The nine-day "2023 Chinese Small Theatre Opera Performance" has added a fire in winter to the theater stage in Shencheng. This fire continues to ignite the exploration and practice of how to better achieve "creative transformation and innovative development" of China's excellent traditional opera, which has brought various thoughts to the theater industry. The exhibition, which has gone through nine sessions, is just like a dream space for every opera artist, especially for the younger generation of opera artists, who on the one hand continue to "absorb" this rich nourishment in the flow of the long river of excellent traditional Chinese opera, and on the other hand, they "exhale" the charm of exploration and practice of the innovative, experimental and pioneering spirit of the art of opera.
In this dream-making space, opera people gallop their imagination, allowing the people in the play to go to heaven and earth, cross yin and yang, live and die, and live forever. Sometimes the red bean is in the south, the joys and sorrows are separated;Sometimes I ask myself, and my soul is boating;sometimes laughs and scolds, and the world is ......In order to express the feelings of the family and country, promote the truth, goodness and beauty, whip the false, evil and ugly, experience the infinite charm of Chinese opera, and strive to pursue the quality characteristics of small theater opera to see the big from the small, see the deep with the small, see the fine with the small, see the new with the small, see the fun with the small, and see the beauty with the small, so as to arouse the audience's resonance, empathy, and empathy.
This performance is another vivid practice of contemporary opera artists to inherit the excellent traditional Chinese opera and strive to innovate. Whenever a song ends, the lights are lit up again, and when I see a row of young and energetic opera people standing on the stage, I will always feel an inexplicable feeling in my heart. They are working hard to present a small theater opera work for the current opera stage and the current audience. Whether these works succeed or fail, whether they are more praised than criticized, or criticized more than praised, this spirit of courage to practice and active exploration is valuable, and the pace of progress in this way should not stop. Our opera artists, in this dream-making space, show their artistic creative talents, tell one touching and interesting story after another, create one vivid and vivid character image after another, and create one colorful artistic world after another.
Just take the Yue opera "If I Were Not Ji Kang", which premiered at this year's exhibition, as an example. It is generally believed that Ji Kang, the representative of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest who is "seven feet eight inches long, with a special demeanor" and extraordinary, is very good at drama, but it is not easy to really put it on the stage. "If I Were Not Ji Kang" sets up a hypothetical question to conceive the artistic creation. In this imaginary space, the three crucial life nodes of Ji Kang's marriage, career, and friendship were selected, and the plot of three attempts to "change his life against the sky" was boldly set up, so as to show and dissect Ji **'s rich inner emotions. As a purely fictional artistic image in the play, the "Guangling Fairy" plays a role in the promotion of the plot. Will Ji Kang "change his life"?This suspense tugged at the audience's heartstrings from the beginning. But in the end, this lifelong pursuit of beauty, perfection and truth did not forget his original intention, failed to change his life as he wished, and finally made "Guangling San" exhausted, extinct in the world, and became a regret for the ages, but the strings of "celebrities" continued, and the sound of the wind and bones lingered to ......this dayThe author interprets this work as a self-questioning and a spiritual impact before Ji Kang's generous death.
In a sense, this is also a dream in Ji Kang's life space. The question of "what choice would Ji Kang make if he had a chance to revisit his path" in this work is of realistic significance. Because this is a torture of each of us, each of us will face such a choice in the journey of life. Ji Kang's choice makes each of us think about what to do when faced with such a choiceThis is where the value and charm of this work lie. Screenwriter Zhang Yan said with emotion when creating this work: Thank you Ji Kang for giving me spiritual nourishment, thank him for his majestic figure, his melodious piano sound, and his unyielding soul for thousands of years and still echo in the time and space of history, and look forward to his unique character image also standing majestically on the stage of the drama.
In addition to the Yue opera "If I Were Not Ji Kang", the Sichuan opera "Leaving the Hate Heaven: Trial", the tin opera "Red Bean", the Kunqu opera "The World Speaks the New Language, Suoyi and Visiting Dai", the Lu opera "Shanbo", the Peking opera "Lu Ming", the Min opera "Yin Zheng Break", the five-tone opera "Changsheng", the Kunqu opera "East China Sea Bochen", the Shanghai opera "If I were the champion Lang", the Liyuan opera "Chen Sanwu Niang - Parallel Space 2 Da Bo Ji Cyberpunk", the Kunqu opera "Depicting Zhu Ji" and other works have all reflected the quality characteristics of small theater opera to varying degrees. In the process of "dream-making", some of them are in place, and some still have a lot of room for improvement. It is worth noting that although this dream-making space allows opera artists to fully gallop their imagination in creation, it is also indispensable to have a square inch and depart from the true nature of opera, and to achieve "thinking day and night". "Thinking every day" means that we must have correct thinking, sorting out and grasping of traditional Chinese culture and traditional opera, vigorously inherit and carry forward the value orientation of goodness and beauty, and "exhale" new ideas, so that we can truly "dream at night" instead of "flying through dreams". (The author is an advisor to the Shanghai Dramatists Association).
Author: Shen Weimin.
Text: Shen Weimin: Photo provided by the organizerEditor: Wang Xiaoli Xu Yang Responsible Editor: Xing Xiaofang.
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