On September 10, 1958, Chairman ** began a round of southern tours, ...... from Wuhan, Anqing, Hefei, Wuhu, Ma'anshan, and Nanjing along the wayOn September 21, he stayed in Shanghai for one night, during which he went to the Sino-Soviet Friendship Building ** for a theatrical performance. The comrade in charge of the municipal party committee came to ask for the opinion of ***, and he thought about it and said:"Let's watch "The Legend of the White Snake"! ”
** is talking about the Peking Opera "The Legend of the White Snake". Peking Opera, known as the "quintessence of the country", is also the most favorite art form. He can also be regarded as an amateur Peking Opera connoisseur, and is familiar with the history, genres, singing tones, and programs of Peking Opera. As early as the Yan'an period, American journalist Louis Strong called *** a "connoisseur of opera".
In different periods, ** also prefers different plays. When he moved to northern Shaanxi, he loved to listen to "The Empty City Plan" and "The Straw Boat Borrowed Arrows", and at that time he was playing hide and seek with Chiang Kai-shek's army, ** often recited Zhuge Liang's confession in "The Empty City Plan": "Sima Yi's soldiers came so fast!" After reading it, he sang: "I was watching the mountain scenery from the city tower, and suddenly I heard the chaos outside the city .......""I want to defend Jinggangshan back then, ** "sang" a "Empty Mountain Plan of Commissar Mao" in the Huangyang world, but at that time, there were probably no conditions for listening to the play.
When commanding the three major battles in Xibaipo, ** loved to listen to Gao Qingkui's "Xiaoyaojin", Yan Jupeng's "Wolong Hanging Filial Piety", and Cheng Yanqiu's "Tears of the Barren Mountain", and when he was happy, he would hum a few words of "Heroes". Before and after the army crossed the river and entered Beijing, ** watched Mei Lanfang's performance of "Farewell My Concubine" many times. "It is advisable to chase the poor bravely, and not to sell the name of the overlord", is a poem written during this period.
** often said to his subordinates that Mr. Mei Lanfang, a celebrity in the theater industry, is not simple, after the Japanese imperialists invaded China, Mr. Mei stayed in seclusion and never acted again. Ignoring the coercion and temptation of the Japanese invaders, he stopped singing and dancing. How precious is this national integrity of this artist!
Once, when watching "Farewell My Concubine", I saw that the hero of Chu Bawang was short of breath, his children were long, and when he parted with Yu Ji, his eyelashes trembled non-stop, and his eyes were wet. At that time, ** pressed the button on Li Yinqiao's chest with one finger, and said in a hoarse voice: "Don't learn from Chu Overlord, let's not learn." ”
For Xiang Yu to sing sadly at the end of the road "Yu Xi Yu Xi Na Ruo", * also disagreed, and even disagreed with the self-deprecation of the overlord of Chu. In his view, victory and defeat are common things in soldiers, and failure is the mother of success. **Even if you listen to a play, you can't miss it, and you can always hear something different.
In the 1950s, ** was very fond of the traditional mythological opera "The Legend of the White Snake", and watched it many times from 1953 to 1954. He also has a wide variety of records of the opera, in addition to the Peking Opera version, there are also Yue Opera, Cantonese Opera and other singing versions. In 1952, ** also watched Mei Lanfang's performance of the White Lady.
At that time, Mei Lanfang performed plays such as "Broken Bridge" and "Jinshan Temple". **Said after watching the show:"Mr. Mei is very good at acting, his whole body is white, but there is a red tassel on his forehead, and he is wrapped in silver and a little red, which is very beautiful! ”Afterwards, Mei Lanfang heard the chairman's praise and said very excitedly: "For so many years, no one has ever talked about the appearance of the White Lady. Actually, I spent a lot of time researching. ”
When I went to Shanghai in 1958, I wanted to watch "The Legend of the White Snake" again, and this time the famous Peking Opera artist Li Yuru performed for the chairman. According to the plan, the ** stay in Shanghai will only last one night. Therefore, after arriving in Shanghai, he was accompanied by Li Yinqiao and drove to the performance venue after a short stop, waiting for the ** performance.
**There are several single sofas in the front row of the seats, and Li Yinqiao, as the guard on duty, must not leave the chairman's side 24 hours a day, and sit on a sofa next to him. **Life is very simple, and I know that he is used to wearing a pair of ordinary loose gray cloth pants with a belt tied at the high waist. In this way, every time you sit for a long time, the belt will strangle your waist. Therefore, every time he watched a performance, Li Yinqiao helped the chairman loosen his belt.
***, who has always been informal, never intervenes in Li Yinqiao's move that makes him more comfortable. In "A Journey to the West", the American journalist also recorded an informal example.
As his conversation became more and more vigorous, his body began to heat up, so he inadvertently unbuttoned his trouser belt, and as he spoke, he put his hand into the waistband of his trousers to catch lice. When he catches a lice full of blood, he squeezes it with his fingernails and makes a sound. ”The show was soon underway. **Quickly extinguish the half-smoked cigarette in his hand, quickly enter the state of watching the play, and stare intently at the actors on the stage. ** has a natural "reckless" temperament, dare to love, dare to hate, dare to act, and be unpretentious, which is also extremely obvious when he watches the play.
If it's a drama with a tense plot and intense struggle, you can't help but shed tears. For those who are oppressed and exploited, they often empathize. Once when I watched "The Case of Quanmei", the staff around me saw the chairman crying and rippling most of the time, and he looked very sad and angry at the end. Every time I watch "The Legend of the White Snake", the chairman also sheds tears, often with a breathless nose.
The actors on the stage are very devoted, and they are completely integrated into the plot when they see it below. His expression changes as the plot progresses, sometimes passionate, sometimes emotional, sometimes sighing. Whenever he heard a brilliant singing, he always took the lead in applauding.
As soon as Monk Fahai appeared, **'s face immediately sank, his lips opened slightly, and he twitched a few times from time to time. When it was extremely hateful, there was a sound of teeth clashing, as if to bite the old monk a few times. When Xu Xian and the White Lady began to part painfully from life and death,I also fell into pain, tears swirling in my eyes, and finally turned into large teardrops, which fell down my face and down my chest
When the love was thick, tears flowed down like a spring, and soon the nose was blocked, and breathing was hindered, making a "hissing" sound. The leaders of Shanghai who accompanied the theater were attracted by this voice and cast flashing glances. Li Yinqiao felt that this would affect the chairman's "leadership demeanor", and coughed lightly a few times, trying to remind the chairman. However, the chairman's mind was all devoted to the drama and did not realize Li Yinqiao's reminder.
In the end, ** finally made a trembling sob, and wiped his tears without hesitation. Li Yinqiao really has "no choice", so he has to look forward to the end of the play soon. Unexpectedly, a more "embarrassing" scene is still to come.
When the play reached the point where Fahai suppressed the White Lady under the Leifeng Pagoda, ** suddenly angrily "shot the case". He slapped his hand on the armrest of the sofa, stood up at once, and said, "Isn't it revolutionary?" Isn't it okay not to rebel? ”
At the moment when *** stood up, Li Yinqiao rushed forward as if he had been electrocuted, and grabbed the chairman's pants. With self-reproach and panic, he hurriedly helped *** tie his belt with trembling hands. Seeing Li Yinqiao's self-blaming look, ** did not mean to blame at all. He was still immersed in the plot until the audience burst into thunderous applause, and then he returned to reality and applauded.
When shaking hands with the actors at the end of the performance, ** shook hands with the "Green Snake" with two hands, praising him for his courage, fearlessness and helping others; shook hands with "Xu Xian" and "White Snake" with one hand, and praised their spirit of being kind and bold in pursuing a better life; But he ignored the unlucky old monk "Fahai".
This is a kind of "pure heart", he thinks Bai Suzhen is very good, why are you so arrogant, you want to bully others, and you are completely immersed in the plot. Later, when I watched "Sister Jiang" once, ** also had this feeling, that is, Sister Jiang is such a good comrade, why do you have to let her die. Even if you can't be rescued in life, you should be rescued on stage.
In the 50s, in the early days of the founding of New China, there were still many internal and external troubles, and ** also advocated "the past for the present" for drama. belittled some lingering and sympathetic talented and beautiful dramas, and also praised and recommended some angry Wudan and Dao Ma Dan plays. Watching "The Legend of the White Snake", * I still have a sense of substitution for its spirit of resisting oppression.
** In a conversation, he bluntly admonished: We should be ready for war, we must be armed, and all people should be soldiers. That's after watching another mythical drama "Sizhou City", I expressed my feelings, proposing that we should sing more of this kind of war drama and less "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai".
Among the dramas of "talking about fighting", the most recommended is "Mu Guiying in Charge". At a meeting in Beidaihe in 1958, ** said again:"I'm in favor of singing Mu Guiying, and I wish Ying Tai Sven. The female general Mu Guiying is better, and Hua Mulan. ”
In order to expand Mu Guiying's influence, ** also specially transferred a Henan Opera team to Beijing. He once watched a Henan opera "Breaking Hongzhou" they performed, that is, the story of Mu Guiying being in charge, and the protagonist Chang Xiangyu played Mu Guiying. The purpose of sending this group to Beijing is to let them perform for the people's deputies once.
On the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, ** said to Mei Lanfang after watching Mei Lanfang's "Mu Guiying in Charge": "This play is very good, it can be seen that it is a concentrated performance of your 40 years of stage life, and it is also a masterpiece of your old age." At that time, Mei Lanfang was already sixty years away.
**The reason why I love to watch "Mu Guiying in Command" is mainly because of Mu Guiying's heroic struggle and patriotism, which has a strong resonance with ***'s personality and political way of thinking. In addition, it is also in line with the concept of emphasizing women's emancipation. ** Historically, it has been believed that women are the most oppressed in traditional Chinese society. Later, the female militia rose, and ** also specially wrote a poem:"The sassy and heroic five-foot gun, the dawn is shining on the training ground. The sons and daughters of China have many strange ambitions, and they do not love red clothes and love arms. ”
**Appreciate the drama and observe the personalities and emotions of the characters very carefully. Once, after listening to Li Hezeng sing a passage in "Li Lingbei", he said to Li Hezeng very humorously: "Yang Lao Linggong's eight sons have died, and it is okay to complain, but in general, he is still a loyal and unyielding general, so it is not appropriate to sing too sadly, there should be sadness and anger." ”
Because of his obsession with the art of Peking Opera, he even directly advocated a "Peking Opera Revolution" in his later years, which gave rise to modern Peking Opera. The content of the "revolution" is mainly in contentHe advocated using real life and the images of workers, peasants and soldiers to replace the themes of cows, ghosts, snakes, gods, princes and generals, talented and beautiful women in the old dramas.
When he was a child, he liked to read old Chinese stories and stories, and he found something very special at that time. All the characters in those ** are military generals, civil officials, and scholars, and there has never been a peasant as the protagonist. For this reason, ** wondered for two years, and finally analyzed the content and found that they all sang the praises of military generals, the rulers of the people, and these people did not need to farm, because the land was owned and controlled by them, and it was obvious that the peasants were allowed to farm for them.
The old ** is like this, and the old drama is almost the same, and in the new society, the peasants have their own land and no longer need to farm for the privileged class. The content of the drama really needs to be renovated, and there needs to be some themes that are in line with social reality.
However, in terms of art form, ** still advocates retaining the appearance of traditional Peking Opera. It is a pity that this "revolution" has finally become a "model show" under the use of people with intentions, and I do not agree with this. He believes that Peking Opera should still maintain the way Peking Opera should be.
Under such circumstances, it is difficult for the "Peking Opera Revolution" to proceed as originally intended. The author does not have any involvement in Peking Opera, so I cannot judge whether it is successful or not. But this idea has obviously not been widely promoted in the music industry. In the 1990s, the themes of local dramas seen in my hometown were still inseparable from civil and military generals, talented and beautiful women, cows, ghosts, snakes, and gods.