Stylization of opera performances
There are two definitions of program in opera. That is, broad and narrow. In a broad sense, it is interpreted from the overall characteristics of opera, which includes music, literature, performance, stage, fine arts and other departments. In a narrow sense, it refers to the performance program, which is interpreted from the perspective of the means of expression in opera.
The means of expression of opera can be divided into four parts: singing, reading, doing, and playing, which is the artistic language of opera to shape the stage image.
According to Shu Qiang's recollection, in the initial rehearsal of "The White-Haired Girl", "after Huang Shiren forced Yang Bai to rent with Xi'er, Yang Qiumu adopted some of the movements from the opera (this part is still preserved, as it is performed now.) ）”
This article tells the embodiment of the opera performance program in the singing section of Yang Bailao in the national opera "White Haired Girl" from the perspective of "doing".
Gonggong, usually refers to performance skills, and it also refers to dancing physical movements, which is one of the main characteristics that distinguish opera from other performing arts.
When the actor expresses the character, there are a variety of procedures for the hands, eyes, body and steps, and skillfully uses these stylized dance languages to present the characteristics of the characters in terms of identity, age, personality, etc., and make the characters created by the actors more prominent.
Yang Bailao appears in the opera as a middle-aged and elderly man, and he is an oppressed poor peasant figure, the first part tells the scene of his debt and debt evasion, returning home to reunite with his daughter for the New Year, and the whole character should bring people an intuitive feeling of exhaustion and misery.
Therefore, in the performance, Yang Bailao should lean over and walk slowly. Actors should feel the image of the oppressed poor peasants from actual life, and learn from the figure in the opera, so that Yang Bailao's appearance and image are just right.
The second part tells that when Yang Bailao was shocked to hear that Xi'er was going to be taken to settle the account, singing "Sunny Day" that "is like a thunderbolt on that sunny day", and "Heaven kills a single grass" "Heaven kills a single grass", it should be pointed upward with gestures according to the needs of the plot in the play, which not only makes the actor's interpreted role more graphic, but also makes the audience clear at a glance.
The third part tells about Yang Bailao's guilt and love for Xi'er. In this part of the lyrics, attention should be paid to the use of eyes. Eyes, in the opera performance, can best express the inner activities of the characters.
When performing, in addition to the lyrics and shape, actors can also convey feelings through their eyes according to emotional needs. When Yang Bailao sings to Xi'er, the audience should be able to feel the grief in the performers' eyes.
The fourth part is the fullest part of the whole song, Yang Bailao's accusation to the landlord, at this time, with the help of plate changes, chanting singing, gestures, body and eyes, Yang Bailao's front accumulated sad emotions completely exploded, everything he experienced is the epitome of "the old society turned people into ghosts".
Procedure is the overall characteristic of the opera form, and this general characteristic has become one of the laws of artistic expression of Chinese national opera.
In the long-term performance practice of national opera, with the addition and application of programs in songs, artistic images are shaped and life is expressed; The viewer also understands and recognizes the artistic performance on stage through procedural features.
Chinese opera singing and chanting are also part of the performance program of opera, that is, the part of singing and chanting. This section is no longer elaborated.
Virtualization of opera performances
The virtualization of opera is one of the important means of opera performance, that is, the virtual performance completed by the actors with virtual actions on the stage is the virtual performance of the stage set, time and space.
This kind of virtual performance needs to achieve the combination of virtual and real and similar in shape. In stage performances, subjective activities are generally affected by objectivity, objectivity acts on subjectivity, and subjectivity acts on objectivity.
Take the opera "White Haired Girl" as an example, such as: How did Yang Bailao tie Xi'er's red head rope? How did Yang Bailao cry to the sleeping Xi'er? How did Yang Bailao die? And so on a series of questions.
If an actor wants to perform on stage, especially if the actor wants to trigger the audience's association through action under the condition of non-existent objects and environments, to show the existence of objects and environments, he must study the objective world of the characters in the play and study the activities of the people and things around him.
In other words, content and form. In a virtual performance, if the actor himself cannot fully understand the character he plays, or experience the role. The result must only be like, not godlike.
Such virtualization is unsuccessful. In the initial creation of the opera "White Haired Girl", director Wang Bin used virtualization in opera performance.
According to the famous actor and performance artist Chen Qiang (who played Huang Shiren in the original opera < White-Haired Girl >): "The time and space changes in the opera scene borrow the techniques of the film.
The stage set should not only have a sense of wholeness, but also be divided into several scenes, such as the interior scene of the warm northern farmhouse on a snowy winter night, only using a set partition, the audience can see at a glance; The actor's performance borrowed the virtual actions of opening and closing the door in the opera. ”
When national opera uses virtual techniques to shape the stage image, virtual action is only one of the aspects, in addition, it also touches on the two aspects of the stage image.
For example, the set partition is an entity or part of a physical entity, while some specific things in some other specific environment, such as the door of the house, the red head rope, dumplings, white noodles, brine, are all or most of the blurred.
Virtual action is used as a link to combine the virtual and the real on stage. Therefore, on the stage of national opera, virtual action is telling the story and shaping the stage image of the characters.
The existence of virtual action connects the virtual with reality, produces the content prescriptiveness of the stage image, and triggers the imagination of the audience within the prescriptive boundary, thereby realizing the shaping of the stage image.
Virtual movements play a role in forming opera or concert stage scenes and creating stage images. It is opposed to the fixed time and place of realistic drama, and can be freely transformed without restraint.
Just like "The White-Haired Girl" originally took place on the opera stage in Yan'an: "In the first act, Yang Bailao's home is the center of theatrical activities, the plain in front of the village, the mountains behind the village, and at Chinese New Year's Eve night, heavy snow falls in the sky. From the first to the fourth scene of the curtain, except for Yang Bailao who was recruited by the landlord to force debts to sell women, and one performed in front of the second curtain in the form of a table case, many plays were performed inside and outside the door of Yang's house. During the Yan'an performance, the set only set set a reed stalk wall in front of the dark curtain, symbolically depicting the poor and humble Yang family, and placed a clay kang stove, brazier and small plate in front of the wall to create the necessary action environment for the actors. ”
Under this humble stage arrangement, inside and outside the shelter are two different spaces, Yang Bailao can only use the virtualization in the opera, in the case of insufficient stage conditions, the performance is outside the shelter is ten miles of wind and snow, and inside the cover is the poor and simple Yang family.
The spatial form presented on the opera stage requires the reality of the feelings and feedback created by the performers through virtual techniques to set the theatrical situation, so as to gain the recognition and understanding of the audience.
Nowadays, in addition to the performance of the entire opera "White Haired Girl", more performances of Mr. Li Yinghai's adaptation of "Yang Bailao" in the form of concerts, when interpreting this song, the four parts of the song also need but cannot be exaggerated virtual actions to assist the complete expression of the song.
For example, in the first part, the singer needs to use virtual techniques to create real characters and stage images for specific plot situations, so that the audience can understand that this is a situation of heavy snowfall.
The second part is converted through the connection of the plot scene, and the Huang family is forced by Huang Shiren to sign a debt slip with a woman to settle the debt.
The third part again switches the scene from the Huang family to the Yang family, in the connection part, the singer needs to achieve the transformation of the character's emotions and situations, so that the audience can clearly understand the transformation of the scene, and in the form of the concert, the singer needs to create Xi'er, a real character setting that does not exist, through virtual movements, and perform a combination of virtual and real without physical objects, so that the audience admits that this is Yang Bailao's helpless confession of his sleeping daughter.
The fourth part of the scene shifts to the final situation of Yang Bailao's play, accusing the landlord, and after crying to the sky, he committed suicide by drinking halogen. The actor's or singer's use of virtual actions is to reveal the inner activities of the characters, and is a true reflection of the content and form on the stage.
Under the influence of virtual techniques, the special spatial transformation on the stage has a strong emotional color, guiding the audience to empathize and jointly complete the true reflection of life by the opera content.