Commentary, one of the five major opera genres in China (Peking Opera, Commentary, Yu Opera, Yue Opera and Huangmei Opera), compared with the national essence of Peking Opera, the opera is beautiful and easy to understand, so the audience is wider. Peking Opera has four famous Dan, and there are naturally four famous Dan in the opera, and these four are all the most popular actresses. Although there have been four famous dans in various periods since the birth of the drama in the past one hundred years, the most authoritative one is the four famous dans in the 1920s and 1930s, which is also the first peak period of the development of the drama.
These four big stars of the drama are Li Jinshun, Liu Cuixia, Ai Lianjun and Bai Yushuang, and the reason why they can become the four famous celebrities of the authority is because they have made indelible contributions to the prosperity and development of the drama, and they themselves also have high artistic cultivation and characteristics, becoming the founders of their respective sects.
Of course, some people will say that Xin Fengxia and Xian Lingxia are also the founders of their respective factions, and their fame is also very large, why they are not included in the list of the four famous operas, in fact, no matter how good Han Zaifen Huangmei opera is, it is not a reason why Huangmei opera has five golden flowers, and they are young.
When Xin Fengxia sang red, three of the four famous dans of the commentary were already dead. Sadly, although the four famous actors were all famous horns at that time, their average life expectancy was only 35 years old, and they were like shooting stars that broke through the sky, leaving a brilliant artistic career, but behind them was a miserable history of the old social artists.
1. Li Jinshun
Born in Tianjin in 1896, she was the first generation of drama actresses, and her father was a high-caliber actor, which had a certain influence on her singing voice. At the age of 16, Li Jinshun was bought by lotus artists for one hundred yuan. When she was a child, she learned the Jingyun big drum, and once studied Peking Opera, so her singing voice was both high and low, rigid and soft, forming the style of the Li School of Commentary, and her singing voice had many influences on Liu Cuixia, Bai Yushuang, and Xian Lingxia. What is valuable is that she also staged the patriotic fashion drama "Patriotic Petite" in the northeast. In addition, regarding the naming of the commentary, there is a saying that it began with The "Ping Opera" set by Li Jinshun's banshe, and before that, the appraisal drama was generally called Bungee Opera or Tangshan Luozi, Fengtian Luozi and other names.
Although Li Jinshun had the longest life expectancy among the four famous critics, she was only 56 years old, and she was forced to bid farewell to the stage as a warlord's aunt during the golden period of her thirty-something artistic career, and died of a heart attack in Tianjin in 1952.
2. Liu Cuixia
Born in Wuqing, Tianjin in 1911, she asked for food at the age of 3, was sold at the age of 10, and at the age of 11 she joined Li Jinshun's class to start learning to sing and comment, and once acted as a supporting role for Li Jinshun and Hualien Fang. At the age of 17, she began to pick up the beams alone to form the Shanxia Society, and she quickly became popular in North China and Northeast China, and at the age of 25, she was known as the Empress of Drama Critics.
Liu Cuixia's singing voice is high-pitched and broad, the tone is high and the rhythm is compact, and the stage expression is very strong, forming her own Liu Pai style. Her large-mouthed drop style also had a profound influence on the later small white jade cream.
Liu Cuixia was born bitter, so her temper is very good, after becoming a big horn, she treats handymen, dragon sets and other people very politely, she insists on performing in order to make money for the people of the class society, seven pregnancies and seven miscarriages, rest for a few days to continue on stage, excessive performance burden overdrafted her life, only thirty years old died of illness, on the day of her burial, the funeral procession stretched for miles.
3. Eilean Jun
Born in 1918, ancestral home of Tianjin, from childhood by his parents sold to the adoptive parents surnamed Zhao, this vicious couple treated their adoptive daughter very harshly, when they were ten years old, they forced Ai Lianjun to receive guests, Ai Lianjun begged bitterly to be allowed to study drama to make money, and when he performed, he would also be beaten by his adoptive father because of a certain singing mistake.
Ai Lianjun was extremely talented, and founded the Eileen Club at the age of 14, and at the age of 16, he cooperated with Ai Lingjun to perform in the country and quickly became popular, and was even invited to Osaka, Japan to produce records. At the age of 17, in Shanghai, Bai Yushuang and others formed a three-way society sensational on the beach.
Lotus Jun
Ai Lianjun's voice is pure and soft, sweet and crisp, and the nasal resonance effect is excellent, forming a unique love school commentary style, which also has a great influence on Xin Fengxia. After the death of Ai Lianjun, her disciple Lian Xiaojun carried forward the art of the Aipai school of commentary.
Although Elian Jun became popular very early, her adoptive parents only regarded her as a cash cow, restricting her freedom, Elian Jun's two loves were blocked, she suffered from tuberculosis and could not sing, and her adoptive parents smoked a lot of tobacco and morphine to force her to play. In 1939, Ai Lianjun was carried into the theater in Tianjin to sing "After Death Understand", passed out on the stage, and soon died at the age of 21. Before she died, Lian Xiaojun put on the line of "Su Sanqi Solution" for her.
4. White Jade Cream
Bai Yushuang was born in Hebei in 1907, her father was a lotus flower artist, and her mother set up a troupe herself, so Bai Yushuang did not have to be sold like other girls, she learned the Jingyun drum at the age of 11, and began to learn to comment on drama at the age of 14, and her master was Sun Fengming, who bought Li Jinshun that year. At the age of 21, Bai Yushuang organized his own mobile performances, and became popular throughout North China. At the age of 27, he was thrown out of Beiping because he refused the invitation of a high-ranking official in Beiping, and he did not expect that bai yushuang, who was blessed by misfortune, was even more popular in Shanghai. The Shanghai press hailed her as the queen of drama criticism, and in 1936 Bai Yushuang also starred in the movie "Begonia Red".
Bai Yushuang's singing voice is different from Li Jinshun Liu Cuixia, and Ai Lianjun has some commonalities, her voice is low and gentle nasal, the tone is pure, and the difference between her large mouth drop is that she has developed a low-string low-singing method. Her singing art is known as the White School, and her adopted daughter Xiao Bai Yushuang (Li Zaiwen in Zhao Lirong's sketch) has developed her art after carrying forward her, and is known as the Shaobai School, collectively known as the White School.
Bai Yushuang's life was very bumpy, she once had to accompany the waiter in order to perform smoothly, was insulted by the traitor newspaper in Shanghai for no reason, in order to calm the people, she invited the traitor to dinner, but she did not expect that the murder of the traitor led to her being captured by the Japanese, and she suffered cruel treatment in the Japanese prison. Do you remember the heinous torture of the character played by Zhou Xun in the movie "The Sound of the Wind"? It was just a movie, and Bai Yushuang was tortured even more.
Bai Yushuang, who spent a lot of money to be redeemed, fell ill from then on, and she returned to Tianjin to check for uterine cancer, and the white jade cream that brought the disease to the stage eventually broke the cancer cells and stained the stage. In 1942, the empress dowager died of illness in Tianjin.
In 1994, a TV series with White Jade Cream as the protagonist, "White Jade Cream", was broadcast, recreating her life.
In order to commemorate these deceased people after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Tianjin City built a monument to the four famous dans of the opera to commemorate their indelible contributions to the development of the opera.