The walls stood diagonally, the earth poured over, and countless long nights passed through the cracks. A forgotten wandering soul quietly stands on the stone steps... Two thousand six hundred years ago, the "Orphans of Zhao" came to the present.
Cheng Bao, Tu Anjia, Cheng Bo, Gongsun Pestle, Princess and other figures are frozen in the picture frame, and time passes back. Fate is wrapped up in the ancient story of "revenge", tested in impermanence.
On May 27th, the original musical "Orphans of Zhao", directed by Xu Jun, composed by Jin Peida, lyrics by Liang Mang, and starring Zheng Qiyuan, Ming Dao, Xu Junshuo, Fang Shujian, He Liangchen, Xue Jianing and Zhu Zirong, opened its first round of performances at SAIC Shanghai Culture Square. The tragic epic and well-produced made the performance continue to sound applause and applause, and the atmosphere of "long absence" wafted in the air, and the audience boiled at the end of the curtain. On the night of the premiere, the drama rushed to the top of the hot search entertainment list.
After the intermission and performance, the audience fell into a heated discussion, and the online repo was even more praised, becoming the "number one seed player" in the audience's mind that Chinese original musicals have been hot in recent years.
As early as the eighteenth century, "The Orphan of Zhao" was introduced to Europe by the literary hero Voltaire and others, and today, this precious cultural exchange between the East and the West continues in the 21st century. After director Xu Jun obtained the copyright to the play by British playwright James Fenton, he re-created the Chinese version of the musical "The Orphan of Zhao" on the basis of the meta-drama and the adapted version of the Royal Shakespeare Company of the United Kingdom. Rooted in originality for many years and persistent in telling Chinese stories, he believes that "'The Orphan of Zhao' has our own wind bones, beliefs and realms. Under the motif of love and revenge, we look up to the sublime and gaze into the abyss. ”
"I feel like I've spent 60 years brewing the music for The Orphan of Zhao." Composer Kim Peida said that the finished music is full of "overlapping conflicts, complex emotions, and a lament that is more and more generous." He admits that he is grateful for having the opportunity to participate in music creation, and the musical "Orphans of Zhao" tells old stories from a new perspective. Liang Mang, a well-known lyricist in the mainland, completed the line creation of "The Orphan of Zhao" during the epidemic and said that "when writing, he often cried for the characters in the play".
The famous designer Zhang Shuping was responsible for the image and costume design of the musical "The Orphan of Zhao", and Xiao Lihe was responsible for the stage lighting design, striving to make this musical have both "overhead" and "traditional" aesthetics.
"The Orphan of Zhao" not only gathered Zheng Qiyuan, Xu Junshuo, Fang Shujian, He Liangchen and other powerful musical singers; it also took the initiative to break the circle and ushered in the "crossover" of film and television stars Ming Dao and Xue Jianing. The lineup is strong and can be called a top match.
Zheng Qiyuan, 41, who won the lead of the year in the second season of "Sound into People's Hearts", showed his strong professional strength as a first-line musical actor in China and contributed to the most dazzling performance of the show. Cheng Bao, who has the heaviest weight in the play, said in the words of netizens, "how to get a 'stable' word'". Behind this steady light is the actor's hard work and huge efforts, "At the beginning, I didn't dare to pick up, after all, I hadn't touched this character, but the actor was trying to create the role." I did it on stage, I blended into the character, I felt his joys and sorrows, and I was reborn. ”
"A lot of people choose value, and I prefer to choose meaning myself." I hope that the work I interpret is not fast food, but a product of deep cultural cultivation. For me, acting in this play is a process of reshaping the soul and mind. The rehearsal process is particularly painful, then I believe that the final presentation must also be painful. Xue Jianing said.
Author: Tong Weijing
EDIT: Wei Zhong
Image: Courtesy of the performer