"Look at the return of spring to the earth, the lights of thousands of homes. The whole family is happy, safe and healthy..." On the stage of the 2024 Year of the Dragon CCTV Spring Festival Gala, a song "For Beauty" looked forward to a beautiful new year with a eloquent song. The female singer is Guo Xiao, a graduate student from the China Peking Opera Company and a national first-class actor, from Xuzhou.
A reporter from Modern Express noticed that on the 2024 New Year stage, Guo Xiao also participated in the "New Year Opera Gala" singing the "Silang Visits His Mother" segment, and participated in the "Literary China" 2024 New Year special program to sing the opera song "Light of Culture".
He has shown extraordinary talent for Peking Opera since he was a child.
Guo Xiao’s parents, Guo Erji and Chang Yeqing, are an artistic couple. They both worked in the Xuzhou Peking Opera Troupe in their early years. His father played the piano and his mother sang. At a young age, Guo Xiao already showed his extraordinary talent in Peking Opera performances without receiving formal training.
Guo Xiao recalled that when her mother was teaching Peking Opera, the children who came to learn often had not yet learned it. She had already mastered the key while playing on the side, and sometimes she also acted as a little teacher to demonstrate to other children.
When Guo Xiao was 10 years old, it happened to be the time for the enrollment of the High School Affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Opera. The whole family, with the idea of going to Beijing, sent Guo Xiao to take the exam at the High School Affiliated to the Chinese Opera Academy. However, no one expected that a person who had never seriously studied Peking Opera would She actually stood out among the children with considerable foundation and was admitted with the top scores.
At the age of 10, he left his hometown of Xuzhou and came to study at the High School Affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Opera. Guo Xiao began to receive a systematic education. In order to take care of her children, her mother also quit her job in her hometown and went to Beijing.
She has played leading roles in new dramas several times
In 2010, Guo Xiao was admitted to the National Peking Opera Company. Just as the theater was preparing to create a new historical drama "Su Wu in the Desert", Guo Xiao, who had just entered the theater, was confirmed to be the female lead in the play. In 2011, "Suwu in the Desert" won the first prize at the 6th China Peking Opera Festival.
Guo Xiao's solid foundation and various types of repertoires he has learned have allowed Guo Xiao to take the leading role in the National Peking Opera Theater's new dramas over the years. In 2016, the National Peking Opera Company created and presented a masterpiece of modern Peking opera "The Party's Daughter", in which Guo Xiao played the role of Tian Yumei. In addition, Guo Xiao also played the role of Princess Deling who returned from overseas in the new historical Peking opera "Dawn of the Forbidden City", played the role of Red Army soldier Xie Mengxi in the modern Peking opera "The Story of the Red Army" - "Half Quilt", and played the role of the Red Army soldier Xie Mengxi in the modern Peking opera "Yan'an". In "Once Upon a Time", she plays the role of Ren Manli, a patriotic literary and artistic young man, and so on. In these new dramas and new roles, she has accumulated rich experience.
So far, "Silang Visits His Mother", " Yang Clan Female General ", "Red Mane Horse", "Mu Guiying Takes Command", " Lotus Lantern ", "Xie Yaohuan", " White Snake Legend ", "The Party's Daughter" and "Butterfly" "Love Flower" and so on, became her regular repertoire.
Has appeared on the CCTV stage dozens of times
Guo Xiao's Peking Opera appearance is dignified and elegant, with graceful lines and graceful figure. In terms of singing, he has a generous voice, sweet sound quality, and skillful singing, reading, acting and dancing skills. His performance has been generally well received by the audience. As a dazzling new star in the Peking Opera world, she has appeared on CCTV's literary and opera stages dozens of times.
In 2012, Guo Xiao participated in the New Year Peking Opera Gala and performed a segment of "Butterfly Loves Flowers". In the same year, he also participated in the recording of the CCTV Opera Spring Festival Gala, performing a segment of "Suwu in the Desert", and participated in the Shanghai New Year Peking Opera Gala broadcast live on CCTV, performing a segment of " The Drunken Concubine ".
In 2019, he participated in the New Year Opera Gala and performed an excerpt from "Half Quilt". In 2022 and 2023, he participated in the "Artistic Performance at the Spring Festival Group Visit of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council". In 2023, Guo Xiao was also selected into the "National Opera Performance Leading Talent Training Program" of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism...
""For Beauty" is a pop song with a great atmosphere. It incorporates elements of drama. I think it is a confidence in culture. It is also an attempt to transform creativity into innovative development."When talking about the singing in this year's Spring Festival Gala, Guo Xiao said that the characteristic of opera tunes is that there are more notes than lyrics, and the characteristic of this song is that one note corresponds to one word, so when singing, she did not change the original composition. , we can only work on decorative sounds. I hope that in this way, more audiences who do not watch or listen to operas can be exposed to opera tunes and understand the compatibility and variability of traditional art.
Because of his busy work, Guo Xiao has rarely returned to Xuzhou in recent years, but as long as there is no performance during the Chinese New Year, she will come back to visit. "Xuzhou has changed a lot in the past few years and developed rapidly, so even the places that were most familiar to her when she was a child are not very familiar to her. Guo Xiao said that when her company came to Xuzhou to perform a few years ago, her colleagues all said that Yunlong Lake was very beautiful, and she felt very proud. "My hometown is like this. I may not feel it at ordinary times, but it has deep roots in my heart." I wish my hometown will flourish and get better and better! ”
Correspondent Zhang Jingliang Modern Express/Modern+ reporter Zhang Xiaopei
(Correspondent photo provided)
