preface
"Love and hate are in an instant, toast to the moon like heaven", a song "New Noble Concubine Drunk" more than ten years ago, let Li Yugang, who was less than 30 years old at the time, completely entered the public's field of vision, this song was sung in a unique way that combines Peking Opera and popular music, and also created a precedent for opera music.
It was also this appearance that made Li Yugang's explosion overnight to be embraced on the altar, but soon, due to his youthful vigor, his explosion was as fleeting as fireworks in the night sky.
Now, the precipitated Li Yugang has worn away the excess arrogance on his body, returned to everyone's field of vision again, and used a song "Ten Thousand Frontiers" to make us feel the magnificence of China and the vastness of mountains and rivers at the centenary of the party's birth in 2021.
Li Yugang, who is now a national first-class actor, also has a history of youth and frivolity, and once had a fierce conflict with Mei Baojiu, the son of Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang, at that time, Li Yugang was not only scolded by Mei Baojiu as a "jumping beam clown", Li Yugang directly replied that "no one in the Peking Opera industry is as beautiful as him", and it was this contradiction that directly led to a huge change in the Chinese Peking Opera industry.
Everyone has different accounts of this contradiction, some people think that Li Yu dares to be so frivolous when he just came out, but some people think that Mei Baojiu is bullying newcomers in the circle with his qualifications, in short, it is called a lot of opinions.
Mei Baojiu inherited his father's business
Mei Baojiu, as the youngest son of Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang, had little interest in opera when he was a child, and in his family's opinion, he was indeed not a seedling suitable for learning male dan.
Because from a very young age, his facial features did not have the roundness of other children, but rather a "tough guy" style, but helplessly the children at home were unwilling to take the same road as Mei Lanfang, only the youngest Mei Baojiu became interested in opera under the ears and eyes of the family, took over his father's mantle, and embarked on the road of learning Peking Opera.
Before this, no one in the family thought that it would be the youngest son who carried the banner of Mei Pai, lived up to his father Mei Lanfang's expectations, and became a leader in this field.
For various reasons, Mr. Mei Baojiu only began to learn art at the age of 10, and opera is actually a children's gong, and the age of three to five is the best age to learn opera, because the children at that time were soft and not so hard to train.
Therefore, Mei Baojiu, who only began to learn art at the age of 10, is destined to put in more effort than his brothers and sisters in the same family, and even double his efforts may not achieve the effect of those peers with children's skills. But at that time, there was no better successor than him, and he could only let Mr. Mei Baojiu learn.
In terms of figure, Mr. Mei Baojiu may not be as good as his father Mei Lanfang, but insiders said that Mr. Mei Baojiu's singing skills and pitch are already better than blue, surpassing his father Mei Lanfang.
Later, because of the special period, the troupe could only be forced to disband, and the brothers and brothers of the troupe could only be forced to separate in that turbulent era, Mei Baojiu remembered his father who had passed away, he felt that the career that his father had been paying for all his life could not be ruined in his hands, so he alone began to pick up those singing voices and bodies again, practice the songs that his father had performed, and step by step redevelop Mei Pai.
At this time, Li Yugang was only a few years old, and there was still a long time before he embarked on the road of opera. Therefore, it stands to reason that the meeting between these two people should be the relationship between the predecessor and the junior, not the-for-tat, and even tear the face.
Why did Li Yugang fall from the altar
The timeline comes to Li Yugang's side, he was born in a small mountain village in the northeast, there is no family inheritance like Mr. Mei Baojiu, and there are no conditions for learning opera, although he was admitted to a good school with excellent grades after graduating from high school, but because of his family's poverty, he had to give up his studies and switch to work to earn money.
However, he is very passionate about opera performance, and even if he works part-time, he does not forget to learn to sing after work. In that era when technology was not yet developed, Li Yugang could only take the opportunity to work in a video store, using the equipment in the store to learn male and female voices, and opera, at that time, popular music was just beginning, and Li Yugang also followed to learn popular music.
Fortunately, God did not live up to his efforts, he got a performance opportunity when he worked in a nightclub at night, was to sing the song "For Whom" with another female singer, but the female singer was absent before going on stage, Li Yugang remembered the male and female voices he usually used when practicing Peking Opera, so he used the conversion of male and female voices to complete the song singing.
In that era without pseudo-sound, Li Yugang's move was a precedent, and the audience responded very enthusiastically, which also provided Li Yugang with a new idea.
After becoming popular in 2006 with the song "New Noble Concubine Drunk", the popularity of people was more confirmed in Li Yugang's body, and the sudden surge in fans also brought trouble to Li Yugang.
At that time, not long after the rise of the Internet, people did not understand the truth and falsehood and deliberate exaggeration of Internet news, and Li Yugang's fans marketed "Mei Lanfang before and Li Yugang after", "Li Yugang is Mei Lanfang alive" and other news on the Internet entered the ears of Mr. Mei Baojiu under the malicious impetus of some media.
Mr. Mei Baojiu is a traditional Peking Opera person, who does not accept the combination of opera and popular music, and he previously believed that Li Yugang's "The Painter" copied his father's Peking Opera fragments, and he was quite critical of Li Yugang.
This rumor made Mr. Mei Baojiu even more dissatisfied with Li Yugang, and he thought that this was very disrespectful to his father, Master Mei Lanfang.
The contradictions that existed before have not yet been resolved, and the new rumors added fuel to the fire in the relationship between the two, which caused a very heated discussion at that time.
At that time, the two were representatives of traditional art and emerging popular art, and the party supporting traditional art believed that the way of adapting opera to Li Yugang and combining opera and popular music was disrespectful to traditional culture, while the younger generation represented by Li Yugang believed that the older generation could not accept the emerging culture and was prejudiced against popular music.
Because of this, the contradiction between Li Yugang and Mei Baojiu rose to the contradiction between the two arts, and Mei Baojiu became more and more unable to forgive Li Yugang.
At that time, Mei Baojiu was the orthodox heir of Mei Pai's drama, and Mei Pai directly dissociated himself from Li Yugang, which made Li Yugang, who was a newborn calf who was not afraid of tigers, directly stunned back, saying that he was a well-deserved Peking Opera actor, and no one in the entire Peking Opera industry was as beautiful as him.
After that, the relationship between the two became worse, but the trigger for the final intensification of the conflict between the two was a party hosted by CCTV.
The contradiction intensified
Although the contradictions have been going on for so long, in fact, that party was the first meeting between the two, originally intended to ease the relationship between the two, but I didn't expect that Li Yugang's words directly pushed the contradictions between the two to a climax.
When Li Yugang's sentence "representing the art of Mei Pai" just came out, everyone who knew the inside story at the scene gasped, and Mr. Mei Baojiu directly left the scene with a dark face, and the scene of the easing of the relationship that he thought he could see directly became a hotbed of intensified contradictions.
Li Yugang, who had been openly excluded by Mei Pai before this, and even formed such a contradiction with Mr. Mei Baojiu, the orthodox heir of Mei Pai, how dare he openly declare himself a representative figure of Mei Pai in front of so many people, no wonder Mr. Mei Baojiu directly angrily threw his sleeves and left the scene.
However, at this time, Li Yugang did not realize that he had said the wrong thing, and he did not realize his inappropriateness until he was reminded by the people around him.
Even the orthodox descendants of the Mei Pai did not dare to express themselves as the representative of the Mei Pai on such occasions, but Li Yugang, who was once expelled from the "Mei nationality", dared to bluntly say that he represented the Mei Pai, how could this not make Mr. Mei Baojiu angry?
Later, Mr. Mei Baojiu even said in an interview that his father is a very great Peking Opera artist in his heart, and he does not want anyone to hype up in the name of his father Mei Lanfang, and Li Yugang's behavior just stepped on Mr. Mei Baojiu's minefield.
However, after this incident, the two were completely on the opposite side, and Li Yugang also "fell off the altar" because of this incident, and his career entered a downturn, which can be regarded as paying the price for his arrogance.
Apologies for absence
Master Mei Lanfang's achievements can be said to be counted in the entire history of Peking Opera, and he is also the founder of Mei Pai, in the eyes of Mr. Mei Baojiu, his father is also his mentor and the enlightener of his path to Peking Opera.
After he embarked on the road of learning Peking Opera, he was full of admiration for his father, he wanted to become a Peking Opera artist like Master Mei Lanfang, so he studied Peking Opera very hard and got closer to his father step by step, so for Mr. Mei Baojiu, his father is his principle and bottom line.
Therefore, those noisy public opinions are the ignition of the contradiction between Mr. Mei Baojiu and Li Yugang. Because of his father Mei Lanfang, Mr. Mei Baojiu's respect for Peking Opera is greater than his love, and he believes that Peking Opera should maintain the most original purity, instead of adding some messy other elements, not to mention that Li Yugang also played his father's name to attract heat, which made Mr. Mei Baojiu even more angry.
Speaking of Li Yugang's side, he fell into the trough of his career after that performance, and also reflected on his arrogance, so he found Mr. Wang Kun, who is very famous in the circle, and asked him to help him bring a letter of apology to Mr. Mei Baojiu.
This apology letter was written by Li Yugang after several revisions, which shows the sincerity of the words, but later teacher Wang Kun pointed out another way to him - "To solve the bell, you must tie the bell person", he hoped that Li Yugang could personally come to the door instead of doing it under the guise of someone else's hand.
However, Li Yugang misunderstood Mr. Wang Kun's words, he thought that Mr. Mei Baojiu was unwilling to listen to his explanation, let alone accept his apology, that is, he and Mei Pai had no possibility of reconciliation, so he simply withdrew the apology letter, and until Mr. Mei Baojiu's death, the two no longer intersected.
The unresolved conflict between the master of traditional opera art and the leader of the emerging art form, Li Yugang, became an eternal regret in their hearts, and Mr. Mei Baojiu was still expressing to reporters before his death that he hoped that he could make a contribution to the cause of Chinese opera in this limited life.
If the conflict between these two accomplished artists in different fields can be successfully resolved, will Chinese opera art be a different situation?
I believe that Li Yugang has regret in his heart for the death of Mr. Mei Baojiu, he has publicly expressed his remembrance of Mr. Mei Baojiu many times, but unfortunately there is no regret medicine in the world, which is also an eternal regret in Li Yugang's heart.
The collision of tradition and emerging
In fact, Mr. Mei Baojiu and Li Yugang are both gentle personalities and extremely artistic people, Mr. Mei Baojiu's greatest wish is to contribute to Chinese theater art, he wants to carry forward Mei Pai, but suffering from the gradual decline of traditional Peking Opera, he is helpless.
Although he had many disciples, there was only one who learned Danjiao, so Li Yugang's appearance at that time brought him great joy. Although the older generation always upholds the purity of art and has a natural rejection of popular elements, it is undeniable that the combination of traditional drama and pop music brought by Li Yugang has indeed injected fresh blood into the declining Peking Opera circle, allowing many young people to see more possibilities in drama.
However, by mistake, an unintentional hot marketing at the beginning became the fuse of the contradiction between these two generations of artists, in fact, it should have been the sympathy between two artists who are quite accomplished in their respective fields, but in the end it evolved into a "mortal rival", how can it not make people sigh.
As Li Yugang grew older, he also had a deeper understanding of traditional drama and pop art, and after calming down to hone his professional ability, he also occupied a place in the field of song and dance drama, and also obtained the achievements of first-class actors, and also created more works combining elements, which can be regarded as a brick for China's traditional drama
epilogue
Although it seems that Li Yugang combines elements of traditional Peking Opera and popular music, it can be regarded as creating a new art form, and indeed adding new vitality to traditional Chinese drama, in a sense, it is indeed inheriting the traditional Peking Opera art; Mr. Mei Baojiu hopes to maintain the purity of art and pass on traditional art to the original, which is the friction and collision of two generations and two ideas.
Cumbersome rules have stumbled the hands and feet of traditional arts, causing Peking Opera art to fall into development crises several times, but it is precisely these rules that retain the "original taste" of traditional art, which is the foundation for the development of Peking Opera; The impact of popular culture on traditional art is also self-evident, which is also the fundamental reason for the contradiction between traditionalists and pioneers.
As someone commented, "Mei Baojiu is suitable for guarding rivers and mountains, while Li Yugang is good at creating precedents", and the friction and collision between art is also an indispensable part of art development.
Li Yugang is also more calm, and his mentality has also changed a lot, he also said on a program that as long as the Chinese style music can be passed on and developed among the younger generation, this is enough, if it can also make the traditional Peking Opera culture popular among young people, it is more worthwhile.
If in the sense of promoting traditional culture, Mr. Mei Baojiu and Li Yugang can be regarded as making up for regrets and reaching a reconciliation.