How a Peking Opera Drama Can Be Refined into "Fine"
——Exploring the rehearsal site of the "100 Years and 100" traditional fine product "Desert Suwu"
Guangming Daily reporter Liu Ping'an
The national Peking Opera's newly compiled historical drama "Desert Suwu" was selected as a key support work in the "100 Years and 100 Works" traditional boutique rearrangement plan this year. Recently, the main creative team continued to carry out intensive rehearsals. The reporter walked into the rehearsal hall of the National Peking Opera House, explored all aspects of the exquisitely crafted "Great Desert Suwu", witnessed how a Peking Opera drama was refined into "fine" outside the play, and felt the behind-the-scenes charm of Peking Opera at close range.
Ten years to grind a play
From the premiere of "Desert Suwu" to this year's rehearsal, it is exactly the tenth anniversary. In ancient times, there were ten years of grinding a sword, and now there are ten years of grinding a play, and this rehearsal and re-performance makes new and old audiences full of expectations.
"Not to mention that in the early stage of creation, the screenwriter and director Gao Mukun has undergone six years of brewing, creation and repeated revision, and in the ten years from the successful performance to today, there have been countless discussions and polishing around the play." Zhang Jianguo, the actor of Su Wu in "Desert Su Wu" and the leader of the Peking Opera Xi School, compared the feelings of the first performance and this re-performance, and bluntly said that the main creators have significantly improved their understanding of the role and plot, as well as the tension and maturity of the performance. He pointed out that everyone is growing up with the big drama, which is especially evident in Guo Xiao, a young actor played by Hu Ayun, "Ten years ago, because of her youth, some people questioned her emotional expression and details were not delicate enough, and now they pick the beams and make people look at it."
During the rehearsal, when the singing section of "Unbearable To Look Back on the Past", the delicate expression of Zhang Jianguo and Guo Xiao really made the reporter's eyes light up and hit the heart.
Originally it was a relaxed small talk between the two, Hu Ayun told his father's legendary experience of su Wu who was unyielding and "cut off water and grain for several days without dying" that he heard from his father as a child, and asked Su Wu to talk about the past, Su Wu smiled and said, "Don't say it", and Hu Ayun continued to beg him to talk with "No, I want to listen". In this brief interval, the reporter noticed that Zhang Jianguo's (Su Wu's) eyes were red. The layers of progressive emotions can almost instantly grasp the heart of the viewer, so that people will enter the drama at a glance and cannot extricate themselves. And his opponent Guo Xiao (Hu Ayun) also told him about the unforgettable past such as "filling the belly of grass roots and bark", and his eyes were moist. These details are usually easily ignored or imperceptible by the audience, and even in rehearsal, they strive to achieve the ultimate. "Entering the play is not only a stylized handkerchief to wipe away tears, but also a natural outpouring of love in the depths." With heart and affection, this is the basic requirement of singing, and it is also the place where Guo Xiao and many young actors have continuously broken through and made progress in recent years. Zhang Jianguo said.
The devil is in the details
During the rehearsal, many moments were impressive. The so-called details determine success or failure, and perhaps some seemingly ordinary rehearsal pictures are precisely the secret of this team's grinding of the drama into a boutique.
In the rehearsal hall, Gao Mukun, a 76-year-old Peking Opera performance artist, sat on a stool and a class table towards the rehearsal venue. During the rehearsal, he stared intently at the actors, sometimes the corners of his mouth went up, sometimes his expression was dignified, and he wrote and drew on small cards from time to time. The reporter noticed that every time there was a change of venue or pause, Gao Mukun was particularly busy. Sometimes the actor takes the initiative to run over, leans down or crouches on the ground than draws to ask questions and ask questions, he also draws responses and plays; sometimes he will wave his hand, call an actor to the side to explain a few words, and the actor will go to the side to fine-tune the action, and there are words on his mouth.
In fact, not only Gao Mukun, but also the short pause, the band teachers will also have a lot of interaction with the actors, "the rhythm is slightly adjusted", the actors immediately understand, "Well, I'm slow, right?" Do it again".
During the rehearsal, a small episode caught the attention of reporters. When the actor sang, Gao Mukun suddenly shouted "stop stop stop" to shoot the case, turned to the back and said: "This situation is absolutely not allowed, every post must be dedicated, to be rigorous." Afterwards, the reporter asked Gao Mukun why the incident was angry, he had obviously thrown it behind his head, and after the person next to him reminded him, he remembered that it was because the actor's microphone was briefly silent, "As soon as the play began, no mistakes were allowed in any link, and any flaws were the responsibility of the director." If there is a problem during rehearsal, you will not remind you, and if there is a problem with the official performance, it will be a stage accident." Speaking of this, Gao Mukun did not forget to "self-examine": "I am a person with a bad temper, it is easy to be anxious when I see bad phenomena, I must say it, and sometimes I offend people." The young actor next to him told reporters, "Mr. Gao is anxious for the inheritance and development of opera, and he hopes that the national essence will become better and better through the efforts of generations of opera workers."
Tears sprinkled rehearsal ground
In 2021, Du Jinfang, Liu Xiurong, Zhu Bingqian and other famous Peking opera masters passed away one after another, which made Gao Mukun feel a lot of emotions. "The older generation of Peking Opera people are getting fewer and fewer, some classics have almost become masterpieces, and the inheritance of Peking Opera is bound to face some difficulties." He said, "We old comrades must not only stand on our posts and give full play to our residual heat, but also contribute to the integrity and innovation of opera." ”
Gao Mukun frankly said that the creation of "Great Desert Suwu", on the one hand, is to avoid the attempt to dramatize Peking Opera, present the advantages of opera itself through his own creation, express the true emotions of the characters through singing and playing, hand-eye-body steps, and show the humanism expounded in the plot of the play, "Opera is virtual, freehand, and beautiful"; on the other hand, it is also avoiding the complete old road, although the play has inherited the Ma Pai "Su Wu Muyang", but in all aspects of the theme, singing voice and other aspects of the new expression in line with the current context, it is for Zhang Jianguo, Guo Xiao and other actors tailor-made new choreography.
As early as before the visit, I heard that the elderly Gao Mukun had repeatedly shed tears on the rehearsal ground. On the day of the visit, after witnessing his moving, I thought that he was infected and moved by the actor's performance with the direction of the plot, but the answer was not so simple. "As a director, I've watched it ten or hundred times back and forth, and every time I watch it, I'm moved. But my tears are not so much shed for the plot as they are for the actors, the band, and all the workers in front of and behind the scenes. Gao Mukun said. The fact that the drama has been passed on and the opera has been passed on is the thing he is most excited about.
After the rehearsal of the day, Gao Mukun could not hide his excitement, and in the exchange with the young actors, he fondly shared his experience of picking up the lamp to create the play ten years ago. After ten years of testing, "Desert Suwu" is still recognized and welcomed by the audience, which makes him feel relieved and proud. The young generation presented the whole drama so completely and in place in a short period of time, which made him even happier. He encouraged young actors to deeply understand and learn from Su Wu's hardships and integrity, always keep the spirit of the country and the nation's great righteousness in mind, enhance the sense of mission, do not be discouraged when encountering difficulties, and make their due contributions to the inheritance of opera.
In the rehearsal hall, around a big drama, the various opera trades at the end of the birth, the old, middle and young generations of actors, the band, sound, props, costumes and other types of work perform their duties and work together, in order to perfectly present the fine drama on the stage, day after day to carry out craftsman-style craftsman-style craftsmanship.
Guangming Daily ( 09/11/2021)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily