To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, on May 20, the Beijing Opera House staged a modern Peking opera "Xu Yunfeng" starring Tan Zhengyan, the seventh generation of the Tan sect, at the Chang'an Grand Theatre. On the basis of the previous premiere, the play has made careful polishing changes and more profound interpretations of the characters, and strives to create an artistic masterpiece.
The modern Peking Opera "Xu Yunfeng" is based on the 1984 performance of the Peking Opera "Red Rock" of the Beijing Opera House, based on the famous novel "Red Rock", which tells the story of Xu Yunfeng, secretary of the Chongqing Underground Party Working Committee, who was betrayed when he was on the task of organizing the rescue of the victims of the Gele Mountain Concentration Camp, was imprisoned in the concentration camp, organized the prisoners to engage in a battle of wits with the reactionaries, and finally was killed for refusing to escape from prison alone. The play is a modern Peking opera launched by the Beijing Opera House during the anti-epidemic period to overcome many difficulties, accelerate the pace of resuming production and creation, carry forward the spirit of Hongyan, and adhere to the principle of integrity and innovation.
At that time, Mr. Tan Yuanshou, Tan Zhengyan's grandfather and the fifth generation of the Tan Sect, played the role of Xu Yunfeng. After nearly half a year of hard work, Tan Zhengyan has boldly reformed and boldly created the role that his grandfather once played, from the script lines to the singing voice design, from the performance to the martial arts action. In one of the scenes of torture, the director also designed an innovative performance method for Tan Zhengyan to sing and dance while dancing, which pushed the whole play to a climax. Tan Zhengyan innovated and also achieved shouzheng, all of which are singing voices in bone old dramas, high-pitched and loud, full of charm, and do not lose the old style. Especially in the face of the small radish head, the large singing voice integrates affection, passion and emotion, which makes people cry after listening. When Xu Yunfeng was tortured, he also showed tan Pai's unique "zombie wrestling" stunt, which was integrated with the plot and attracted a lot of applause.
Throughout the performance, the heroic character image created by Tan Zhengyan won the warm applause of the audience with heavy singing and difficult martial arts actions, and also let people see his continuous pursuit and progress in art. In this regard, he said with deep affection: "In order to perform this play well, I consulted a lot of relevant historical materials, and also repeatedly listened to my grandfather's previous recordings, and wanted to do my best to portray Xu Yunfeng, a heroic figure, and leave the deepest impression on the audience." When I first rehearsed the first draft of this play, my grandfather, Mr. Tan Yuanshou, was still alive, and after reading it, he gave me a few suggestions. The old man said that when he performed this play in the 1980s, nearly 40 years have passed, and it must have a sense of the times when acting, whether singing or dancing, the rhythm should be faster, especially to enrich the character of Xu Yunfeng. For example, with torture, you can add some dancing movements, when meeting Hua Ziliang and seeing the small radish head, you should do some actions while singing, and the singing rhythm should be faster and so on. When the second draft of this play came out, Grandpa had already left us, and I regret that I did not see a richer stage presentation. This year is the centenary of the founding of the party, I am a member of the Communist Party of China, and performing this play well is not only a gift to the centenary of the founding of the party, but also a report to my grandfather's spirit in heaven. ”