was longer than the narrative, or even the lyricism was piled up by a large number of singing lyrics; On the other hand, it is also because many local actors did not have martial arts skills at that time, and even the genre was growing up at that time, and had not yet formed enough rich singing and programming rules.
So the more common state of watching the drama at that time was "you sing yours, I am busy with mine", the actors on the stage sang a long section, the audience drank tea and chatted about business, only applauded in the subtlety of singing, turned their faces and continued to talk to friends about the topic just now.
There is also a state of watching the drama, which can still be seen at some grassroots levels in the northwest: the old man wearing brown crystal glasses sits on a pony, holding a cigarette or even dry smoke with his hand not moving for a long time, and the people next to him think he is asleep, but if the actor sings one or two or two or five wrong words, he immediately wakes up, and his sharp eyes shine out from behind the glasses, and then you know, "Oh, so he is listening to the play."
At that time, a not very good atmosphere was formed among the actors: as long as a good voice was taken, it would not be tight if you practiced the exercises, and you could even be cold on the body and loose under your feet, anyway, the essence of "singing" is "singing", the essence of "listening to the play" is "listening", and good corners are good "singers".
With the development of the genre itself, especially the mutual borrowing of various genres, most of the dramas have now formed their own performance programs, although they are different - for example, the program of Puxian opera Liyuan opera is almost completely different from the program of Peking opera Kunqu opera - but they all have their own characteristics.
And the viewing status of contemporary audiences has also changed. Today's theaters rarely have a teahouse-like space structure, and do not allow the audience to make loud noises and chats, and the audience needs to concentrate on appreciating the play, whether it is watching the plot, listening to the singing or watching the performance, the attention is much more focused than when watching the play in the past.
This transformation does not only happen to the audience, but actually puts higher demands on the actors: the previous situation of singing with a belly, as long as the tone is correct and the words are not messy, is gone, and the actor must give back to the audience with more beautiful makeup, neat costumes, and performances in place.
I noticed that most of the mature actors in their forties and fifties on the stage today who are loved by the audience and can achieve fame are almost all good at singing and doing. Of course, because of the different levels of personal talent and diligence, singing and doing are often difficult to keep pace, some people are better than singing, some people are longer than performance, after all, "people's hands have ten fingers, there are large and small and short lengths", but overall they are relatively comprehensive.
However, there are always people who advocate some erroneous arguments, such as being too lazy to work hard if they feel that their voices are outstanding, which is called "one trick to eat all over the world"; Some people openly and secretly criticize martial arts actors, believing that "he didn't practice until he had a bad voice." I can understand that there are indeed some actors who have a problem with their throat after collapse and practice hard in order to continue their artistic life, but on the other hand, even if their voices are excellent, they cannot be neglected to practice.
To put it in the extreme, take the almost pure singing drama "Erjin Palace", even though the voice is like heaven, but wearing platform boots and mixing garlic under your feet, the waiter just fell on stage, no matter how good the voice is, it can't come out; Another almost pure singing drama "Three Halls Trial", no matter how good Yutang Chun's voice is, his expressionless face is the same as a repeater, and he can't stand up without kung fu kneeling for half an hour, and who will buy such a play.
The culture of only paying attention to "singing" and neglecting "making watches" should be put to rest, and the culture of relying on "a good mouth" and neglecting practice should also be put to rest. After all, "the people's requirements for the quality, taste, and style of cultural products, including literary and artistic works, have also become higher," and "the people's demand for popularization will be followed by higher demands, and the demand will be raised year by year, month by month."
Author: Li Xiang
Editor/Review: Yao Yang
Final verdict: Lee Seung-cheol