On February 25, 1980, in order to commemorate the 80th birthday of the famous Peking Opera artist Mr. Ma Lianliang, I, Li Wanchun, Yuan Shihai, Tan Yuanshou, Zhou Hetong, Liu Xuetao, Ma Xiaoman, and Ma Pai actors Ma Zhiliang, Yan Shaopeng and Wang Helin, who came to Beijing from other places to participate in the commemorative performance, performed the famous Ma Pai drama "Dragon and Phoenix Chengxiang" on the same stage.
This performance is quite neatly matched, and it is also a rare collaboration recently. I played Sun Shangxiang in the play, and as soon as this task was taken over, it caused some discussion among my peers. Some people say that they have never seen me play Sun Shangxiang in "Dragon and Phoenix Chengxiang", and I don't know how to act like this "Big Qingyi". Some people even say that I play Sun Shangxiang to play chess on the Go board - not the right number of roads.
Hearing these discussions, I pondered for a long time, and while deeply remembering Mr. Ma, I couldn't help but think of Li Lingfeng, a teacher who taught me to learn drama.
Zhao Yanxia's "Yutang Spring"
I began to learn drama, martial arts was learned with my father, "Red Plum Pavilion" and "Thirteen Sisters" and other such plays were learned from my fourth aunt Zhao Meiying, and some of the main Hua Dan dramas were learned from two teachers such as Xiang and He Peihua. After learning Hua Dan opera, my father decided to let me learn a few solid Qingyi plays.
At that time, our family often ate the last meal without eating, and the poor jingled, and there was no money to hire teachers. In order to let me learn drama, my father took the "head of the line" as a big ticket, and the big ticket was not redeemed, and he became a small ticket, which shows how poor he is.
At that time, Beiping taught Qingyi opera, and Li Lingfeng could be regarded as second to none. He was a disciple of Mr. Wang Yaoqing, and the Qingyi opera path was broad and very kung fu, in the words of the drama class, "the stomach was very spacious", and he was the main palace qingyi of the so-called "Beijing Dynasty" school. The plays he taught were accurate, regular, and "practical", and he taught almost everything he taught at that time.
Li Lingfeng and Zhang Junqiu, Wu Suqiu, Xu Wenying, and Zi Yunxia
When I was thirteen years old, I had just come to Beiping from the south with my father, and because my family was poor, I didn't even have a bed to sleep in, so I had to sleep on the only two theater boxes.
Teacher Li Lingfeng came to my house to teach drama for the first time, and when he saw our family situation, he understood in his heart, but he did not teach me because my family was poor, and he did not teach me when he could not afford to study drama, and he still took time out of my house twice a week.
At that time, Teacher Li was a tall man in thirty-seven or eight years old, with a burly figure, wearing a clean blue-gray old tweed robe, speaking with a slight southern accent, teaching the drama meticulously, very serious and responsible. He taught me to learn drama, not only strictly demanding, but also taught much faster than other people. I also especially cherish the time when Teacher Li teaches drama, so I have not even eaten a whole meal, except for practicing seven or eight hours of exercises every day, the rest of the time is to memorize the words and walk the body. "Not crazy, not alive", I often think of words while holding my rice bowl. Sometimes, in order to figure out the size, the rice has just been half eaten, put down the rice bowl and go to the courtyard to walk up. When I finished walking, the food was also cold, so I had to eat two mouthfuls of cold rice, and I fell ill after a long time.
Li Lingfeng's "Royal Monument Pavilion"
One day at noon, I had acute enteritis and diarrhea. In the afternoon, Teacher Li came to talk to me about the play, but I was reluctant not to learn. Teacher Li touched my mood and advised me to rest well, saying that I would make up for a day tomorrow, and I was relieved.
Unfortunately, due to our family's poverty, I only followed Teacher Li to learn several live Qingyi plays such as "Sacrifice river", "Dragon and Phoenix Chengxiang", "Mulberry Garden Society", "Three Niang Godsons", "Traces of The Traces", etc., and I did not learn them, because I could not always let Teacher Li work hard.
Although I have not performed the play of "Dragon and Phoenix Chengxiang" for thirty-seven or eight years, because Teacher Li taught magnetically at that time, I also learned carefully, and now I still remember it word for word. This time, in order to play the role of Sun Shangxiang well, I asked the famous Peking Opera musician Comrade Li Muliang to help me rearrange and design the six-sentence Xipi slow-board singing voice sung by Sun Shangxiang when he first appeared.
Zhao Yanxia's "Dragon and Phoenix Chengxiang"
I listened to the recording of Mr. Mei Lanfang's play again, and learned how Mr. Mei portrayed the character's solemnity, depth, generosity and grace and magnificence through the sound cavity. I also borrowed a turn in front of mr. Cheng Yanqiu's performance of "Back to Jingzhou" in front of a "Xie Mother Queen", a small broken step of the Moon Gate, and a squat step behind the small round field, which is more in line with the specific situation of the characters in the play.
Teacher Li Lingfeng has devoted her life to teaching opera and has made contributions to cultivating and cultivating Peking Opera talents. In the play "Dragon and Phoenix Chengxiang", I have received the true biography of Teacher Li. Just to better portray the character of Sun Shangxiang, I made some changes in some places during this performance, focusing on the complicated feelings of Sun Shangxiang's mother. Teacher Li Lingfeng has long passed away, and I performed today the play he taught me forty years ago, which makes me deeply miss this respected Peking Opera educator.
August 1980
(My Stage Art)