(Observer Network News) What? "Shaoxing Opera Men's Troupe"?
Yes, on December 25th and 26th, the modern drama "Good Eight Company" created and staged by the Shanghai Yue Opera Theater and staged at the Taicang Grand Theater is such a work.
This drama opens a new perspective, connecting the past and present of the Eighth Company, and tells the difficulties, confusion, growth, and understanding encountered by the soldiers of the Eighth Company while standing guard in 1949 and during the special operations assessment in 2019.
"Shangyue Men's Troupe", a combination of strength and softness
The biggest feature of this performance is naturally the "debut of a Yue Opera men's troupe", which is different from previous presentations.
"The original intention that attracted me to rehearse the opera was that the Shanghai Yue Opera Theater has a group of outstanding young actors, among whom men are a force that cannot be ignored. The 'Yue Opera male actors' are very distinctive, but there are few opportunities to show off," director Lu Ang said, " This time there is such a theme, I fully support it, I call it the 'Shangyue Boy Group', Yue Opera not only has femininity, but also masculinity, so that it is comprehensive."
Stills from the Yue Opera "Good Eight Company", provided by Shanghai Yue Opera Theater , the same below
Luang introduced that in order to better interpret the image of soldiers, the "Shangyue Men's Group" conducted military training for this purpose. "The skin is tanned and now looks majestic on the stage. This is the foundation laid by the military training at that time."
" You must have the courage to reflect contemporary life"
"The Good Eighth Company on Nanjing Road" is a glorious team named by the Ministry of National Defense and praised by Chairman Mao in his poems. Based on this prototype, "Sentinel under the Neon Lights" has successively rehearsed artistic styles such as plays of the same name, Yue opera, movies, etc.
Since the new era, under the background of military reform, the Eighth Company has no longer served as a guard on Nanjing Road and transformed into a special forces.
In Rouen's view, time and space have changed, and the new era has put forward new requirements. Merely re-arranging classic works cannot fully activate modern values. "The great success of this work back then lies in the courage to tell the truth. This courage is also needed today to reflect contemporary life."
Therefore, Rouen and the creative team designed a time travel and dialogue between 1949 and 2019. Among them, the contemporary part was the most troublesome part for Rouen. "The script alone was revised more than 20 times." Through constant scrutiny and speculation, Lu Ang focused his observations and thoughts on contemporary life on instructor Yan Bin and special forces soldier Qin Xiaojun.
Stills from the Yue opera "Good Eight Company", with Xu Jie playing Lu Hua (left) and Xu Biaoxin playing Yan Bin
In 2019, although Qin Xiaojun performed well in all aspects during his military service, he still had "selfish intentions", such as in During the assessment stage, in the face of sudden changes on the spot, individualistic tendencies emerged, which seriously deviated from the overall goals of the team. After a painful struggle, the instructor cruelly gave him a "fail".
"This is the contradictory relationship between individuals and collectives exposed in a long-term peaceful environment. As a special operations soldier, once you have such 'selfish desires', it will be fatal." Lu Ang hopes that the audience will reflect through the image of Qin Xiaojun.
In the end, under the education and influence of the instructor and the company, Qin Xiaojun realized the narrowness of his own thinking and completed a self-sublimation.
The overturned niche
As a Mesozoic boy in Yue Opera, Xu Biaoxin took the initiative to assume the role of instructor. He set a requirement for himself: subverts the previous image of a niche student and plays the role of an instructor in the current era.
For Xu Biaoxin, the biggest challenge comes from character creation. Through communication with the troops, he observed that every move of a soldier is very standardized, so his performance on the stage cannot be too casual, which is very different from previous modern dramas.
In order to highlight the military voice, Xu Biaoxin based his singing style on Mr. Lu Jinhua’s Lu style singing style, but added chest resonance to the singing method. At the same time, he drew on Mr. Fan Ruijuan’s Fan style and absorbed male voice vocalization methods in other operas, such as Shanghai Opera. , tin opera, to make your voice fuller and richer, reflecting the instructor's sense of calmness. In terms of performance, he absorbed more drama and became more natural, life-like and real.
Feng Jun, who plays the role of Special Forces Qin Xiaojun, has two years of experience as a firefighter. It was his first time trying a military theme and he felt a lot of pressure. "There was not much for reference." He thought about learning Peking Opera model operas, but then gave up because it was neither in line with the times nor Yue Opera. In the end, he started from the character's heart and looked for singing tunes and routines that fit both the military image and the aesthetics of Yue Opera.
Stills from the Yue opera "Good Eight Company", Xu Biaoxin plays Yan Bin (left), Feng Jun plays Qin Xiaojun
Feng Jun studied traditional opera with Zhao Zhigang. "Teacher Zhao has a mature interpretation of Yin style singing. On this basis, I made a creation that fits the image of a soldier. So when I sing, I definitely don't handle it like the previous Yin style, but there should be a sense of frustration. There must be a sense of frustration, and when it is time to explode, you must explode. It will definitely sound different from the traditional Yin School, but it will never deviate from the Yin School."
In order to enrich the image of a soldier, "singing" alone is obviously not enough, but also "martial arts" ". Boys are naturally fond of dancing with spears and sticks. When he was in drama school, Feng Jun learned several opera excerpts from Beijing and Kunming, such as "Blocking the Horse" and "Stealing the Immortal Grass". The martial arts foundation and skills accumulated in the past are given the opportunity to be displayed in this drama.
Both the director and the two leading actors all mentioned the outside world's doubts about the combination and arrangement of the show, but they are confident that they can deliver a satisfactory "assessment."
"It is difficult to be an opera actor, but it is even harder to be a Yue opera actor."
Usually, male Yue opera actors have to pay more. "So people often say that it is not easy to be an opera actor, and it is even more difficult to be a Yue opera actor." , Xu Biaoxin explained that the audience's appreciation of female Yue opera is more mature, and the founders of each genre are women, and men and women co-star. The problem is whether it can be natural and harmonious, because the voices of male actors and actresses are different.
Through the efforts of generations of male actors, the dedication of music workers, and the support of their female partners, the audience has gradually accepted co-starring. Xu Biaoxin said that when men and women sing duet, after the female voice sings, the male voice takes over. The voices must be coordinated, relying on the breath to achieve the coordination and naturalness of the singing connection, so that the audience feels comfortable.
In 2003, Xu Biaoxin was very lucky to have Mr. Lu Jinhua as his teacher. Teacher Lu told him that boys and girls are the same, and art is gender-neutral. She also said that male students also have advantages, such as acting in modern dramas; when female students perform in costume dramas, their heads and feet can be elevated. Modern dramas are more life-oriented. If the cushions are too high, it will be uncoordinated, so the performance of female students is limited. , which can be compensated by male students.
Stills from the Yue Opera "Good Eight Company"
"Teacher Zhao has very high artistic attainments, and his voice is recognized by the audience." Feng Jun, as a new generation of Yue opera male students, said frankly that conquering the audience must be through his voice. Currently, he mainly imitates his predecessors.
"Voice is a big test for male students. Some people have good voices, but their taste is not good. Some people have learned the characteristics of the genre, but their voices are not clear. The vocal methods of male actors in other operas are put into Yue opera. , the charm is lost, but the traditional way of vocalizing in Yue opera will rub my vocal cords, and I am still groping."
What is the way out for future drama?
Lu Ang grew up in a drama troupe. When he first encountered opera, he felt "weird". However, under the influence of his tutor Mr. Xue Mu, he broke into the vast world of opera. He always said to Rouen: "It is impossible to be a director in China if you don't understand opera and national drama, and you can't do it well!"
The person who made Rouen thoroughly immerse himself in opera was the one he admired. Two spiritual mentors: one is Mr. Jiao Juyin, the general director of the Beijing People’s Art Theater, and the other is the great Russian director Meyerhold.
Mr. Jiao Juyin created a new "Chinese School" of drama art, founded the Chinese Opera College and served as the first principal. He trained a large number of outstanding actors and highly respected the art of national opera.
After watching Mr. Mei Lanfang's performance in Moscow, Meyerhold was so excited that he prophesied to the world that the future development of drama will be some combination of Western European drama art and Chinese drama art.
This promoted the subject that Rouen focused on and explored throughout his life: the comparison and integration of Eastern and Western dramas.
Director Lu Ang talks about the drama for the crew of the Yue Opera "Good Eight Company"
At present, Lu Ang has directed more than 80 dramas of various types at home and abroad, mostly operas. He summarized the methods of rehearsing operas over the years as "three-in-one": the first is Stani's psychological realism method, which focuses on "experience", the second is the singing, reading, doing and dancing of operas, and the third is contemporary foreign methods. Drama training methods, such as collective improvisation, etc.
"Chinese opera art can be called an explicit form of civilization of the Chinese nation." Luang defined it this way.
Rouen started giving international director master classes in 2009, including a special session on "Ancient Civilizations". There were directors from Turkey, India, Greece, Iran and other countries. They were particularly envious: Chinese operas are still being performed, and they Traditional drama is already in ruins.
It is undeniable that the development of Chinese opera art also faces huge challenges. Rouen’s analysis is mainly reflected in the impact of the media era on opera art, the challenges of modern people’s lifestyle to opera art, the impact of Western culture on the audience, etc. Therefore, he believes that the modernization transformation of Chinese opera is inevitable. Recognizing the situation, facing the crisis, advancing with the times, and being brave in innovation should be the development path of Chinese opera.
"In my eyes, opera is a priceless treasure. We must continue to polish it and put it in a very beautiful box so that contemporary people can see the brilliance of opera itself."
