Many years ago, at the Poly Theater, at the Beijing International Music Festival that year, American pop superstar Michael Bolton crossed over and sang "Nobody Sleeps Tonight" in the opera "Turandot", which shocked the audience. On the evening of October 19th, at the 24th Beijing International Music Festival, Cheng Fangyuan, the "Evergreen Tree of the Music World", also used a classic song "Dear Daddy" from the operetta "Janiski", so that fans could feel the different colors and tastes of opera art. This is the only pop singer on the stage of this year's Beijing International Music Festival, and under the theme of "Latin American Carnival", she has created lightness and joy with a number of Latin American-style songs. During this period, as a native of Beijing, Cheng Fangyuan, a fashion landmark in Beijing, sang the song "Corazon of Sanlitun" (Corazon in Spanish for "heart") that he created ten years ago, and the emotional listening was moved.
As China's first professional classical music festival, the Beijing International Music Festival has been deeply cultivating in China's classical music industry since its inception, but the festival has also brought a wealth of cross-border performances by pop singers and jazz masters many times in history, such as jazz celebrity Kenny Garrett, rock singer Cui Jian and Luo Dayou, American pop superstar Michael Bolton, and musical talent Huang Yunling. This time, it's a square circle.
In the past two years, Cheng Fangyuan has been flying around the world, she is not on the stage of singing, but carrying a camera as a traveler and photographer to experience a different life than her previous decades. That night, in Sanlitun, she once again appeared on the stage of the Red Pavilion as a singer, and communicated face-to-face with fans in this livehouse performance environment, which was her favorite singing environment and her favorite way of singing.
This concert was performed by Cheng Fangyuan and her friends, her friends - bass Huang Yong, jazz drum Liu Ziyi, guitar Feng Chong, percussion happy, keyboard Feng Wei and several other outstanding artists to help her. "I want, you're by my side; I want, you dress me..." Cheng Fangyuan opened with a song "I Want You" with ease. On the stage, a high stool, a microphone, a black dress, a short hair, a smile, into a square circle sitting comfortably, while singing her favorite songs, while chatting about the two years of interesting and happy past. Cheng Fangyuan's singing style is changeable, she can freely control jazz, pop, Posanova, she sings "Lake Belgarh", "a long-time lover", "Mojito" is someone else's song, but the interpretation of their own taste. She prepared the concert with care and made bold attempts. Puccini's one-act opera JaniSki, best known for his aria Dear Daddy, is a favorite of every soprano and fan. That night, Cheng Fangyuan successfully challenged this classic, without gorgeous showmanship and high notes, but with ordinary people's vocal areas and loose voices. Cheng Fangyuan was one of the earliest singers in the Chinese pop music scene to sing in English, and the song "My Beloved Everything" in the musical "The Sound of Music" was easily interpreted by her.
On the stage, in addition to singing, Cheng Fangyuan can also chat face-to-face with the audience, not only has she been a host, but more importantly, she has rich emotions and a vast world in her heart, and she has something to say and a story to share with everyone. Sometimes, her music scene is a bit like a combination of a talk show and a concert, with laughter erupting from time to time in a relaxed atmosphere. As a Beijinger, Cheng Fangyuan has a deep affection for her hometown, and she witnessed the earth-shaking changes of the city's landmark Sanlitun, so she wrote "Corazon of Sanlitun". "Corazon" means "heart" in Spanish, and people hear it in many Spanish songs. On the stage of the Red Pavilion, she spoke of the Sanlitun she remembered. "Speaking of Sanlitun, it is now a Beijing Internet celebrity punch card, a landmark area. As a Beijinger, I have witnessed the great changes in Sanlitun, which can be said to be the changes in the vicissitudes of the sea. I remember that the street outside turned out to be a narrow side street with a lot of mud when it rained. Here are the strings of clothing stalls, and over there are a bunch of bars, small record stores, and craft shops. At that time, I remember buying a muzzle, and I don't know how many of you remember this muzzle, but everyone who came at that time understood. Seeing such a big change in Sanlitun, in the past it was a surging crowd, now it is a tidal wave, the streets are full of handsome men and beautiful women, and there are many photography enthusiasts, especially the middle-aged uncle long guns and short cannons chasing beautiful women to shoot. Sanlitun is a very interesting place. I recalled many stories that happened here many years ago, all kinds of love and hate, those people and those things in those years, some of which have drifted with the wind, some of which are unforgettable, and they are vividly remembered. When she sang this song, her eyes and song were full of nostalgia for the green years of the past and the strong love and emotion that could not be abandoned in her hometown.
It was an audiovisual feast. Over the years, Cheng Fangyuan has carried a camera on his back as a traveler and photographer all over the world, Latin America, South America, Africa, North Africa, Morocco, the Sahara Desert, and the farthest place has reached the South Pole. In the video of the concert scene, frame by frame, she plays the precious moments she left behind in the process of traveling around the world, and all the beauty recorded in her lens and eyes. The photo is not an illustration of music, but a kind of sharing of the mood and life perception of that moment. When it comes to the meaning of travel, the ancients said "read thousands of books and travel thousands of miles", and now people say that the world is so big that I want to see, and there is a saying that "life is not only in front of me, but also poetry and far away". And she prefers this saying - "Travel is to go from the place where you are tired of staying to the place where others are tired, and then back to the place where you are tired." She thought it was more ridiculous and interesting. She said she wanted the audience to "go to someone else's place and take a look" as she sang her own footage.
Cheng Fangyuan said that she has always had a long-cherished wish, that is, to do a cross-border integration of classical and popular and even fashion mix-and-match. In fact, many musicians around the world have been trying this for a long time, and it is quite interesting to make such a mashup without any logic. She felt that in the world of music, whether it was classical music or popular music or folk songs, there was no insurmountable gap between them, they could all be integrated, depending on how you pinched them together. On the stage of the Beijing International Music Festival, she hopes to make such an attempt, "I am willing to pay tribute to classical music with another voice, another way." ”
Written by Zhang Xuejun
Edited by Zhang Xuejun
Photography by Zhang Xuejun
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