Text/Shi Lei
(The author is a famous opera screenwriter, director, dramatist, researcher of Henan Academy of Arts)
The author of this article, Shi Lei, discusses the Changpai representative play "The Great Sacrifice Pile" with Master Chang Xiangyu
A few days ago, I saw two articles on the Henan Opera Radio Public Account about the Yu opera Changpai "The Great Sacrifice Pile" and the opera film "Wind and Rain Love", as an old man who has been doing a lifetime of research on the history of opera and opera criticism, I have two things to say.
When it comes to the Changpai art "The Great Sacrifice Pile", it is impossible not to mention our Master Chang Xiangyu and Mr. Chen Charter. One of them is the screenwriter and director of the play; the other is the designer of the singing voice of the play and the premiere of the heroine of the play, Huang Guiying, it can be said that they are the founders of the play, and their contribution is great. Carefully forged by the two of them, the play has not only become a classic repertoire of Changpai art, but also a classic repertoire of our entire Yu opera. The so-called "classic", once it is formed, is a model for future generations to learn and emulate, which is the value and meaning of the existence of "classic", otherwise it is not a classic! Historical facts prove that since the premiere of the play at the first opera observation and performance in Henan Province in 1957, to today, there has been more than one jiazi, because the actors who have sung the drama have been popular for several generations: Sun Yuju, Sun Lanxiang, Lin Xiulan, Chang Xiaoyu, Yang Meirong, Wang Qingfen, Hu Meiling, Hu Xiaofeng, Gu Xiurong, Niu Shuxian, Dang Yuqian, Wang Hui, Yang Hongxia, Yuan Na, Sun Beibei, Xu Chaoxia... Wait, wait, that's not counting the many famous people outside the province. None of their stage performance versions are out of the ordinary of Chang and Chen. Due to the limitation of their own artistic conditions, artistic practices, and different interpretations of the script and characters, individual actors have slightly adjusted and modified during performances, but they still imitate and learn, and never peak out of the right. This should be an indisputable fact.
Write about the regular and group photos of the period of the Great Festival Pile
Chang Xiangyu stills at the first opera observation performance in Henan Province in 1957
Chang Xiangyu taught The Great Sacrifice Pile of Sun Yu Ju
Chang Xiangyu performed in Kaifeng to guide his disciple Hu Meiling's performance of "The Great Sacrifice Pile"
Hu Meiling passed on the high altar pile to Sun Beibei, the fourth generation of the Chang Sect
As for the opera film "Wind and Rain Love", I have a different view. In 1985, during the premiere of the film in Zhengzhou, I watched the film and wrote a short article, titled: "It's Better Not to Change It - The Zhengzhou Premiere of the Opera Art Film "Wind and Rain Love"," which was published in the Zhengzhou Evening News on May 15, 2015. Not long after, on May 19, 1985, the third edition of the Beijing Drama and Film News reprinted the humble work in full. I think that your public account may wish to also publish it for readers to make a reference when commenting. How is it?!
Shi Lei wrote on October 5, 2021
Chang Xiangyu and Chen Charter
Attached: "It's better if it's not changed- the premiere of the opera art film "Wind and Rain Love" in Zhengzhou (originally published in Zhengzhou Evening News, May 15, 1985)
Led by Wang Qingfen, who once sensationalized Beijing and was hailed as a "new talent of Yu opera", the opera film "Wind and Rain Love" was recently released in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan. I bought a ticket at the downtown Taikang Stereoscopic Cinema, and to my astonishment, the movie sold only 34 tickets. Before the screening, I casually asked a theater attendant: Why are such influential actors and repertoire treated with this cold reception after being made into a film? Her answer was very crisp, simple, but quite moderate. She said: "They (referring to the film's choreographer, director and starring) have changed their minds, if it is still called 'The Great Sacrifice Pile', the old men and wives in the vicinity of the light audience can also be on it for a few full times." "Oh, you can see that the name has changed!" However, after watching the entire film, I felt that the change was far from being as simple as the waitress ladies of the theater said.
Let's start with scripts. "The Great Sacrifice Pile" is a traditional repertoire of many local operas, qin and Jin operas called "Flame Foal", Sichuan opera called "Qiao Zikou", and some dramas called "Yangui Selling Water". The image of the heroine of the play, Huang Guiying, is mainly established by the struggle with her father, who is greedy and rich and has a vicious hand. In the original drama, he married his son-in-law, killed his servants and killed them, and married everyone at the hands of his father. In the end, Guiying is forced to flee and makes a complete break with the feudal family, until the law field priest, so that the plot reaches a climax. However, the current film emphasizes the dispute between loyalty and adultery within the imperial court, and unjustifiably adds to the Suzhou prefect's instructions to commit adultery, harming Li Men and Huang Guiying's court priests, scolding the corrupt officials and murderous slaves, and exposing their conspiracies on the spot. In this way, the original lyrical drama, which is known for its love, has almost been changed into a "public case drama", diluting the condensed feelings in the original drama and exonerating Huang Father's guilt, thus invisibly greatly weakening the degree of fierce struggle between Huang's father and daughter. He didn't hate Huang Father deeply, and he didn't love Gui Ying very much.
The second is the singing voice. We know that the "Great Sacrifice Pile" of Yu opera has become an excellent traditional drama of Yu opera after continuous polishing and processing by generations of famous masters. Especially after changing the hand of Xiangyu, through his full cooperation with Mr. Chen Charter, he worked hard and painstakingly to operate, and became a famous drama of changpai and sang in the world. In terms of the singing voice and body of "Crying Building", "Road Fighting" and "Sacrifice Pile", it can be said that it has reached a household name, a popular population, and the audience is not tired of watching and listening, which is a classic of Yu opera. It is no wonder that on today's stage, there is a worldwide competition to sing "The Great Sacrifice Pile". However, whether it is Niu Shuxian, Hu Meiling, Chen Bailing, Dang Yuqian, Yang Meirong, including Wang Qingfen himself, in the stage performance, his performance, his voice cavity, did not jump beyond the norms of the regular school, so it was welcomed by the audience. But the film has changed the essence of these three-fold plays. The next complete and familiar singing segment was not retained, and the lyrics were changed beyond recognition, so the audience was disappointed after watching it.
Mr. Mei Lanfang, a master of Peking Opera, once said: "If there is a prominent and excellent creation that is limited by a certain discipline of this ancient drama, my view is reasonable to break through." But must be able to distinguish between good and bad, such a breakthrough is not artistic value? Is it good enough? Is it worth breaking through? I agree with Mr. Ouyang Yuqian's words: 'There is no need to break through for the sake of a breakthrough'. Mei Lanfang's Collected Writings, China Drama Publishing House, 1981, p. 46. Recently, Mr. Wu Xiaoru, a well-known opera theorist, said more bluntly on this issue at a seminar on the theory of ancient Chinese opera held in Zhengzhou, saying: "In the past, we changed opera for a good time, how to change it, and how to change it to the benefits. Now some comrades change the play, but they think that as long as it is changed, it is good, regardless of its artistic effect. Indeed, "as long as it is changed", it has become a major erroneous tendency in the current drama reform work, regardless of the laws of art, regardless of the artistic effect, where the word "change" is good, it is fashionable. Moreover, they specifically selected the good and essential places to change, which place has an effect, which place can "ask for dishes" (opera jargon, that is, the meaning of "to applaud"), and change them. In this way, the change is changed, the essence is removed, and the turnips are overgrown.
"Wind and Rain Love" is an example, "Luoyang Bridge", "Wind and Snow Match" are examples, and even the film "Cheng Qi's Grandmother", which has been adapted by many famous masters, has been filmed for nearly two years, in addition to a few internal screenings, I still dare not meet with the general audience, I think it is also a failure. There are also examples of good changes, such as the Peking Opera art films "Iron Bow Edge", "The Legend of the White Snake", "Li Huiniang" and so on, which have been filmed in the past two years. In the past, there were more successful works before the "Cultural Revolution", such as "Mulan" and "Chaoyanggou" in Yu Opera; "Chen Sanliang" in Qu Opera; "Qin Xianglian", "Liu Qiao'er", "Flower as Medium" in Commentary; "Song Tujie" and "The Case of Huan Mei" in Peking Opera. The key to its success lies in the adaptation of the film's repertoire, retaining the essence of the stage and adding what cannot be expressed on the stage but can only be solved on the screen. This is a very simple truth, why some of our screenwriters and directors can't "grind" out of the three tastes? This raises the question of the dialectics of "new" and "old." Some people think that as long as it is "new", the "old" must be changed. Equate "new" with "good.". If this is the case, then hasn't the emergence of a "new" germ, a "new" plague, also become something beautiful? Wang Chong, a scholar at Han Dynasty University, once said: "There is shallowness and depth, and there is no ancient and modern; there is false truth in literature, and there is no reason for the new." "On Heng and Case Books", Selected Texts of Chinese Dynasties, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1963 edition, p. 105. Therefore, as long as there is truth, goodness, and beauty, it has its artistic value, whether it is "old" or "new".
(Note: The third edition of Beijing Drama and Film News on May 19, 1985 was reprinted in full and renamed as "From the < Of the Great Sacrifice Pile> to the < Wind and Rain Love >")