On the evening of the last Saturday in March, the reporter and Ge Qianqian enjoyed a play "Zhuangyuan Media" in the theater of the Hunan Peking Opera Protection and Inheritance Center (Hunan Peking Opera Troupe).
Live stage stills from "Champion Media".
Ge Qianqian is the deputy director of the center and a national first-class actor. As the audience gradually filled the 288-seat theater, she turned her face slightly and told reporters: "Today, the attendance rate of the Hunan Peking Opera Troupe is more than 85%, and the audience under the age of 45 accounts for about 70%. ”
However, at the end of the 90s of the last century, when Ge Qianqian just returned to the Hunan Peking Opera Troupe from Beijing, whenever the curtain opened, there were only sparse audiences with gray temples in the audience.
"At that time, I asked many times in my heart, can Peking Opera still be good?" Ge Qianqian stared at the stage in front of her and told reporters in a calm tone.
More than two hours later, the actors of "Champion Media" took a curtain call, and the audience applauded warmly and shouted "Sing one more paragraph".
Time has passed, and the spring of traditional culture seems to have arrived overnight, and Ge Qianqian found that Peking Opera was slowly heating up.
From "few people care" to "full applause", the quintessential Peking Opera seems to be regaining its due glory.
The stage was lively, and the audience was full.
The dilemma of having no successor
Hunan local opera has a long history and rich variety, and there are as many as 19 local opera types.
It seems that Peking Opera is outside the "19 kinds of chords".
In fact, Peking Opera once had a deep audience base in Hunan. In 1901, Peking Opera entered Hunan Province, which not only triggered the grand occasion of "10,000 people watching Meilang in the empty alleys" in Changsha, but also gave birth to a new entertainment group called "Ticket Club".
Sun Wenhui, a researcher at the Hunan Provincial Art Research Institute and a national first-class screenwriter, told reporters that the concept of "opera" was gradually strengthened after Chinese society entered the modern era, especially after 1949, in order to highlight the local characteristics of opera in various places.
In 1959, the Hunan Peking Opera Troupe was established. (Photo provided by the interviewee)
In 1952, the famous Peking Opera artist Da Zihong established the Red Star Peking Opera Troupe in Changsha, which was renamed the Hunan Peking Opera Troupe in 1959. After the reform of the cultural system in 2012, the troupe was renamed the Hunan Peking Opera Protection and Inheritance Center.
In 1994, the Hunan Peking Opera Troupe recruited the first batch of commission trainees and sent them to the High School Affiliated to the China Academy of Drama in Beijing for further study. Twelve-year-old Ge Qianqian became one of 36 trainees.
At that time, the Hunan Peking Opera Troupe was facing the dilemma of "no successor", and most of the actors were nearly 50 years old.
During our days in Beijing, we studied Peking Opera diligently, and "the teacher emphasized the responsibility we carried every day."
After five years of study, Ge Qianqian returned to the Hunan Peking Opera Troupe, but she was "taken aback" - no one watched Peking Opera anymore, and karaoke was taking the city by storm.
Waiting for the play and waiting for the stage, I finally had a chance to perform, the curtain opened, and there were few audiences in the audience.
In order to survive, in the early 2000s, the performers of the Peking Opera Troupe began to learn singing, dancing, sketches, talk shows, etc., planning a complete evening performance, and seeking performance opportunities in places where tourists gather, such as the Fire Palace.
Ge Qianqian said: "At that time, the only requirement we had to talk about the performance was that we had to perform two excerpts of Peking Opera at each party. ”
Peking opera performers wait behind the scenes.
In order to complete the performance task, Ge Qianqian and her colleagues went to the countryside of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province several times - the local opera atmosphere is strong, and two performances a day, one performance is three months. "Although the conditions are difficult, in the intensive performances of reviewing the past and learning the new, I have a new understanding of the beauty of Peking Opera, and as a practitioner, I must work harder to improve my skills in order to show and pass on the beauty of Peking Opera to the audience." ”
The ideal is very full, but the reality is very cruel, and more and more colleagues are forced to change careers for their livelihoods. Ge Qianqian is very stubborn, and she believes that one day everyone will look back and think about what the Chinese culture is.
"Hunan flavor" Peking Opera
Peking Opera has experienced ups and downs in Hunan several times, and resurfaced after 2013.
At this time, Ge Qianqian, who gritted her teeth and persevered in the predicament, found that the spring of traditional culture seemed to have arrived overnight, "The most intuitive feeling is that from us begging others to perform, to someone inviting us to perform."
In 2013, Hunan's "Yayun Sanxiang" elegant art popularization plan was introduced, and a series of activities such as "Art Moves Four Waters", "Good Drama on Stage", "Weekend Theater", and performances by theater troupes for the benefit of the people were launched, indicating that traditional opera began to take the initiative to "put down its body" and actively face the times and go to the public.
Subsequently, in 2017, the "Opera on Campus" activity began to be fully rolled out to the land of Huxiang, and the opera culture was able to accurately reach the youth group. From passively waiting for the audience to enter the theater, opera has turned to actively move closer to the grassroots, young people, and the market.
Zhang Xiyuan, a student at Yucai No. 3 Primary School in Changsha City, reads a picture book of Peking Opera at home.
If it is said that Peking Opera is "cold", it is the common fate of opera in a specific era. Then, its "warming" also indicates the turn of the times.
After Peking Opera entered Hunan Province, it collided and integrated with Hunan local opera and Hunan culture.
Peking Opera is divided into "Northern School" and "Southern School", while Southern School Peking Opera has always been more free and diverse, focusing on innovation.
As the only professional Peking Opera performance group in Hunan, the Hunan Provincial Peking Opera Protection and Inheritance Center is deeply engaged in the inheritance and development of classic traditional repertoire on the one hand, retaining the "Beijing flavor", and on the other hand, it attaches importance to excavating Huxiang themes, actively exploring the "Peking Opera +" model, and seeking new breakthroughs.
For example, the Peking Opera "Xin Chai", which was created with the theme of "Mrs. Xin Chai" and combined with the regional characteristics of Huxiang, was a large-scale stage drama funded project of the National Arts Fund in 2015, and was selected as an outstanding repertoire of the 8th China Peking Opera Art Festival, won the Tian Han Award of the 5th Hunan Arts Festival, and was performed in Beijing as the "Hunan Opera Jinjing" repertoire of the Propaganda Department of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Department of Culture.
From the fifties of the last century to the present, in addition to the rehearsal of traditional operas and excerpts, the Hunan Provincial Peking Opera Protection and Inheritance Center has created and performed more than 30 plays such as "Underground Flame", "Birthday Storm", "Heavenly Family Sin", "Ziying", "Guangling San", "Xin Chai", "Plum Blossom Hairpin" and "Xiang Jingyu". It not only greatly enhances the richness of the repertoire, but also incorporates many Hunan elements.
Stage stills from "Yi Nian • Xin Chasing Dreams".
On this basis, the Hunan Provincial Peking Opera Protection and Inheritance Center has also embarked on the road of cultural and tourism integration.
In 2021, the Hunan Provincial Peking Opera Protection and Inheritance Center and the Hunan Provincial Museum jointly created the restoration dynamic exhibition "Yi Nian: Xin Chasing Dreams", which uses the combination of Peking Opera art and modern projection technology to tell the story of Xin Chou, the wife of the Prime Minister of Changsha in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, who inherited her husband's ambition and taught her son to become a talent to protect her family and defend the country.
Today, this stage play has been performed more than 600 times, and the integration of culture and technology has touched countless audiences.
Since March this year, the Hunan Provincial Peking Opera Protection and Inheritance Center has been stepping up the rehearsal of "Dish Fangli". This is a new Peking Opera created against the backdrop of the return of the vessel body to Hunan that has been lost overseas for nearly a hundred years.
Stills from the rehearsal stage of "Dish Fangli".
"Dig deep into traditional culture, create literary and artistic masterpieces in innovative forms, and carry forward excellent traditional culture. Wang Xiaolin, director of the Hunan Provincial Peking Opera Protection and Inheritance Center, said that represented by the Mawangdui Restoration Dynamic Exhibition "Yi Nian Xin Chasing Dreams" and the new Peking Opera "Dish Fang Wei", the center will continue to focus on the theme of integrated development of culture and science and technology, culture and tourism, and explore the inheritance and development of Peking Opera art in the new era.
From the persistence of one person to the persistence of the whole regiment
The Hunan Peking Opera Preservation and Inheritance Center has gone through nearly 70 years of history.
In 2021, Zhang Xuan, deputy director of the center and a national first-class actor, won the 30th Plum Blossom Award for Chinese Theatre for his role as Xiang Jingyu in the modern Peking Opera "Xiang Jingyu". This is also the center's second "plum picking" after 1994.
《向警予》Stage 剧照。
"Pear Garden Walk" has been a hard work since its birth, which requires the talent of "grandmaster appreciating food and eating", and it also requires hard practice day after day, year after year.
Entering the industry at the age of 11, going to Beijing for further study at the age of 13, entering the Hunan Peking Opera Troupe at the age of 17, and winning the "Plum Blossom Award" at the age of 36, it can be said that Zhang Xuan's life trajectory is closely tied to Peking Opera.
As the only Plum Blossom Award winner in the troupe, Zhang Xuan is well aware of her responsibility, "The first thing I do when I open my eyes every morning is to rebuild my confidence and tell myself 'I can do it'". Peking Opera became the center of her life.
When she becomes famous, there will be more temptations, but as she said in an interview: "I am from Hunan, an authentic Hunan girl, and a literary and artistic worker trained by the people of Hunan." No matter how great the temptation is, I think I will never leave Hunan, the place where I was born and raised. ”
This kind of perseverance indicates the strength of the Hunan Peking Opera Troupe to get out of the "desperate situation".
There is a jargon in Peking Opera, called the spirit of "one vegetable", that is, all the staff are as closely united as vegetable roots, vegetable leaves, and cabbage hearts, regardless of priority, and cooperate closely to perform a good play.
From the front of the stage to the backstage, each actor and crew performs their own duties, collaborates with each other, and tacitly forges in each performance.
Orderly, behind-the-scenes preparations.
Therefore, behind Zhang Xuan's award, it also embodies the efforts of the entire troupe.
"Winning the award is a result full of honors, but the whole process of winning the award, including our performances and exhibitions in other places, is a process of enhancing cohesion and collective honor. Zhang Xuan said that through these awards, others also know that the Hunan Peking Opera Troupe can "win the battle".
Li Zaoling, who is just in her early 20s, is the youngest member of the troupe, and when he grew up watching "CCTV-11", he became an opera actor as he wished. More and more young people are becoming part of "One Tree", gradually supporting the future of Hunan Peking Opera.
Finding a "Second Man"
At 7:20 p.m. on March 30, just 10 minutes before the start of the performance, the cast was in full swing making final preparations.
At this time, a young man carried a bag of fruit into the theater dressing room and greeted everyone familiarly.
Seven years ago, 18-year-old Zhang Yiqiao first came into contact with Peking Opera, and since then he has fallen in love with this traditional culture uncontrollably. In addition to listening to opera, he also learned from the actors of the Peking Opera Troupe and took the initiative to promote Peking Opera to his family and friends. When he was in college, he used to bring exchange students from his school to watch Peking Opera performances.
The famous Peking Opera actor Wang Peiyu once said, "There are only two kinds of people in the world, one likes Peking Opera, and the other does not know that they like Peking Opera."
So, how to make the "second kind of people" find out that they like it? First of all, let them "hear Peking Opera".
Last year, Huang Muzhi, who was in his second year of high school, followed his mother to watch the performance of the "Weekend Theater" of the Hunan Peking Opera Protection and Inheritance Center for the first time, and was immediately fascinated. He was busy in high school, but whenever there was a performance in the theater, he would find a way to find time to watch it.
Although he has only been in contact with Peking Opera for one year, Huang Muzhi is like a senior opera fan. He taps his fingers on his legs to the rhythm, and when he hears the rise, he quietly sings two stanzas.
In 2019, the Hunan Provincial Peking Opera Protection and Inheritance Center began to cooperate with "Maoyan" to sell performance tickets online, with ticket prices ranging from 50 yuan to 80 yuan, and discounts can be enjoyed if you meet the requirements.
In 2017, the center launched the "Weekend Theater", and the ticket price has grown from 0 yuan, to a symbolic 20 yuan, and now to 50/80 yuan. Ge Qianqian told reporters that after the fee, the number of young viewers began to increase.
The embodiment of cultural self-confidence is directly reflected in the consumption choices of the new generation of consumer groups.
Looking around in the theater, the reporter saw many young faces: parents who brought their children to watch the play together, girls who came in Hanfu, and young people who came with friends in twos and threes.
With an attendance rate of more than 85% and 70% of the audience under the age of 45 – 10 years forward, this is a difficult scenario for Ge Qianqian.
The development of the Internet has allowed people to access Peking Opera and other opera arts through more channels and at a lower cost. At the same time, the affordable ticket price has also lowered the "threshold" for people to enter the theater.
The audience watched "Yi Nian Xin Chasing Dreams" in the theater of the Hunan Museum.
As early as a few years ago, Sun Wenhui proposed that there are at least two ways out of opera: to transform the old paradigm of opera into a new paradigm of drama, so that drama can embark on the road of regeneration, or to protect it as a cultural heritage, so that it can survive in contemporary society and win the future.
At the same time, he also pointed out that "as a cultural heritage, it will certainly not be the mainstream of theater culture in the future society".
Therefore, the transformation and marketization of traditional art may be the real way out.
In the Grand Theater of Meixi Lake International Culture and Art Center, which is "across the river" from the Hunan Provincial Peking Opera Protection and Inheritance Center, performances such as dramas, dance dramas, and musicals are often hard to find. In June last year, the Jiangsu Grand Theater's original folk dance drama "Dream of Red Mansions" was sold out in just 3 minutes at the Meixi Lake Grand Theater.
This kind of grand scene can't help but remind people of the "10,000 empty alleys to see Meilang" that happened in Changsha 87 years ago.
How can Peking Opera move from recovery to prosperity? There is an answer, which may have been written on both sides of the Xiangjiang River.
Source: Red Net
Editor: Chen Meijuan (intern)