The famous Yue opera actor Wu Xiaolou is the youngest of the "Ten Sisters" of Yue opera, while the famous Yue opera performance artist Yin Guifang is the oldest of the "Ten Sisters", but Wu Xiaolou often plays the "father" of the eldest sister.
Portrait of Wu Xiaolou (1926-1998)
Originally, Wu Xiaolou was an old actor, in 1946, she had worked with Yin Guifang and Zhu Shuizhao as the three pillars of the Fanghuayue Opera Troupe, and often played the father or elder of the role played by Yin Guifang on the stage, such as in "The Prodigal Son", Yin Guifang played Jin Yuqing, and Wu Xiaolou played jin Yuqing's father; In "Looking Back", Yin Guifang plays the protagonist Andy Lee, and Wu Xiaolou plays Andy Lee's father... He also played the role of the traitor Anda in "Prince of the Desert", the warlord Yuan Baofan in "Begonias" and many other "elder generation" characters.
Group photo of the Ten Sisters of Yue Opera in 1947 (the first from the right is Wu Xiaolou)
Yin Guifang and Zhu Shuizhao both like Wu Xiaolou, regard her as their little sister, and are also very sure of her acting skills and singing style. Yin Guifang and Zhu Shuizhao always play a couple, and Wu Xiaolou always plays Yin Guifang's father. On stage, Yin Guifang called Wu Xiaolou "Daddy"; Wu Xiaolou always calls Yin Guifang "big sister", so the relationship between the three is close and the cooperation is very pleasant.
Stills of Yin Guifang and Zhu Shuizhao's "Prodigal Son"
1946 Fong Wah Yue Theatre Company sister comic
Wu Xiaolou sang for the audience
Wu Xiaolou's voice is thick and loud, the bass sound quality is full, the singing voice is vigorous and dignified, the singing is full of passion, and it sounds quite male. Therefore, she and Yin Guifang's elegant and elegant singing voice complement each other and complement each other, and many plays can be called "audiovisual feasts", continuous performances, bringing great artistic enjoyment to the audience, so the audience calls them the best "father-daughter file". Yue opera has always been a drama based on Xiaosheng and Huadan, Wu Xiaolou relies on his own performance skills, with the old life industry to do the work, forming his own unique style, becoming one of the pillars of the troupe, and has yue opera "Jin Shaoshan", which is really rare.
Wu Xiaolou played Zhang Xingjian in "Detective"
Yin Guifang once commented on Wu Xiaolou: Xiao Lou's old students and big flower faces are all good, people are also quite good, they can act, positive and negative roles can be played, and she is assigned to act what she does. When she performed at the Nine Star Theater (Fanghua Theatre), she was still young (21 years old), bold, really a newborn calf is not afraid of tigers, and our sisters' feelings are deep.
Wu Xiaolou played Emperor Tang in "Playing The Golden Branch"
The Fanghua Drama Magazine published on June 25, 1947 also commented on Wu Xiaolou in this way: Indeed, among the old students, the voice is loud, the appearance is good, and the drama road is wide, and we must first promote our old student Wu Xiaolou, the old father in "Looking Back", Zheng Zhilong in "Ge Nenniang", and Li Lianying in "The Guangxu Emperor". In addition, she has also been on the lao dan twice, and "The Tale of the West Chamber" and "The Union of Heaven" also have amazing acting skills.
Fanghua performance repertoire instruction manual
Wu Xiaolou played Zhang Donkey in "Dou E'er"
Due to the factors of the times and chances, Wu Xiaolou left very few video materials when he was young. In 1948, Wu Xiaolou played He Laoliu in the Yue opera film "Xianglin Sister-in-law", but the images of that time have not been seen circulating so far. However, in 1958, Wu Xiaolou played Zhang Xingjian in the Yue opera movie "Love Detective", although it was only a supporting role, it appeared for only a few minutes before and after, but a singing section of "Zhuangyuan Gong Don't Be Too Nerdy" was handled slowly by using a ruler tone, with clear words, rounded and stretched, rich melody, rich charm, and vivid performance of a character who was sleek, clever and discerning, and exquisite in the official arena. It is this singing that makes many audiences very impressed with Wu Xiaolou's performing arts in his "prime years", and the Yue opera "Jin Shaoshan" is indeed worthy of the name.
Stills from the Yue opera "Detective"
Wu Xiaolou was born on June 18, 1926, in a poor tailor's family in Hangzhou, on the banks of the beautiful West Lake. Although her family was poor, her parents, who loved her, gritted their teeth and sent her to school at the age of 6, hoping to change the fate of being uneducated and poor. Wu Xiaolou was clever and clever from an early age, with strong memory receptivity and a wide and loud voice, and soon became a literary and artistic activist in the school. She also likes to watch and sing opera, especially likes to watch Yue opera, and is a complete fan of small drama.
Wu Xiaolou life photos
But when Wu Xiaolou was ten years old, the living conditions at home were even more difficult, and just when a friend of his father said that Yuyao's Yue opera "Shuangfeng Stage" was recruiting girls to learn drama, his father and mother discussed and decided to send Wu Xiaolou and her sister Baozhen to learn drama.
Wu Xiaolou played Chen Dongchu in "Plum Blossom Soul"
The poor children understood things early, and Xiao Lou and his sister could fully understand their parents' intentions, so they left their parents and embarked on a strange road to Yuyao to learn drama one by one.
Life in the class is hard, and the students get up at four o'clock every day to practice. Wu Xiaolou began to learn to act in martial arts, in addition to practicing basic skills, blanket skills, and target skills, he also had to practice hip throwing movements. Later, the teacher found that she had a good voice and let her learn literary drama. In this way, after Wu Xiaolou studied for three months, he had both culture and martial arts, and began to "string red platforms", and he and his sisters ate and slept in the Hangjia Lake area all day, running in the wind and rain, running horses and selling art. Because Wu Xiaolou was born in Hangzhou, she has a lot of knowledge, has read a lot of books, and has watched many plays since she was a child, and her memory is strong, so she learns drama quickly, sings beautifully, and performs well, and soon has a small reputation in the Area of Hangjia Lake.
Wu Xiaolou with her students
However, only a year later, the Anti-Japanese War broke out and the "Shuangfeng Stage" was disbanded, and Wu Xiaolou and his sister had to flee with their parents to their father's hometown of Zhuji Mountain Village to survive in a difficult life.
In the summer of 1939, the old man who was the former manager of the "Shuangfeng Stage" suddenly came to Zhuji with a troupe to perform, and when he heard that Wu Xiaolou was idle at home, he enthusiastically recommended her to the troupe. At this time, Wu Xiaolou's sister was married, for the life of the whole family, Wu Xiaolou took a simple luggage in his hand, set foot on the rivers and lakes again, and began to run the acting career of the dock, and soon the troupe was favored by the Shanghai theater owner, and they took a boat to Shanghai.
Wu Xiaolou, Yin Guifang and the audience
After several years of "jianghu career", Wu Xiaolou's acting has continued to improve, and he has begun to serve as a second-shouldered old student in the group, and occasionally he can replace the head and shoulder old student.
In 1942, when Wu Xiaolou performed "Bao Gong Da Luan Driving" at the Tiantong Grand Theater, one day the head and shoulders Xiaosheng suddenly refused to perform before the performance. In order to respond to the emergency, with everyone's encouragement, Wu Xiaolou was bold and took the place to play the role of head and shoulders.
Because Wu Xiaolou is usually a person with a heart, often hiding in the background to peek and steal the drama of the head and shoulders, so Wu Xiaolou's hand-eye-body method is in place, and a backward board sings down, and he gets "full of color". Since then, Wu Xiaolou has been promoted from a two-shouldered xiaosheng Zhai to a head and shoulders xiaosheng, and his reputation has risen.
From 1943 to 1945, she was appreciated by Yuan Xuefen, twice participated in the troupe led by Yuan Xuefen, actively participated in the reform of Yue opera, created and starred in many successful roles of laosheng, and at the same time studied the art of laosheng assiduously, learned and absorbed in many ways, sang characteristics, and sang feelings. In 1945, in the play "Moonlight Song", Wu Xiaolou played Yuan Xuefen's "uncle", with only ten singing in an off-screen play, showing the separation of uncle and niece. Because Wu Xiaolou has a more real experience of the character's feelings, he always moves his feelings first every time he sings, thus arousing the resonance of the audience. Yuan Xuefen also said: Play with Xiaolou, communicate in a timely manner, and cooperate with tacit understanding.
Wu Xiaolou played Hong Xiuquan in "Wangu Zhongyi"
In 1946, when Yin Guifang formed the Fanghuayue Opera Troupe, he lacked a single old student, and just when Wu Xiaolou's contract expired, he was invited to Fanghua. After this, Wu Xiaolou gradually matured artistically, and his connection with the Yue opera sisters was more extensive.
As mentioned above, Wu Xiaolou and Yuan Xuefen formed a deep stage sisterhood during the "Snow Sound" period, in August 1947, Yuan Xuefen germinated the idea of raising funds to build a theater through charity performances, so he first consulted with Wu Xiaolou, Wu Xiaolou has always admired Yuan Xuefen's character, and was proud and proud, immediately agreed to Yuan Xuefen's participation, and contacted Yin Guifang, Zhu Shuizhao, etc. to meet with Yuan Xuefen, and jointly promoted the "Ten Sisters" charity performance that is famous in the history of Yue opera. She also played the role of Liang Gonggong in "Mountain and River Love".
Wu Xiaolou with her husband
Although Wu Xiaolou is the youngest of the "Ten Sisters", she is small and clever, bold and careful, and is very supportive of Yuan Xuefen's actions, running around with Yuan Xuefen and visiting the sisters' homes to do liaison work.
When the charity performance was ordered to be suspended by the authorities, it was she who rushed to the Social Bureau in coordination with Yuan Xuefen and Yin Guifang, argued with reason, tit-for-tat, and finally forced the authorities to revoke the ban and win the victory. Since then, Wu Xiaolou has been closely united with the "Ten Sisters" and has had close contacts.
In October 1947, Xiao Dangui, one of the "Ten Sisters", was persecuted and committed suicide by the drama bully Zhang Chunfan, and it was Wu Xiaolou and other sisters who rushed to the front to apply for Zhang Dangui and expose Zhang Chunfan's evil deeds, until after 1949, Zhang Chunfan was sued in court and avenged the injustice for Xiao Dangui.
Wu Xiaolou was singing
After experiencing these storms, Wu Xiaolou further understood the intricacies of society, was tempered, and made new progress in thought and art. After 1949, she jointly mobilized a group of sisters, the first to participate in the state-run theater troupe, and served as the actor captain of the East China Opera Experimental Yue Opera Troupe, she was open-minded, good at uniting peers, and continued to explore and make continuous progress in art.
Wu Xiaolou and Yue opera sisters
In 1952, the role of Fahai, played in "The Legend of the White Snake", won the third prize of the First National Opera Observation and Performance Conference; in 1958, she participated in the filming of the movie "Love Detective", leaving behind the representative singing section of the popular "Zhuangyuan Gong Don't Be Too Stupid", and also had artistic innovation and development in "Heavenly Wind", "Then the Emperor of Heaven", "Battle for Children" and other plays. In 1980, the Party Organization of yue theatre recruited Wu Xiaolou as a member of the Communist Party of China based on her long-term outstanding performance, and her introduction to the party was Yuan Xuefen and Xu Jin, a famous screenwriter who was introduced by her to the "Snow Sound" troupe.
Although Wu Xiaolou died of illness in 1998 and left not many video materials before her death, the Yue opera laosheng art she created still has a huge influence on the audience, and people call her together with Zhang Guifeng, Xu Tianhong, and Shang Fangchen as the "four old students of Yue opera".