I remember that one day around 1993, I watched the classical Yue opera "West Chamber" performed by the Zhejiang Xiaobaihuayue Opera Troupe led by Mao Weitao at the Shanghai People's Grand Stage.
Stills from Mao Weitao's "The Tale of the West Chamber"
Although I had heard about Mao Weitao's name before, I had not seen her performance on the spot. This "West Chamber" is different from the "West Chamber" from the stage set design, singing performance to the correspondence of character relationships, which has become a classic of Yue opera.
Stills of Mao Weitao and Fang Yafen's "Love in Mountains and Rivers"
I remember that Zhang Sheng, played by Mao Weitao, is both dashing and witty, classical and elegant, and flowing, and infatuated. Stage steps, demeanor, kick robes, sleeves, eyes, techniques of comprehensive utilization, handy, Gu Pansheng waved, the "wind magic acid Ding" Zhang Sheng's joy, anger, sorrow, music performance is very distinctive, but also very powerful, the scene from time to time broke out bursts of applause.
Mao Weitao stage life photos
At the end of the performance, many audience members took to the stage to present flowers to Mao Weitao and others, including the famous Hong Kong program host Fei Fei at that time. This made me realize that Mao Weitao's influence is really not ordinary, and even famous artists in Hong Kong have become her fans... Since then, he has begun to pay attention to Mao Weitao, and feels that Mao Weitao can be called a "leading figure" who has courage and strategy, dares to innovate, is good at thinking, keeps pace with the times, and always wants to break through the "limits" of Yue opera.
Mao Weitao was born in August 1962 in Tongxiang, Zhejiang Province, with beautiful mountains and rivers. From an early age, he was talented and loved literature and art. In 1979, Mao Weitao failed the college entrance examination, that is, he applied for the local Yue opera troupe and was successfully admitted. Later, he studied at the Provincial Art School for two years and soon became a pillar of the Tongxiang Yue Opera Troupe.
Mao Weitao life photo
In 1982, Zhejiang Province held the Little Hundred Flowers Show, and the participants must be young actors under the age of 25. During the performance, Mao Weitao won praise from the audience and experts for his outstanding performance of "Pan Wife Suo Wife Lu Zhen", and was later selected to join the Zhejiang Xiaobaihuayue Opera Troupe to perform in Hong Kong.
After returning, Mao Weitao played Zou Shilong in the drama "Five Daughters Worship Shou", which is a supporting role, and there are not many plays, but Mao Weitao looks dignified and handsome, stretches his manners, performs steadily and calmly, has an extraordinary temperament, and an authentic tone arouses the audience's warm response to Yin Pai's art. After the play was made into a movie, Mao Weitao, who did not have much role, not only was not covered by the beautiful ladies on the stage, but stood out, and a song "Bong Tang" sang a paragraph, which has been passed down to this day, and the charm has not diminished.
Stills of Mao Weitao's "Five Daughters Worship Shou"
Stills of Mao Weitao
Since then, Mao Weitao has naturally become the "master of the family" of the Zhejiang Xiaobaihuayue Opera Troupe, with new plays and gradually growing skills, and in 1984, the 22-year-old Mao Weitao won the second Chinese Drama "Plum Blossom Award" with the role of Liu Yuan in "Han Palace Complaint". Since then, he has won many drama awards such as "Plum Blossom Award", "Wenhua Award" and "Magnolia Award".
In 1991, Mao Weitao played Zhang Sheng in "The Tale of the West Chamber". In fact, the play "The Tale of the West Chamber" was moved to the Stage of Yue Opera by Yuan Xuefen and Xu Yulan as early as 1953, and after continuous polishing, it has become a classic version. But Mao Weitao does not like to eat "ready-made rice", she thinks from the history and status quo of Yue opera, always feel that Yue opera can not just inherit, do "photocopier", but must have a development vision, in line with the current urban context, in order to make Yue opera keep up with the pace of development of the times.
Mao Weitao stage stills
Sure enough, the re-creation and arrangement of "West Chamber" has achieved unprecedented success with its "elegant singing, poetic character and beautiful artistic conception", and "West Chamber" has won consecutive awards and received praise from experts and audiences, it can be said that I also witnessed the performance of "West Chamber" on the Shanghai People's Grand Stage.
Stills of Mao Weitao's "Lu You and Tang Wan"
Mao Weitao's reputation is like the sun in the sky, countless fans, and successfully starred in "Lu You and Tang Wan", "Cold Feelings" and other dramas, fully tasting the success and joy brought by innovation, but at the same time he was hesitant and confused about how to go next. Although he didn't know where the direction was, Mao Weitao clearly didn't want to act in any more talented dramas such as "East Chamber" and "North Chamber".
Stills from Mao Weitao's "Suddenly Looking Back"
In 1994, Mao Weitao held a special performance called "Looking Back Again", expressing her "confusion" and "epiphany" to the audience through the voices of the 8 roles she has played.
At the same time, the famous director Guo Xiaonan became famous for directing the innovative Huai opera "Golden Dragon and Ephemera", and the Xiaobaihuayue Opera Troupe invited Guo Xiaonan to direct the play. Guo Xiaonan woke up Mao Weitao straight to the point: "The little student you play is very beautiful, but have you ever thought that if your beautiful things are gone, can you still impress the audience?" ”
This sentence was suddenly enlightened, making Mao Weitao firm in the direction and goal of innovation. In 1998, Mao Weitao built his own studio, and she picked out Lu Xun's "Kong Yiji" that no one had thought of as the studio's "cannon play".
Mao Weitao's "Kong Yiji" script
This play completely subverts the handsome image of Mao Weitao in the past, she shaved off her hair, abandoned the water sleeve boots, did not hesitate to "ugly" herself, and tried to perform the characteristics of the era of Kong Yiji's character "anger and indisputable, mourning its misfortune", thus triggering the audience to think.
Mao Weitao's "Kong Yiji" modeling photo
Mao Weitao's singing voice was taught by Yin Pai, who had worshiped Yin Guifang's proud disciple Yin Xiaofang as a teacher, with a smooth voice, a clear tone, a thick midrange area, and a pure rhyme. However, in "Kong Yiji", Mao Weitao did not use Yin Pai to sing "originally", but changed the singing voice according to the specific character of Kong Yiji, so that the singing voice began to have the distinct style of Mao Weitao himself, which was called "Mao Cavity" by the audience, but also because of various changes, "Kong Yiji" caused great controversy when performed in Zhejiang, Shanghai, Beijing and other places.
Stills from Mao Weitao's "Prince of the Desert"
Stills of Mao Weitao's "Kong Yiji"
The affirmative party believes that she has expanded the expression form and humanistic connotation of Yue opera; The negative side believes that she "pretended to be profound", allowing Yue opera to go from a popular drama to a high and widowed position.
Some old opera fans in Shanghai even left the theater in anger, threatening to tell her not to come to Shanghai in the future. But Mao Weitao did not regret this, she said: As long as there is an audience willing to listen, I will definitely sing!
In fact, Mao Weitao is not gambling, but understands in his heart that in order to revitalize and develop Yue opera, it may not be enough to create new genres and new vocal cavities, but more importantly, to establish a system to find a modern consciousness that fits the audience's appreciation psychology.
Yue opera can no longer stay in the narrow field of showing talented women and children who only women pay attention to, which will greatly limit the development space of Yue opera.
Although the current opera as a whole is not the most prosperous, we cannot complain about ourselves like a complaining woman, rather than letting opera "lose both" in the audience and the market, it is better to innovate the content and form, but it is possible to seize the audience.
If Yue opera has limitations, then I just want to find the "limit" in the limitation and break through it. Only with a world vision can there be development. Even if it is a propositional essay, you must come up with your own answers!
Mao Weitao was calm in the midst of controversy, insisted on performing, constantly improved, and used her sincerity and superb acting skills to make the character of Kong Yiji gradually enter the hearts of the audience.
Stills from Mao Weitao's "House of Books"
Many experts and audiences believe that from the perspective of the comprehensive artistic and aesthetic value of the stage of "Kong Yiji", this is an extremely successful case, and its significance is even far beyond the play itself. It is both the inheritance and transcendence of the traditional narrative mode of talent and beauty, and this transcendence has a kind of enlightening power.
"Kong Yiji" has won the Wenhua Award, the Magnolia Protagonist Award, and the Lu Xun Literary and Artistic Excellence Award. Through this drama, Mao Weitao also seems to have found the channel and motivation for innovative Yue opera, which has aroused a high degree of closure in the cultural circles.
Mao Weitao, Guo Xiaonan and Yuan Xuefen
Subsequently, due to the love affair of the drama, Guo Xiaonan also became Mao Weitao's life partner and "Yue opera family".
After 1999, Mao Weitao served as the head of the Zhejiang Xiaobaihuayue Opera Troupe, and she and Guo Xiaonan "sang with their husbands" and continued to advance on the road of Yue opera reform, accompanied by controversy. New plays one after another: "The House of Books", "Chunqin Biography", "Liang Zhu (New Edition)"... Mao Weitao himself has also established an image of positive reform in the Yue opera circle and has become the "brand" of "Zhejiang Xiaobaihua".
After the new version of "Liang Zhu" in 2006, Mao Weitao did not act for 3 years and began to prepare for the construction of the Xiaobaihua Art Center, targeting the "second centennial" development plan of the drama genre.
The centre also serves as a museum and theatre, as well as a VIP theatre like the "Royal Granary", which performs traditional origami plays. Mao Weitao has experienced a transformation path from the head of the state-owned literary and art academy to the operator of the physical theater, although there are still controversies and different reputations, but she is persistent, calm and firm, strong in controversy, and moving forward in innovation.
Nowadays, the Xiaobaihua Yue Opera Center, Yue Opera Town, Butterfly Theater, etc. have all taken shape and entered operation. Mao Weitao said that to do a physical theater is to convert running docks and walking rivers and lakes into resident performances, so that business and the Internet can achieve more efficient cultural dissemination.
At the same time, Mao Weitao also starred in new dramas such as "Jiangnan Good People", "Kou Liulan and Du Liniang", "Erquan Yingyue" and so on, each drama has attracted attention and heated discussion, word of mouth and benefit win-win, and also made 3 representative works of "West Chamber", "Lu You and Tang Wan", and "Liang Zhu" into movies.
Stills of Mao Weitao's "Two Springs Reflecting the Moon"
Stills from Mao Weitao's "Good Man of Jiangnan"
On New Year's Day 2020, the new version of the Yue opera "Three Laughs" "began to be performed on the spot". This drama combines comment bombs, rock, Yue opera, Shanghai opera, Jiangnan minor key in one furnace, mixes and matches various elements, and also allows on-site photo punching, becoming a fashion pioneer experimental show, which is sought after by many young people.
Mao Weitao, who was nearly the age of huajia, also seemed to be a little relieved. Her goal is to cultivate a new audience through resident performances, to turn Yue opera and its works into cultural tourism IP, so that Yue opera, like the West Lake and Longjing, become one of the "business cards of Hangzhou", and become the content that Chinese and foreign tourists must punch in when experiencing Hangzhou culture.
Mao Weitao's vision and planning are always ahead of its time.
Yes, she impressed the audience with her artistic charm, making herself transcend gender and Transcend Yue Opera to become one of the best performing artists in contemporary China.