ITTA Director Cao Lusheng, Professor of Shanghai Theatre Academy
《The Yin Rigidity and Beauty of the Female Students in Yueju Opera》
In the last century, there were two very special phenomena in Chinese opera circles: the girls in Qiandan and Yueju Opera. The origins of these two phenomena are different. Men play the role of women. The popularity of Qiandan is because there were no actresses in Peking Opera at that time, but the popularity of Yueju girls was due to the needs of the audience.
Before liberation in 1949, there were at least dozens of Yueju troupes in Shanghai. How did they survive? By the box office. Apart from the wealthy wives, most of the audience are women workers in Shanghai's yarn mills. Tickets were not very expensive at that time, and women workers could spend money to go to the theatre, as well as day and night performances. Later, the women's Yueju opera declined, one of the reasons is the contradiction between the State Theatre and the private academy. For example, after the establishment of the Yue Theatre in Shanghai, several schools have entered, and many schools have not been able to enter, resulting in a lot of brain drain. The biggest school like Yueju Opera is Yin School, but Yin Guifang went to Fujian. It is said that the fans of Yueju Opera in Shanghai at that time blocked her train to Fujian for her even sleeping on the rails. Female pupils in state-owned courtyards have fewer plays and more contradictions, which also affect the development of female pupils'art.
Recently, I watched Teacher Mao Weitao's "Kouliulan and Du Liniang", which is very amazing. I invented a word called "Yin Gang Mei". We often say that men are masculine in male roles and women are feminine in male roles, but I think her performance is far beyond the feminine beauty of the old Yueju opera, different from men, and beyond the traditional Yueju opera performance. Traditional Yueju opera girls are rich in genres, lingering melancholy is a school, high Xu school, loyal and honest model school, as well as often acting "bad guys" and romantic Lu school, are popular, but after all, it is still in the category of feminine beauty. "Colleulan" can move modern audiences, because the needs of modern audiences are different. I even think that the part of "Du Liniang" in "Kou Liulan and Du Liniang" can be completely dispensed with, because "Peony Pavilion" has become a classic of Kunqu Opera, but the performance of Yue Opera is not Kunqu Opera; the part of "Kou Liulan" alone is a new height! Perhaps without singing, it is full of poetry to use Shaoxing Mandarin of Yueju opera to speak lines. Even performing like drama is popular, which is a special charm. Traditional Yueju Opera attracts older audiences, but Kouliulan and Du Liniang can absolutely attract modern audiences.
I suggest that the town of Yueju Opera should be very clear-cut to raise the call place and origin place of girls. Why? There are too many small towns in the whole country. There are hundreds of them. Every province and every place is competing. So what do we rely on to stand out? Of course, this is the home of Yueju opera, there must be Yueju opera, but what I want to say is that Yueju girls have unique charm! Once, a group of actresses traveled from Shaoxi to Shanghai on a bamboo raft. But now the question is how to attract the audience of Shanghai, Hangzhou and Ningbo to Shengzhou, which is a place to attract the audience of the whole country and even the whole world. I think "girl students" is a very good strategy. We can invite "the first group in the world" to perform and hold art festivals. But only "girl students" are the brand and products of Yueju Town.
With Japan as a reference, what is similar to Qiandan is kabuki, while Baozhong is similar to Yueju opera. In the world, only Baozhong and Yueju opera are similar. At that time, the Tomb was not famous, and it was far from Osaka. For this reason, a railway was built, but nobody sat on it. The boss thought, or run a swimming pool, everyone went swimming, and business turned out to be bad, and then came up with the idea of a women's song and dance troupe. Now Baozhong has achieved great success and has formed an industrial chain and brand effect. If Shengzhou Yueju Town can build such a Yueju base, it is not afraid that there will be no audience.
In other words, in small towns of Yueju Opera, Yueju Opera is characteristic and limited. Last time Mao Weitao told me that she went to see "Secret Love for Peach Blossom Garden", she said that I was no worse than them, why we were not so concerned about them. I said, "Secret Love for Peach Blossom Source" everyone feels young and fashionable, and the more drama, the girls may not come to listen to the Yueju opera. I have an idea: Shaoxing Opera is also to develop, can girls not develop? Creative inheritance develops in inheritance. There are similarities and differences between Yueju opera and Baozhong opera. This point is the same as that of "girl students". But the difference is that Baozhong is a play-by-play, while Yueju opera is limited by opera. I used to talk to Mr. Guo Xiaomen about dancing beauty, clothes and lighting, but there are two points that can not be avoided: dialect and singing. If these two points are changed, there will be no opera; however, they also limit the opera! If you want to attract more audiences, you have to go beyond that! I think dialects can be retained and composing should be expanded. If so, there will be a lot of room for creation. Shakespeare's Colulan can be changed, and other subjects can be changed, such as historical subjects, myths and legends, modern and contemporary western classics... The themes of the tombs are also found in both the East and the West. To broaden their horizons, the creative field of girls should be further opened.
This is just my personal experience of Yueju Town. Mr. Song Weiping, Director Guo Xiaonan and Professor Shen Lin all have great vision in building a small town of Yueju Opera. I came to Shengzhou a few decades ago, and the art school is still very dilapidated, but now it has been built as "China's most beautiful art school". If this school is like a treasure mound, the industry chain of training girls and stars, Yueju opera will develop again, and its future will be infinite.
Mr. Cao Lusheng at the Exhibition Board of the Forum
(These contents are from the tape recordings of the speaker.）