Mammoth News Oriental Today Chief Reporter Liang Xinhui /Wen Yuan Xiaoqiang/Photo
Loyalty runs through the sun and the moon, righteousness is in the clouds. Last year, as the finale of Li Shujian's "Loyalty, Filial Piety, Festival, and Righteousness" tetralogy, the newly compiled historical Yu opera "Yi Bo Yun Tian" was well received after it was put on the stage, and successively walked into the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Shenzhen Poly Grand Theater and other places, performing 15 consecutive performances, and the scene was full of praise.
On May 23, Henan Li Shujian Xiqu Art Center held a new large-scale historical Yu opera "Yi Bo Yun Tian" provincial tour media meeting on "Telling the Story of the Yellow River, Inheriting Loyalty and Filial Piety and Righteousness", and announced that from May 27, "Yi Bo Yun Tian" will start a two-month provincial tour.
In the past 20 years, the Yu opera "Cheng Baby Saves Orphans", "Qingfeng Pavilion" and "Suwu Muyang", starring Li Shujian, vividly interpreted the "loyalty, filial piety and festival" in Chinese virtues, which produced good repercussions at home and abroad and had a far-reaching impact. Nowadays, the finale of the "Loyalty, Filial Piety, Festival, and Righteousness" tetralogy, "Righteous Thin Cloud Sky" has been performed 15 times since its launch last year, and has been loved and praised by the majority of fans.
The newly compiled large-scale historical Yu opera "Yi Bo Yun Tian" was created by the Second Yu Opera Troupe of Henan Province, and operated and promoted by Henan Li Shujian Xiqu Art Center.
Li Shujian, president of Henan Yu Theater and famous Yu opera performance artist, starred, Chen Yongquan wrote the script, Ding Jianying and Chang Wenqing directed, Zhao Guoan composed, and Li Hongquan orchestrated and directed.
As we all know, on the Chinese theater stage, there have been many previous Guan Gong plays, but they are often a fragment of Guan Yu's deeds, and there are very few plays that show Guan Gong's life. "Yi Bo Yun Tian" organically connects the important events of Guan Yu's life, from Taoyuan Jieyi to Zhen Shou Jingzhou, from Wei Zhen Huaxia to the defeat of Maicheng, showing Guan Yu's magnificent life with epic brushwork, showing an image of Guan Gong who has feelings and righteousness and great feelings of family and country.
The media meeting was held in the form of online live broadcast, starring Li Shujian, director Ding Jianying, Chang Wentao, composer Zhao Guoan and other main creative personnel gathered together to share the story behind the creation and rehearsal of the play. Li Shujian, Gao Hongqi and other actors also sang wonderful excerpts such as "Baling Bridge" and "Night Reading Spring and Autumn" in the play.
Li Shujian said at the media meeting that Guan Yu is a well-known "martial saint" for women and children, and he challenges Guan Yu hongsheng with a nearly 60-year-old decaying old student, and it is very difficult to integrate the brave and mighty style of wusheng, the steady and dignified demeanor of the old man, and the strong and healthy frame of the flower face, and the double work of literature and martial arts.
"Good drama is grinded out and needs to be hammered and tempered." Li Shujian laughed and said that he was difficult to enter the play at first, but with the increase in the number of performances, he gradually entered a better state and more accurately grasped Guan Yu's spiritual temperament. Next, the play will tour the province, and he believes that his performance will be better and the play will become more and more mature.
(The one on the right is director Ding Jianying)
"The theme is grand, the script capacity is large, the music creation is large, the stage is bold, the cast is strong, and the band is strong." The director of the play, Ding Jianying, summed up the characteristics of the play with six "bigs".
Ding Jianying praised that in addition to Li Shujian's performance, the performance of young actors has also attracted attention. Cao Cao's three laughs after the defeat of Gao Hongqi Chibi, the series of actions of Liang Dengkun, the horse boy actor Liang Dengkun, the stunning voice of Mrs. Gan's Li Xiangfeng, and even the kebai of the two veterans, show the orderly inheritance of Yu opera.
It is reported that on the occasion of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, "Yi Bo Yun Tian" will start the pace of the province's tour on May 27, and will successively enter Hebi, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Nanyang, Xinyang, Luohe, Zhoukou, Xuchang, Xinxiang, Pingdingshan, Jiaozuo, Anyang, Jiyuan and other cities, and will also enter Luoyang Guanlin in particular to pay tribute to Wusheng Guangong.
(First from the right Li Zhiyuan, second from the right Zhang Jianping)
It is worth noting that the theme of this tour is "Telling the Story of the Yellow River well, inheriting the righteousness of loyalty and filial piety". Li Zhiyuan, general manager of Henan Li Shujian Opera Art Center, and Zhang Jianping, general director, said that "Yi Bo Yun Tian" not only shows the artistic charm of Guan Gong opera, but also radiates unique values and connotations in the new era, providing spiritual resources for improving the ideological cultivation and moral level of contemporary audiences. The promotion of patriotism, which the Chinese nation relies on to pass on the torch and is constantly enriched, is the firm belief of the hearts of hundreds of millions of people and the return of their feelings, and it is also the inexhaustible and inexhaustible source of strength for traditional opera.