I have watched "Raise the Red Lantern" many times since its premiere, and I feel that every revision has been improved, especially the increasingly rich and full image of Li Yuhe, the protagonist in the play, which is one of the main factors for the great achievements of the play.
The theme of the play, through a red light, runs through the historical facts from the "February 27" strike to the revolutionary struggle in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, and also symbolizes the glorious deeds of the working class who went forward bravely and finally won the final victory. This play is of great educational significance to the audience.
Establish a heroic image through revolutionary actions
The scene of "porridge shed escape" is not big, but it plays a significant role. First, Li Yuhe's resourcefulness and resilience in Underground party member are highlighted, and at the same time, a conclusion is drawn from the details of eating porridge: the people in Northeast China live a worse life than cattle and horses under the Japanese warlords. The corner of the porridge shed was a microcosm of the life of the poor at that time.
Li Yuhe put the signal in the lunch box according to the instructions of the traffic police in Beiman. The traffic police jumped out of the car and went to the porridge shed to hang the signal lamp on the post, waiting for the sharpener to pick up the relationship. When the sharpener raised his hand to cover his ears and sang "Grinding scissors to make a kitchen knife" with shouts that he often heard in life, Li Yuhe saw him wearing gloves (one of the code words) staring at the signal light, so he walked over and looked at him while singing. Just about to speak, suddenly the siren sounded and a group of gendarmes rushed into the porridge shed. The knife sharpener hinted to Li Yuhe with his eyes and gestures, "I will deal with them, so you should avoid them quickly." At this time, the sharpener pushed down the bench with agile movements and led the gendarmerie to his side. Li Yuhe calmly poured the porridge into the lunch box, and the Japanese military police came to search Li Yuhe's whole body. He took the initiative to open the lid of the lunch box to the gendarmerie, finally bowed to them and left with a smile. At the end of the curtain, the spotlight shines on Li Yuhe's smile, which contains the meaning of victory and escape. The subtext is: "You stupid pigs lost to us."
The villain is portrayed to highlight the heroic image.
Contradictions and conflicts in drama are often formed through the struggle of various opposites, such as positive, negative, advanced and backward. We must realize that the purpose of writing negative characters is to set off positive characters, but writing negative characters should also be deep and not simplified, otherwise it will weaken the brilliance of positive characters; We should also avoid putting the cart before the horse.
Comrade Yuan Shihai played Captain Hatoyama of the Gendarmerie in a pretentious tone. His singing, reading and doing are measured, and the Japanese spy chief riding on the head of China people is vividly portrayed. Actors who played Yukio Hatoyama's men, such as Hou Xianbu, corporal, gendarme and spy lackeys, also completed their roles and tasks appropriately. In this way, it sets off the heroic image of the three generations of working class headed by Li Yuhe, who are witty, brave and unyielding.
In the two scenes of "Wang Rebellion" and "Playing Hatoyama at the Banquet", we can see how Hatoyama played the king at his palm, but when he met him, he tried his best, but he was at a loss.
In the scene of "Wang Bing mutiny", Yukio Hatoyama emerged from "Five Hammer Skill" and made a statement (i.e. made an appearance). After listening to the phone call from the headquarters, he said to himself with a stunned and nervous look: "What a powerful * * * production party. Headquarters has just found a clue in Beiman, but the relationship has been cut off by them. * * * The production party is amazing! " Then, he asked Wang to supplement his resume. When Hatoyama heard this, he showed a sly smile and saw that he wanted to find clues from this man. When Wang hung the medal, he sang Paizi Class 3 composed of rap and recitation, such as "... not afraid of sacrifice" and "Paradise of Kings", which seemed to adopt the reading method of poems in Battle of Red Cliffs by Cao Cao. In the following conversation, Yukio Hatoyama teased Wang in a sarcastic tone. "... you're not an actor, why do you want to act in front of me ...", "Gnome male-","It's a pity that I'm an old man, and I haven't been cheated by you ..." The facial expressions and body movements here all depict the cunning enemy dealing with this fragile "coward" in a playful way. Then, with a sudden change of expression, he pointed to Wang's face and said in a threatening tone that he had the materials.
Epigram, good accent, and exquisite carving
Beijing opera shows the characteristics of modern life. When the plot reaches its climax, the playwright writes "epigrams" with revolutionary passion and pen and ink, and the actors and musicians should put "good tunes" in line with the dramatist's thoughts and feelings (instead of paying attention to the skills). At the same time, eyes, appearance and figure should be carefully coordinated to create a strong stage atmosphere to infect the audience.
In The Battle of the Execution Ground, several voices came from the stage in the dark-"Take Li Yuhe", which revealed the heinous crime of the Japanese warlords who slaughtered the people of China at that time from the gloomy and horrible scene.
Li Yuhe's solo is "Huang Er Inverted", "Huilong", and "The Original Board" is transferred to "Adagio" and then back to "The Original Board". This arrangement is to highlight that Li Yuhe is the first major role in The Red Lantern, which can only be suppressed by a complete set of vocals, among which "Huang Er Adagio" is the most important.
Li Yuhe "reversed the board" in the curtain, singing calmly and calmly, and the "Huilong tune" after the appearance was even more touching: "Don't look at me, wearing chains and pestering chains to lock my feet and hands, I can't lock my ambitions. In writing skills and aria design, they first broke through the traditional frame of "serving the country and being loyal to the monarch ...", but kept the standard of "Huilong tune", and the actors could perform according to the image described in the lyrics, which showed Li Yuhe's strong fighting spirit and heroism.
The third sentence of The Original Board: "Go to the execution ground, raise your head and look far away", and the word "Wang" is used in the usual drawl of The Original Board of Huang Er. Pause, the band "played the strings" with plucked music, and the actors were absorbed in meditation, throwing their eyes into the distance and singing with a smile: "I saw the revolutionary red flag held high and the anti-Japanese bonfire started a prairie fire. Japanese invaders, how many days can you bully? " The song is full of contempt for the enemy and confidence in victory.
The singing and body movements of the sentence "But after that, a hundred flowers blossom" have slowed down. Under After the Storm, Hu Qin naturally turned to Adagio: "A hundred flowers blossom, and new China is like the rising sun. At that time, red flags were everywhere in China. Thinking of this, my confidence has increased and my will has become stronger. " In adagio, Hu Qin also uses flowers to pass the door, which often destroys the stage atmosphere. But when used in front of bloom, it adds color to this beautiful lines and lyrical singing. At the same time, the actor looked from right to left with a faint smile on his face, which appropriately expressed the optimism of the Li Yuhe Revolution and naturally brought the imagination of the audience.
I saw two performances before the troupe went to Guangdong and Shanghai. At that time, I felt that there were still some shortcomings in Comrade Qian Haoliang's performance. For example, during this solo dance, the catwalk seems to have traces of "pulling four doors", which is very stiff. In the traditional drama, the program "pulling four doors" is to show the way in a square without scenery, but now there is scenery behind it, which is not very harmonious. I have seen it several times recently, and I have eliminated this feeling and walked naturally. The chains in the hands and feet are relatively light props in traditional plays, but now they are relatively heavy and close to life. In the difficult performance of walking, they developed on the basis of the original shackles in Beijing opera, thus highlighting Li Yuhe's heroism; At the same time, the use of eyes has been improved than before, from which we can see the importance of repeated practice in performance, and practice makes perfect.
Three generations met in prison and portrayed people with strong class feelings. Li Nainai sang "Huang Er Class Three" with indignation: ... I beat you black and blue ... son, son ... "Li Yuhe comforted her with a white clip:" Don't be sad, mother, "Li Nainai sang:" With such a good boy, mother is not sad. " The word "child" here is slightly sad, and it is extremely painful to stop to catch my breath. Li Yuhe then sang Allegro Original: "Boy, I am a strong man of steel". When I sang the word "Han", I raised my voice and spread my hands with the song. The following "indomitable struggle against the enemy ..." is the cavity of "Huang Er" and the plate of "Xipi Erliu". It is very suitable for use here, and the rhythm is bright. I sang, "I hope I can't turn an eagle into a flying eagle, ride the wind straight and fly to Guanshan!" " It is necessary to relieve the suffering of these hundreds of millions of compatriots ... "... This" epigram "is sung with" fast original board ",and with exaggerated movements, it looks magnificent and magnificent. (Excerpted from People's Daily, July 5th edition 1965, by Xu Jichuan)