Recently, the full textbooks of "Opera Farewell to Kangqiao" and "Opera Red River Valley" published by the Culture and Art Publishing House were published at the China ** College. In recent years, the operas "Farewell to Kangqiao" and "Red River Valley" have been widely used in the teaching of leading colleges and universities across the country. In order to promote the development of Chinese opera education, with the strong support of the China ** Academy, Chen Wei, director and director of the Performance Teaching and Research Department of the China ** Academy, organized the main creative team of the two repertoire, after years of careful design, edited and published two full textbooks, covering all opera performance courses. This is also the first opera textbook in China with original Chinese opera as the content.
Farewell to Cambridge opens the exploration of small theater opera.
At the turn of the 20th century and the 21st century, Chinese opera suffered from the three stubborn diseases of "greed for foreignness, respect for the present and thin for the ancient, and strive for speed", and the one-sided pursuit of "big production, big investment, and big scene", and the style of form over content prevailed. Chen Wei found another way, wrote and directed by himself, raised his own funds, and took the students of the Vocal and Singing Department of China ** University as the performance team, and opened the road of exploration of small theater opera on the Chinese opera stage.
In December 2001, the refreshing small theater opera "Farewell Kangqiao" premiered in the small theater of the Beijing People's Art Theater, and was performed for 25 consecutive performances, causing a sensation. "Farewell to Cambridge is a simple but not ugly, small but delicate, groundbreaking operatic masterpiece, and it is also a beautiful gift from the creators to the audience of the new century. Wang Zuji, chairman of the Chinese Opera Research Association, said that "Farewell to Kangqiao" has expanded the subject matter and expression of Chinese opera.
The opera "Farewell to Kangqiao" was written by Chen Wei and composed by Zhou Xueshi, and is the first small theater opera in China. "The new genre of small theatre opera presents us with a huge space for exploration. In terms of creation, the composer Zhou Xueshi shortened the distance between the language of the opera and the aesthetic habits of the public as much as possible, pursued "elegant popularity", and allowed the orchestra players to participate in the drama under the premise of logic, giving full play to the flexibility and initiative of a small chamber band.
The whole play features an 11-member chamber music group, plus conductor and percussion, saxophone and northern Chinese bassoon. "It turns out that the composer who created a nearly 100-minute show with such a small chamber orchestra withstood the most critical and severe tests with his profound skills. * Scholar Jia Qihong said that "Farewell to Kangqiao" has a very romantic lyrical temperament, with soft and warm melodic lines.
Because of its unique advantages of miniaturization, low cost and high quality, the opera "Farewell to Cambridge" has entered the classroom since its birth, and has been continuously performed by professional troupes at all levels and many first-class colleges and local colleges and universities. Wang Shikui, director of the Department of Singing and Singing of China's ** Academy, said that this teaching method, which not only launches classic works, but also cultivates outstanding talents through stage tempering, has achieved the goal of integrating "production, learning and research", and has therefore received wide attention from the academic community and is known as the "Chen Wei model" for the cultivation of opera performance talents.
Red River Valley is not a cliché of Western opera.
Different from the small and delicate "Farewell to Kangqiao", the opera "Red River Valley" is a masterpiece of classic Chinese original opera. Ju Qihong commented that the overall style of the play is dignified and majestic, with a heroic and epic character, showing the heroic artistic temperament of Chen Wei's choreographer.
The opera "Red River Valley", written and directed by Chen Wei and composed by Meng Weidong, premiered at the Beijing Poly Theater in August 2011 and was a great success as the opening performance of the "2011 National Arts Troupe Excellent Repertoire Exhibition".
Composer Meng Weidong created ** for "Red River Valley", which has a strong ** style, pays attention to the expression function of the melody, and writes the important singing sections delicately and beautifully. Li Xiaoxiang, former vice president of the China Opera and Dance Theater, commented that "Red River Valley" firmly grasps the national style and deeply integrates with the modern symphony. The theme song "Ode to the Goddess of the Snow Mountain" full of sacredness runs throughout, the characters are distinctive, each aria can become a repertoire independently, and the recitative tune is also smooth and beautiful, catchy, and does not fall into the cliché of Western opera.
In recent years, many leading colleges and universities have taken the singing segments, fragments and even the whole drama in the opera "Red River Valley" as the content of teaching performances and research. Therefore, it is particularly necessary to compile and publish standard teaching materials. This time, the Culture and Art Publishing House published two full textbooks, "Opera, Farewell to Kangqiao" and "Opera, Red River Valley", which were compiled into the series of books on the course construction of the "Chinese Music School" funded by the publication of the teaching achievements of the ** College of China. The content of the textbook contains a full range of information about the two opera works: the script, the piano text, the introduction of the creative ideas of the main creative team, and the stills of the performance; In each classic bridge section and core singing section, readers can also directly scan the wonderful performance video.
Zhou Xueshi sighed: "This is the first time I have seen an original Chinese opera published in this form, which also records the details of the original rehearsal and creation, and provides students with the entire process of opera creation with a book, which can really be called a 'whole textbook'." Meng Weidong introduced: "The main creators of the repertoire have made great efforts in the publishing process, repeatedly and meticulously proofreading, and every repertoire, every note, and every text has been revised, in order to form such an accurate and comprehensive high-quality opera publication." ”
There is an urgent need for all-round teaching materials for opera education.
Chen Wei is a leading figure in domestic opera performance, since 1987 graduated from the directing department of the ** Drama Academy into the China ** Academy to start his opera director career, has been 36 years, during which he has created and directed a number of high-level masterpieces. The "Farewell to Kangqiao" and "Red River Valley" published this time are the two most representative plays in Chen Wei's directorial career.
As the editor-in-chief of the two textbooks, Chen Wei has integrated her rich teaching experience into the compilation of the textbooks, realizing the combination of academics and practice. She believes that the training of opera singers is to complete the scheduling in the ** and complete the performance in the singing. If you want to become a qualified opera singer, you must go through three stricts, three trainings, and three responsibilities, that is, strict and scientific vocal training - responsible for the composer, rigorous opera performance training - responsible for the screenwriter and characters, and rigorous opera stage training - responsible for the opera career. Chen Wei's student, soprano Lu Wei, said, "The growth of an opera singer must go through rigorous acting training and stage beating experience. During the rehearsal process of the opera, director Chen Wei guided us forward with strict, rigorous and strict requirements in teaching and rehearsal. ”
After our vocal music students are trained by the main vocal instructor and then through the systematic stage training of director Chen Wei, it can be said that the vocal talents cultivated by China ** Academy over the years have grown from Director Chen's classroom to young opera talents. Wang Shikui said that opera is a comprehensive genre that integrates singing and performance, "A singer who has not performed opera cannot be called a performing artist, and Chen Wei is a professor who cultivates performing artists." ”
In terms of opera education, especially the application and popularization of Chinese opera works, art academies urgently need teaching materials that can cover all aspects of opera performance courses. Chen Wei hopes that through the two opera textbooks of "Opera, Farewell to Kangqiao" and "Opera Red River Valley", students will be guided to study and practice the complete link of an original opera work from sight-singing to rehearsal and performance, which is of great significance for the improvement of students' overall quality and the standardization of Chinese opera education.
Lu Yangwen.