Inheritance Strategy of Jiangsu Kunqu Opera

After China Kunqu Opera was awarded as "masterpiece of oral and intangible heritage of mankind" by UNESCO in 20001year, the national Kunqu Opera Troupe strengthened the protection of Kunqu Opera, and most of the initiatives of various troupes revolved around the inheritance of Zhezi Opera, that is, the performing arts of Zhezi Opera were taught orally. According to the latest statistics, there are less than 300 kinds of Kunqu Opera that can be called "heritage".

However, according to the statistics in the early 1980s, there are at least 300 discount operas that remain on the Kunqu Opera stage. If traced back to the 1920s, the last professional troupe in the late Qing Dynasty, Quanfu Class, left Suzhou Kunqu Opera Studio with 600 pieces of property. Since the mid-Qing dynasty, Kunqu opera has been relying on the passbook drama to maintain its lifeline. However, in less than a hundred years since the 1920s, the number of passbook dramas handed down from generation to generation has dropped by more than half. What's more, there are nearly 300 kinds of Kunqu heritage, and only dozens of plays are common on the contemporary stage. This means that there are still a large number of dramas that audiences don't like to watch and actors don't want to play, and they are still on the high-risk line of extinction. Because of the fine division of labor in Kunqu Opera, contemporary actors often specialize in one line, and multi-role operas can only be completed with the cooperation of multiple actors. So once the troupe goes out of line, even this part of the play will be shelved. The situation of the inheritance of Kunqu Opera is self-evident.

The only carrier of Kunqu performing arts is Kunqu performing artists. As the saying goes, "art lies in drama, and drama lies in people." Of course, the inheritance of performing arts can only be realized by the continuous inheritance of performing artists from generation to generation, and oral transmission in one stroke is the best way to maintain the original ecology and authenticity of Kunqu opera. However, one stroke and one type of oral communication, at best, focuses on the tactical inheritance of individuals. Facing the increasingly severe inheritance situation, the strategic inheritance of Kunqu opera art has been put on the agenda.

On the basis of strengthening oral communication, strategic inheritance requires paying more attention to the joint efforts of the team's overall inheritance and the team's tolerance for the uninterrupted performance of Zhezi Opera in the contemporary era.

There is no doubt that the survival of opera depends on its performance. Integrating the team's inheritance ability and improving the performance frequency of Zhezi Opera will become a powerful fulcrum for the strategic inheritance of Kunqu Opera. As a super team of Kunqu Opera performing arts, the powerful Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre has knocked on the door of Kunqu Opera strategic inheritance. They were far-sighted, promoted the joint efforts to strengthen team inheritance to a strategic level, went all out to build a marketing platform for Zhezi Opera, and used this platform to introduce the inheritance of Kunqu Opera into the track of strategic inheritance, thus exploring a new way for the "protection, inheritance, innovation and development" of China Kunqu Opera. Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre has taken various measures to realize the strategic inheritance of Kunqu Opera. One of the most powerful and effective is to hold a "personal performance" for on-the-job senior actors, and activate the inheritance center of the hospital through personal performance.

The initial solo performance was limited to national first-class actors, each of whom was twice a year. Because of the individual special public performance, the box office income is included in the reward mechanism, which gives the actors greater motivation. Moreover, due to the rule that it is not allowed to repeat before and after a personal performance, special actors usually have to find and revitalize the repertoires that they have performed but rarely performed now to prepare for their debut. However, the attendance rate of such dramas is generally poor. How to improve your popularity? This is undoubtedly a great test for special actors. Because the actors who are qualified to participate in individual performances have considerable artistic qualifications and popularity, a number of plays that rarely appear on the stage have greatly improved their artistic gold content through their creative efforts, effectively reversing the dilemma of attendance. However, some dramas are at the critical point of extinction, and few artists can perform in China. Therefore, Kun Theatre instructed its research room to conduct a thorough investigation, make a timetable, and make up its mind to overcome difficulties and carry out rescue by inviting teachers in and sending students out. For those rare plays, the college has made repeated performances as far as possible to accept the feedback from the audience and facilitate further processing.

Since its opening three years ago, performers have created a satisfactory box office income by virtue of their popularity and attraction to the audience. Although the special performance is expensive, the Lanyuan Theater in our hospital is packed. Online fans are surging and receiving rave reviews. Most of the special pre-sale tickets have been sold out one week or even two weeks before the performance, and even one ticket is hard to find! At present, the theater is trying to expand the individual special performance to deputy senior (referring to national second-class actors) and even famous young actors, and gradually select top actors to join the special performance.

At present, there are seven national first-class actors in Jiangsu Kunqu Theatre, and 14 special performances will be held for them throughout the year. Based on the average performance of 4 discount plays in each special performance, more than 56 high-quality discount plays with first-class performance level will meet the audience within one year. Apart from their fellow actors' performances on the same stage, they expect to protect and inherit nearly 300 overseas treasures in five to six years. At present, Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre can hold special performances of in-service senior actors to gather for the middle-aged generation. This generation of performing artists shoulders double responsibilities. First, they should learn all the folding plays of retired older generation performing artists. Second, we should pass on the passbook drama in our hands to the next generation. The inheritance advantage of Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre lies in the fact that most of the older generation actors are alive, and there are many famous performing artists in China. Retired performing artists include Zhang, Hu Jinfang, Lin, Zhang Zhidie and so on. This is a ready-made treasure house of traditional drama. Kun Theatre encourages young and middle-aged actors to learn drama from the older generation of performing artists (and encourages them to go out and visit the drama with teachers), and encourages old artists to teach drama to young and middle-aged actors. What is commendable is that their enthusiasm for spreading drama has always been strong. What's more admirable is that the Kunqu Opera Theatre also has fifty well-trained actors who just graduated from the Kunqu Opera Department of Jiangsu Theatre Academy. The theater has targeted the inheritance of Kunqu Opera in the last 20 years at this group of young people whose average age is less than 20, trying to make them accept nearly 300 Kunqu Opera as a whole and improve their performance level as soon as possible.

The ultimate goal of strategic inheritance is nothing more than to build a linkage mechanism between the three generations of artistic talents, so that the connection can continue from generation to generation. The mission of Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre has always been to create a sustainable and extensible Kunqu Opera inheritance chain. Through system innovation, we will combine issuance with awards and improve the incentive mechanism. In Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre, all performing artists with senior professional titles and drama evaluation qualifications teach young actors a corresponding number of discount operas every year, so as to determine their remuneration as personal achievements. The level of professional titles is only the reference value of annual salary distribution, and the quantity and quality of dramas awarded are the main determinants. The practical application of the distribution lever fully mobilized the enthusiasm of senior performing artists in the hospital. They enrich the teaching repertoire by excavating old dramas and even exchanging "excellent repertoires" with performing artists outside the hospital.

As a supporting measure, Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre also holds two performances of young actors every year. First, on the basis of half a year's assessment, the newly-learned passbook dramas of young actors are graded and evaluated, and excellent plays are selected for performance (ticket sales). Before the end of the year, a second evaluation will be conducted in combination with the year-end assessment, and then the outstanding plays selected this year will be finalized publicly. A gold medal, a silver prize and a "most popular award" will be produced in the final to encourage young actors to learn drama and evaluate teachers' achievements. At the same time, the leaders of the academy pay special attention to cultivating top actors from all walks of life among young actors, expecting a number of national first-class actors to emerge in a few years, and even form a new group of Chinese drama plum blossom awards and Wenhua awards. In recent years, this kind of heart of boxing has achieved initial results. In July, 2007, the youth of Kunqu Opera performed in Hangzhou, and ten "Outstanding Rookie Awards" were awarded, among which Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre accounted for four, ranking first among the six Kunqu Opera Troupes in China.

Through the appraisal and performance of young actors, the second-generation and second-generation artists in Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre began to transfer to the younger generation in batches, thus successfully building a powerful three-level artistic echelon of the old, middle-aged and young. The public performance is the life source of the passbook drama handed down from generation to generation. This public performance provides the best opportunity for the promotion, popularization and dissemination of Zhezi Opera. No written materials, audio-visual files can replace the protective effect of ticket sales performance on passbook dramas (especially rare dramas) In order to expand the performance. In addition to holding "solo performances" and "appraisal performances" all the year round, Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre has also opened up a variety of ways to increase the number of performances, the most effective of which is the "Lanyuan Weekend Kunqu Opera Show". Lanyuan Weekend Kunqu Opera Show means that every weekend, the Kunqu Opera Theatre in Jiangsu Province is jointly performed by three generations of artists, namely, the old, the middle and the young. It is mainly used to strengthen the exchange of experience among the three generations of actors and to perform more performances at the same time.

It is worth mentioning that Lanyuan Kunqu Opera Special Session also created a solo and variation music special session with playing Kunqu Opera as the main body, which pushed the powerful performers who have been working behind the scenes to the stage and embarked on a new road of Kunqu Opera music inheritance and innovation.

Lanyuan Kunqu Opera has never stopped at weekends, providing 200 to 250 preferential plays (including repeated performances) every year. A very unexpected harvest is that the "Lanyuan Weekend Kunqu Opera Special Session" has received enthusiastic attention from Nanjing citizens. In today's capital, Nanjing, it has become a fashion for citizens to watch the "Lanyuan Weekend Kunqu Opera Special", which is particularly attractive to the intellectual class, and even many foreign students like to watch it, thus adding a unique scenery to the ancient city of Nanjing.

Sticking to sending dramas to the campus is another effective measure to expand the performance rate of Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre. Many universities in Nanjing, Beijing and even Hong Kong have left their footprints. They have also held the "Kunqu Opera Hometown Tour" for several years in succession, sending the drama of Little Chef Hippo to primary and secondary schools in Kunshan and Taicang, the birthplace of Kunqu Opera, and recently sent it to primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong to cultivate young audiences. Actors (including national first-and second-class actors) often go out early and come back late, with an average of two or three performances a day. Every year, nearly 100 primary and secondary school teachers and students watch their performances for free. Over the past few years, they have performed more than 300 performances every year, achieving more than 200% of their original goals.

By building a solid strategic inheritance fulcrum, Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre will try its best to increase the rolling frequency of Kunqu Opera's heritage on the stage, so as to consolidate and develop the inheritance achievements of Kunqu Opera's heritage. Due to the development of "individual special" and supporting activities such as "Youth Appraisal Exhibition" and "Lanyuan Weekend Kunqu Opera Special", the inheritance center of Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre was activated, which ensured the healthy linkage of the whole art and made the number of plays in the courtyard increase rapidly. At the same time, Jiangsu Kunqu Theatre regards the adaptation of famous works as an indispensable wing of "strategic inheritance". In the past three years, they have successively released five major dramas, Peony Pavilion (Essence Edition), Little Sun Rabbit, Peach Blossom Fan (1699), Green Peony and Tang Xianzu, and Four Dreams, and made diversified explorations in the adaptation and performance methods of famous works.

Peony Pavilion (Essence Edition) absorbed the essence of popular opera as much as possible, but its careful selection was integrated with the original spirit of arrangement, which was unique, profound and concentrated, and the play won the honor of the first place in the "Jiangsu Provincial Stage Boutique Project".

Peach Blossom Fan (1699) is a big production they tried, costing 6 million yuan, showing the whole picture of the original peach blossom fan. In ancient times, due to various historical reasons, the troupe rarely performed Peach Blossom Fan. The adaptation of Peach Blossom Fan 1699 has set off an upsurge of watching Peach Blossom Fan in China. Peach Blossom Fan (1699) has formed many versions in the performance, such as original version, paperback version, youth version, passbook version, music version and so on. It adapts to different performance requirements and has influence at home and abroad. In more than a year, it won the reputation of four major international art festivals-China-Japan-Korea BeSeTo Art Festival, Seoul International Performance Art Festival, the 9th International Music Festival and the 35th Hong Kong International Art Festival, and won the national prize.

Sun Xiao Tu, one of the three existing early southern operas in China, slept for 600 years in the Yongle ceremony of the Ming Dynasty. Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre revived it through reinterpretation. Critics believe that reinterpreting Sun Xiao Tu "is of great historical value for studying the history of China's drama development". Because the original work is incomplete, the arranger makes up for the lack of the plot through reasonable imagination, so that the story can be fully presented on the stage.

Green Peony is one of the top ten comedies in ancient China, and its stage performance has long been lost. The famous playwright Guo Qihong's play was adopted by Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre. Guo Ben compressed and deleted on the premise of being loyal to the original work, which successfully reflected the comic spirit and artistic style of the original work. Not long ago, it premiered at Nanjing Zijin Grand Theatre, and the audience responded strongly.

Tang Xianzu and Four Dreams, based on Tang Xianzu's search for a cemetery, brings together the essence of the legendary four dreams, such as Purple Hairpin Phoenix, Handan, Conan and Shen Huan, with a unique and novel concept, and was selected as a contestant in the 2007 Hong Kong Art Festival.

Five major dramas were launched in three years, which revealed the enthusiasm and pursuit of Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre for the adaptation and performance of famous works. The adaptation of classic works not only excavates the drama literary heritage buried in ancient books, but also is the best channel to communicate the modern and ancient Kunqu opera stage.

For the adaptation of famous works, the adapter and executor must have the sincerity to respect the original theme, but at the same time, they can't avoid the intervention of the spirit of the times. The adaptation of famous works can show the charm of Kunqu opera art from a deeper level by virtue of the far-reaching influence and inherent artistic potential of the original works. The performance of the Grand Theatre doubled the audience, especially the intellectuals. More importantly, in the process of adaptation and performance of famous works, people have reached a certain consensus: the audience is not only a vassal of the inheritance and development of Kunqu opera, on the contrary, it is the main driving force of inheritance. The audience's praise and criticism of the purpose of the new drama is the lever for the progress of Kunqu opera.

The adaptation of famous works is precisely the best way to get praise or criticism from the audience. Artists constantly correct themselves by criticizing the contemporary audience, and seek the intersection of ancient and modern aesthetic interests to make the adapted works recognized by the contemporary audience. During the adaptation of famous works, Jiangsu Kunqu Theatre also produced a number of new passbook dramas, such as The Peony Pavilion, The Peach Blossom Fan Inscription, Peach Blossom Fan Jiang Shen and so on. The performing arts of these operas have been lost, but now they have been separated from the adaptation of famous works and spread all over the country, becoming a new classic opera that Kunqu opera actors love to perform and audiences love to watch.

In the Kunqu Opera Theatre in Jiangsu Province, the adaptation of famous works and the inheritance of Zhezi Opera complement each other. The inheritance of Zhezi opera pays attention to the original ecology of performance programs; The adaptation of famous works has opened up a new field of traditional scriptwriting methods and creative application of music, dance beauty and performance programs. Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre has also crossed the performing arts and turned its attention to the academic field. Kunqu Opera Theatre attracts scholars and theorists who have extensive research and profound influence on the academic theory of Kunqu Opera by recruiting talents, thus nourishing the stage practice of Kunqu Opera.

Kunming Theatre has established Nankun Laboratory centered on the academic magazine Kunqu Art Talk, and has planned and implemented a number of important projects: First, Nankun series projects. Experts take stock, clean up and demonstrate the heritage of Nankun, and then select the most valuable classic masterpieces to adapt and perform one by one; The second is the application basis of theoretical research results. The Kunqu Opera Theatre cooperates with the Institute of Traditional Chinese Opera of the Chinese Academy of Art to develop and study the figure spectrum of Kunqu Opera, which is proved by experts one by one and copied in an antique way, so that it can be reproduced on the Kunqu Opera stage. The third is to inherit the archives construction project. Kunqu Opera House makes all the plays handed down into audio-visual CDs, as well as a complete set of text files including performance tables, music scores, gongs and drums scores, character scores and so on.

In addition, they hired a foreign scholar, such as Josh Stenherg, as a translator, to translate all the new plays staged in the book and adapted from famous works sentence by sentence and put them on the subtitle screen. Through translation, the theater has accumulated a large number of English stage books. Shi Junshan also won the honor of "China Talent Star for Foreigners" in Jiangsu Province for his outstanding work. In addition, the academic journal Kunqu Opera Art Talk is also responsible for summarizing the experience and achievements of Kunqu Opera inheritance in our college, exchanging inheritance experiences with various Kunqu Opera troupes for the whole country, and providing a garden for Kunqu Opera scholars and theorists to conduct academic research on Kunqu Opera. Up to now, more than 40 experts have published their academic opinions on Kunqu Opera in Kunqu Opera Art Talk, which provides strong academic support for the protection and inheritance of Kunqu Opera heritage.

Since the establishment of the hospital, the Kunqu Opera Theatre in Jiangsu Province has experienced a period of rising development, but once hovered at a low point after 1990. The wave of reform three years ago pushed a group of performing artists headed by Ke Jun to leadership positions. Ke Jun 1 1 entered Jiangsu Theatre Academy. Most of his deputies, Li Hongliang, Wang Bin, Kong Aiping, and the artistic backbone of Kun Theatre are his classmates in the provincial drama school, while many artists of the older generation were their apprentices when they taught in the provincial drama school. The favorable weather, geographical location and harmonious people provide a platform for Qi Xin to display its grand plans and talents.

The business of Kunqu Opera held by Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre, such as solo performance of performing artists, appraisal performance of young actors, weekend performance of Lanyuan Theatre, adaptation performance of famous works, etc., has contributed to the linkage situation of the three-level talent echelon of Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre. Everyone has his place and his place, and the practice of inheriting Kunqu Opera has been promoted in all directions. The strategy of China Kunju Opera's strategic inheritance embodies the wisdom and creative spirit of Jiangsu Kunju Theatre. This strategy not only effectively protects and promotes Kunqu Opera, a masterpiece of intangible heritage, but also leads the Kunqu Opera Theatre in Jiangsu Province into its heyday since its establishment.