A TIME TO DREAM
A Yue Opera troupe is set to launch a national tour of the all-female, traditional art form’s most popular play. reports from Shanghai.
A Dream of the Red Mansions, it is always fullhouse performances,” says Meng Liying, a veteran Yue Opera singer who is in her 70s.
Meng once played a supporting role in the play.
Qian Huili, a Yue Opera actress and deputy director of SYOT, says: “I have performed in the play more than 1,000 times.”
The national tour has been organized in the memory of Yue Opera master artist Xu Yulan, who died last year at the age of 96. Separately, the tour also marks the 60th anniversary of the premiere of A Dream of the Red Mansions, by the Shanghai Yue Opera Company.
The premiere was the first successful theater adaptation of the literary classic in Chinese opera, says Wang Yueyang, a Shanghai-based theater critic.
The play’s tragic love story is based on a Chinese novel written in the 18th century. And the interpretation of the characters by artists such as Xu Yulan and Wang Wenjuan in the play have played an important part in the development of Yue Opera, says Wang .
Speaking about how Yue Opera developed, Wang Yueyang says: “It took no more than a century for it to grow from a local folk ballad in a small part of the Yangtze River Delta into an opera of enduring popularity all over China.”
Meanwhile, Qian says that though different schools of Yue Opera have developed since, the interpretation and style created by masters such as Wang Wenjuan and Xu has never been surpassed.
Qian also adds that all Yue Opera troupes in China have been influenced by the Shanghai company and its leading artists, a great number of who have died.
Qian, who is a disciple of Xu, is also a female singer for young male characters, or xiaosheng.
Yue Opera, the second most popular folk opera in China, has the rare distinction of having an all-female cast.
As for the pioneers of Yue Opera, the early days were very difficult.
Xu, who was born in 1921 in Xindeng, in Zhejiang province, began her opera career by playing young male characters in Shanghai in 1933. But she soon gained fame for playing the roles of scholars, nobles and princes.
Her voice was strong and powerful, and she had a unique performance style.
But, at that time, in order to play male characters, the actresses playing the roles had to cover their chests properly so as to not exhibit any feminine features. And they also had to wear padded undergarments and thick shoes in order to simulate the male look.
Speaking about the obstacles faced by actors even today, Qian says: “When you have to put on elaborate costumes, perform difficult dance movements and also sing, it can be challenging.”
Besides, as the stage is lit with high-voltage lights, the actresses are often soaked in sweat during the shows.
Qian, 54, has won many national awards for theater art such as the Plum Blossom Prize and Splendor Award.
Over the years, generations of Yue Opera artists have presented A Dream of the Red Mansions. And Wang Yueyang says: “They have developed the performance and singing styles of Wang (Wenjuan) and Xu (Yulan) into a distinctive school of Yue Opera.”
“Each generation of artists has added its understanding to the school, and has kept bringing in new audiences,” he says.
During the upcoming tour, Qian will play the role of Jia Baoyu, one of the major characters, alongside four other actresses, the youngest among whom is Wang Wanna, born in 1994.
Qian says Wang Wanna is “our rising star”. She was 13 when she began to study the opera.
Speaking about her performance, Wang Wanna says: “I still have a long way to go. It takes decades before you are able to grasp the essence of the Xu-Wang school.”
Yue Opera originated in Shaoxing, in Zhejiang province in the mid-1800s.
Then, in the 1920s, all-female Yue Opera troupes began to appear in Shanghai and soon gained success.
The 1930s and 40s witnessed a peak in the popularity for traditional opera, especially in Shanghai.
And hundreds of new plays were created, covering a broad range of subjects — from ancient Chinese folklore to modern literature.
Liu Qian, a researcher of traditional Chinese opera at SYOT, says two “mothers” nurtured Yue Opera in that period. And they borrowed lots of styles, movements and choreography from traditional Chinese Kunqu Opera, and performance techniques from modern theater.
Speaking about the “mothers”, Liu says Xu Yulan established a theater troupe in the 1940s, and borrowed the system of modern drama companies. So, her Yulan Company was the first Yue Opera troupe in Shanghai to have a team of playwrights and stage designers.
Then, Wang Wenjuan joined Yulan in 1948, and the two began a collaboration that went on for over 70 years.
After the birth of New China in 1949, several private troupes came together and formed the government-backed Shanghai Yue Opera Theater in 1951.
Xu Yulan and Wang Wenjuan played the lead characters in A Dream of the Red Mansions when the play was created in 1958.
And the next year the production was staged in Beijing for the 10th anniversary celebrations of the founding of New China.
Then-premier Zhou Enlai praised the production. And, in 1962, the play was made into a two-episode film featuring the same cast. However, the film was not shown widely on the mainland until 1978.
In the 1980s, when reform and opening-up was underway, Xu Yulan and Wang Wenjuan established a troupe within the SYOT specifically for A Dream of the Red Mansions. And, today, the company presents 200 performances a year.
SYOT now consists of two troupes — one dedicated to the creation of new plays, while the other produces traditional repertoire.
A Dream of the Red Mansions,