In 2006, on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Yue opera, a TV challenge called "Yue Women's Competition" evoked the youthful vitality of Yue opera. In the recently held "Yue Women Contend" upgraded version of "Yue Mei China - National Yue Opera Young Actors Show", a group of outstanding young boys and boys let the audience feel the new strength of Yue opera.
In the "daughter country" of Yue opera, male actors have always been a special existence. Although the history of male and female co-acting has been more than 60 years, the road of male actors to Yue opera is not easy. In this regard, Zhao Zhigang, the "Prince of Yue Opera", felt deeply.
(Zhao Zhigang's performance of "The Prince of the Desert" is a classic in the minds of many fans)
[Two "Fortune Telling" and The Achievement of "Prince of Yue Opera"]
On August 10, Typhoon Lichma struck, but the Daning Theater was almost full. The promotion competition of the "Yuemei China - National Yue Opera Young Actors Show" is underway. More than 200 young Yue opera performers from all over the country participated in the grand show, which was both a performance for the audience and a fierce competition. Some of them have already made their debut on the Stage of Yue Opera, and some of them are usually unknown supporting roles.
"I hope that young actors can practice the basic skills, grasp the characters well, don't work hard to practice because they participate in the competition, how much accumulation there is usually, how much will be reflected on the stage." The applause of the audience is the best reward for you. Judge Zhao Zhigang's post-match comments won a round of applause from the audience.
No one can better understand the mood of the young actors on the stage than Zhao Zhigang. In 1984, at the age of 21, he participated in the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Vietnamese Opera Young Actors Television Grand Prix, and won the first prize with excerpts from works such as "He Wenxiu" and "Prince of the Desert", and he was also the only male actor among the 10 winners.
Before winning the award, Zhao Zhigang sat on the "cold bench" for many years. When he first entered the Shanghai Yue Opera Academy, he was assigned a senior student because his appearance and voice were not outstanding. The teachers performed on stage, and he helped chase the light upstairs, while silently learning the teachers' singing voice. After changing to a primary school student, he was once a C corner, until once the a corner and the b corner could not play for various reasons, he got the opportunity to appear on stage for the first time in the big drama "Chasing Fish". In 1982, at the "TV Genre Concert of Young Actors in Yue Opera" held by Shanghai Television Station, a song "He Wenxiu Sangyuan Visiting Wife" made Zhao Zhigang stand out, and he also officially worshiped the "Emperor of Yue Opera" Yin Guifang as a teacher.
"As an actor, I was lucky to catch up with the good times of the development of Yue opera." Zhao Zhigang said. After emerging, Yuan Xuefen, the director of the Shanghai Yue Theater at the time, arranged for Zhao Zhigang to star in Yin Pai's famous drama "He Wenxiu", and Yin Guifang dragged the sick body to personally counsel. Then, under yuan xuefen's arrangement, Zhao Zhigang recognized two "sisters", the famous Yue opera actors Jin Caifeng and Lu Ruiying, and co-performed "Empress Hanwen" and "Gentleman in flowers". In 1983, Zhao Zhigang performed in Hong Kong, and the audience applauded 30 times. The "fortune telling" in "He Wenxiu" and the "fortune telling" in "The Desert Prince" let the audience remember this "Prince of Yue Opera".
[Endure loneliness, endure misunderstanding]
With a history of 113 years, Yue opera was once the world of male actors at the beginning of its existence. In the 1940s, women's Yue opera entered its heyday, and the male class almost disappeared. After the founding of New China, under the care and advocacy of Premier Zhou Enlai, male and female co-performing dramas gradually appeared on the stage of Yue opera.
Among the first generation of male actors of Shanghai Yue opera, there were a number of male actors like Shi Jihua, Liu Jue, Zhang Guohua, Shen Jialin and other actors who were accepted and loved by the vast number of Yue opera audiences, and created a number of male and female co-performance works and dramas, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent male and female co-performances. The second generation of Chen Wenzhi, Shen Yongming and a number of male actors also have a certain influence and are willing to be a ladder, paving the way for the success of the third generation of male and female co-performances. Nowadays, although the co-actors and actresses have gone through more than a century of history, the road for male actors is still difficult to sing in the "daughter country" of Yue opera. "When Teacher Yuan Xuefen recruited students in Shangyue, we had a total of 27 male primary school students in the 74th class, but only two or three male primary school students remained on the stage and were remembered." Zhao Zhigang said. At present, there are only two male and female co-troupes in the whole country, Zhejiang Yue Opera Troupe and Shanghai Yue Theatre Troupe.
As a Male Actor of Yue Opera, you must be able to endure loneliness and endure misunderstanding. Zhao Zhigang clearly remembers that on the eve of the 1984 TV Parade Grand Prix awards party, he was "besieged" by dozens of opera fans: "What Kind of Yue Opera Do Men Sing?" What a woman..."
After becoming famous, Zhao Zhigang has won a lot of praise, but some people say: No matter how well you sing, at most it is "Yin Guifang second". How to get out of the imitation of women's singing voice on the basis of inheriting the Yin Sect has become a problem facing Zhao Zhigang.
When rehearsing "Two Guns Lu Wenlong", "Love in a Madhouse", "The Prince's Revenge", "Yang Naiwu", "Home" and other male and female co-performances, Zhao Zhigang, together with the director group, singing voice designers and composers, consciously aimed at the vocal cavity characteristics of male actors, and on the basis of maintaining the charm of Yin Pai, explored a vocal cavity development path suitable for male and female co-performances and suitable for Zhao Zhigang. After more than thirty years of efforts, it has gradually formed a "Zhao Singing Voice" that does not deviate from the Yin Sect's body.
"Prince of Yue Opera" is not satisfied with exploring new singing voices. In 2002, Zhao Zhigang boldly tried to adapt the online novel "The First Intimate Contact" into Yue opera, which attracted a group of young audiences. In the following 3 years, he participated in the creation of 5 major plays in succession: "Isolated Spring", "Ancient Grievances", "Home", "Zhao Orphans", "Quinoa Dreams" and so on. When it was decided to arrange the Yue opera "The Orphan of Zhao", there were many objections: Yue opera has always been good at showing talented people, how to show the morality of iron shoulders? Zhao Zhigang's adventure again proves that the feminine and lingering Yue opera can also perform "The Orphan of Zhao" full of masculinity and shows the great love of the world.
In recent years, Zhao Zhigang, who set up the "Cho Workshop" studio, has tried to combine Yue opera with art forms such as oratorio, musicals, and dramas, and he has always been exploring a path of Yue opera suitable for male and female co-performances.
(Yue opera oratorio "Dream of the Red Chamber")
【Dialogue】
Why is it so difficult for a Vietnamese opera actor to succeed
Shangguan: You emphasized the issue of basic skills in your comments on the participating actors. What "housekeeping skills" should Yue opera actors master?
Zhao Zhigang: Dean Yuan Xuefen once said that there are two "milk ladies" in Yue opera, one is drama and the other is Kunqu opera. The realism of drama and the freehand of Kunqu opera have created Yue opera. The genre of Yue opera is characterized by the singing voice, especially in shanghai, the "big pier", the audience will recognize whether you sing well or not. In this competition, I found that some young actors put a lot of effort into techniques such as throwing water sleeves and hair, but they did not invest enough in singing and acting, weakening the portrayal of characters. Fu Quanxiang performed "Emotional Detective" that year, where did he have so many skills? The audience recognized her because she portrayed her character well. Of course, Teacher Fu also learned a lot of Sichuan opera skills from teachers such as Yang Youhe of Sichuan Opera, and the skills were used to help shape and enrich the characters, and it was very necessary to learn from other dramas and art disciplines, but the skills should ultimately serve the shaping of characters.
I remember that when I entered the gate of Yue opera, I learned from Lao Sheng, and the "once I saw my daughter like this" in "Bright Moon and Full Night" was taught by Teacher Xu Tianhong; the first reading class of the school was taught by Teacher Zhou Baokui; the singing voice of Lu Pai's "Pearl Tower Qianjiangu" "I Only Say Flesh and Bones Always Have Flesh and Bones" was taught by Teacher Lu Jinhua; of course, Teacher Yin Guifang's words and deeds for nearly twenty years; I remember that when Teacher Chen Jun opened his voice before I performed the "He Wenxiu" drama, he asked me to practice Fan Pai's "Liang Zhu Hui Eighteen" first. When I turned on my voice completely, it was easy to sing "He Wenxiu" again. I think the guidance of the famous teachers was very helpful to my later biting words, reading whites, singing voice, and improving my performance.
Yue opera actors should learn from drama, put character shaping in the first place, and at the same time use the singing and reading of opera to conquer the audience. "Thousand pounds of white four two singing", the reason why some young actors are not mature enough in singing is actually related to the fact that the white kung fu is not solid. If you don't read well, you must not sing well. Therefore, for Yue opera actors, reading white and singing are very important, whether the mouth is slippery, how many teachers have been consulted, how many genres have been learned, all determine his performance on the stage.
Shangguan: Compared with Peking Opera, Kunqu Opera and other genres, the genres of Yue opera are very diverse, and I found that you also pay great attention to his presentation of genres when evaluating young actors.
Zhao Zhigang: Yes, there are more than ten genres that have been recognized and loved by the audience, including Yuan Pai, Fan Pai, Yin Pai, Fu Pai, Xu Pai, Wang Pai, Qi Pai, Bi Pai, Lü Pai, Jin Pai and so on. But I listened to some young actors sing this time, and it was difficult to hear what kind of school he was singing from the singing voice and recitation. And those actors who inherit the characteristics of the genre better will receive warm applause from the audience. I believe that genres must be both inherited and retained, and constantly flow and develop.
Shangguan: The road of male and female co-performance of Yue opera has gone through more than 60 years of history, and this year is the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Shanghai Yue Opera Co-actor Troupe, but excellent male students are still a scarce product on the stage, why is the success of Yue opera male actors so difficult?
Zhao Zhigang: Yue opera male actors are a very special group, and there is no comparison with male actors in other art forms. The Yue opera genres that the audience is familiar with are all created by female actors, as a male actor, while learning the works and singing voices of the female genre masters, how to play the male strengths and make the audience who like the genre acceptable is the key to his success.
In this "Yue Mei China" competition, Zhang Yang Kainan and Feng Jun of Shanghai Yue Opera Theatre, Wang Weijia and Pan Kaicheng of Zhejiang Yue Opera Troupe and a number of young boys and boys stood out, whether they can go a long way in the future, but also need the Yue Theater Troupe to create works for them that are not only suitable for their personal characteristics, but also accepted by the audience in line with the aesthetics of the times.
Shangguan: Some people think that male primary school students are suitable for modern drama, while female primary school students are more suitable for performing traditional plays, how do you think about the relationship between male and female Yue opera?
Zhao Zhigang: Male and female co-performances and women's yue scripts should walk on two legs, boldly innovate and develop in the theme, and the road of male and female co-performances should be wider. I think the male actor can give full play to his tension and explosiveness on the stage, but the delicacy and tenderness unique to Yue opera cannot be lost. Traditional plays must also be performed, and male actors are not only able to act in modern plays. Only by singing the classic repertoire first will it have its own elegant temperament, and then performing modern repertoire at this time can better express the unique taste of Yue opera.
Classic plays such as "Dream of the Red Chamber", "Liang Zhu" and "The Tale of the West Chamber", actresses will definitely be more aesthetic on stage, but male actors can also perform their own characteristics. For example, in the theme of "Dream of the Red Chamber", I have acted in the symphonic version of the cooperation with Fang Yafen, the oratorio version with Chen Xiang and the experimental drama "Mirror red chamber", and the innovation from different angles will have different stage presentations.
Male and female co-actors should inherit the classics, do not forget the tradition, and at the same time create more works that reflect the lives of contemporary people, keep up with the times, organically combine traditional culture with contemporary aesthetics, and make full efforts in making plays, so as to live up to the requirements of the times.
(Caption image provided by the contest organizer)
Column Editor-in-Chief: Gong Danyun Text Editor: Chen Junjun Title Image Source: Organizer Provided Photo Editor: Shao Jing