"The Fairy with White Hair" From Folklore to Original Opera

　　In 1944, the Northwest Field Service Regiment returned to Yan'an and brought back the folklore of a "white-haired fairy".

After learning about it, Zhou Yang, dean of the Lu Xun Academy of Arts and Letters in Yan'an, decided to use it to create a new opera as a gift to the "Seventh National Congress" of the party.

　　Lu Yi first asked Shao Zinan, a teacher in the Department of Literature, to write the script.

Unexpectedly, the book he wrote was only literary and poetic, but not dramatic.

As everyone knows, literature and drama are two different professional categories, and as a result, they had to give up because they could not rehearse.

　　So Zhou Yang handed over the task to Zhang Geng, director of the drama department.

Zhang Geng immediately arranged it as an important task for the drama department and the experimental theatre troupe.

Afterwards, the Luyi Opera Music (Drama Department, Music Department) Committee decided to form a collective creation group and a collective director group. "Wang Bin", a teacher of Luyi Drama Department and director of the drama troupe), directly leads and serves as the head of the collective creative team and director team of "The White-Haired Girl".

　　Wang Bin first selected actors from troupe actors and drama students.

With his keen insight into the image and characteristics of the candidates, he arranged the cast list that is closest to the characters in the play.

Of course, Xi'er's choice is the most important.

Xier not only needs to have a good image, but also has a certain singing ability.

Lin Bai has a handsome image and a sweet voice.

She previously successfully played "Little Things" in "Sunrise" directed by Wang Bin, which impressed the audience.

Therefore, it is more suitable to choose Lin Bai to play Xi'er.

Indeed, dozens of sensational performances also proved this.

And Yang Bailao's candidate is also very important.

Wang Bin directed "Tenant Household" before, worked with Zhang Shouwei and knew him well, so he was chosen to play Yang Bailao.

Facts have also proved that he is the most suitable candidate for Yang Bailao.

It reflects the ultimate goal of serving the people from the people

　　In the process of creation and rehearsal, I encountered many problems.

Because it is a big opera, there is no script, it is completely based on a legend, and the structure is constructed from scratch. The difficulty of creation can be imagined.

This is a test for Wang Bin.

Furthermore, because everyone didn't know what the new opera was like, they went through two or three detours.

At first, I tried to use local dialect and Qin Opera as the tune style, but I felt that it would not work.

Then tried another solution and failed again.

Every time, Wang Bin leads everyone to start over.

After careful summarization, it was decided that the whole play would no longer use dialects and instead use Mandarin, because after the liberation of the country, it will be available to the national audience.

Music should no longer be based on local opera, but with folk tunes.

　　At the beginning, the rehearsal venue of the crew was located in the venue of Luyi Compound.

They built a simple stage in the open-air courtyard, and built an auditorium with long wooden boards and bricks below, so that all Luyi faculty and staff can watch the rehearsal of "The White-Haired Girl" at any time, and they can also "seven mouths" Eight tongues".

In the later stage, after the whole play was basically formed, it entered the small stage in Yan'an for rehearsal.

Because Lu Yi's portal is always open, fellow villagers came to watch it in an endless stream. Wang Bin and the crew paid great attention to collecting the opinions of fellow villagers and comrades, and made constant revisions.

　　The original script writing team consisted of Wang Bin, Chen Qiang, Wang Jiayi, Zhang Chengzhong, Zhao Qiyang and several members of the Western Battle Group.

Zhang Geng, Chen Qiang, Qu Wei (one of the composers), Yu Lan, Lin Bai, Han Bing and others all agree that Wang Bin has a wide range of life experience, quick thinking, many ideas, and quick arrivals.

It would be more appropriate for him to be the chief director.

The composers of "White Haired Girl" include Ma Ke, Zhang Lu, Qu Wei, Xiang Yu, Li Huanzhi, Chen Zi, Liu Chi, etc.

Wang Bin and the composers jointly agreed to use the Hebei local tune "Little Cabbage" as the music material to create.

The musicians created one of the theme songs, the well-known "North Wind Blows".

In 1944, Guan Linxia, ​​who was engaged in vocal music in the Department of Music, returned to Yan'an with the Yan'an West Division after collecting folk music at the grass-roots level, and brought back Hebei Bangzi's "Da Dengdian" and so on.

Guan Lin's report and singing attracted the attention of the composers who were composing "The White-haired Girl", because the legend of "The White-haired Fairy" originated in Hebei.

After the comrades in charge of music creation got to know and study from Guan Lin in-depth, they used Hebei Bangzi's "Da Deng Dian" as the material to create a chorus in which Xi'er was full of hatred for Huang Shiren after going up the mountain, and accused the dark old society.

　　In the form of expression, the virtual performance technique that the common people like to see and hear is adopted. The set uses representative large props to add a flat scene, and there are no doors and windows, which can be consistent with the virtual performance technique.

As for the performance program of Chinese opera, only learn its strong rhythm and dance characteristics.

It can be seen that the creative thinking of the script team further reflects that "The White-Haired Girl" comes from the lives of the people, and after artistic processing, it is higher than the will of life and the purpose of serving the people.

Over 30 consecutive performances in Yan'an were very popular

　　Just when the rehearsal was underway, the creative team received a temporary assignment, and the creation of "The White-Haired Girl" was interrupted!

At this time, it was very close to the convening of the "Seventh National Congress" of the party.

In order to catch up with the schedule, an intense flow of work was formed, that is, to create a scene and arrange a scene. In order to implement it as soon as possible, the crew selected He Jingzhi, a 20-year-old top student who had just graduated from the Department of Literature, to the script creation team. .

Under the leadership of Wang Bin, everyone worked together. When the rehearsal went to the last "struggle meeting", He Jingzhi fell ill from overwork, so he recommended Ding Yi (Ding Yi) to write the lyrics for this scene.

　　In the end, the eternal classic "The White Haired Girl" created by He Jingzhi and Ding Yi (Ding Yi) was achieved.

　　At that time, the whole play was as long as four hours, and Xier's performances were big, almost every scene.

Due to overwork, Xier's actor Lin Bai suddenly fell ill.

At this time, the rehearsal of the crew has come to an end, and there is an urgent need to add Xier actors in the B corner, which can be made up at any time.

Composer Zhang Lu discovered the actor Wang Kun. After obtaining the approval of the crew, Wang Kun officially joined and became Xier's B character.

In order to catch up with the schedule, during the rehearsal, Xi'er was still played by the actor Lin Bai of the A corner.

　　On April 24, the day after the opening of the "Seventh National Congress", "The White-Haired Girl" officially had its first public performance, and performed every night during the "Seventh Congress", with A corner Lin Bai appearing all the time.

Because of the hurry, the troupe performed at night, and continued to polish the works during the day to keep improving.

On June 10th, the troupe will give an official performance for the leaders of the central government and representatives of the "Seventh National Congress", and the whole troupe is very excited and nervous.

However, on the way from Luyi to Yangjialing, Lin Bai was overtired for a long time and couldn't stand the bumps of the truck all the way, and finally became exhausted. The crew temporarily arranged for the B-corner Wang Kun to perform, which also received constant applause.

After 5 consecutive performances by Lin Bai, Lin Bai and Wang Kun will perform in turn one by one.

　　"The White-Haired Girl" was performed in more than 30 consecutive performances in Yan'an. The time and the number of performances were rare at the time, and it was greatly welcomed.

When it is performed outside, the audience reaches three or four thousand people each time, and many farmers travel more than ten miles to watch the play.

The room, the wall, and the tree were filled with people.

Most of the audience weeps at each performance...

The "white-haired girl" who went to the whole country and the world

　　"The White-Haired Girl" has become an epoch-making work that has been recorded in history until today.

Almost every year, there is a performance or singing of the whole play or excerpts of "The White-Haired Girl".

From this, various art forms of "White Haired Girl" have been derived, such as Peking Opera "White Haired Girl", ballet "White Haired Girl", etc. There are also various versions of "White Haired Girl" not only in China, but also abroad. For example, "The White-Haired Girl" performed by the Japanese Matsuyama Ballet Troupe, and the Czech adaptation of "The White-Haired Girl"...

　　Through the rehearsal of the stage opera "The White-Haired Girl", the screenwriter, director, lyricist, composition, performance and singing, as well as stage, lighting, makeup, etc., have become more mature and experienced personnel, and have also cultivated a large number of quite promising young talents.

　　After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in September 1945, Lu Yi took the lead in forming various literary and art troupes to go to Northeast China, North China, Shanxi, Hebei, Luyu and other places according to the strategic plan of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to "develop northward and defend southward".

Ai Qing and Jiang Feng led a team to form the "North China Cultural and Art Troupe", including 46 people including Chen Qiang, Shu Qiang, Zhou Weizhi, Wang Kun, He Jingzhi and Meng Yu.

In December of the same year, Lin Bai left Yan'an with the other teams and moved to Zhangjiakou, where he joined the North China Art Troupe and still played the role of the A character, Xi'er.

In the same team, the actors of Xi'er include Wang Kun, Meng Yu, and later Guo Lanying and other performing artists.

In addition, Shu Qun, Tian Fang and Sha Meng led the team to the Northeast.

Each performance team brought the opera "The White-Haired Girl", and more Xi'er actors appeared.

People who have participated in the creation of the play "The White-Haired Girl" have made partial revisions and improvements to it.

Shu Qiang, who ranked third in the director group of the original cast, also independently directed the entire play "The White-Haired Girl".

　　Since the opera "The White Haired Girl" was performed in many places at the same time, it soon spread to more places, and many places learned to perform "The White Haired Girl" through various channels, so the theme songs such as "The North Wind Blows" also followed. Widespread.

　　(Authors: Wang Dingfei, Yue Xiaomei, Wang Xiaolian, Yu Xiaoyan, all descendants of members of Yan'an Lu Xun Academy of Arts and Letters)