On December 20th, published by the Culture and Art Publishing House and edited by Professor Chen Wei, a famous Chinese director and director of the Performance Teaching and Research Department of the China Conservatory of Music, the book review of the full textbook publication of the opera "Farewell to Kangqiao" and the opera "Red River Valley" was held in the Guoyin Hall of the China Conservatory of Music.
Professor Chen Wei, editor-in-chief and author, delivered a speech
Chen Wei is a famous opera music director and artist in mainland China, director and professor of the Performance Teaching and Research Department of the China Conservatory of Music, and "Farewell to Kangqiao" and "Red River Valley", which have published scripts and piano vocal scores, are two of the most representative excellent repertoire in Chen Wei's self-created and self-directed career. The textbooks of "Farewell to Cambridge" and "Red River Valley" include information on all aspects of the two opera works: scripts, piano music texts, introduction of the creative ideas of the main creative team, and performance stills.
It is reported that the opera "Farewell Kangqiao" is a small theater opera created by director Chen Wei in 2001, which was independently written by Chen Wei and composed by Zhou Xueshi, which is the first small theater opera in China, and was first performed in Beijing Renyi Small Theater in December 2001. Since its birth, the play has entered the classroom, and has been continuously performed by professional troupes at all levels, as well as teachers and students from many conservatories and local colleges, and has become one of the repertoire with the highest frequency and the largest number of performances.
Musicologist and critic Jia Qihong also reviewed the creation era and background of "Farewell to Kangqiao": since the 90s of the last century, the Chinese opera industry has unfortunately contracted "gigantism" due to its obsession with "big productions, big investments, and big scenes", with a large body, malnutrition, slow movements, and sluggish expressions. Chen Wei then found another way, through "Farewell to Kangqiao", self-written, self-directed, self-funded, with the students of the Singing Department of the China Conservatory of Music as the performance team, opened the road of exploration of small theater opera on the Chinese opera stage.
Performance link: opera "Farewell Kangqiao" Liu Zhihao as Xu Zhimo, Yang Zixuan as Lin Huiyin
The script of "Farewell to Kangqiao" focuses on the emotional entanglement between Lin Huiyin and Xu Zhimo, and intersperses the love lives of Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin, Xu Zhimo and Lu Xiaoman. Although there are no violent dramatic conflicts in the play, the author has made a lot of efforts to explore the contradictions and psychological actions of the characters' inner emotional worlds, and has reserved enough space for the composer to give full play to the lyrical function of music. Another feature of the script is the extensive use of the poems and remarks of the people in the play, which is smooth and natural due to the proper tailoring and fine seams, which plays an important role in creating a poetic and romantic lyrical atmosphere throughout the play.
The music written by composer Zhou Xueshi for "Farewell to Kangqiao" deliberately pursues "elegant popularity", with a romantic lyrical temperament, and on the premise of maintaining the personalized characteristics of the melody, its tone and sentences are more fluent and catchy, smooth and natural, which is most vividly manifested in the beautiful singing passages of "Gently I Left", "A Peach Blossom" and "I Don't Know Which Way the Wind Blows".
The opera "Red River Valley", written by Chen Wei and Qian Xiaotian, directed by Chen Wei and composed by Meng Weidong, premiered at Beijing Poly Theater by China Opera and Dance Theater on August 24, 2011.
Performance link: Opera "Red River Valley" "Ode to the Goddess of the Snow Mountain" Conductor: Zhao Jian Piano Artistic Director: Ren Zhuo
The script is adapted from the movie of the same name, with Tibet in the early twentieth century as the background of time and space, through the love and hatred between Gesang, Danzhu, Xue'er Dawa and the British Rockman and Jones, who have coveted Tibet for a long time, and interprets the heroic legend of the sons and daughters of Han and Tibet who depend on each other for life and death to resist the British invaders, so that the invaders have to sigh in the reflection of the soul: the Chinese nation, including the Han and Tibetan people, is a nation that will never give in.
Completely different from the small and delicate opera "Farewell to Cambridge", Chen Wei gives the overall style of "Red River Valley" dignified and majestic, with a heroic and epic character, showing another side of his heroic artistic temperament. Meng Weidong is a famous composer, and the music he composed for "Red River Valley" has a strong Tibetan style, and also pays more attention to the expression function of the melody, and some important singing passages are written delicately and beautifully; especially the two female characters, Danzhu played by Yin Xiumei is a dramatic soprano, and Xue'er played by the lyrical soprano Ju Youyan constitute a sharp contrast between movement and stillness, drama and lyricism in terms of musical character, which is very infectious. Danzhu's duet of love to Gesang is gorgeous, smooth and slightly playful, which is quite audible. Some duets (such as the duet between Gesang and Jones) and choral singing sections pay attention to the independence and staggered parts of each voice in the treatment of texture, and the overall auditory effect is relatively harmonious.
At the press conference, Zhou Xueshi, the composer of the opera "Farewell to Kangqiao" and a professor of the composition department of Wuhan Conservatory of Music, introduced that the entire scale, concept, form and style of the opera "Farewell Kangqiao" have its own characteristics, which are different from ordinary operas, he shared: "As a composer, I have collected many published scores of Chinese and foreign operas for decades. Chen Wei's "Farewell to Kangqiao" and "Red River Valley" are the first time I have seen an original Chinese opera published in such a form - the script, piano score, stills, the cast and crew of the premiere version, and the award records are put together to provide students with the entire process of creating a play in one book. ”
Meng Weidong, composer of the opera "Red River Valley", introduced: "I have written a total of 14 operas, and I have never published such a score. In the process of publishing the textbook "Red River Valley", director Chen Wei and I, as well as the main creative staff of the play, have made great efforts. At that time, under the influence of the epidemic, we repeatedly carefully proofread every track, every note, and every text. In this opera, I wrote the piano score first, and then the orchestra score. At that time, piano scores were created to pave the way for orchestral composition, so there were certain challenges for pianists. Chinese opera is in the ascendant, and it is expected that more good works of original Chinese opera will be published in this form in the future. ”
Overall Contrast
Wang Shikui, director of the Vocal Department of the China Conservatory of Music and dean of the China Vocal Art Research Institute of the China Conservatory of Music, introduced that opera is a comprehensive genre integrating singing and performance, and the highest evaluation of vocal talents is not singers, but performing artists, and singers who have not performed opera cannot be called performing artists: "Our vocal students are trained by the main vocal instructor, and then through the systematic stage training directed by Chen Wei, and finally become excellent opera performance artists." The vocal talents trained by the China Conservatory of Music for more than 20 years have all taken Chen Wei's classes, and the famous works directed by Chen Wei are not only "Farewell to Kangqiao" and "Red River Valley" that everyone sees today, but also "Five Girls" and "Visitors on the Iceberg".