The lyrics of "The Fairy's Match" are familiar to everyone, and on the stage of Huangmei Opera, the inheritance of the seven fairies is also carried out in an orderly manner. On April 2, the first performance of the 2024 Anhui Huangmei Opera Theater national tour will land in Shanghai. Yuan Yuan, the fourth-generation Seven Fairies of Anhui Huangmei Opera Theater and the winner of the 31st Plum Blossom Award for Chinese Drama, will present the classic play "The Match of an Immortal" to the audience at the China Grand Theatre.
Yuan Yuan was born in Hefei, Anhui Province, and Huangmei Opera has always been an important "business card" of this city. She started to get involved in Huangmei Opera at the age of 6, and was admitted to the Huangmei Class of the Anhui Art School at the age of 13. She has basic skills such as hand, eye, body, step, singing, chanting, dancing, barre work, blanket work, leg breaking, lowering the waist, somersaults... all basic skills are indispensable. She has suffered, been tired, and struggled, but she still firmly chose this stage. Because she loves this profession, she abides by this responsibility.
At the age of 17, Yuan Yuan was admitted to the Huangmei Drama Theater of Anhui Province with the first place in her major and began to pursue her dreams on this stage. Yuan Yuan studied Huangmei Opera when she was young. She once watched "Horse on the Wall" performed by Wu Yaling, one of the "Five Golden Flowers" of Huangmei Opera, at the China Railway Fourth Bureau Theater in Hefei. She was very impressed by her handsome appearance, mellow singing voice and gentle temperament. At that time, after Wu Yaling's performance, Yuan Yuan went on stage to ask for an autograph.
What Yuan Yuan did not expect was that after working, she not only became colleagues with Wu Yaling, but also received step-by-step teaching and careful guidance from Wu Yaling. Later, Yuan Yuan officially became Wu Yaling's apprentice and became her only apprentice, inheriting the play "The Fairy Match". Wu Yaling once said to her: "Opera is all-round, from being a person in life to performing on the stage. Only by doing your duty and being down-to-earth will you gain something. As an opera actor, you must understand that it is not just you who can sing or act. Or just win a prize. Donât forget that hard work and pursuit are lifelong practices."
In these years, Yuan Yuan has participated in "Song of Everlasting Sorrow", "Hu Xueyan of Huizhou Merchant", "Where is the Peach Blossom Red", "The Fairy Match" and " Rehearsals for large-scale plays such as "The Wind Shakes February Sky". She introduced the classic play "The Match of Heaven" that came to Shanghai this time. As a classic play of Huangmei Opera, its dramatic structure is very complete, the plot is also compact, the lyrics are both dramatic and literary, and it reflects the simple good and evil of the working people. Concepts and beautiful expectations of the working people.
As a young actor, Yuan Yuan not only has to inherit the acting skills of the older generation in "The Match", but also needs to cultivate and innovate herself. For example, she must highlight the cadences and priorities of singing and reciting, so that the audience can intuitively feel The seven fairies' distinctive character traits and emotional changes are involved in the plot along with the characters. At the same time, the play must show the simplicity of human nature, because "The Match" has the uniqueness of traditional opera. How to effectively integrate simple praise and simple rural customs to make the performance down-to-earth and full of meaning is what she A question I have been thinking about.
When Yuan Yuan and "Dong Yong" Zhao Zhangwei were performing, they specially designed a scene. At the beginning of the "farewell" scene, Dong Yong and the Seven Fairies rested under the old locust tree where they first met on their way home. Dong Yong first He used the sleeves of his coat to brush off the dust on the stone before letting the seven fairies sit down. A small gesture highlights the natural sincerity of the relationship between Dong Yong and the Seven Fairies, which is enough to prove the authenticity of the performance. In addition, in order to perform this scene well, Yuan Yuan's every movement, every singing voice, and every look in her eyes have often been polished dozens, hundreds or even thousands of times. She said frankly: "Only bit by bit. Only by continuous accumulation can you be comfortable on the stage."
In terms of communication methods, the new generation of actors makes Huangmei Opera become more and more "younger", and more and more young people fall in love with Huangmei Opera. For example, the online live broadcasts of "The Match" and "The Consort" that Yuan Yuan participated in had more than 4.8 million views at most, and a total of more than 11 million people.Yuan Yuan remembers one time when she was performing in Russia. The local organizer wanted the actors to communicate with the audience live. There were four to five hundred blond and blue-eyed audience members in the front hall of the performance. They were very enthusiastic and full of interest in Chinese culture, which moved Yuan Yuan very much. , "Our Chinese opera has always promoted positive energy, truth, goodness and beauty. In the future, I hope to use our Huangmei opera art to continue to tell every Chinese story and spread the voice of China." (Xinmin Evening News reporter Zhao Yue)
