Chinese opera is a treasure of Chinese culture, and the key to the prosperity and development of the opera industry lies in people. As an important brand activity of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to promote the national opera education and the cultivation of opera professionals, the 4th "Pear Blossom Cup" National Youth Opera Education and Teaching Achievements Exhibition was held in Beijing, Nanjing, Wuhan and Jinan in April and May this year, involving 27 types of operas, attracting more than 7,400 people to watch the performance and 4 million people Since August, the 4th "Pear Blossom Cup" National Youth Opera Education and Teaching Achievements Exhibition has been performed on the CCTV opera channel "Youth Opera Garden" It has been broadcast one after another, allowing the audience to appreciate the stage style of Liyuan rookie and at the same time, they also feel the development of China's opera professional education in the new era.
Since its establishment more than ten years ago, the "Pear Blossom Cup" has played an active role in bringing together the latest achievements in opera education and teaching, promoting the exchange of experience in opera teaching, and introducing outstanding young opera talents. It is rare that this year's "Pear Flower Cup" will promote the integration of performance, teaching and seminars, fully implement the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of Cultural and Art Vocational Education in the New Era" issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Education in 2022, and explore and innovate in expanding the participation objects, enriching the display content, innovating the display methods, and strengthening the incentive role, and has achieved good results.
A wide range of categories are highlighted and comprehensively displayed
Formerly known as the National Youth Opera Competition, the "Pear Blossom Cup" was held twice in 2011 and 2014, and dozens of new opera seedlings stood out in the competition and gradually grew into the youth backbone of national and local key troupes or colleges. In 2018, it was adjusted to the "Pear Blossom Cup" National Youth Opera Education and Teaching Achievements Exhibition Activity, and the scale was further expanded. In the 4th "Pear Blossom Cup" exhibition in 2023, a total of 222 student programs from many professional opera art colleges in 25 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country competed, and finally 84 programs were selected for the exhibition, covering all stages of academic education in opera education across the country.
"Pear Flower Cup" has always been people-oriented, with the goal of producing talents. This year's exhibition and performance covers the evaluation content of basic Chinese opera skills, unique skills, special music cards, etc., focusing on the examination of basic Chinese opera skills and the comprehensive cultivation of students' professional basic ability. It is worth mentioning that this year's "Pear Blossom Cup" for the first time will include the opera instrumental accompaniment major into the scope of the exhibition, and the national youth national instrumental music education and teaching achievements in the "opera performance" in the opposite of the "opera performance", this setting highlights the characteristics of traditional opera "half gong and drum half opera", emphasizing the integrated relationship between opera accompaniment and performance.
This year's 'Pear Blossom Cup' has a wide range of performances, showing the important position of opera art in China's excellent traditional culture, and reflecting the deep recognition and high consciousness of opera art and traditional culture across the country. The rich and diverse content of the exhibition and performance, and the performance pattern of teachers and students on the same stage, vividly present the charm of inheritance. The relevant person in charge of the Chinese Academy of Drama said that it is expected that the "Pear Blossom Cup" can further subdivide majors and expand coverage according to the differences in opera education in different regions, so that the achievements of some areas with relatively scattered opera education and teaching resources can also be paid attention to and displayed.
Promote exchanges and improve quality, and implement "educating people by performance".
The "Pear Blossom Cup" provides a broad stage for outstanding young opera talents to grow and become talents, and the participating students broaden their horizons, consolidate their skills, summarize and improve in the exhibition and exchange, so that the guiding ideology of "the key to the development of the opera industry is in the people" is implemented. "The event helped me a lot. "The process of preparing for the show is very hard, but it is also very happy, and it motivates me to keep improving......For the participating students, the "Pear Blossom Cup" is not only a selection and assessment, but also an important experience on the road to learning opera.
Liu Zhi, a student who was awarded the "Excellent Performance Program" in the 4th "Pear Blossom Cup", said that in order to participate in the exhibition in a better state, the Shaanxi Vocational College of Art where he studied tailored a three-month training camp for the participating students, strengthened and improved the weak links, and also helped students better understand the script and characters through courses such as classic repertoire, and strive to promote all-round growth.
What is surprising is that the 4th "Pear Blossom Cup" exhibition also set up a teacher demonstration class link, 3 sessions of 10 teacher demonstration classes will be "oral teaching" of the opera teaching method and teacher-student interactive teaching mode for the first time on the stage, especially the teacher performance display link, focusing on the excellent opera teachers "can teach to perform" professional quality.
Zhang Jiying, a teacher at the Beijing Vocational College of Chinese Opera Arts, who was selected for the performance of the Peking Opera "Lin Chong Running at Night" repertoire demonstration class, said: "I feel very encouraged. Directly presenting the teaching process is not only a test but also an improvement for the teacher's personal artistic level and teaching ability, which can help us enlarge the details of teaching and check and fill in the gaps. ”
Chen Xiaojun, vice president of the secondary art school affiliated to Xinjiang University of the Arts, believes that the teacher's demonstration class is very helpful for the institution to learn from the teaching experience and improve the quality of teaching. ”
In the next step, more young teachers can be recommended to participate in teaching demonstration activities, carry out regular centralized training, enhance teachers' teaching skills, optimize classroom teaching effects, carry out joint research between colleges and universities, fully implement the activity concept of 'educating people with performance', and promote the cultivation of young opera teaching talents. He Jing, associate professor of Zhejiang ** University, said.
It is understood that this year's "Pear Blossom Cup" also for the first time nationwide solicitation of opera education, and held 3 opera education and teaching seminars during the performance, more than 70 experts and teachers around the standardization of opera repertoire teaching, basic skills of opera, teaching methods and textbook construction of sub-gong courses, etc., fully embodies the "Pear Blossom Cup" education nature.
Prosper, inherit and seek development, and promote the transformation of achievements
This year's "Pear Blossom Cup" exhibition was selected as the best of the best, and the youthful faces on the stage were full of energy, and the hard-working flowers of opera bloomed with enthusiasm, which effectively promoted the cultural inheritance and development between opera genres, colleges and universities, and regions.
From the perspective of the display scope of opera genres, in addition to Peking Opera and Kunqu Opera, there are also Hebei Bangzi, Jin Opera, Pu Opera, Shangdang Luozi, Tin Opera, Shao Opera, Wu Opera, Gaojia Opera, Xuhe Opera, Qin Dialect and other local operas and endangered operas have made wonderful appearances, and classic repertoire such as "The Legend of the West Chamber", "Blocking Horses", "Hujiazhuang", "Catching and Releasing Cao" and "Sizhou City" have been staged in turn. This year's exhibition pays special attention to the protection and inheritance of local opera genres and endangered opera genres, so as to carry forward the characteristics of opera genres and optimize the ecology of opera genres. According to statistics, only the 4th "Pear Blossom Cup" recommended programs around the country included 48 opera genres, after review, 27 opera genres were selected for centralized display, of which local operas accounted for 71% of the total number of selected programs. This reflects the high inheritance vitality and teaching level of the opera genre, and in a certain sense, reflects the importance that each region attaches to the cultural resources and artistic inheritance of the province.
At the same time, the exhibition and performance activities have effectively promoted the transformation of educational achievements of various colleges and universities. In recent years, opera academies have actively innovated education and teaching methods, and have launched teaching practice reform measures such as "Xiaokun Class", "Famous Opera" and "One Opera a Week". The exhibition and performance have created an opportunity for colleges and universities to integrate teaching resources inside and outside the school, build an echelon of education and teaching talents, implement the test teaching reform plan, and establish a reputation for cultivating opera talents.
In addition, the 4th "Pear Blossom Cup" exhibition adopts a combination of online and offline, recorded and broadcast and live broadcast, actively exerts the matrix communication effect, improves social attention and influence, builds a promotion platform for excellent opera teaching achievements, realizes the close connection between education units and artistic creation and production units, and strengthens public service attributes, popularizes opera knowledge and culture to the society, and demonstrates the responsibility of the times to inherit and carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture.
The ** in the article are all provided by the organizer of the 4th "Pear Blossom Cup" National Youth Opera Education and Teaching Achievement Exhibition).
China Culture Daily, December 29, 2023
A special report was published in the second edition.
Let the flower of opera bloom with youth
Editor-in-charge: Chen Chen.