In 2002, the Shanghai Grand Theater introduced "Les Misérables", setting a precedent for the introduction of foreign classic musicals. This time, the Grand Theater has launched a Sino-foreign joint production model and introduced the "Tony Award" winning work "Natasha, Pieh" Er and the Great Comet of 1812. This play is adapted from Leo Tolstoy's masterpiece "War and Peace". Like "Les Misérables", it also uses a masterpiece in the history of human literature as a solid textual foundation and uses a unique immersive theater. form. Through this viewing of the premiere venue at Qiantan 31 Cultural Performing Arts Center, we can feel that for more than 20 years, the Grand Theater has always looked at the forefront of international culture and art. "The Great Comet" is well-produced, relies on history and tradition, and cares about At the moment, everything from the music style to the stage presentation is refreshing.
tells a story that took place in Tsarist Russia. The screenwriter, songwriter, orchestrator and star of this play - Dave Malloy (Dave Malloy) did not stick to a specific style, but combined Russian folk music , indie rock, electronic dance music, classical opera and other seemingly unrelated music styles are blended together, and a "sung-through" form is chosen, except for the scene between Natasha and Pierre at the end of the play. One of Pierre's lines was expressed in singing. Therefore, the opera is also called an "electropop opera" by himself. Although
uses such a variety of styles, the overall music structure is very unified while being dazzling, because all the music style choices, melodies and harmonic layouts rely on the changes and development of the story and characters, which is quite "sticky to the play" "For example, the heroine Natasha's solo song "Nobody Else" expresses her longing for her lover and longing for love. It mainly uses traditional piano and string music, combined with a very regular three-beat waltz rhythm. It is a kind of traditional Broadway style. Musical temperament, and when Natasha meets the handsome playboy Anatole at the opera house, the electronic dance music style is always accompanied by Anatole's presence, accurately portraying his sexy and passionate image of a bad man. Therefore, all these seemingly disparate musical elements flow together with the characters and environments throughout the play, converging into an organic web of sound.
In addition, it is very common in movie soundtracks to use different musical instrument timbres to express the inner feelings of characters. However, because the orchestration of musicals is often completed by specialized orchestrators in the later stage, not all musicals can be perfectly orchestrated. Develop organically with lyrics and music. The almighty Dave Malloy personally completed the orchestration of the whole play. He is good at using dramatic thinking to play with the timbre. The accordion timbre undoubtedly made a huge contribution to the creation of Russian flavor, and the very modern timbre and sound concept made Music is freed from the constraints of harmony and melody. It is played as a sound and timbre in a slightly improvised manner, which makes the sound of the whole play unique. For example, when describing the feeling of watching an opera, special performance techniques of rock drum set, percussion and bel canto are used. The overlapping of falsetto, portamento and other techniques creates a very psychedelic atmosphere. Only the composer who can control the overall timbre effect can create this unique atmosphere.
All in all, this work allows us to hear voices that are different from the past, proves the diversity and possibility of musicals, and also provides new directions and ideas for the creation of original Chinese musicals. Congratulations again on the successful premiere of the NCPA version of "The Great Comet". It's worth watching for those who love musicals.
Author: Jin Fuzai
Text: Jin Fuzai Picture: Ye Chenliang Editor: Jiang Fang Editor: Xing Xiaofang
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