Kunyun has been around for 600 years, and the torch has been passed down from generation to generation. On the afternoon of April 30, as one of the supporting activities of the 9th China Kunqu Opera Art Festival, the Kunqu Opera Social Art Level Examination and Performance, organized and implemented by Suzhou Art School, was held in Kunshan Liangchenyu Kunqu Opera Theater. At the scene, 16 Kunqu opera singing segments were staged.
The Modern Express reporter learned that the actors who appeared on the stage included Liang Guyin, Wang Fang, Yu Jiulin, Shan Wen, Yu Xuejiao and other famous Kunqu Opera artists, as well as representatives of the Qu Club and representatives of outstanding candidates in the Kunqu Opera Examination over the years. It will gather four generations of the old, middle, young and even young people in the Kunqu opera industry to gather together to witness the endless growth of Jiangnan Yayun and "bloom all over the beautiful scenery".
Among them, the youngest performer, Cai Murong, is only 4 years old, but he has obtained a Kunqu Opera Grade 1 certificate, and sings Kunqu Opera with "Little Milk Sound", and the audience's hearts are cute. Although he was young, Cai Murong had no stage fright, and the song "The Legend of Huansha and the Siege" was correct and round, which attracted thunderous applause from the audience.
It is worth mentioning that Liang Guyin, a national treasure-level Kunqu opera performance artist, and his granddaughter, Zhu Yunni, a 2022 student of Suzhou Art School, jointly performed a double mirror version of "The Legend of the Sea of Sins: Sifan". Zhu Yunni has been personally guided by Liang Guyin since she was a child, with a sweet voice and a beautiful appearance, and has won the 23rd Chinese Opera "National Children's Opera Little Plum Blossom" Golden Flower Award and the "Shanghai Children's Opera Little Magnolia Award" Outstanding Performance Award. Although the age difference between the two is quite large, their movements and singing are the same, vividly interpreting the inner world of the little nun.
Kunqu Opera is known as the "Master of a Hundred Operas" and is one of the world's first "masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity". In 2021, Suzhou Art School conscientiously implemented the spirit of the instructions of the Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government on carrying out the Kunqu Opera Social Art Level Examination, and with the strong support of the Propaganda Department of the Municipal Party Committee, it was approved as the first Kunqu Opera Social Art Level Examination Institution in the country. In the past three years, more than 1,500 people from 16 cities in 10 provinces across the country have participated, from children with drooping hair to the elderly, more and more people have gradually entered Kunqu Opera, fell in love with Kunqu Opera, and promoted Kunqu Opera.
Wang Zhen, Secretary of the Party Branch and Principal of Suzhou Art School, said that this exhibition was held on the occasion of the 9th China Kunqu Opera Art Festival, which not only showed the achievements of the Kunqu Opera Examination in the past three years, but also hoped that more people could join the team of guarding and inheriting Kunqu Opera through the performance and publicity, so that Jiangnan Yayun would go to the whole country and the world, sing all over the world, and radiate vitality in the new era.
Hyundai Express / Hyundai + Reporter Gundam
(Photo courtesy of Suzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism)