Mei Lanfang, a master of Peking Opera performing arts, has been singing all her life, loving drama all her life, and being legendary all her life. He had a beard and would rather leave the stage than perform for the Japanese invaders. However, after the victory of the War of Resistance, what kind of spiritual choice did Mei Lanfang, who came back on stage, experience? A few days ago, a musical led the audience into the second half of his little-known life.
The National Arts Fund supported the project to commemorate the 76th anniversary of Mr. Mei Lanfang's shanghai comeback, and the original musical "Mei" was recently premiered at the Shanghai Majestic Theatre. In October 1945, Mei Lanfang, the most important cultural event in Shanghai after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, appeared on the stage again, which took place at the Majestic Theater. 76 years later, the "hometown" uses a young musical to recount the past of Master Mei and Shanghai, and has a dialogue with history that spans time, which has a unique commemorative meaning.
The play was arranged and directed by the young composer Zhang Didi, and written by Chi Jun of the National Peking Theatre, and Mei Baojiu's nephew Sun Meiwei was invited as an artistic consultant. Drama, film and television, opera and other fields have left many images of Mr. Mei Lanfang, and using musicals to interpret his "biography" can be said to be an unexpected cross-field collision.
The musical "Plum" opens up many little-known master stories. Wrote about the celebration of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in Shanghai, xianni society Kunling assisted Mei Lanfang in staging two kunlu plays "Thorny Tiger", "Dream in the Garden", "Si Fan", and "Odd Double Society"; wrote about Mei Lanfang's interaction with Qilin Tong; wrote about Mei Lanfang's cooperation with student Li Shifang in "Jinshan Temple", after Li Shifang died in the air crash, Mei Lanfang fell into great pain separated from his beloved disciple Yin and Yang; wrote about his parting ways with Qi Rushan, the most important noble person and close friend in his life... Comeback, future, inheritance, chaos, to stay, in the collision with opera, fate, home and country emotions, Mr. Mei seems to be light and breezy, but never goes with the flow, he is a principled, capitalized person, the musical "Mei" through a large section of "aria" and narration, showing his firm principle of founding the world and elegant emotional world.
The integration of Peking Opera art and musical theater form is a major attraction of the musical "Mei". "Mr. Mei Lanfang is a world-famous Chinese artist and a treasure of the world art world, and I hope that Chinese and foreign audiences can enter Mr. Mei's vast artistic world and spiritual realm through this work," composer and director Zhang Didi tried to eliminate the boundaries of Chinese and Western musical elements in the creative process of "Mei", lyrically in the form of contemporary musicals, and at the same time used the way of "drama within a play" to show Mr. Mei's opera performance at his comeback, as well as his innovation and inheritance in Peking Opera art. In the play, the singing section of "Mei Lanfang" also highlights the high and low tactful, clear and soft voice characteristics he has as a male Dan actor, and integrates the sound pattern characteristics of many Famous Peking Opera segments into the melodic lines, showing his profound peking opera artistic achievements.
Screenwriter Chi Jun became acquainted with Mei Pai art when he was young, and followed Mei Lanfang's son, Mr. Mei Baojiu, for 17 years. He has successively served as the script adaptation of the multimedia Peking Opera "Meilan Neon Dress" and the Peking Opera "Meilan Fanghua" of the Zhengyi Temple Ancient Opera Building. "From the perspective of an artist himself, he expresses the relationship between his personal destiny and the torrent of the times, which is also Mr. Mei Baojiu's wish." Chi Jun said. Under the leadership of the Party, Mei Lanfang became a generation of grandmasters representing China's excellent traditional culture in New China, which had a great relationship with his life choices in the years of 1948 and 1949.
When the Liberation War broke out, Shanghai once again fell into a disorderly panic, the theater was closed, the theater was disbanded, and the theater performers were wantonly bullied by the Kuomintang army. At the same time, the various factions in the society handed olive branches to win over Mr. Mei. Standing at the intersection of the changing times, Mei Lanfang must face where life goes. After the liberation of Shanghai in 1949, Mei Lanfang was invited to perform for the People's Liberation Army, and he was deeply impressed by such a faith-based and disciplined army. Subsequently, a mysterious invitation letter from Beiping touched him deeply again. "Where the seat is, I am where I am", in the end, Mei Lanfang made the most important choice in her life, and his artistic life was in the people's place, which also became the title of the whole drama of the musical "Mei".
"Actors can't do without the audience, just like fish can't do without water." The audience represents the broadest masses of the people, and public opinion is the trend of the times. The choice of the people is Mei Lanfang's choice, which is the concept of the people, the overall situation and the concept of faith that the master of art adheres to. Chi Jun said.
"Ancient opera stage" has become the support of the entire stage visual system, stage art and costume design Bian Wentong introduced, opera and stage is an important heritage in the long river of traditional Chinese culture, Mei Lanfang's life's thoughts and thoughts are also condensed on the stage. The mottled and old texture treatment highlights the war chaos of the great era and the pain and worry in the heart of the master. The character costumes are based on the sense of ink and ink printed, symbolizing that people are like the tide of the times, looking for the direction of light in the darkness.
Master Mei Lanfang's artistic achievements shine on the younger generations, and his wind and bones are also revered, and it is undoubtedly a vivid patriotic education to show the national integrity and great righteousness of the art masters in the form of musical theater that young people like to hear. The production team hopes to take "Mei" as the starting point to create a trilogy of musicals "Mei", "Lan" and "Fang", spread Chinese culture, and tell vivid Chinese stories.
Stills Source: Beiqing Culture
(Photo: Dong Tianye)
Author: Tong Weijing
Editor: Wang Licheng
Planner: Liu Qing