There are hundreds of operas and tens of thousands of dramas in China, which have penetrated into the masses since their birth.
It is precisely because the opera expresses the thoughts and feelings of the people of China, and it has a strong local flavor and a dramatic form of singing, dancing, speaking, singing and expressing that it is full of vitality and is deeply loved by the broad masses of the people.
However, in recent years, drama has declined, drama groups have shrunk, and drama has approached a trough. The root cause is the loss of audience.
There are objective reasons. With the rapid development of today's society and the diversification of people's entertainment and leisure life, opera is no longer the only choice for the audience.
But more importantly, China's traditional operas have not produced more popular plays. If the creation of traditional Chinese opera is out of touch with the times, it will lose the audience, the foundation on which traditional Chinese opera depends.
Opera is for people to watch, and the creation and performance of opera should always exist for the audience. Without an audience, traditional Chinese opera will become water without a source and a tree without a root.
Therefore, opera creation must consider the needs of the audience and be consciously restricted by the audience.
In fact, traditional operas in China have always attached importance to creating vivid artistic images on the stage.
China's traditional drama will never forget the audience.
In the past, when selecting materials for drama writers, they mostly used historical stories, folk biographies and social news loved by the masses as materials to arouse the audience's interest.
The director is the same, always reminding actors not to forget the audience.
Only by singing, acting, dancing and acting well can an actor win the appreciation and affirmation of the audience.
In short, the creation and performance of traditional Chinese opera should focus on the audience, aim at the audience's appreciation needs, acknowledge the audience's existence and attach importance to the audience's needs, that is, respect the artistic laws of traditional Chinese opera.
Throughout the history, a large number of outstanding plays have been produced on the stage of traditional Chinese opera. It is precisely by following the artistic laws, taking the audience as the starting point and giving play to the unique means of expression of traditional Chinese opera that they will deeply impress the masses and be deeply welcomed by the audience.
Opera performance must be clear: it must be understood by the audience and arouse the audience's strong interest, in order to achieve the purpose of entertaining.
If the audience can't understand the play at all, or can understand it, but the play has its ups and downs, or reflects something that the audience doesn't care about, then even if the screenwriter is skilled in writing, the director is clever in technique and the actors are perfect in acting, it will be indifferent to the audience.
Opera can't impress the audience, so it loses its life.
This is also a lesson in the history of China opera.
Kunqu Opera, for example, has a long history and occupies an important position in the history of China opera. After it became a royal court drama, it became farther and farther away from people's lives and gradually separated from the masses.
The audience-oriented principle of traditional Chinese opera art can be summarized as the principle of combining ideology, entertainment and mass.
First of all, it has a strong ideological content, but the performance should be simple and entertaining; It not only pays attention to entertainment, but also requires the performance to be full of sounds and emotions, be good at singing and dancing, sing well, do well, read well and perform well; We should also pay attention to the popularity, be tasteful and approachable, and let the audience be inspired and educated in the theater to enjoy the beauty.
The newly edited historical drama Orchid Ode by Fuzhou Fujian Theatre was based on the market at the beginning of its creation, and it was determined that it could not only participate in the performance, but also get rich economic returns, and at the same time let the audience love to watch it.
Based on the creative thinking of the audience's aesthetic taste, Fujian Theatre has been revised several times, rehearsed several times and carefully created. Finally, "Lan Ci" was arranged into a wonderful play with thrilling story, fresh and elegant singing and dancing scenes and beautiful vocal design.
Orchid Fu has been active in the urban and rural performance market since he successfully participated in the 7th China Drama Festival on 200 1. The audience generally reflected that the play was well edited, well directed and well performed by the actors. Exquisite structure, vivid characters, beautiful singing, vivid scenes, novelty and uniqueness are loved by the people.
The success of this play shows that this play can only be welcomed by the audience if it is vivid and touching.
In recent years, the play has been depressed. Apart from objective factors, it is undeniable that our failure to create good works that attract the audience is also an important factor.
The creation of Chinese drama failed to meet the urgent needs of the audience. It is inevitable that the drama will go downhill if the creation is out of touch with the times and the audience thinks.
Orchid Fu tells a story about anti-corruption, which is a hot topic in today's society and easily resonates with the audience.
In the process of creation and rehearsal, we attach importance to the participation of the audience.
Just serving the audience is not enough.
In fact, sometimes opera creation needs to take the audience as the object of participation and treat the audience as a member of opera creation.
If the director and performance only completed the first stage of creation, then the second stage of opera creation can only be considered as the final creation of opera through the audience's watching (co-creation) and the audience's final judgment.
Therefore, we should always find ways to stimulate the imagination and creativity of the audience, mobilize the creative enthusiasm of the audience, and constantly improve the repertoire.
For example, the performance of Lan Ci has undergone more than a dozen revisions from the initial new arrangement to the final performance, which is a process of constantly listening to the opinions and suggestions of the audience and constantly revising.
The audience's active participation and valuable suggestions are one of the magic weapons for the success of Orchid Ode.
However, some dramatic phenomena that have appeared in recent years must attract our attention.
Some Chinese troupes spend a lot of manpower, material resources, financial resources and time rehearsing performances in order to participate in performances. Stage art does not follow the creative principles of China's traditional opera art, but blindly pursues large-scale production and luxury, often spending hundreds of thousands or even millions of yuan to win prizes. It seems beautiful, but it ignores the most basic principles of the audience and ignores the needs of the audience.
The audience refused to watch such a play, so they gave up after the performance and put the hard-won play on the shelf.
This practice not only wastes people's money, but also ruins the future of China traditional opera. This tendency to rehearse only for performance should arouse our great attention.
Opera is an art produced by working people in their work and life for thousands of years. It exists for the audience. Opera performance depends on the audience, and opera creation is ultimately completed with the participation of the audience.
We should take the audience's needs as the starting point of opera creation and performance. Only in this way can China's traditional drama really develop.