In the evening, Wei Song hurried back to the studio from the studio for an interview, and after a busy day, he did not see fatigue in his expression.
Wei Song's 50th anniversary and "inheritance" concert is scheduled for October 31, which has a special meaning, "After the performance, I will wait for the clock to pass 12 o'clock, that will be my 70th birthday." This is the artist's romance, and then he will officially step down as artistic director of the Shanghai Opera House. At the age of seventy, you only have to go in or out. Sixty tireless, seventy not old, 70-year-old "Othello" can still sing beautiful HighC.
Othello
The concert ten years ago was called "The Tireless Singer", and 60 is the age at which many tenors have succeeded, but it is the pinnacle of singing for Wei Song.
Wei Song remembers that "Othello" was the opening play of the 2013 National Centre for the Performing Arts Opera Festival, and Italian tenor JonCarlo de Monaco was specially invited as the director, saying: "I want to use this play to 'torture' my Chinese counterparts!" His father was Mario del Monaco, who sang Othello 427 times in his lifetime and was called "the greatest Othello of the 20th century."
General Moore, who was brave and tenacious in the war, was a man who was vulnerable in the love field, and the original author Shakespeare and the outstanding opera composer Verdi made the opera "Othello" recognized in the industry as "the first difficulty in opera". To play a tragic hero full of identity anxiety and love, the opera requires "General Moore" not only to have a brilliant and powerful high note, but also to be able to undertake high-intensity theatrical performances.
For three hours, huge dramatic conflicts, surging emotions and difficult singing with all their strength, it was like really experiencing a dead and alive battle. Listening to the stormy applause and applause of the audience, Wei Song had mixed feelings. The few tenors in the West who have appeared in the entire book of "Othello", the highest age record for performance is 57 years old, but Wei Song climbed to the peak in the year of flower armor and completed the most important self-transcendence in art.
Mr. Zhou Xiaoyan once said that becoming a good tenor depends to a large extent on unremitting efforts. It took Wei Song 20 years to conquer the lower b and high C of the small print group two. This sounds a little incredible, in the past 20 years, Wei Song starred in his first big drama - "Long Roar to the Sky" composed by Xiao Bai and written by Yu Wen; the first time to sing the entire "Turandot" in Chinese; Even, in 2004, under the insistence of Zhang Guoyong, then president and conductor of the Shanghai Opera House, Wei Song rehearsed "Othello" for the first time: "Back then, I really retreated while insisting on gnawing this play. ”
Compared with rationality and hard reality, there is a certain romantic chaos and poetry in the world of opera. And for opera singers, every performance is an unknown, stage, full of dangers and challenges, but it is this deadly allure that makes Wei Song persevere. He is not completely indifferent to the negative evaluations he has, but he seems to have an inclusive and optimistic temperament and a determination and stubbornness in his heart, he knows how rare a dramatic tenor is, and since his mentor thinks he is okay, he can't give up easily.
In the 80s, when Italian vocal experts gave lectures in Beijing, they left a proverb: singing is difficult precisely because it is too simple. This sentence made Wei Song ponder for decades. He gradually explored many very practical things: "I summarize singing in two words - subtraction. Singing has to be done in the simplest way. "Singing must be supported by a strong breath. It's like driving, can you run as fast as you have different horsepower? "After I matured in singing, I rarely practiced my voice and liked to solve problems in the process of singing works. My progress has been made in the process of overcoming drama by play. ”
That year, the 60-year-old "Othello" sang very "comfortably", and every high note stood firmly, majestic, transparent and stretched. Wei Song finally defeated the small print group B and High C, and put himself in the center of the world opera stage with his singing and experience. Giuseppe Cucha, then an opera consultant at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, said that if there were five good "Othello" actors in the world, Weisson would be one of them. The late one finally came, and at the curtain call, Wei Song burst into tears.
gene
Everyone has their own destiny label. 50 years ago, Wei Song would never have imagined that he would label himself with the words "Othello".
Wei Song's hometown is in Jinzhou, Liaoning, surrounded by Songling and Yiwu Lushan Mountain Range in the north, and Liaodong Bay in the Bohai Sea in the south, which is an ancient city with a history of 2,000 years. His mother Tong Shuxian and his third uncle are both actors in the Liaoning Opera House, and his second uncle Tong Xiaomeng graduated from Shenyang Conservatory of Music and studied vocal music. Wei Song can remember that as long as the adults get together, the home is full of songs. Cousin Tong Tiexin Xiao Wei Song is four years old and has a good voice since he was a child, and before Wei Song changed his voice, his voice was hoarse and his congenital conditions were not good. The brothers are one active and one quiet, but they have a good relationship since childhood, and they learn to pronounce sounds together under the strict guidance of Tong Xiaomeng: the body stands against the wall at three o'clock and a line, practicing five vowels to find the feeling of sounding, such a boring practice, one practice is more than a year; Protect your voice before changing your voice and don't sing high notes. Tong Xiaomeng's enlightenment education made the two start their vocal music road very right.
After graduating from Weisong Middle School, a classmate fell to the ground and fractured his bones after climbing to hang a sign. During that time, Wei Song's parents were both in the Wuqi school, and Wei Song, who was kind by nature, made his own initiative, gave up his indicators for staying in the city to his classmates, and offered to the school leaders to go to the countryside. Good causes bear good fruit. Going to the countryside to help the production team herd cattle, Wei Song faced the mooing cow every day, pondering his second uncle's guidance on vocal methods, "It 'mooed' there, it all resonates." During his trip to the countryside, Wei Song completed the change of his voice as a teenager, and he was also enlightened about singing. Back in the city, seeing his second uncle for the first time, Tong Xiaomeng opened the piano cover, hit the keys a few times, and Wei Song sang steadily, "Good boy!" The second uncle was overjoyed.
A teenager who originally loved sports finally had confidence in himself, was picked up by his second uncle into a decent baritone, and was admitted to the Shenyang Military Region Forward Song and Dance Troupe. But for Wei Song to become such an excellent tenor, it was still very surprising to the family.
On the opera stage, Wei Song is undoubtedly a typical example of a late bloomer. In 1973, Wei Song was pushed to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and it was his mentor Zhou Xiaoyan who hammered the final word in the entrance examination and determined that Wei Song was a potential and promising "big" tenor. But the gears of fate did not turn there, and the problem of unstable play in the treble area has plagued Wei Song for nearly 20 years.
Changing the voice part is a huge challenge for vocal actors. Tong Tiexin remembers that after Wei Song changed to singing high notes, he participated in the "Top Ten Tenor Concert" in Beijing for the first time, and Tong Tiexin and his father sat offstage, and their mood was even more nervous than their own performance. That day, although Wei Song's performance could not be said to be perfect, it far exceeded the expectations of Tong's father and son, and since then, Tong Tiexin has developed more admiration for his cousin, "Wei Song subverted my inherent ideas, and now, I dare not define any singer." "Compared with the study of instrumental music, the skills of vocal music are invisible, and to truly put the theoretical knowledge in books into practice on your own voice, you need not only talent, but also patience for a long time." In Tong Tiexin's view, although Wei Song does not have a natural high note, he has understanding and has strong willpower, Tong Tiexin laughed and said that for several years, the family would take the early family concert that Wei Song could not open his mouth as a joke, and they would ridicule Wei Song when they met.
Two years ago, Tong Tiexin went to Shanghai to visit his aunt, Wei Song's mother. An eighty-year-old man sang an excerpt from the opera "Liu Hulan", with clear words and a gentle timbre; Remembering that a year or two before his father Tong Xiaomeng died, the 88-year-old High C could still sing very well as B, Tong Tiexin patted Wei Song and laughed: "I fully believe that you can also sing all the way like this, it turns out that you inherited the genes of the old Tong family!" ”
Inheritance
Ten years ago, at the concert of Wei Song's 40th anniversary of his career, Zhou Xiaoyan took Han Peng's hand on stage and said to Wei Song, I will hand over this student to you in the future. The master of the opera circle takes apprentices, one-on-one, and the tradition is very strong. They are all disciples of the Zhou Gate, and they are naturally a little closer. That year, Han Peng was a newcomer to the opera house, and his figure and voice were very similar to Wei Song. As Wei Song's B corner, rehearsals, performances, business trips, life and work are all together. Han Peng began to not only imitate Master's singing voice, but also carefully looked at how to deal with his eyes and how to raise his eyebrows.
Wei Song first told Han Peng that a tenor is a tightrope walker. Ten minutes on stage, ten years offstage. No matter what language you sing or pronounce a word, you can't fool a word. Han Peng admired the teacher's ability to "save himself" when performing. After all, people are not machines, and it is inevitable that they will encounter unexpected situations such as not being in a state and having an uncomfortable throat. Sometimes, a song is not played well, and a high note is broken, which often brings great psychological harm to the actor, ten days and a half month, or even half a year can not slow down the presence of God. Unique Wei Song is more and more courageous every time. Solo concert, the first song did not reach the state, the second song turned out to be like a different person. One year, attending the Vienna New Year's concert, during the afternoon rehearsal, Wei Song's voice was silent, and Han Peng, who knew the master, helped explain: "Don't worry, Teacher Wei will definitely be able to adjust." Sure enough, when the official performance was made, it was full again. Like Wei Song's love of sports as a child, Han Peng was a sports student in middle school. From a certain point of view, stage art is as cruel as competitive sports, there is no re-initiation, the king is defeated, and the battle is finalized. But a master is a strong psychological quality, and he can use skills and experience to make up for it at any time when he comes to power. After following Wei Song to fight in Bafang for many years, Han Peng gradually developed this hard skill.
Wei Song is a majestic general, hero, and overlord on the stage, and when he steps down, he looks like a loving father. Xue Haoyan and Wang Chuanyue in Beijing were both called Wei Song "uncle". Once in Shanghai, as long as the "uncle" did not perform at night, the students would "collude" with each other to rub rice, while Wei Song smiled and took care of the family, and the children came to see what "hard dishes" to make.
Bringing up many peers and juniors, treating others with compassion and magnanimity, and leaving wit and sharpness in the missionary of business, the "uncle" himself concluded that his understanding of the teacher's way only came from Mr. Zhou's inheritance. "Tireless singer" is the positioning that the teacher gives to students, "tireless", tireless, tireless in learning, tireless in educating others. For this instruction from the teacher, Wei Song did not dare to relax for a day.
Although opera originated in the West, its development in China must follow its own path, Wei Song always remembers that when he first followed Mr. Zhou, the teacher told him that we learned bel canto singing, although we began to learn Italians, but the learning is for reference, in the end, we must sing well in our native language. Over the years, from Yue Fei in "Long Roar to the Sky", Shereng in "Cangyuan", Zhou Ping in "Thunderstorm", to Xiang Yu in "Chu Overlord", Gou Jian in "Xi Shi", Gesang in "Red River Valley", etc., Wei Song's original Chinese operas starring are unique and unique. In 2011, Wei Song, Dai Yuqiang and Mo Warren formed the "Three Chinese Tenors", singing Chinese works with the world's common bel canto singing method, singing for the people with the quality pursuit of the world's "three highs", spreading Chinese culture on the world's top art stage, and demonstrating the confidence and vitality of "Chinese voice".
To this day, Wei Song remains the only Chinese actor to have played the most challenging tenor role in the opera world. The baton in hand must be delivered for "inheritance".