Beijing Performing Arts Group and a 2024 National Arts Fund-funded project, will premiere at the Tianqiao Theater on June 25. As the first imperial-themed drama of Beijing Opera, the play has gone through a year of creation, arrangement and polishing, and has gone through great changes to become a heroic epic.
Beijing Opera "Wen Tianxiang and Kublai Khan" places the two historical figures Wen Tianxiang and Kublai Khan in the grand background of the great historical changes in the Song and Yuan dynasties. Through the art form of Beijing Opera as a carrier, Wen Tianxiang's courageous fight against the Yuan Dynasty and the Most of them were killed as the main story clue, which created a righteous and glorious Wen Tianxiang, and also created a strategizing, resourceful and strategic Kublai Khan. Among them, Hu You, who plays Wen Tianxiang, mentioned that although he had created many images of literati before, it was through studying the history of the Southern Song Dynasty and Wen Tianxiang that he realized that Wen Tianxiang was three-dimensional and diverse, and was able to write "Crossing the Lingding Ocean" He is a poet who writes heroic poems, and he is also a prime minister who can lead troops to fight. He is both iron-clad and tender. The focus is to place himself in the historical environment and figure out the character's mental journey. Li Xiangkui, who plays Kublai Khan, said that the whole drama expresses the kimono style through lines, creating a king who is not only broad-minded and capable of conquering, but also a founding emperor who loves talents, cherishes talents, and is tolerant.
Who has never died since ancient times? Keep your loyalty and reflect on history. The purpose of creating "Wen Tianxiang and Kublai Khan" is to describe Wen Tianxiang's heroic feat of fighting to the death against the Yuan Dynasty regime and ultimately sacrificing his life in order to defend the dignity of the nation at a time of national crisis. The swan song of life.
It is worth mentioning that the play invites Liu Tong, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a director of the Beijing Drama Association, and a national first-level screenwriter, to be the screenwriter. Dai Yisheng, the composer and meritorious composer of Beijing opera, is the music and vocal designer, Peng Dinghuang, associate professor of the Department of Stage Art, China Academy of Drama, is the costume designer, and Bian Wentong, professor of the Department of Stage Art, Central Academy of Drama, is the stage designer.
Talking about the combination of Wen Tianxiang’s story and Beijing opera, screenwriter Liu Tong said that Wen Tianxiang died in Beijing, and his spirit is the spiritual wealth of Beijing, a famous historical and cultural city, and one of the most dazzling lights that shines and shapes the ancient capital for thousands of years. Beijing Opera was born in Beijing. It is the city of Beijing that nurtures and nourishes its entire life. It embodies the breadth and depth of Beijing culture and the temperament of Beijing. Therefore, the idea of expressing Wen Tianxiang's story through Beijing Opera was at the beginning of the creation of the play.
director Zhao Weiming said that the play is a drama with a tragic color. To be honest in a drama is to interpret the story based on the character and psychology of the characters according to the serious realist creative path; to be honest in the drama is to avoid being too straight, to force the audience to have a concept or a doctrine, and to ignore the subtleties and complexities. life experience and psychological reality. During the creation process, we integrated the opera text with the style of Beijing opera, and reasonably incorporated relaxed and humorous tones into the drama.
Music is the soul of opera. When talking about the music creation of the play, composer Dai Yisheng said that it is the responsibility of Beijing Opera composers to use musical lines to create flesh-and-blood characters. Beijing Opera is a very inclusive local opera. The composer of this opera On the basis of adhering to the musical essence of the play, Gui Zai integrated Mongolian tones to create a concise and rough musical image of the Mongolian Khan, and combined it with folk songs to create a clear, meticulous, and affectionate musical image of Wen Tianxiang, a talented and loyal minister, and finally presented a show that complemented each other. , a harmoniously integrated Beijing opera.
Cui Di, director of the Beijing Opera Troupe, said that "Wen Tianxiang and Kublai Khan" is innovative in two ways. First, the play is the first major drama produced by the theater in 2024. The main creative team has assembled the top players in the domestic opera industry, and the leading actors have assembled three generations of the theater, the old, middle and young, to perform on the same stage; secondly, the play has been promoted in publicity There is a breakthrough in the model, that is, for the first time, it cooperates with the New Film Alliance Cinemas to place pre-screening advertisements for films in its directly-operated theaters to expand brand influence.
According to Dai Bing, Party Secretary and Chairman of the Beijing Opera Troupe, the creation and production of the original Beijing Opera "Wen Tianxiang and Kublai Khan" is not only a rediscovery of the ancient capital culture in the construction of Beijing's "Four Cultures", It is also a new attempt to innovate the characteristics and themes of the opera, and it is also a new exploration of the types of Beijing Opera.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Guo Jia
editor/Gong Lifang
