Zheng Xiaoying directs the National Centre for the Performing Arts.
Even under the influence of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, Zheng Xiaoying, a conductor in her nineties, has been busy for more than half a year: on June 30, 2020, she performed the "Tribute to the Most Beautiful Retrograde of the City" public welfare symphony concert at the Quanzhou Grand Theater in Fujian Province; on August 15, the Italian opera "La Traviata" (Chinese version) led by her appeared at the Xiamen Minnan Grand Theater...
He learned piano at the age of 6, performed on stage at the age of 14, and entered the Central Conservatory of Music at the age of 23 for further study... Zheng Xiaoying studied under the Soviet choral conductor Leony Dumashev, becoming the first batch of professional conductors trained in New China, and then was selected to the State Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where she studied opera and symphony conducting under the well-known professors Nyśnisov and Gerzhdiestevinsky, and became acquainted with symphonic opera throughout her life. Over the decades, she has conducted more than 20 operas, introduced foreign experience to China, and pioneered the "music workshop" method of opera rehearsal.
At the age of 50, while conducting and performing a large number of works, she devoted herself to the popularization of symphony, creating the "Zheng Xiaoying Model" of introducing the repertoire to the audience before the performance; at the age of 60, she founded the "Philharmonic Women's Orchestra" with a group of like-minded female musicians, volunteering to perform classic music in schools, enterprises and rural areas; at the age of 70, Zheng Xiaoying founded the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, and a few years later this young orchestra was selected by the citizens as one of the top ten "city business cards" in Xiamen; at the age of 80, she established the "Zheng Xiaoying Opera Art Center". Today, it is still cultivating opera performers throughout the country.
Zheng Xiaoying conducted the orchestra rehearsal.
From "beating the beat" in the literary troupe to being a conductor at the Upper Opera House
Zheng Xiaoying's father was the second batch of scholars who returned from the United States, and her mother was the first generation of female physical education teachers in China. The love of her parents has allowed her to be exposed to the piano since she was 6 years old. It also became the enlightenment of her symphonic life, in her view, the piano is free to walk in the country of music, "If you haven't figured out what to let your child learn, then learn the piano." 」 Even if you don't choose music in the end, learning piano will benefit you for a lifetime. ”
At the age of 18, the smoke of the War of Resistance had just dissipated, and Zheng Xiaoying was admitted to Peking Union Medical College. According to the regulations at that time, students had to attend church universities for several years before entering Concordia Studies. At that time, her parents chose the College of Arts and Sciences of Jinling Women's University in Nanjing, which is closer to Shanghai.
Here, zheng Xiaoying was influenced by progressive ideas, took to the streets with her classmates to participate in anti-civil war marches, and also organized a folk music club to sing songs from the Liberated Areas and Soviet songs. In December 1948, a group of intellectual young people organized by the underground party of the CCP went to the Liberated Areas, and she concealed her mother, who was expecting her to return home for Christmas, boarded a ship bound for Hankou, and went to the Liberated Areas of the Central Plains and was assigned to the Cultural and Labor Corps.
After several years of her career in the cultural and labor troupe, I felt the various musical elements from the folk, and left Zheng Xiaoying with a lifelong impression: music is created by the people, and musicians come from ordinary people. When she first arrived in Kaifeng, Zheng Xiaoying watched the gong and drum propaganda team composed of workers and peasants during the Spring Festival, May Day and other festivals, and the young men were bare-chested in winter, striking out a moving rhythm of gongs and drums, and that kind of spirit made her very envious.
Later, she went with the team to the ethnic minority areas to offer condolence performances, and the accompanying ethnic minority interpreters sang all the way, and when they arrived at the residence, everyone rested, and the two interpreters sat on the bench at the door and sang. That experience made Zheng Xiaoying realize that music is their life need, and also made her further understand how music is produced. In 1952, Zheng Xiaoying, who was in charge of "beating the beat" in the literary troupe, was sent to the Composition Department of the Central Conservatory of Music for further study. One day in 1955, the school's personnel section informed her to immediately go to the reception room for an interview with the Soviet choral conductor Leony Dumashev. The interview went surprisingly well, and she became the only female student in a class of Soviet expert choral conducting. Since then, Zheng Xiaoying has never put down the baton again.
Five years later, Zheng Xiaoying was sent to the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow to study opera and symphony conducting, under the well-known professors Ni Anosov and Gerzhdestvinsky. In 1961, on the 12th anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China, with the help of Anosov, Zheng Xiaoying held a celebratory concert in the Kremlin, performing Chinese works in the first half and highlighting the theme of Sino-Soviet friendship in the second half.
In 1962, under the direction of veteran conductor Yi Bain, Zheng Xiaoying conducted the Italian opera Tosca at the Moscow Musical Theatre. Zheng Xiaoying said: "He must have been under pressure, probably gave me the opportunity to conduct an opera, because the opera house generally does not accept young conductors without experience." The performance received high praise, and Zheng Xiaoying became the first Chinese conductor to appear on the podium of a foreign opera house. Later, Anosov wrote in Zheng Xiaoying's graduation comments: "It is entirely foreseeable that she will have a brilliant prospect of conducting and the role she will play in the development of symphonic art in her homeland." ”
Get up close and personal with the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra.
From "Opera Workshop" to "Explain Before Playing"
After returning to China, Zheng Xiaoying returned to the Central Conservatory of Music as a teacher. In 1965, the Central Experimental Opera House, the predecessor of the Central Opera House, wanted to rehearse a new opera "Ayi Guli" and found her as a conductor. Zheng Xiaoying recalled the scene at that time, because the dispute between the earth and the ocean about music at that time was very strong, saying that the "foreign voice" of the opera could not perform the drama of Chinese feelings. "We all want to rehearse the new opera 'Ayi guli' and play a 'turnaround battle' for the opera."
Zheng Xiaoying once said that the conductor should be able to see the total score composed of twenty or thirty instruments at a glance, and lead the musicians to create a second degree with the speed and strength of the music they understand. Therefore, the conductor is the soul of the orchestra, and there is not even a bad band but only a bad conductor. However, in the past Rehearsal of Chinese Opera, due to the unscientific rehearsal process, the band and the actors were very hard.
"At that time, the common rehearsal method in China's theaters was that the director took the band to rehearse the play, and everyone did not have a score in their hearts, they were improvising, and the rehearsal process was very long." Zheng Xiaoying applied the experience of conducting the opera "Tosca" while studying in the Soviet Union to the rehearsal of "Ayi Guli".
The rehearsal process of foreign operas is that the conductor first gives the actors homework, tells the actors and the guidance of piano rehearsal of the requirements of music processing, and solves the technical problems and performance problems before cooperating with the band. The conductor practiced the band according to his own requirements, and the director rehearsed the play in this music, and after practicing, the two families combined.
According to this model, Zheng Xiaoying optimized the rehearsal process of the opera, and the rehearsal efficiency was greatly improved, and she called this model "opera workshop". Under her command, the performance of "Ayi Guli" was successful, and some media even praised Zheng Xiaoying's conducting style with the line "Who said that Mu Yan led the lead to fly not far" in the opera. However, due to the conditions of the time, the opera was criticized, and the creators were collectively delegated to labor, and the opera disappeared from the Chinese stage for more than ten years.
At the end of 1978, Zheng Xiaoying once again conducted "Ayi Guli" on the stage of the Central Opera House, and she wrote the words "Easter of female conductors" on the calendar, and Chinese opera ushered in a revival. The following year, she conducted Chinese version of "La Traviata" and performed 39 consecutive performances in Tianjin, setting a world record. In 1981, Zheng Xiaoying presided over the translation and rehearsal of the Chinese version of the opera "Carmen", which was staged 100 times in just four years.
Different from ordinary opera performances, Zheng Xiaoying usually spends 20 minutes to explain the background of the repertoire and related musical knowledge to the audience before the concert repertoire of the conductor begins to play. She has been adhering to this form for nearly 40 years, and the audience calls it the "Zheng Xiaoying model".
The idea to create this model began with a performance in the Chinese version of La Traviata. Although it was Chinese sung, the audience still did not understand why the whole performance was sung from beginning to end, and the theater slowly began to change from quiet to noisy, and even some audience members laughed out loud in sadness.
"In the face of such an audience, I can't ignore it, and we shouldn't be high and low." Who do I lead the band to perform to? Preach to a post? I don't want to. I hope that this little bit of my labor can be exchanged for the resonance of the audience, and I hope that this little knowledge can enter the mind of the viewer. Since then, as long as Zheng Xiaoying is the opera conductor, 20 minutes before the start of the performance, she will explain to the audience how to appreciate the opera. A thunderous performance convention, the "Zheng Xiaoying Model", was born and has continued to this day.
Later, Zheng Xiaoying extended the music lecture from the theater to the campus. She introduced: "I put the lectures in school, and Peking University and Tsinghua University want me to give opera and symphony lectures. At the Beijing Normal University lecture, the students broke the windows, and there were people sitting on the windowsills. At the beginning, it was suggested that this was not a matter of conducting, nor was it in line with the conventions of concerts, but I hoped that the classical music would be 'sunny and white, and the harmony would be more and more'. ”
Open-air concerts on holidays.
From "Philharmonic Girl" to "Xiamen Philharmonic"
At the end of the 1980s, hong Kong and Taiwan popular songs were popular, and the audience of concert halls was rapidly reduced, and only a few dozen tickets could be sold for a concert. Many regular literary and art academy troupe performances were affected, and some performance backbones went out to "go to the cave", which made Zheng Xiaoying feel deeply distressed. Once, she talked about this phenomenon with Situ Zhiwen, chief cellist of the Central Orchestra, and Zhu Li, chief violin of the General Political Opera Troupe, and the three of them felt the same way, hoping to give young people the opportunity to appreciate the beauty of classical music, and came up with the idea of forming a band composed of volunteers to perform for the citizens in schools, factories, and rural areas for free. After the initiative was launched, it was echoed by more than a dozen performers, most of whom were women. Zheng Xiaoying said that they are all female compatriots, let's call it the Philharmonic Women's Chamber Orchestra.
On March 10, 1990, the inaugural concert of the Philharmonic Women's Chamber Orchestra was held at the Haidian Theater in Beijing. Zheng Xiaoying used less than five minutes of opening remarks to announce the establishment of China's first women's chamber orchestra to the audience, and was interrupted by warm applause from the audience five times. After the performance, the audience resounded with warm applause and applause.
Performances are unpaid. Zheng Xiaoying said that when the orchestra went out to perform, the only condition that was proposed to the other party was to send a car to pick us up. When the members of the orchestra received the performance notice, they never asked how much money to give, but asked "where to assemble", no matter the cold or summer, as long as there is a performance, everyone will get off work and rush to the meeting place from their respective units. Once it was snowing heavily in Beijing, and when she picked up the last erhu player, Seinfeld, it was more than an hour later than the agreed time, and everyone thought that Seinfeld might have gone home, and did not think that she had been waiting in the snow for more than an hour with two erhu in her arms. It was not until the orchestra later received some social sponsorship that it gave each person a 20 yuan transportation fee and a meal allowance at a time during the performance.
In 1995, the Philharmonic Women's Symphony Orchestra, formed on the basis of the Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, performed at the opening ceremony of the World Conference on Women, by which time the number of band members had grown to 108. Due to the restrictions of the policies and regulations at that time, this orchestra could only be attached to the Central Orchestra. In the mid-1990s, the major orchestras in the capital were reorganized, and while improving the treatment of all aspects of the players, they also emphasized strict discipline, requiring that under normal circumstances, the official players of each orchestra should not be allowed to participate in the performances of other orchestras.
After the reorganization of the Central Orchestra into the China Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonic Women's Orchestra faced new problems in the use of sponsorship funds. In 1996, after a performance, Zheng Xiaoying suddenly announced that this was the last performance of the "Philharmonic Girl". Amid the lamentations of music fans, the six-year-old girl band that used her spare time to perform nearly 300 times in schools, factories and mines, and rural areas announced its dissolution.
A year after bidding farewell to the "Philharmonic Girl", Zheng Xiaoying settled in Fujian and founded the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra. The reason for choosing Xiamen, on the one hand, Xiamen is her hometown, on the other hand, she was invited by the leaders of Xiamen City at that time. During the preparation of the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, she was diagnosed with rectal cancer. At this time, the information of the orchestra applicants had been collected, and she listened to the candidates' information on the hospital bed for preliminary screening.
After four months of surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and a series of sufferings, the first thing she did after she was discharged from the hospital was to interview at Gulangyu Island. For her, the initial recovery from a serious illness is a test of resurrection from the dead, "I want to tell these candidates who have been 'cooled' for half a year, there is no deception in running an orchestra!" Let's start a new business in Xiamen! ”
The Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra is China's first fully professional symphony orchestra with "private office assistance". Through the hardships of the start-up period, this young orchestra has been supported by the Xiamen municipal government, enterprises and recognized by the public. Zheng Xiaoying said: "No orchestra insists on rehearsing for five hours a day and launching a new program every week. It is our efforts and hard work that attract so many audiences in exchange for social recognition. I often take a taxi, and the driver said to me: 'You have made such a great contribution to Xiamen, it is my honor to be able to pull you', that is, I refuse to ask for money. When we rent a house, when we say 'love music', people are very enthusiastic; when we say 'love music', people give us discounts. ”
Zheng Xiaoying said: "My father is a Member of the FujianEse Hakka Family. When I went to look for roots, I found that the local 'Tulou' was built according to the 'Bagua'; and those Yang lian, ethnic training, etc., were full of cultural atmosphere, and I thought that there should be a symphony to express it, so I asked the young composer Liu Yong to write a symphonic poem "Tulou Echo".
On November 21, 2000, in the Hakka ancestral land of Longyan in Western Fujian, Zheng Xiaoying conducted the premiere of "Tulou Echo" at the 16th World Hakka Friendship Conference, and she specially asked the host of the party to announce the name of the conductor as "Yongding Hakka Girl - Zheng Xiaoying". A five-movement, 37-minute instrumental piece performed in a mountain gymnasium that had never heard a symphony before, and the audience not only sat down, but also listened to the gods, and finally clapped in unison with her baton and sang a Hakka mountain song. She said: "This is the first time in my conducting career. ”
In 2006, the Xiamen Municipal Government launched a public vote to represent Xiamen's top ten cities, and the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra was listed among them. Zheng Xiaoying felt particularly happy. She said: "I think it's hard that our band, which is all made up of immigrants, was elected as one of the business cards. Xiamen Philharmonic represents the city too. We participated in the competition with Gulangyu Island and Xiamen University. ”
Since 2013, Zheng Xiaoying has ceased to be the artistic director of the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, but she still keeps the seeds of beautiful music and opera here, and the orchestra's "Weekend Symphony" concert has been held one after another, giving more than 1,700 concerts to the audience. Since its establishment in Xiamen University of Technology in 2011, Zheng Xiaoying Opera Art Center has successively launched many Chinese and foreign classic operas such as "La Traviata" (Chinese version), "Wisteria Flower", "Death of Injury" (campus version), "The Marriage of Old Master Pa" (Chinese version), "Yue Fei" (concert version), "Happy Widow" (Chinese version), etc., and has performed more than 20 times across the country.
After 9 years, on July 30, 2020, "La Traviata" (Chinese version), rehearsed by Zheng Xiaoying Opera Art Center, was performed again at the Xiamen Song and Dance Theater, from the protagonist to the supporting role, it is difficult to find the big names, and the actors are all students of the Zheng Xiaoying Opera Art Center's "Learn Opera to Xiamen" Actor Training Class. Nine years ago, when the center was founded, it rehearsed Chinese version of "La Traviata" in this way. Compared with 9 years ago, the number of applicants for this training course is more enthusiastic, attracting nearly 100 people from all over the country to register. Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, more than 20 people were finally selected to study in Xiamen through video.
Summing up her "post-90s" life, Zheng Xiaoying said: "I think today I am the happiest person, and as the first female conductor of New China, I am envied by many female colleagues in the world. I thank my country and my people. ”
Biography
Zheng Xiaoying, born in Fujian in 1929, moved to Chongqing and other places due to war chaos in her childhood, and moved to Shanghai with her parents after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan. The first female conductor of symphony in New China. One of the music directors and founders of the Philharmonic Women's Orchestra, he was the head of the conducting department of the Central Conservatory of Music and the chief conductor of the Orchestra of the Central Opera House. Founder of the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra.
He has performed more than 20 Chinese and foreign operas such as "Ayi Guli", "Flower Protector", "Hot Land", "Qu Yuan", "There is a Heat Flow Outside the House", "La Traviata", "Carmen", "The Marriage of Figaro", "Madame Butterfly", "Bohemian", "Tosca", "Orfi Goes to Hell", "Rigolet", "The Marriage of Pa Lao", "Turandot", "The Magic Flute", "The Barber of Seville" and so on. After 1980, he has repeatedly gone to Hong Kong and Macao and Japan, Macao, the United States, Italy, Finland, Singapore, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom and other countries to hold concerts, participate in "International Arts Festivals", conduct operas or give lectures, and is the first Chinese conductor invited to rehearse world-famous operas abroad.
Author: Guo Dazhi