On September 9, yunnan province selected the sixth national ethnic minority literary and art conference performance repertoire - the opera "Small River Flowing Water", brilliantly debuted on the CCTV network and the Portal of the State Nationalities Commission. Created by Yunnan University for Nationalities, the play is the first opera project in Yunnan Province to receive funding from the National Arts Fund.
Promotional poster for "Little River Flowing Water"
"The moon came out brightly, and the river snuggled up to the moon and flowed into the distance... The river called out to the moon in the sky, and they were whispering words. This is the beautiful lyrics of the opera "Little River Flowing Water", which witnesses the love of life and death of a young man and a woman, and reflects the unswerving true love of the world.
Accompanied by euphemistic singing, a romantic lyric opera full of national charm "Little River Flowing Water" began - on the Tea Horse Ancient Road, Margo Uri and the moon slope girl YiMei met and met, and the two composed a song of love with their lives.
Stills from "Little River Flowing Water".
The original intention of the creation of the opera "Little River Flowing Water" is to transform the representative and contemporary value of the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation into a typical artistic image, so that the genes of truth, goodness and beauty in traditional culture span time and space, observe reality, and let people not forget the original intention of love.
The play combines the traditional national culture of Yunnan with the symphonic musical means of opera and the unique and aesthetic art stage presentation form of Yunnan, so that the repertoire not only reflects the regional and ethnic characteristics of Yunnan, but also dramatically sublimates the most simple emotions of human beings.
"Little River Flowing Water" is created by Yunnan Nationalities University to integrate social high-quality resources, composed by composers Zhang Nan and Zhang Chao, written by Yan Quanyi and Ma Lianghua (author), directed by Sun Jinkun, conducted by Tang Muhai as the premiere conductor, young conductor Huang Yi as the tour conductor, vocal educator Zou Wenqin as vocal director, soprano singer and project leader Gao Shuqin as the female lead, tenor singer and opera actor Wang Kai as the male lead.
"The original heart of love" is the key word of the opera "Little River Flowing Water". The hero and heroine "use life to confirm the truth and eternity of love and faith" is the theme of the play.
Director Sun Jinkun said that the biggest difference between this poignant romantic lyrical opera and most plays is that the occurrence, development, and result of tragedy are not the contradictions and conflicts between good and evil, beauty and ugliness, but a tragedy that touches the heart triggered by truth, goodness and beauty as the starting point, and the tragic ending of this tragedy sublimates the truth, goodness and beauty.
In terms of presentation, the play sets up the prescribed scene of the drama from the perspective of Greater Yunnan, and adopts the ethereal, romantic, mysterious and aesthetic artistic style of the play to construct the ethereal, romantic, mysterious and aesthetic artistic style of the play within a certain time and space range with non-specific and generally directed prescribed scenes.
Composer Zhang Chao said that the play in the music into the ethereal, romantic, aesthetic and profound artistic conception of Yunnan, the concept of music creation is to combine the character image in the play with the unique representative national music elements of Yunnan, integrate the musical elements of the Yi, Hani, Bai and other ethnic groups, and also join the Yunnan national instruments such as Bau, using symphonic musical means to integrate and sublimate the national folk music, showing the beauty of the noble art of harmony and integration of the Chinese nation.
Project leader Gao Shuqin expressed the hope that this clear "small river" originating in Yunnan and meandering for more than half a century can make our excellent Chinese national culture flow into the world culture and art sea through the inheritance and innovation of generations of musicians.
"Little River Flowing Water" was successfully premiered at the Yunnan Grand Theatre on September 10, 2020, and after being revised and upgraded, it was toured in November of the same year, completing a total of eight performances. Previously, the play was selected as a funded project for the creation of literary and artistic masterpieces in Yunnan Province in 2016, a "100 fine works" project for national culture in 2018 and 2019 by the National Ethnic Affairs Commission of Yunnan Province, and a large-scale stage creation funding project of the National Arts Fund in 2018.
Drama review
A new attempt at opera creation
Scenery is human
The structure and hierarchical arrangement of the script of "Little River Flowing Water" conform to the laws of opera, and its connotation display, drama preparation, drama momentum, and dramatic climax are logical, and the musical context is clear. Especially in the third act, Uri throws away the antidote to the love grass flower, living up to his promise to his lover, showing his loyalty; the kind YiMei pays for his young life because of the loss of the only antidote. This kind of plot treatment brings emotional sublimation and dramatic overlap to the whole opera, making people feel the tragic love of "Romeo and Juliet". At this time, the opera combines affection, passion, sadness and sorrow, and pushes the creative principle of "musical drama, dramatic music" to the peak.
The music is one of the highlights of this opera. Composer Zhang Chao reasonably grasped the opera genre, took music as the main body to promote the dramatic plot and ran through it, and fully infiltrated the arias, narrative tones and even arias in the opera with melodies full of beauty and distinct regional characteristics, and then integrated the national tone after digesting the "rumination" into it, and made a creative breakthrough in music. The music of different colors, emotions and charms not only shows the aestheticity, naturalness, lyricism and drama of the opera, but also uses this as a means to set off the theme of the play "praising true love on earth".
In order to achieve the high standard of the performance, the play specially hired the conductor Tang Muhai to run the baton. He is very strict with the whole audience, has clear guidance for the actors and the orchestra, and has a deep and accurate understanding of the music and an appropriate interpretation. When the opera plot reaches its climax, he creates a gripping dramatic tension with excellent explosive power, so that the opera instantly reaches the peak of emotional bursting and emotional fusion.
The opera "Little River Flowing Water" has its characteristics and successes in terms of choreography, costumes, lighting, and especially sound. The play does not pursue luxurious choreography, but highlights the national characteristics in a concise and smooth way, and achieves better artistic results.
In short, "Little River Flowing Water" is a rare good play. Its goodness lies in the style, characteristics, nationality, and creative sense, which has brought creative inspiration and creative experience to the development of national opera.
Source: State Nationalities Commission