Text/Yangcheng Cinema Evening News All-Media Reporter Huang Zhouhui
Photo/Provided by the Creative Performer
On October 4, the national opera “Overseas Chinese Commentary” will be officially premiered in the Opera Hall of the Guangzhou Grand Theater. The play is a key support program of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s “Chinese National Opera Inheritance and Development Project” and the “Historical Theme Creation Project”, telling the ups and downs behind the overseas Chinese criticism. The play was produced by the Propaganda Department of the Zhuhai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Zhuhai High-tech Zone Management Committee, produced by the Zhuhai Performing Arts Group and performed by the Zhuhai Song and Dance Troupe. It took two years for the main creative and leading actors and more than 200 cast and staff members in front and behind the scenes to work together to create the show. Stills from the national opera “Overseas Commentary”
Art presents the national spirit of historical themes
Babaylan. It is a general term for letters and palindroms sent by overseas Chinese to their families through private channels and financial and postal institutions, with remittances and their palindroms. It is a carrier of “combination of letters” and is called letters across the sea across the sea. It flourished in the coastal areas of Guangdong.
Komiks The national opera “Overseas Criticism” started with the Chinese worker Liang Chengru who had to sell his daughter as he did, but died at sea. A “Overseas Criticism” left by his death began with the forced daughter Liang Dong and Liang Caiyun who had to sell their daughter, the mother-in-law who had been sick for a long time, the head of the Overseas Criticism Bureau Tang Youxin and his wife who promised her a lot of money, and many Chinese workers who empathized with Liang Chengru. It demonstrated the compatriots who were righteous in the years of suffering, reflecting the great love of the Chinese nation rooted in the bone marrow and flowing in the blood.
Stills from the national opera “Overseas Chinese Commentary”
How to make a piece of Overseas Chinese Commentary be concrete and present it artistically and humanly on the stage is a proposition for opera creation. The screenwriter of Cinema, Wang Yong, said: “A copy is the starting point of the story and the fulcrum of the story. This ‘fulcrum’ links the past and present and future life of the Chinese nation. Only by expressing human nature and human feelings can it be possible to break the barriers of time and be closer to the overseas Chinese and Chinese workers in the past on the emotional level, so that the ‘overnment copy’ is no longer an exhibition in the museum’s window, history is no longer a cold text and pictures, and the story is more humane.https://comicmov.com/”>Babaylan has become a warm, touching and shocking light.”
The top team spent two years working hard to create the national opera “Qiqian Certificate” gathered top artists in the industry – Cinema; China Musicians Association; Komiks; China Railway Art Troupe; href=”https://comicmov.com/”>CinemaFormer head of the general troupe and first-class composer Meng Weidong serves as the composer, Vice Chairman of the China Drama Association, President of the National Peking Opera Theater, and First-class screenwriter Wang Yong serves as the screenwriter, former vice president and doctoral supervisor of the Central Academy of Drama Liao Xianghong, former vice president of the National Grand Theater and former vice president of the Beijing Dance Academy Deng Yijiang serves as the director, permanent conductor of the Central Opera House, postdoctoral fellow and young conductor Zhu Man and young conductor Fan Jie serves as the orchestra conductor and chorus conductor of the Babaylan. In addition, the national first-class stage lighting illuminator Zhou Zhengping and the well-known stage design designer are also invited. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Cinema teacher Ding Ding, well-known fashion designer Cui Xiaodong and other artists assisted, and young singers Lu Wei, Li Yang, Dong Bin and Li Bufan starred.
Ethnic Opera “Overseas Chinese Commentary” Stills
In the spring of 2021, KomiksPropaganda Department of the Zhuhai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and Zhuhai Performing Arts Group decided to start the creation of the ethnic opera “Overseas Chinese Commentary”. In July of the same year, Zhuhai Performing Arts Group organized a creative team to go to Zhuhai Tangjia, Babaylan, Jiangmen and other places to collect folk songs. When visiting the Wuyi Overseas Chinese Museum in Jiangmen, the early situation of Chinese workers traveling across the ocean on fire boats, the miserable scenes that Chinese workers cannot bear to witness, and the dangers of the vast Pacific Ocean and foreign countries brought huge impacts to the main creators.
The main creative team held several Komiks planning meetings in Beijing and Zhuhai, and the screenwriter Wang YongCinemaHistorical and historical facts are refined, and the draft is revised several times. The composer Meng Weidong closely follows the plot and integrates music and lyrics; director Liao Xianghong firmly grasps the characteristics and advantages of national opera, and vividly presents the righteousness and love of the characters in the play.
Re-polishing makes the play more Guangdong-style
The national opera “Overseas Chinese Commentary” is set up with a Overseas Chinese Commentary as the core. The “Overseas Chinese Commentary” and “The Sea” have different symbolic meanings. “Overseas Chinese comments” are letters from home, letters from silver, links connecting hometowns with thousands of miles apart, and symbols of commitment and faith. A “Overseas Chinese Praise” signed by a hundred people is a transmission of love for overseas Chinese, showing the suffering, homesickness and family and country feelings of Chinese workers. Their good deeds and righteous deeds are also important manifestations of the Chinese nation’s credibility and commitments; the sea is the road of life, a barrier, and a symbol of fate that is difficult to control in life. In terms of musical style, the play is based on the overall musical style of deep, atmospheric, heavy and lyrical. The musical characteristics and themes are very distinctive – using Guangdong music as the tone and has strong Lingnan music characteristics. The smooth and emotional melody expresses the emotions of the characters and exaggerates the emotions of the characters; various singing forms such as solo, chorus, etc. structure this drama to enhance the action and drama of the characters; the orchestration uses a variety of national instruments to fully demonstrate the charm of Chinese traditional culture.
Stills from the national opera “Qiqian Comment”
In the stage presentation, the play has distinct contemporary and regional characteristics. It takes the sea as the main spatial image, follows the aesthetic principles of freehand painting, and creates a grand, ethereal and poetic space. The scene setting of virtual and real, physics, Cinema and psychological time and space interlaced, externalizing the inner world of characters and poetry.mov.com/”>Babaylan transformation brings stronger inner impact to the audience.
It is reported that the national opera “Qiqian Criticism” is the first opera work created by Zhuhai Performing Arts Group in just two and a half years. After audition at Zhuhai Grand Theater on July 3, it has been polished again for three months. The premiere of the play in Guangzhou has strengthened local characteristics in stage design and multimedia design, highlighting Guangdong elements, and the plot setting emphasizes the conflicts between the inner conflicts of the characters and the contradictions between the relationships of the characters, and is also more concise and improved in the theme.