Wang Yinxin
Core Reading
In today's diversified art forms, how can traditional opera open up the market? Local operas are already blooming everywhere. How can foreign operas be promoted and prospered? Audiences like "Jiaoer", how do young actors grow? How to bring art to more people? Let’s go into the Fujian Fanghua Yue Theater to find the answer.
At the beginning of the lanterns, Yantai Mountain in Fuzhou is crowded with people. There is an antique stage "hidden" here. Every week, the graceful and graceful Yue Opera will be sung here on time. Classic arias such as "The Gentleman among the Flowers: Climbing the Hall", "Rouge: Thoughts" and "Bao Gong's Apology" linger in the air, and the performance team is the Youth Volunteer Service Team of the Fujian Fanghua Yue Theater.
Go to villages, communities, schools, nursing homes... Over the years, Fujian Fanghua Yue Opera Troupe (formerly Fujian Fanghua Yue Opera Troupe) has carried out hundreds of volunteer services on average every year. In volunteer services, they brought Yue Opera, which originated in Zhejiang, to the land of Fujian, bringing unique artistic enjoyment to theater fans.
Today, with diversified art forms, how can traditional opera open up the market? Local operas are already blooming everywhere. How can foreign operas be promoted and prospered? Audiences like "Jiaoer", how do young actors grow? How to bring art to more people? Let’s go into the Fujian Fanghua Yue Theater to find the answer.
For more than 60 years, young people have left their footprints all over the land of Fujian, sowing the seeds of Yue Opera in the mountains and rivers of Fujian
Following the sound of silk and bamboo, I walked into the Anlan Guild Hall in Yantai Mountain. At a glance, you can see the ancient stage with carved beams and painted pillars. On the stage, several Shaoxing opera actors were swinging their sleeves and singing.
A small space where ancient charm and new trend collide. Under the stage, the audience was standing or sitting, and the audience was packed with people.
This is a scene of volunteer service at the Fujian Fanghua Yue Theater. "No matter your age or where you come from, as long as you come, the door of Yue Opera will be open to you." A young actor who participated in this performance said to me.
In fact, for the Fujian Youth Yue Theater, the fire of volunteering has already been laid. It was born from a volunteer service.
In 1946, the "Youth Yue Opera Troupe" was established in Shanghai. The founder, Yin Guifang, is the founder of the "Yin School", a niche school of Yue opera. Yin Guifang became famous all over Shanghai because of her portrayal of characters such as Jia Baoyu, Zhang Sheng, Luo Lan, Liang Yushu, and Qu Yuan in the plays "A Dream of Red Mansions", "The Romance of the West Chamber", "Prince of the Desert", "Wife Asking for Wife" and "Qu Yuan". In 1959, in response to the call, Yin Guifang resolutely led "Youth" to Fujian, accompanied by a total of 83 members of the troupe and their families. Youth Yue Opera Troupe was later renamed Fujian Province Youth Yue Opera Troupe.
For more than 60 years, young people have left their footprints all over the land of Fujian, sowing the seeds of Yue Opera in the mountains and rivers of Fujian. Today, young people have become the main force in volunteer services.
In March 2016, in order to better play the role of young actors in volunteer service, the Fujian Fanghua Yue Opera Troupe called on all members of the troupe under the age of 35 to form a youth volunteer service team based on the original volunteer service team.
currently has a volunteer service team of 41 people. "Although there are only 41 main members, the establishment is very complete, including actors, orchestra members, stage artists and other young talents from all departments in the hospital. Not only that, as long as the volunteer service recipients are in need, the youth volunteer service team can coordinate the entire hospital staff Participate, and even become the winner of the Plum Blossom Award." Zhang Haiyan, the leader of "Youth Youth Civilization", said, "There are more than 100 people in the hospital, and they are actually supported by the Youth Volunteer Service Team."
With a dedicated volunteer organization, Youth began to Plan and carry out volunteering more frequently. Unlike large-scale stage performances that require hundreds of people, before each volunteer service, the youth volunteer service team will inspect the venue in advance and form a volunteer team of 10-20 people as needed, which will not delay the daily performance and ensure the service effect.
In September 2023, the Youth Volunteer Service Team of Fujian Fanghua Yue Theater was awarded the one-star National Youth Civilization Award.
presents popular performances to the masses, and young inheritors and Yue opera are growing.
Fujian opera, Liyuan opera, Nanyin opera, puppet show... In Fujian, these local operas have their own fans. Before young people came to Fujian, there was almost no soil for Yue opera here.
Due to language barriers and acclimatization, people are not optimistic about Yue Opera, a foreign opera. But it was under this background that the young people took root in Fujian. Over the years, it has not only won various awards, but also produced a number of well-known Shaoxing opera artists such as Wang Junan, Li Min, Chen Liyu, and Zheng Quan, and trained 4 Plum Blossom Award winners.
"The essence of art is beauty, and beauty has no boundaries." This is a saying that has been circulated among young people for a long time. To spread the beauty of Yue Opera, volunteer service has become a key way to open up the market. Starting from voluntary services such as sending operas to the countryside, bringing operas to communities, and entering campuses, young people gradually established a foothold in Fujian, a place where local operas flourish everywhere.
Audiences became theater fans, Yue opera had a market, and actors also grew. "Who would have thought that the handsome young man standing on the stage would actually be a post-00s girl!" A Fuzhou audience was amazed after watching the performance that night. Two years ago, Zhejiang girl Xing Bier joined Youth after graduating from Shengzhou Yue Opera Art School. From the day she joined the group, volunteering became a required course for her. At the end of the year, from Xiamen to Sanming and back to Fuzhou, this performance at the Anlan Guild Hall was already her third performance this week.
"Young actors have few opportunities to appear on stage. Volunteer service gives us the opportunity to hone our skills and accumulate experience." "The ability.
Not only actors, Yue opera is also developing richly. "Volunteer activities break the limitations of the stage in traditional drama performances, and actors can directly receive feedback from the audience to improve their performances." Young actor Tang Wanying felt deeply about this, "While delivering a popular performance to the masses, both we and Yue Opera are growing. .”
Wherever the venue for volunteer service is, there is the stage for young people.
Wherever the venue for volunteer service is, there is the stage for young people.
Wherever the venue for volunteer service is, there is the stage for young people. "The traditional stage boundaries have been broken, and the performance form is closer to the audience and the people." Tang Wanying said.
In line with the requirements for volunteer service, the Fujian Fanghua Yue Opera Theater Youth Volunteer Service Team also innovatively choreographed small themed plays based on public welfare education hot spots. In recent years, with the development of thematic volunteer services, a number of educational plays that are in line with the themes of the times, such as "Mother of All Babies", "Bao Gong's Tears" and "Sister Jiang", have been presented to the audience. What's even more surprising about
is that they also "play" cross-border. A classic excerpt from "Dream of Red Mansions·Reading the West Chamber" has enabled the cross-border integration of Fujian opera and Yue opera. On the stage, the boys are from Fuzhou Min Theater, and the female actors are from Fujian Fanghua Yue Theater. In the audience, many viewers called it "eye-opening and a feast for the eyes." On New Year's Day 2024, the "Fanghuali" cultural market opened. Before watching the show, the audience went to the market to interact with the actors, experience "Yue Opera costumes", and shop for some theatrical and cultural creative products, allowing traditional Yue Opera to enter the daily lives of modern people.
Expand the theme, change the format, cross-border experiments... "Besides 'change', what is the 'unchanged' core of Fujian Youth Yue Theater?" I asked curiously. Dean Zheng Quan did not answer directly, but led me into a performance. This is a classic excerpt of "The Wife Asks for His Wife".
"Madam..." There was silence all around. On the stage, Xing Bier sang a cappella, melodious and long. Under the stage, the audience closed their eyes and listened carefully. At the end of the speech, applause broke out.
"This is the taste! The most unique thing about Yin School Yue Opera is the singing voice." An old opera fan at the scene told me, "It is deep and graceful, elegant and elegant, lingering and soft. No amount of adjectives are enough to summarize the feeling of the scene. Yin School The art of Yue Opera is contained in every line of singing and every body movement."
The form is changing, but what remains unchanged is the unique flavor of Yin School Yue Opera. In 2008, "Yue Opera (Yin School)" was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage expansion projects by the State Council. In 2012, Fujian Fanghua Yue Opera Troupe was established as the Fujian Yin School Yue Opera Art Inheritance and Protection Center.
“Innovate in inheritance, persevere in innovation."In Zheng Quan's view, it is through the accumulation of volunteer services that the Fujian Fanghua Yue Opera Theater continues to grow and the actors grow. The Yin School Yue Opera has more and more audiences, ushering in another spring with blooming flowers. .
Layout design: Zhao Siru
"People's Daily" (January 18, 2024, version 20)
