In 1998, the Shanghai Grand Theatre was inaugurated, and Verdi's opera "Aida" appeared in the Grand Theatre as the opening opera, and the fledgling soprano Hehui was the heroine of the time.
After 19 years, the opera "Aida" returned to the Shanghai Grand Theatre with a new production, and Hehui, known as the "world's first Aida", revisited and once again took on the responsibility of starring.
From September 15th to 17th, "Aida", jointly produced by Shanghai Opera House and Shanghai Grand Theatre, will open the 2017/18 performance season of Shanghai Grand Theatre, and Hehui will also welcome her 154th "Aida". At present, the three performances have been sold out, together with the extra seats.
Stills from Aida
"Aida" from a Hollywood perspective
In 1871, to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal, the Italian composer Giuseppe Will was invited by the Governor of Egypt to create an opera with strong Egyptian overtones, Aida.
The opera depicts a touching love story from the time of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt 3,000 years ago, with epic grand scenes and solos and heavy singing depicting the moods, personalities and dramatic conflicts of the characters, which has always been the focus of rehearsals in the opera world.
As the director of the Shanghai Opera House's version of Aida, The Artistic Director of the Monte Carlo Opera, Jean-Louis Granda, and his team introduced Hollywood cinematic techniques for the first time, bringing a new meaning to the narrative of "Aida".
When he received an invitation to create, Granda asked the Opera House and the Grand Theatre whether they wanted a classic traditional interpretation or another interpretation, and he was pleased that Shanghai chose the latter.
In the 1950s, Hollywood fashioned the remake of operas into films, and Aida was also brought to the big screen in 1953 as a film, starring Italian national treasure actress Sophia Roland. Granda was inspired to do this — "shoot" a film version of Aida, and shoot it at a film and television base specializing in costume blockbusters — and Granda eventually chose the Rome film and television base "Chinichita", where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton starred in Cleopatra.
"Aida tells a fictional love story that takes place in the time of the pharaohs, and our filmmaking is also a hypothetical setting: the stage is the filming scene of the movie Aida, and the opera Aida is our 'play within a play'. The audience who came to the theater to watch the performance not only enjoyed an opera, but also watched the premiere of the film of the same name..."
Following the film crew, the audience came to the shooting site of the opera film "Aida".
In the first act, the technicians, producers, and directors first enter the studio to set up the set and debug the equipment, and then the actors appear one after another. The audience and the film crew watched the plot development together, immersing themselves in the joys and sorrows of the people in the play, until Aida and Radames embraced and died. The film crew packed up and left, the studio was empty, and the performance came to an end...
There are two teams on stage, and the visual presentation is also divided into two types: the film crew wears 1950s costumes, while the actors of Aida in the play-in-play wear the most traditional costumes.
"Aida is a challenge for any director. It is heavier than any other work, both magnificent and delicate, the key is that music and drama must reach a certain height in order to have a certain degree of compatibility. Granda said that although the performance method is unique, they do not distort the original work, and the original taste is the first requirement.
She is "the world's first Aida"
The opera "Aida" has always been known for its magnificent scenes and huge actors, and the Shanghai Opera House rehearsed "Aida" this time, in addition to the symphony orchestra, choir and dance troupe of the hospital, it also specially invited the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra, the Estonian Vanemyn Choir, and the Shanghai Theater Academy Affiliated Dance School to join, with more than 400 cast members, and the stage scenery needs 12 large containers to pack.
Conductor Xu Zhong explained that when the Italian La Scala Opera House and the Florence May Opera House arranged "Aida", the choir reached the scale of hundreds of people, the Shanghai version of the choir has 120 people, the symphony orchestra has 80 people, which is the minimum configuration of "Aida", and the reason for transnational and cross-group cooperation is "the purpose is to learn from each other's strengths and complement each other's strengths and condense the essence of each group together." ”
Cross-group cooperation, running-in is inevitable, which is also the key to the time-consuming and labor-consuming performance of the opera. More than three months ago, the Shanghai Opera House and its special team began rehearsals at the Grand Theatre, and in August this year, they also took the concert version of "Aida" to the Saarbrücken International Music Festival to "train troops" in front of German audiences.
Command Xu Zhong
The live performance of the Grand Theatre will be divided into two groups of actors: Hehui, Marco Berti and other foreign actors will serve as the leading actors of the 15th and 17th, and the Shanghai Opera House actors Xu Xiaoying, Han Peng, Yang Xiaoyong and Dong Fang will appear on the 16th.
Hehui is undoubtedly a major attraction.
Aida is the opening opera of the Shanghai Grand Theatre in 1998, and coincidentally, it is also the first opera in Hehui's artistic career.
At that time, Hehui was only 18 years old. Today, she is the only Chinese singer invited by the world's six top opera houses at the same time, and the only one to appear on the stage of la Scala as the female number one, playing the Chinese of Tosca, Madame Butterfly and Aida.
Over the years, Hehui has performed more than 150 "Aida" around the world, and the Verona Amphitheater alone has sung for 12 years, and the title of "The World's First Aida" is naturally worn on her head.
However, hearing this title, Hehui was very stressed, "This title comes from the Italian media, they once said that I am the best singer in Aida, but I have heard and seen several female singers who sing very well in this role." I prefer to be called 'one of the world's first Aida'. ”
After acting in so many "Aida", how to keep it fresh?
He Huixiao said that he would not feel tired because he sang more than 150 times, and the feeling of this opera was written for her voice, "I am very suitable for singing Aida, if there is anything special about my voice, it is rigid and soft, with strong strength, and can also be soft and slender." ”
Aida was originally a princess of Ethiopia, but she was captured to Egypt and became a slave girl of an Egyptian princess - perennially in a foreign country, and Hui's homesickness for Aida was shared, and this emotion was poured into the character, and it was a little more infectious.
The Verona Amphitheater, with a capacity of 25,000 spectators, is one of the most well-known ancient theaters in Italy, where Aida is performed almost every year. What is the difference between singing "Aida" here and singing at the Shanghai Grand Theatre?
"For me, the lights go out, the stage is the same, and no matter how big or small the theater is, you have to get the sound to the last row of spectators." He Hui said, "Verona is too big, and the last row of spectators is very far away from you, demanding that your voice be particularly penetrating." The same is true of the Grand Theater, which also requires your voice to reach the audience through the band and choir, and the actor's control over the sound must be very strong. ”