Du Jinfang, a famous Peking Opera performing artist, the representative inheritor of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage Project (Peking Opera), one of the founders of the artistic style of the National Peking Opera House, and an advisor to the Artistic Guidance Committee of the National Peking Opera, died in Beijing at the age of 89 at 22:26 on April 17, 2021 due to ineffective medical treatment.
Du Jinfang studied Qingyi with the famous Peking opera artist Lu Peifang at an early age, and since the age of 10, she has sung on stage, and has been taught by artists such as Chen Shiding and Liu Yufang. In 1945, he took Wang Yaoqing as his teacher, was carefully taught, and learned from Wang Yaoqing's nephew and Mei Lanfang's violinist Wang Shaoqing, such as "Cosmic Front", "Phoenix Returns to the Nest", "Overlord Farewell", "Qi Shuanghui", "Jinshan Temple", "Noble Concubine Drunk" and other Mei Pai dramas. In 1947, he took tan fuying and Yang Baosen's class hanging second card. Since 1949, he has organized his own classes to perform in Beijing, Jinan and other places.
At the end of 1949, Du Jinfang was recommended by Wang Yaoqing to worship Mei Lanfang as a teacher in Shanghai, and was carefully instructed by Mei Lanfang. He has also asked Xu Lanyuan, Zhou Changtai, Jiang Miaoxiang and other predecessors or violinists who have cooperated with Mei Lanfang.
Du Jinfang and mentor Mei Lanfang
In 1951, Du Jinfang joined the Peking Opera Experimental Working Group of the China Academy of Opera (the predecessor of the China Peking Opera House) and performed on the same stage with Li Shaochun, Yuan Shihai, Ye Shenglan and other artists for a long time. With her innate intelligence and persistent pursuit of Peking Opera art, Du Jinfang has created a large number of touching and profound stage art images.
In the 1950s and 1960s, she starred in new or adapted plays such as "Liu Yin Ji", "The Legend of the White Snake", "The Tale of the Jade Hairpin", "Peach Blossom Fan", "White Haired Girl", "Xi Xiang Ji", "She Saihua", "Xie Yaohuan", "Keshan Red Sun" and other newly edited or adapted plays, which fully demonstrated her profound traditional drama skills and ability to create and perform new dramas. Du Jinfang's costume drama "Wild Boar Forest" (1962), co-starring Li Shaochun and Yuan Shihai, and the modern drama "Red Detachment of Women" (1972), starring, were both filmed as color Peking Opera films. After 1976, the Central News Documentary Film Studio successively produced its "Broken Bridge", "Lian Jinfeng Thorn Clam", "Xie Yaohuan Garden" and other drama films.
Peking Opera "The Legend of the White Snake", Du Jinfang (middle) as Bai Suzhen, Ye Shenglan (right) as Xu Xian, Wu Suying (left) as Xiaoqing
Du Jinfang and Yuan Shihai starred in the Peking Opera "Farewell to the King"
In the modern Peking Opera "White Haired Girl", Du Jinfang plays Xi'er, and Li Shaochun plays Yang Bailao
Du Jinfang and Gao Yuqian starred in the Peking Opera "Red Lantern"
Du Jinfang's artistic style is both Rongmei (Lanfang) and Wang (Yaoqing) and has his own creations, which have both graceful and delicate beauty, and have a strong and solid strength, good at portraying a variety of different characters, leaving a deep impression on the audience.
In the Peking Opera "Noble Concubine Drunk", he played Yang Yuhuan
In the Peking Opera "Peach Blossom Fan", Du Jinfang played Li Xiangjun
In the Peking Opera "Liu Yin Ji", Du Jinfang played Zhu Yingtai
In the modern Peking Opera "Red Detachment of Women", Du Jinfang plays Wu Qinghua
In the Peking Opera "Xie Yaohuan", Du Jinfang played Xie Yaohuan
In her later years, Du Jinfang gave drama to students
(Source: Beijing Daily client)