The Paper's reporter Liao Yang
Verdi's La Traviata was horribly hit by Waterloo when it was first performed, and today, 168 years later, it is one of the most popular operas in the world.
After the National Centre for the Performing Arts' version of "La Traviata" came out in 2010, it received rave reviews. On the evening of April 5, this version of "La Traviata" ushered in the sixth round of performances - under the baton of conductor Yu Long, Zhang Liping, Shi Yijie, Liao Changyong and other "immortal lineups" gathered together, and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra was invited to join and fight side by side with the Choir of the National Centre for the Performing Arts.
This is the Most Rehearsed Western Opera at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in addition to "Turandot", and it is also the first time since the epidemic entered a period of stabilization that the National Centre for the Performing Arts has performed an opera, with a total of 6 performances. On March 9, the day of ticketing, the show had sold 900 tickets in less than two hours, and as of the four days before the show, more than 8,000 tickets for six performances had been sold out.
Beijing audiences who have been "thirsty" for a long time have found their artistic nourishment in "La Traviata". Under the leadership of Yu Long, the singers, choirs and bands worked together seamlessly, and the tragic colors were vivid. In particular, the voice of the band has layers, textures, and great dramatic tension, "This is a world-class opera scene, and I will go to Shanghai to listen to opera in the future!" Excited audience said.
Huge mirror stage
The 264 square meters mirror recreates the Feast of Paris
"Tall, slender, with jet-black hair, her face white and red, her head small and exquisite, her eyes black and bright, looking forward to it, deriving infinite style."
This is Dumas's first impression of the senior social flower Marie Dupresi. Five years later, in 1847, Mary fell ill and died in Paris. Full of remorse and longing, Dumas closed his work on the countryside, and a year later, "La Traviata" came out.
It is said that Verdi watched the drama "La Traviata" and had a creative idea, which took only six weeks to complete the writing. In 1853, the opera "La Traviata" premiered, and a despised fireworks woman flashed a holy brilliance, winning the compassion and resonance of the world. Since then, "La Traviata" has been called Verdi's "popular trilogy" along with "Rigoletto" and "Troubadour", and has become a reserved play for major opera houses around the world to rehearse.
"The practical significance of this drama is that there are many young people in society who treat life in a similar and wrong way. Their values are corrupted, and many people are addicted to or lost in the illusory, unreal, and pay a high price. ”
The Nuska version of La Traviata, directed by German director Heinen Brockhaus, in his setting, this version of the story was published around 1870, because the fashion attire of this era was more sexy and refined than it was twenty years ago, and the accumulation of social wealth was also intensifying depravity, "The costume was inspired by the paintings of the famous Italian painter Giovanni Botini, who was the ode to the female world at the end of the century." So our costumes are more revealing and lighter, because what we want to show is not a cocktail party in a man's residence, but a salon with the most beautiful courtesans in Paris. ”
The clever use of the huge mirror on the stage has also become the most eye-catching business card of this version of "La Traviata" - the huge mirror surface is imported from Italy, smooth as water, and the naked eye can hardly see the seam, which is a test of production skills.
The curtain opened, a pure white camellia flower in the center of the stage background was slowly dyed bright red, accompanied by the overture, the 264 square meters of mirror surface slowly rose, tilted at a 45-degree angle, refracting the canvas full of oil painting texture on the ground into a "background". The lights turn on, Parisians in costumes appear with wine glasses in hand, and the Drunken Parisian social circle comes to the fore. The social flower Violetta walks through it, falling in love with Alfred, who loves her...
As the scenes change, the atmosphere of pleasure abruptly stops, replacing the cruel scene of the Traviata facing death. Violetta is dying, the huge mirror is pulled up at a 90-degree angle, and the audience is mercilessly "thrown" into the mirror, as if she has become a person in the play, watching her incense disappear and break her heart. The stage darkened, the audience darkened, and finally only the conductor "stood" in the mirror to mourn the death of Violetta.
"The audience is also inevitably thrown into the story, thrown into the world of the underdogs like Traviata, making everyone feel that they are responsible for the fate of these people." Henin interpretation.
Liao Changyong (hou) and Shi Yijie
Zhang Liping (front left) and Shi Yijie
Liao Changyongshi Yijie played father-son love together
Soprano Zhang Liping has participated in more than a dozen versions of "La Traviata". As a child, the first time she heard "La Traviata", she burst into tears, thinking that it was a voice from the heart. In 1988, Zhang Liping, who was still a vocal opera student at the Central Conservatory of Music, performed in public for the first time, singing excerpts from "La Traviata" in front of Domingo.
"It was La Traviata that made me fall in love with opera." This is already the fifth time that Zhang Liping has acted in the "La Traviata" version of the National University, and the last time (2016) was with the conductor Yu Long. Zhang Liping on the stage sang richly in layers, and the gods reproduced the psychological process of Violetta going through the cold and warm of the world, facing true love, suffering from gains and losses, contradictions and entanglements, and cutting off his liver and intestines.
Violetta has her flaws, but also her kindness and nobility, "the nobility lies in her love, this love is her feelings for Alfred, it is sincere, it is flawless, and when we see this nobility destroyed and broken by those around us, we see pain." Zhang Liping is committed to shaping a "more painful" traviata.
In the NUS version of "La Traviata", baritone singer Liao Changyong and Zhang Liping sang on the same stage 5 times, playing Armand, the father of Alfred in the play.
From the second act of angrily questioning Violetta, to the confession and sympathy revealed in the third act in front of Violetta's dying bed, Liao Changyong naturally and truly transitioned the character's mental journey, appropriately interpreting a father figure with a human touch under a stern appearance, "The emotional changes inside are very large, from accusing her to pleading for her, and finally hurting her, singing down, which is very enjoyable for the opera singer." ”
During a retreat in the mountains of Austria, the tenor Singer Shi Yijie learned 12 operas in one go, the second of which was La Traviata. In 2019, in the NUS version of "La Traviata", Shi Yijie played Alfred, which was also the first version of "La Traviata" that he waited for 12 years later.
After two years, Shi Yijie came to "La Traviata" again, and Liao Changyong staged a "father-son relationship". The two old friends who have been friends for many years feel sorry for each other, but they have collaborated on the opera stage for the first time.
"When I was in high school, I learned to sing with Mr. Liao, that was a thing of the last century, and now I have finally grown up to be able to perform with my teacher, and I am very happy!" Because of the epidemic, Shi Yijie has not been on the opera stage for a year and a half, from singing to performance, there is a little bit of rust, and now in Beijing to fight opera, he feels that he has a heavy responsibility, "must be good, pull the audience back to the theater to see the opera." ”
Yu Long and Shang handed over to Han Jun
For the first time, the two professional teams worked together
From Zhang Liping, Shi Yijie and Liao Changyong in Group A to Zhou Xiaolin, Kuo Jing and Zhang Yang of the National Centre for the Performing Arts Opera Performers Team in Group B, Yu Long sat in the command seat and had to conduct 6 consecutive performances of "La Traviata", plus 2 rehearsals with makeup, which was equivalent to conducting 8 operas.
Each performance lasted two and a half hours, from solo singers, to mobile choirs, to bands that reacted instantly in the orchestra, Yu Long alone needed to control the scheduling of hundreds of people, not only to be highly concentrated, but also to watch the six ways and listen to the eight directions.
In order to accurately reproduce the classics, under the leadership of Yu Long, the band rehearsal was launched on March 25, and the soloists of Group B also flew to Shanghai to participate in the band rehearsal. At the same time, Zhang Jiemin, the commander of the Shanghai Handover Garrison, went to Beijing to rehearse the actors.
"I'm picky and demanding about choral singing, but working with the National Centre for the Performing Arts Choir is my most enjoyable time, and every time I make a request, the choir is able to give the most professional response as quickly as possible."
In 2016, when he first conducted the NUS version of "La Traviata", Yu Long praised the Choir of the National Centre for the Performing Arts and cooperated again after 5 years, "Still so glorious, this is a real choir!" ”
"From the front of the stage to the backstage, each tiny screw welds together to form a classic birth. Opera production in China, the National Centre for the Performing Arts is a benchmark. Its opera production system is very professional, the artistic requirements, professionalism and rigor of the work, representing the highest standards in the country and in line with the world. ”
As a banner of the National Symphony Orchestra, SSE has also established a professional scale and reference for its peers, and now, for the first time, two teams known for their professionalization have collided and cooperated for the first time, and Yu Long has also taken it as an opportunity to learn from each other, "jointly promoting the professionalization of the classical music industry and improving in the arts." ”
From Richard Strauss's "Elektra" and "Salome" to Berlioz's "The Fall of Faust", in recent years, under the planning of Yu Long, Shangjiao has performed several difficult "concert versions" of operas, the first two of which have made their debuts in China, making Shanghai audiences directly addicted.
In the future, Yu Long also hopes that there will be more vivid attempts in the stage version of the opera, "As an all-round, first-line orchestra, the symphony, chamber music, and opera must be accurate." ”
Editor-in-Charge: Chen Shihuai
Proofreader: Ding Xiao