The musical "Bloom" successfully made Zhang Guimei's heroic image bloom brilliantly on the stage

　The organic fusion of artistic height and emotional temperature - the musical "Bloom" successfully made Zhang Guimei's heroic image bloom brilliantly on the stage

　　"Thousands of hard work for today, confident water hits three thousand miles... Years of hard work, just for today..."

　　A collective chorus full of passion and solidarity, sang the aspirations of the students of Yunnan Huaping Girls High School, and sang the song of the struggle of teachers led by the principal Zhang Guimei on the education battlefield in poverty-stricken mountainous areas.

　　How do heroes and models behave in musicals?

How to integrate Yunnan folk music, singing and dancing with modern musicals?

The impact of "Blooming" on people is not only moved by Zhang Guimei's deeds, enjoying the youthful artistic atmosphere of musicals, but also thinking about how to express heroes and models in art, and how to develop local stage art.

Heroes meet musicals

　　When thinking of musicals, people will think of famous plays such as "The Sound of Music", which are cheerful and romantic.

Thinking of Zhang Guimei, people seemed to see her fainted figure on the way home visit, and her hands covered with tape.

Can musicals really represent Zhang Guimei and heroes?

　　The musical "Bloom" gave a positive answer.

　　On the eve of this year's Teacher's Day, the large-scale original musical "Blooming" based on Zhang Guimei premiered at the Beijing Central Opera House. The audience spent a tear-filled night with the musical "Bloom".

　　"Mr. Zhang has too many outstanding deeds. We focus on several core events such as home visits, fundraising, teacher leaving, truancy, and overcoming illness, presenting different aspects of Teacher Zhang Guimei. This is also the stage with the strongest drama tension." "Blooming" said Feng Bilie, the screenwriter.

　　Actors from China Oriental Performing Arts Group and Yunnan Honghe Song and Dance Troupe brought a spiritual healing to the audience from body language to utterance and statement to soulful singing.

The theme melody of "Blooming for Love, Facing the Sun" sounded, and the audience in the theater applauded with tears in their eyes.

　　When Feng Bilie and other creative staff interviewed Zhang Guimei in Huaping, Zhang Guimei told them: When you write advanced characters, don't just show their misery, because they have difficulties in the process of pursuing their dreams, but they are very happy in their hearts.

Zhang Guimei's few words gave great encouragement and inspiration to the creative team.

　　"Using musicals to express the main theme is more down-to-earth, youthful, faster-paced, and better-looking. "Blooming" not only shows Zhang Guimei's hard-working entrepreneurial side, but also reflects Zhang Guimei's gratifying and happy side for children to realize their dreams .” Feng Bilie said.

　　The main creative team of "Blooming" insists on "telling the truth, portraying the true feelings, and telling the truth", getting rid of the facial makeup image of traditional heroes and models, and is committed to restoring the real and three-dimensional Zhang Guimei.

　Yunnan folk songs and dances meet modern musicals

　　When musicals collide with Yunnan folk songs and dances, what wonderful reaction will happen?

　　"At that time", "Falling from the Bright Milky Way", "It's better to have a mother than to have no mother", "Praise of Red Plum"... the songs and chants in "Blooming" are sincere and exciting, making the audience immerse themselves in it , soul-stirring.

　　According to Shen Dan, the composer of "Blooming", the story of "Blooming" takes place in Yunnan, and its music incorporates musical elements of the Yi, Sani, Bai, Miao, and Tibetan ethnic groups in Yunnan.

The addition of national characteristic elements, moving melody and sincere sentences restore Zhang Guimei's resolute, courageous and selfless character background.

　　"The multi-level and diversified drama expression of "Blooming" shows the organic integration of the foreign-made drama form and the aesthetics of contemporary Chinese drama. experience.” said Jiang Ga, a national first-level choreographer and vice chairman of the Yunnan Dancers Association.

　　Xiong Wei, deputy secretary-general of the China Music Association, said: "Blooming" is an excellent musical with deep thought, artistic height, and emotional warmth. It is a musical that has both a sense of the times and nationalization, and a good fusion of drama and singing. The high-level singing skills of the main actors are internalized into the voices of the characters, and they have performed a flesh-and-blood, lovely and respectable role model for the people."

Local academies join hands with central academies

　　The reason why the Yunling Plateau in the southwestern border is able to bloom musicals is due to the innovation and exploration of the cultural system and mechanism of Yunnan Province, and the efforts of the Yunnan Local Art Troupe to go out of the mountain gate and work hand in hand with the Central Academy Troupe to create fine art.

　　More than ten years ago, the Yunnan stage art represented by "Yunnan Image" was a sensation in the whole country, and became the "Yunnan phenomenon" of stage art that people talk about.

How to make Yunnan's stage art and cultural industry create another glories?

How to make stage art have both social and economic benefits?

It has always been a problem that Yunnan's cultural authorities and art troupes have been struggling with.

　　At the beginning of 2020, when the Yunnan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and China Oriental Performing Arts Group began to jointly produce the musical "Blooming", a window was opened to solve this problem.

　　"The cooperation between the central academy and the local academy reflects the objective law of artistic creation. Good works of art come from life and from the grassroots. The central academy has strong artistic creation capabilities, but the shortcoming is the lack of living materials; the local academy The material of life is rich and has artistic characteristics, but it lacks good artistic refinement and expression. The cooperation between the Central Academy and the local Academy is complementary and constructive. "Blooming" in cooperation with Yunnan is a good attempt and an improvement on the existing A breakthrough in the system and mechanism.” said Jing Xiaoyong, party secretary of China Oriental Performing Arts Group.

　　For Yunnan, the cooperation with the central troupe is not just a musical, but more importantly, it hopes to promote the development of local troupes through cooperation.

As a Honghe Song and Dance Troupe that participated in the creation and performance of "Blooming", I feel deeply about this.

　　"Blooming" is the first stage art work performed by Honghe State Song and Dance Troupe in cooperation with the Central Academy Troupe.

The dances and extras of the entire musical were all performed by 11 key actors of the troupe, and one of the actors even played five roles.

　　"This cooperation with Oriental Performing Arts Group is a very rare learning opportunity for our actors. Because the creative team of "Blooming" is first-class in China, and musicals are a very comprehensive art form, our 11 The actors have improved in drama performance and learned to sing, which is a great improvement in their comprehensive ability." Xu Jianru, deputy head of the Honghe Song and Dance Troupe, said.

　　Xu Jianru was very emotional: "The frontier grass-roots troupes can't stay in a corner, but they need to go out to communicate and learn, to be on par with the first-class, to keep up with the benchmarks. This cooperation has allowed us to learn many things such as creative performance methods, management and operation concepts, etc., which are beneficial to the long-term development of the troupe. something that develops."

　　""Blooming" is a very good musical. It has established a mode of co-creation by the central troupe and the provincial and state troupes. It takes advantage of the advantages of the central troupe and integrates the resources of Yunnan local troupes, highlighting the The highlight of the folk song and dance art has cultivated a group of talents for the Honghe Prefecture Song and Dance Troupe." said Wang Jianghong, deputy director of the Yunnan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism.

(Our reporter Zhang Yong)

　　(Source: Guangming Daily, December 7, 2022, page 13)