White-haired Girl is one of the most influential works after the publication of Speech at Yan 'an Forum on Literature and Art. Opera, film, Beijing Opera and ballet of the same name have become outstanding works in various art categories.
1945, the Northwest Field Service Corps returned to Yan 'an from the front line of Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei, and brought back a record book about the legend of the "white-haired fairy" popular in Fuping, Hebei Province in the early 1940s. Its content describes a rural girl persecuted by the landlord who fled into the mountains alone and persisted in living in a cave for many years. Because of the lack of sunshine and salt, her whole body turned white, and because she stole the fruit from the temple, she was called "the white-haired fairy" by the nearby villagers. Later, with the help of the Eighth Route Army, she was liberated. This is the original background of the white-haired girl.
1945, the five-act opera "White-haired Girl" created by Lu Xun Art College in Yan 'an came out, and it was premiered at the Seventh National Congress of China in April of the same year. He Jingzhi and Yi Ding wrote lyrics, while Kyle, Zhang Lu, Qu Wei, Huan Zhi, Xiang Yu, Chen Zi and Liu Chi composed music. The play profoundly expounds the theme of "The old society turned people into ghosts, and the new society turned ghosts into people". It has been performed in Yan 'an for more than 30 times and received an unprecedented warm welcome. From 65438 to 0946, they came to Zhangjiakou to continue their performance and made important revisions to the script according to the opinions of the masses. Since then, it has been perfected day by day, but the White-haired Girl has spread rapidly to the Kuomintang-controlled areas and has been highly praised by the progressive literary and art circles. The main idea of the plot is as follows:1On New Year's Eve in 935, Yang Bailao, a poor farmer in Yanggezhuang, Hebei, went out to hide his debts. After returning home, he was forced to die by the landlord, and his daughter was first taken away by the Huang family and then raped. Wang is her fiance. He beat Mu Renzhi, a lackey, and defected to the Eighth Route Army. When her son was about to be sold, she fled to the deep mountains with the help of Aunt Zhang. After three years of hard work, her hair turned white ...1In the spring of 938, Da Chun's army came to Yanggezhuang, saved Xi Er and got revenge.
In the original "White-haired Girl", the image of Xi once retained more traces of old ideas. When she was insulted and pregnant, she had fantasies about Huang. Whether such plots should be preserved is controversial. During the performance, we constantly listened to the opinions of the masses. Some comrades pointed out that Xi Er forgot the revenge of killing his father and fantasized about committing himself to Huang Shiren, which did not conform to the logic of character development. The opinions of the masses made the playwright delete these ideological impurities from Xi's Er, which made the image more complete and beautiful. In the Zhangjiakou performance from 65438 to 0946, Zhao Laohan's story about the Red Army was added, which linked the peasant's resistance with the influence of the party, and the whole drama also had a distinctive feature of the times. Da Chun and Dassault beat up Mu Renzhi and defected to the Red Army under the guidance of Zhao Laohan. After the liberation of Yangge Village, they returned to their hometown to fight against hegemony. In the original play, there is a plot narrative about Xi's ear hole life in the fourth act, which is delayed because it has little connection with the theme. Many troupes simply stopped performing, and the author finally deleted all this scene.
It should be said that as far as the literary structure is concerned, The White-haired Girl is a rare example in the history of modern literature in China, which perfectly and harmoniously combines strong romantic spirit and bold romantic techniques. The transition from realism in the first half to romanticism in the second half of the play not only reflects the author's collective wisdom, but also reflects the development trend and basic tone of White-haired Girl in the process of processing and revision.
This drama adopts the tunes of northern folk music, absorbs opera music and draws lessons from the creative experience of western European operas. It is the cornerstone of China's new national opera developed on the basis of the new Yangko movement. The author expresses Xi's innocence and expectation with the cheerful tune of the folk song "Biography of Qingyang" in Hebei. Create Yang Bailao's musical image with the melody of the deep and deep Shanxi folk song "Caimaigen"; Use Hebei folk song "Chinese Cabbage" to express the depressed mood of children when the Huang family was oppressed by the Huang mother; It is an eternal melody born on the soil of folk music to highlight Xi's indomitable and vengeful mood with high-pitched and exciting Shanxi Bangzi music.
The outstanding feature of the play in performance is that it draws lessons from the tradition of combining singing, reading and Taoism in classical Chinese opera. Characters introduce themselves by singing, and monologues are also used to describe the process of events in many places. The dialogue between characters adopts dramatic expression.
This drama was made into a feature film by Northeast Film Studio (the predecessor of changchun film studio) on 1950. Adapted by Hua Shui, Wang Bin and Yang Runshen, starring Tian Hua, Li Million and Chen Qiang. The film won the first prize of excellent film of the Ministry of Culture1957; 195 1 won the special honor award of the 6th Karlovy Farley International Film Festival.
The Peking Opera version of the play was written in 1958, adapted by Ma and Fan, and performed in China Peking Opera Theatre, starring Li, Li, Li, Li, Li and Li. This drama is one of the earliest attempts to express modern themes by singing, doing, reading and acting Beijing Opera, and has made many guiding breakthroughs. Li, dressed in modern clothes and with a beard, rhymes, sings [Huang Er], turns his hair and throws a zombie, but he is not stiff and clumsy. Xi Er, played by Du Jinfang, talked about Bai Jing. Although she sings "Xipi", "Huang Er" and "High Beat", she is sincere and full of emotion. The flexible use of program skills such as sliding, trampling and kite flying all naturally and appropriately shows the feelings of the characters.
Yanming Peking Opera Troupe also has a performance book, which is earlier than China Peking Opera Theatre, starring Zhao Yanxia. Xi Xiaobo, one of the four big students, also rehearsed the play.
Ballet White-haired Girl is a classic national dance drama released by Shanghai Dance School 1965, and it has been identified as one of the eight revolutionary model operas of the Cultural Revolution. Art director Huang, choreographer, Fu Aidi, Cheng Helin, starring (,Gu Xiamei,), Ling Guiming and Dong Xilin. It retains the basic character relationship and drama conflict in the original work, successfully condenses the plot, and uses a large number of movements of China folk dance and classical dance to combine it with ballet art, which is deeply loved by the people.