At the beginning of the Year of the Dragon, Shanghai's major art troupes did not take a break after the busy Spring Festival performance season, but kept plunging into new creations. On the first day of the Spring Festival, the rehearsal hall on the fifth floor of the Shanghai Peking Opera Company was in full swing, and Peking Opera masters Li Jun and Shi Yihong were grinding for the Peking Opera "Fenhe Bay" that will appear on the stage of Tianchan Yifu on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.
Caption: The rehearsal scene of "Fenhe Bay".
Shanghai Ballet's several practice rooms are full, adapted from Ru Zhijuan's original ballet of the same name** "Lilies" in the intense creation and rehearsal, director Wang Ge is speaking for young actors, this affectionate work needs to rely on excellent dance skills to test the expressiveness of the actors. In another practice room, the ** fluttering with a sense of age, the deputy head and chief actor Wu Husheng is leading the team to "carve" "In the Mood for Love", and on March 18, they will leave for Hong Kong to participate in the closing performance of the 52nd Hong Kong Arts Festival.
Caption: Shangba "In the Mood for Love".
Invite the old mage to rearrange "Fenhe Bay".
Fenhe Bay is an old drama with a history dating back to 1905, and the version rehearsed by the Shanghai Peking Opera Company is derived from this oldest and most authentic story. Shi Yihong's performance follows a 1958 live recording by Peking Opera masters Mei Lanfang and Ma Lianliang, and Li Jun still sings the Yang School, but the performance is modeled after the "dubbing image" made for this recording by two Peking Opera artists, Mei Baojiu and Zhang Xuejin. In order to restore the details of the 1958 version, Shi Yihong specially invited the 88-year-old Peking Opera master Sun Yuanxi from Tianjin to help.
In the 50s of the 20th century, Sun Yuanxi was vigorously cultivated and promoted by famous masters such as Ma Lianliang, Tan Fuying, and Qiu Shengrong. At the rehearsal scene, Grandpa Sun always sat upright, watching the actors' performances attentively, picking out every line of singing, even the angle of his fingers and the hook of his eyes. When changing scenes, the young actor helped to get the chairs, and in order to save time, Grandpa Sun corrected: "Although there are one table and two chairs on the stage, the placement of the tables and chairs is also exquisite." The old student is five inches, the face is eight inches, and you are one inch away from each other, so move closer. ”
With Grandpa Sun staring at the scene, Li Jun, the "quasi-uncle" who is easy to forget words, did not dare to slack off at all: "I got up at 7 o'clock in the morning to silently speak, and from the first day of the new year to today, I really haven't rested for a day." Sun Yuanxi arrived in Shanghai on the eighth day of the first month, and in the afternoon of the same day, he was pulled by Shi Yihong to the rehearsal room and began to sit and rehearse. Although he still sings the Yang School, his performance follows the path of Peking Opera master Ma Lianliang, which is also a challenge for Li Jun: "The biggest feature of Ma Lianliang's "Fenhe Bay" is that it is life-oriented, whether it is singing lyrics or acting, it will not be so restrictive, so it can better show the fun of life of Xue Rengui and his wife teasing and bickering with each other. ”
Caption: The rehearsal scene of "Fenhe Bay".
Fenhe Bay" was able to meet the audience on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and the biggest promoter was Shi Yihong, which was a play she had been thinking about for more than ten years. She said: "The first idea came to me after listening to the live recording of Mei Lanfang and Ma Lianliang in 1958, and I felt that they performed the daily bickering scene between husband and wife vividly, which was really interesting. Although there are many versions of this old opera, most of the endings that have been inherited so far are a little abrupt, so that the current audience can understand, Shi Yihong consulted the well-known opera director and scholar Chai Junwei to find the original script and make the story more complete and reasonable. She said: "I hope that this play can allow young people to see the most vivid appearance of Peking Opera." ”
Folk music blows the national wind AI to help.
At the beginning of the new year, the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra was busy with a challenging and innovative experimental work. The "national trend" blown by Shanghai-style folk music will carry the cutting-edge meaning of high-tech, and a ** club "Zero • One 丨 Chinese Color" created by AI will be unveiled at the 1862 Fashion Art Center in April.
Although there is an endless discussion about whether AI will replace major types of work, this attempt is also looking forward to exploring new possibilities for the future development of Chinese music through the integration of ** and technology. The AI composition system tries to discover the most representative combinations of national musical instruments and diverge rich and diverse emotions. It is hoped that through the second creation and diversified interpretation of the orchestra performers, the works can be personalized and conveyive, conveying rich emotions and artistic appeal, so that the audience can more truly feel the unique charm of the interweaving of skills and emotions.
Caption: The performance scene of "Folk Music on the Sea" Xinmin Evening News reporter Wang Kai (the same below).
The Forbidden City digs treasures, Kunqu opera connects the ancient and modern.
Also brewing a big move is the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe. At the beginning of next month, all 55 performances of "The Peony Pavilion" were invited to participate in the 2024 Hong Kong Arts Festival, which is also the second time that Shangkun will appear on the stage of the Hong Kong Arts Festival after 32 years, and the tickets for the three performances have been almost sold out.
Caption: The whole book of 55 "The Peony Pavilion".
In the new year, Shangkun's creative focus will continue to focus on the research and development and promotion of the Forbidden City opera project, and continue to promote the creative transformation and innovative development of China's excellent traditional culture on the opera stage. Gu Haohao, director of the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe, revealed that since the signing of the joint agreement between Shanghai Kunqu and the Forbidden City last year, we have been actively planning how to realize the contemporary expression of the traditional Chinese culture inherited in the Forbidden City on the stage through the art of Kunqu Opera.
After sorting out the more than 40-page list of various plays, single plays and music scores in the Qing Palace Opera Collection last year, an expert discussion will be held this year to deepen the treasures of the Palace Museum opera and plan to launch a series of projects. At the beginning of March, Shangkun creative researchers will go to Beijing to discuss the plan with experts from the Forbidden City, trying to properly integrate the highly condensed elements of Chinese culture into the creation of the repertoire, so that the present and the ancients can carry out spiritual exchanges across time and space and civilization.
Radiating the Yangtze River Delta, the tour does not stop.
After completing a series of wonderful Chinese New Year performances, the footprints of Shanghai Yue Opera Theater and Shanghai Shanghai Opera Company will also extend from Tianchan Yifu Stage and Wanping Theater in downtown Shanghai to five new cities, and then start the Yangtze River Delta tour.
This afternoon, the Yue Opera "Pearl Tower" will be staged at the Heqing Cultural and Broadcasting Service Center in Pudong New Area. Starting tomorrow, the three troupes of the Yue Opera Theater will "divide the soldiers into three routes" to send famous dramas such as "The Legend of the West Chamber" and "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" to Xuhang Town, Gucun Town, Maqiao Town and other places, so that the public audience can appreciate the charm of Yue Opera classics at their doorstep. On February 23, the famous drama "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai", led by the famous Yue Opera artist Fang Yafen and specially invited by the famous Yue Opera artist Wu Fenghua, will be staged at the Taizhou Luqiao Cultural and Sports Center, and start this year's Yangtze River Delta tour.
Caption: Excerpts from the Yangtze River Delta multi-drama co-performance "Pearl Tower".
Since yesterday, the Shanghai Opera House has started a series of grassroots performances. Songjiang, Qingpu, Jiading, Fengxian ......As a local opera in Shanghai, Shanghai opera has a broad mass base, and the state-owned theater troupe "sends operas to the door" so that theater fans and audiences far away from the city center have the opportunity to see classic excerpts of Shanghai opera at their doorstep, which also makes many Shanghai opera lovers look forward to it.
The dragon is leaping and the tiger is steaming. Whether it is the energetic scenes in the practice room and rehearsal hall, or the touring footprints all over the city, the new city and even the Yangtze River Delta, it precisely reflects the aspirations of Shanghai's literary and art workers who want to make great achievements in the new year. (Xinmin Evening News reporter Zhu Yuan).