From the first day of the Lunar New Year to the fifth day of the Lunar New Year this year, the Kunqu opera "The Blessing of Heavenly Officials" was performed in the Zhengyi Ancestral Hall in Beijing, and a group of "gods of fortune" sang "The rain is good for the people". This is the first repertoire to be performed after the "Living Fossils of Chinese Theaters" with a history of more than 300 years have been fully restored and reopened according to the original historical appearance.
In the past year, Beijing has made great efforts to build a "performing arts capital", polishing cultural signboards such as "big drama to see Beijing" and "guild hall has play", and more than 100 high-quality plays and films have been performed, broadcast and screened online and offline, with a total number of more than 38 million peopleThe small theater exhibition unit staged 18 high-quality plays and 262 performances in 13 urban small theaters and new performing arts spaces, attracting 4More than 50,000 young viewers;In the unit of high-quality performances, 10 excellent plays were invited to 8 colleges and universities, so that more than 10,000 young students could have close contact with dramatic art.
Since Beijing promoted the construction of a national cultural center, many cultural relics have been "lived", the century-old theater has been reopened, and the "cultural gift packages" distributed to citizens and tourists have become more and more abundant.
On the eve of this year's New Year, after the Kunqu opera "Peony Pavilion" performed at the Zhengyi Temple, three young people who returned from studying abroad put on their coats and prepared to leave the theater.
Ge Zhenning pointed to the front of the stage and said: "This place has witnessed the birth of Peking Opera, and before the birth of Peking Opera, Kunqu Opera was sung. He introduced that the Zhengyi Ancestral Hall has a history of more than 300 years and is the oldest preserved pure wooden structure theater in China.
In 2019, the Zhengyi Ancestral Hall was handed over to the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater for comprehensive repair. Ge Zhenning said that in the early years, the couplets on both sides of the stage of the Zhengyi Ancestral Hall were "Eight thousand autumn moons and spring breezes consume the butterflies in the dream, and one hundred and five pairs of gold bottles and sandalwood boards are paid in front of the swallow lamp at the bottom of the peach blossom fan", which comes from the four famous Kunqu opera dramas "Butterfly Dream", "Pipa Story", "Peach Blossom Fan" and "Swallow Note". Later, for a while, the couplet was replaced by the work of the historian Zhu Jiaming. After the renovation, the old couplets were hung on both sides of the stage again.
Ge Zhenning said that in addition to the couplets, the walls on both sides of the stage were ordered by Nanjing Gold Foil Factory to make a "gold wall", and the roller blinds were also embroidered with pure gold thread.
On April 19, 2022, the Zhengyi Ancestral Hall with antique colors and new rhyme was officially reopened. On the wall directly opposite the stage, there are famous portraits of "Tongguang Thirteen Uniques" in the Tongzhi and Guangxu periods of the Qing Dynasty. Cheng Changgeng, Tan Xinpei, Mei Qiaoling and other Peking Opera masters on the painting have all performed on the stage of Zhengyi Temple.
On this side of the stage, these old gentlemen were playing a hundred years ago, and I am an actor of this generation. Zhang Peng, a post-80s opera actor, also performed on this stage. Today, he is the director of the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater and the manager of the Zhengyi Ancestral Hall. In his plan, Zhengyi Temple wants to "dig out the old things for the young".
Taking the first work of the "Guanqifu" series directed by Zhang Peng as an example, Zhang Peng took the team into the Forbidden City, visited opera experts, and strived to make the makeup, costumes, performances, etc. can find the source of Qing Dynasty court opera, and then innovate the arrangement according to the artistic characteristics presented on the current stage, and invite well-known fashion photographers to take makeup photos for the actors, so that young people can see a different kind of classical beauty.
Including Zhang Peng, many actors and staff members of the Zhengyi Temple Theater are familiar with the story of "a row of girls". Zhang Peng remembered that there was a girl who watched 11 scenes in a row, and bought one in a row each time. Later, he learned that the girl went to Shanghai to work, and when the troupe went to Shanghai to tour again, the familiar "one girl in a row" bought a ticket to watch the play.
In the midst of integrity and innovation, many young actors also really feel the changes inside and outside the theater. Yu Xuejiao, an actor at the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater, said that the script of the opera has not changed, the tone of the singing has not changed, and the distance between the opera and the audience has become closer, "you can touch the audience when you stretch out your hand."
In order to make the opera truly go to the audience, Zhang Peng also thought about extending the breadth of the stage, increasing the angle of the light rotation, presenting more diverse performances in a limited space, and allowing the actors to sing melodious and tactful ancient rhymes in the audience.
Yu Xuejiao also saw from the stage that there were more young faces in the audience. In her opinion, this is the transmission power of traditional culture, "the blood of young people who love the country has awakened".
Opera is not new to me, but when I grow up, I really feel a bit of a 'blood awakening'. On the night of the opening of "The Peony Pavilion", Ms. Ji, a post-90s audience, said that when she was a child, she had been listening to Henan Opera in her hometown in Henan, and she had been to Suzhou to listen to Pingtan when she was in college. Later, I listened to Kunqu Opera and wanted to learn more about Chinese opera."
After watching the performance, Ms. Ji sighed that the stage is still familiar with the traditional taste, but the immersive viewing mode has made her closer to the actors, "I will come again next time".
The reporter also found that the audience could walk into the theater from the ticket gate of Zhengyi Temple in only two or three minutes, and many viewers walked for 10 minutes or even longer. Check in and take pictures, stamp photos, enjoy the gallery scenery, and from time to time, foreign audiences curiously ask the Chinese audience around them about the history of the Zhengyi Ancestral Hall.
Kunqu opera has become fashionable among young people. Zhang Peng said that when the weather is warm or during traditional Chinese festivals, many young audiences wear Chinese costumes to listen to the opera. He hopes that such a small and beautiful, small and refined, small and elegant theater can not only become a window of traditional Chinese culture, but also release the charm of fashion and trendiness.
Not only the Zhengyi Ancestral Hall, but also more guild halls and new performing arts spaces in Beijing have been integrated into the city's culture, leading the cultural consumption tide of citizens and tourists. According to the statistics of Beijing, in 2023, Beijing will launch the first batch of 15 municipal-level performing arts space cultivation venues, and identify 29 new performing arts spaces. Nearly 400 performances were held in centennial halls such as Zhengyi Ancestral Hall, Huguang Hall, and Pigment Hall.
Right now, the Zhengyi Ancestral Hall has just finished performing the New Year's drama "The Blessing of Heavenly Officials", and the grand occasion of the performance is still in front of you. In Zhang Peng's words, from the first floor to the third floor of the theater, from the stage to the audience, "there are good performances". In addition, the Zhengyi Ancestral Hall also lowered the ticket price during the New Year to welcome the audience in a more affordable way.
The audience went to the Zhengyi Ancestral Hall during the New Year and saw that a bell with the words "Heavenly Official Blessing" had been hung at the door. Regarding this ingenuity, Zhang Peng explained that when an audience member jumped up and touched it, it sounded the sound of the New Year.
China Youth Daily, China Youth Network Reporter Yin Xining, Liu Shixin, **China Youth Daily [Editor: Bian Liqun].