This year is the 40th anniversary of the founding of Zhejiang Xiaobaihuayue Opera Troupe, and it is also the 45th year that Mao Weitao, honorary president and artistic director of Zhejiang Xiaobaihuayue Theater, has been in the arts. In 2023, she led the team to create a new national style and environment-style Yue opera "New Dragon Gate Inn", which became popular in the circle, and also gave the new generation of Yue opera actors Chen Lijun and Li Yunxiao huge traffic. As the producer, chief producer, and artistic director of "New Dragon Gate Inn", and also the promoter of this "Yue Opera Breaking Circle", Mao Weitao said in an interview with reporters: "The 'breaking circle' of "New Dragon Gate Inn" is an unexpected and reasonable thing, and I am now thinking about how to transform this "pouring traffic" into a long-term audience of Yue Opera and even traditional opera, so that traditional opera can have a longer vitality in the new era. ”
According to Mao Weitao, "New Dragon Gate Inn" has completed 167 performances in one year from its premiere on March 28, 2023 to March 22 this year, and now the venue is full, and it is difficult to find a ticket; it has received high-score certifications of 9.5 for Damai, 9.7 for Maoyan and 8.2 for Douban, 1.8 billion + views on Douyin-related topics, 100 million+ readings on Weibo-related topics, 1.26 million + video views on official Weibo accounts, and 98 million+ views on Xiaohongshu-related topics. Among the audience who bought tickets, 80% of the audience had never been exposed to Yue Opera before. "This set of data allows us to see that traditional opera is gradually entering the lives of the younger generation. Mao Weitao said with confidence, "I look forward to the possibility of reconstructing the current Chinese opera because of the younger generation's closeness to traditional opera." ”
Mao Weitao (middle) with "New Dragon Gate Inn" actors Li Yunxiao (left) and Chen Lijun (right)
"The popularity of Yue Opera this time is definitely not achieved overnight, but thanks to the accumulation of creative concepts that generations of Yue Opera people continue to explore and update. Mao Weitao knows that the reason why Yue Opera can go through thousands of years of vicissitudes and is still dazzling is inseparable from many female artists who are silently dedicated and persistently pursued, who have created one fresh and classic image after another with their own life experience and artistic talents, showing the unique charm and diversity of women, "If women's Yue Opera has ushered in a glorious moment, it must have something to do with the development of our society and the awakening of women." Specific to "New Dragon Gate Inn", Mao Weitao believes that the experience that can be learned from this case is to boldly use more talented and responsible young people to create and perform. "Young people may not be mature enough or experienced, but they can capture the vocabulary that is most relevant to the times, and they know what kind of drama the audience wants to see. ”
Mao Weitao introduced that the young creators made an original adaptation of the movie story. "Their creativity brought about the times, and their devotion to artistic creation was recognized by the times. "In "New Dragon Gate Inn", the free and easy freedom of the characters in the rivers and lakes should be the most infectious. "My life is up to me", especially the arc of the characters on the gold-inlaid jade body, which is very in line with contemporary aesthetics and is vivid and dazzling. The most popular character in the play is Jia Ting, the eunuch of Dongchang played by the Yue Opera girl, known as the "Jade Mask Shura", who is thoughtful, both good and evil, and cannot find a counterpart in traditional opera. "The male portrayal of the female student is an artistic presentation under the dual aesthetic, a hypothetical, idealized, and romantic creation. Mao Weitao, who is known as "the first female student of contemporary Yue Opera", analyzed, "The choreographer understands that female students are the biggest charm and characteristics of Yue Opera, and they use their own vocabulary and methods to show the characteristics and charm of Yue Opera to today's audience." ”
Integrity and innovation Although the crew of "New Dragon Gate Inn" created for the lifestyle of contemporary people is centered on young creators, artists such as Mao Weitao and singing designer Chen Guoliang have assisted young people to create better to the greatest extent. For Mao Weitao, exploration and experimentation are about opening up new paths, not denying old paths. For "innovation", Mao Weitao emphasized that "there is new in the old, and there are roots in the new", and he tried his best to pursue the expression suitable for the current era in terms of concept, "but our way of expression is always from the most traditional four skills and five methods of Chinese opera, and from the spirit of our traditional Chinese opera." In her view, these root elements are everywhere, such as hands, eyes, and bodies, and the appearance of the generals, the "old-fashioned" and the one table and two chairs, all of which are the timeless freehand beauty of traditional Chinese opera.
Mao Weitao believes that all classic traditions are at that time, and they need to be completed together with the audience in the theater, and they are alive. "Today's audience needs and appreciates 'integrity and innovation' more than ever. 'Righteousness' and 'sharpness' are the prerequisites for innovation, and 'history' and 'contemporary' are the meanings of integrity. Mao Weitao believes that in the development and innovation of traditional drama, we must find new styles and new tracks. Han Kun, the founder of Shanghai's "One Good Show", is a post-80s generation, and his "Bistro Play" in Shanghai Asia Building is full and hard to find, he once confidently told Mao Weitao: "Our team's ticket rate is 100%. Mao Weitao asked him why he came up with the idea of creating a drama in this way, and Han Kun replied: "We are not benchmarking against any kind of theater art, we are benchmarking against the way of life of today's people." This sentence made Mao Weitao enlightened and suddenly enlightened, "Isn't the art of our predecessors also based on the lifestyle of that time? Today, people have new needs for living space, performing arts space, consumption space or entertainment space, and need new satisfaction." So she decided to cooperate with "a good show", and the first environmental Yue opera "New Dragon Gate Inn" was born.
"Exploring the boundaries of drama genres and exploring the possibilities of the market must be risky and hard, and you need to make a bet on your own artistic reputation, but someone has to do it. Mao Weitao often describes herself as "the eldest daughter in the old house", inheriting this "house" from her predecessors, and at the same time shouldering the responsibility of protecting and inheriting it, so that this "old house" can be reborn. "What I look forward to is not only for new audiences to come to the theater to watch a play, but for new audiences to approach the art of Yue Opera through "New Dragon Gate Inn", from curiosity to understanding to liking, and I am looking forward to this work to provide a platform for young actors to cultivate their own audiences. I am very happy that this wish is now slowly being realized. When many people were cheering for the "New Longmen Phenomenon" to become a "splashing wealth and wealth" in traditional opera, Mao Weitao was thinking calmly, "Do we have enough energy to catch this wave of traffic and continue this spark?" She believes, "We should study more about whether this is a word-of-mouth work that has a high evaluation in the audience in the real sense, or is it just because the actors are beautiful and the unique charm of Kun Sheng has retained the audience?" How can we maintain a more lasting popularity? Explore the so-called marketing, which is actually the word-of-mouth explosion effect formed after the content is accepted by the market, rather than just a phenomenon obtained by hyping traffic. As a "tragic idealist", she even has some new worries: "We don't know how to analyze the case of "New Dragon Gate Inn", which exposes the weakness of the theoretical and academic field, we don't know how to use the traffic of "New Dragon Gate Inn", which exposes the lag of the overall operation concept, and from the gaze and attention of the new audience, it exposes the emptiness of the content of mainstream creative works." "New Dragon Gate Inn" is on fire, is Yue Opera and even opera really popular? How long can this kind of fire last?" Mao Weitao said frankly that the opera market does not seem to have been boosted by the explosion of "New Dragon Gate Inn", and there is still a long way to go before opera really enters the market. However, the explosion of "New Dragon Gate Inn" has also released a signal to the market that users still have consumption demand for opera, but they just need to establish a connection with current users with appropriate content and the right way. This is a long process of refinement and individualization, and it is also an important issue that needs to be considered in the current opera market.
Mao Weitao believes that "our operating philosophy should not only stay at a single creative work and complete the number of performances, but also think about how to discover the charm of actors, how to discover the charm of dramas, how to spread culture, and let creation amaze the world." We must fundamentally change our concepts, ideas and consciousness, and learn from more mature industries. Mao Weitao noticed that many industries will have professionals in specialized fields to do case analysis, including the study of failure cases, "It is precisely because of this kind of analysis that the industry can be promoted." Throughout our review and theoretical research, we still evaluate the screenwriter, director, actor and theme values of the work from the perspective of personal aesthetic taste, but lack of perspective on the market and communication. ”
At the same time, Mao Weitao pointed out that the traditional concept of opera creation has lagged behind the times, "It is not that our art form is backward, but that our values, our concept of drama, and our thinking are backward." Mao Weitao said frankly, "We have so many traditional operas, but we lack works for today's era and audience." Many modern dramas also fail to impress today's young audiences. In Mao Weitao's view, "Many modern dramas are actually just wearing modern people's clothes to interpret farming aesthetics, which is a fallacy and a disconnect, but the creators are often unaware of it and are still working behind closed doors." When Mao Weitao is thinking about creation, he is thinking about how to make ancient dramas attract and move the audience at the moment, "An art is like a species, it also needs to evolve, and when an art evolves to meet the life, emotion, and spiritual needs of today's people, it will definitely be accepted." ”
Keep sober Look at traffic rationally and the popularity of "New Dragon Gate Inn" made young actors such as Chen Lijun and Li Yunxiao suddenly out of the circle and quickly had a large number of fans and traffic. In the face of such "pouring traffic", Mao Weitao understands the complex feelings in the hearts of young actors. She thought that when she won the Plum Blossom Award, the highest award for Chinese drama, for the first time, she was only 23 years old, and she suddenly received countless media attention, and there were many commercial endorsements coming up, which made her feel very troubled and confused. Until a moment, she suddenly put it down, she put away the trophy of the Plum Blossom Award, and secretly decided: "Every scene in the future must be in line with the level of the Plum Blossom Award." After that, she won the Plum Blossom Award and various awards twice, but she sealed all kinds of awards, because she felt that the awards were just a stage affirmation of her, and what she wanted to do was to be able to leave some works and lead this drama to go further.
Mao Weitao (middle) with "New Dragon Gate Inn" actors Li Yunxiao (left) and Chen Lijun (right)
Mao Weitao hopes that young actors can look at everything rationally and soberly. "If you indulge in vanity, you are not far from the destruction of art!" she said to Chen Lijun and Li Yunxiao: "The flow is temporary, but art is eternal." We need to have great concentration in our hearts to understand that today's situation is just a phenomenon. Which road to take in the future and which direction to develop must be grasped by yourself. As for herself, the 62-year-old Mao Weitao is still on the road of continuous progress, and she hopes that she can still "stay sharp, remain pure, keep reflective, and keep resonating with the times." Through the medium of drama, we convey our cognition and interpretation of the current world. There are sighs, or joy, sorrows, and joys. ”
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Reporter and editor of this issue: Wang Run
Producer of this issue: Jia Wei Photo of this issue: Courtesy of Mao Weitao