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Entertainment detective
Editor|Entertainment Detective
Since the beginning of the 21st century, musical, as a diversified art form that integrates artistry, entertainment and openness, has gradually developed into a cultural and artistic activity with great influence in China's contemporary social life under the sweep of cultural innovation.
In the past 30 years, Chinese musicals have been groping and gradually forming their own style in creation and practice, because the art form of musical theater is ultimately imported from Europe and the United States, Chinese musical theater works and musicals in the birthplace of musicals New York Broadway in the United States and London's West End musical works, Western musicals have the main characteristics of entertainment, comedy, popularization, commercialization, standardization, etc., almost every successful musical in history has both or each has one of the characteristics. At present, there is still a big gap between Chinese musicals and the above characteristics.
With the increasing rise of domestic musicals, both the creative team and the cast need to constantly improve their abilities in all aspects. So as an actor, how can you master the principles of musical expression in the creation and performance of original musicals and expand the creative ability of sustainable development? Let's take the musical "Maggie's Gift" as an example to analyze the artistic style of the heroine "Della" in the play.
The basic plot of the musical Maggie's Gift
The story is adapted from the short story of the same name by American short story writer O'Henry, telling the story that in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, there was a young couple Della and Jim living in a small apartment building, although they lived in poverty, they still wanted to give each other a precious Christmas gift to express their hearts, so Della sold her beautiful long hair like a waterfall in order to give her husband Jim a delicate Qin chain. Jim discarded the family's precious gold watch and bought Dela a beautiful tortoiseshell hair ornament.
In this way, the two "stupid children" sacrificed their most precious things in order to give each other their favorite Christmas gifts, making each other's gifts useless decorations, but they reaped the most precious and priceless thing in the world - pure love.
In addition to describing the story in the original novel, the plot of the musical "Maggie's Gift" also adds the time and space of modern people, who travel between the scenes in the play, sometimes telling the story of O'Henry and his wife, sometimes questioning the silly love in the story, sometimes torturing how many people would be willing to sacrifice for love if this story happened today, and sometimes shouting whether we still have the courage to love.
The time and space of modern people and everything that happens in the story in the book switch on the stage, forming a novel adaptation that does not stick to the original, colliding with a full sense of layering, making the expression of this musical more complete and three-dimensional.
Analysis of the character of the heroine "Della"
In musicals, music is the soul, musicals tell stories through music, and the expression of characters can obtain inner energy that words cannot transmit through the blessing of singing. However, to know how to get the most value out of a singing verse, you need to know in advance who is singing. What is the image and character of this "who"? Analyzing character is something we have to do before singing segments.
The story of the heroine "Della" and the male protagonist "Jim" in the musical "Maggie's Gift" adds some dramatic plots that follow the logic of the story on the basis of O'Henry's original novel, such as adding dance scenes to interpret the process of "Della" and "Jim" lovers meeting and falling in love.
The plot of the bracelet was lost by adding "Jim" heroes to save the beauty at the ball, and fighting with the villain in the bar, thus deepening the dramatic relationship between "Della", "Jim" and the bracelet, so that the later "Della" was obsessed with finding a bracelet worthy of "Jim", making the logic of the whole story more rigorous and reasonable.
It also shows "Della" looking for and picking gifts in the store. This series of constructed plots not only enriches the character image of the heroine "Della", makes the characters appear more three-dimensional and full, but also gives the actors more details and clues in character creation.
Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the character of "Della", on the one hand, from the main behavior of "Della" every appearance to analyze her character characteristics, on the other hand, to analyze the emotions of "Della"'s characters.
The outward behavior of "Della"
"Della", who has just finished housework, sits on a chair with a piece of eight hairs and seven worries, she does not know what kind of Christmas gift she can give to her beloved husband "Jim", she cries and talks to herself, and also recalls the dance party where she met Jim, in the dance scene, "Della" bravely stabbed the dagger into the villain's arm in order to save people, and then knelt on the ground to ask God for forgiveness.
In the first two scenes, "Della's" behavior shows that she is a kind and honest girl by nature, daring to be a daring girl, the next scene is "Della" carrying a piece of eight hairs and seven in the store to choose a gift for "Jim", see the favorite watch chain but can't afford it, and then mistakenly enter the wig shop, tell the wig shop proprietress "Mrs. Chafrany" about her suffering, and finally decide to sell the long hair that Queen Siba envies, so that there is enough money to buy the bracelet to give to "Jim" as a Christmas gift.
In the last scene, they return to their small apartment, but at this time "Della" is already short hair, she is at home praying that "Jim" can continue to love herself with short hair as before, praying that the watch bracelet can bring surprise and happiness to "Jim", however, when she sees the hairbrush brought back by "Jim", she is ecstatic, holding the hairbrush and sitting on the ground crying like a child. This shows the character characteristics of "Della" from the side: simple, kind, virtuous, daring to do things, having faith, and spiritual pursuit.
The inner emotions of "Della"
Analyzing the inner emotions of "Della" is the most central part of the character creation work, and it is also an important part of the analysis process, because the main theme of this story is the love between "Della" and "Jim" that transcends material and pure worldliness.
Her husband "Jim" only earns $20 a month, leaving little after deducting rent and living expenses, while "Della" still loves her husband and keeps her poor home in order. On weekdays, he saves money in order to give "Jim" a precious Christmas gift to express his love and gratitude.
By analyzing Della's external behavior and internal emotions, it can be concluded that Dela is a woman who can do anything for her lover and love, and this hot and surging heart is hidden under a beautiful and gentle appearance, which is the character attitude that needs to be adhered to in the analysis and processing of the singing section.
Analysis of the singing of "Della"
In the play, "Della" has a total of two singing sections, each undertaking different theatrical tasks, and the treatment of singing is also very different. In terms of expression, "One Piece of Eight Mao Seven" focuses more on the monologue-style narrative, and I want to tell him that it is more singing centered on emotional expression.
These two forms of singing are commonly used character singing settings in musicals, and it is more comprehensive to analyze the interpretation of the two vocal segments. In terms of style and color, "A Piece of Eight Mao Seven" has a rock style color, and "I Want to Tell Him" is a lyrical pop song style.
It just fits the character personality of "Della" - under the gentle and quiet appearance, there are almost fanatical love fireworks, and the two singing sections are fast and slow, and the dynamic fullness can shape the characters in an all-round way. This singing setting also reflects the complexity and layering of the characterization of the musical, which is highly representative.
Analysis and interpretation of the singing passage "One Piece Eight Mao Seven"
The dramatic role of "One Piece of Eight Mao Seven" is to visualize the theme and is also an important singing section to establish the image of the character, and its appearance position is the first singing section in which "Della" appears after the prologue. The theme of the song is as the name "A Piece of Eight Hairs and Sevens", which comes from "Only One Dollar and Eighty-Seven Cents in Della's Pocket" from O'Henry's original novel, which is one of the themes throughout the musical, symbolizing that the money and material conditions in love are very figurative expressions.
"One Piece Eight Mao Seven" makes this symbol more impressionic, and for the audience, this song is a mature memory point. In the musical "Maggie's Gift", the singing "How lucky I am" and "If This Story Were Today" both repeatedly appears "one piece eight hair seven", which especially shows the importance of this singing.
Lyrical singing is also commonly found in the song setting of musicals, and the conflicts and contradictions, harmony and beauty that appear in the plot are bursting with emotion. The function of lyrical singing is to present the emotional feedback of the characters in the scene events.
In musicals, there is often such a plot design, the character may be telling the truth or falsehood on stage, but as soon as the music is played, the audience can immediately identify his inner state of mind. Because the music reflects emotions, it is the real-time emotional feedback of the character's situation, and smart audiences can know the truth and mystery when they hear the music and compare it with the characters' lines.
conclusion
In the process of character creation in an original musical, the analysis of character singing and secondary creation are very important parts and links in the creation of musical. First of all, it is necessary to analyze the character characteristics of the characters in combination with the plot, and then understand the dramatic situation and role of the singing section, and realize the interpretation of the singing section through the combination of physiological skills and psychological skills of singing.
Finally, by analyzing the two passages of "Della", it is hoped that the following three suggestions can provide a reference method for musical theater actors in the practice of original musical theater singing. The emotion of a song is not only one emotion running through to the end, distinguishing the mood in the middle and the change of mentality, so as to divide the emotional line paragraph and conform to the will of the character.
After the big emotional lines are divided, it is necessary to rationalize the emotional performance of each sentence according to the large emotional logic between the sentences in each paragraph, design the subtext for each sentence and design the special treatment of individual words, to do a good job in the overall quality of the song, we must pay attention to the details of each word, especially consider the words that the characters sing when the mood changes.
Bibliography:
[1] Mu Yu, "The Art and Industry of Musical Theater".
[2] WANG Xin,ZOU Minhua. "The Development of Contemporary Chinese Musical Theatre and the Phased Characteristics of Its Research".
[3] Henry, translated by Feng Xiaoyan, Maggie's Gift: A Selection of Henry's Short Stories.