After finishing the matter of inviting guests, other things were proceeding in an orderly manner, and now Su Nuan had some free time.
On this day, Chen Meirong went out to the Shanghai Drama Troupe to select suitable repertoire for the cocktail party. Chen Meirong had been there once before to sign a performance contract and paid a part of the deposit in advance. Today she went mainly to decide on the program list and choose several types of opera.
When he was about to go out, he saw Su Nuan sitting on the sofa drinking tea, so he went up to ask.
"Miss, are you busy today?"
"It's okay, why are you going out?"
"Yes, Miss, I have an appointment with the Shanghai Theatre Group today to book the program. If you are free today, could you go and take a look together?"
Su Nuan didn't know much about traditional opera. At most, she had heard some pop music with an opera style before. Su Nuan was very interested in Chen Meirong's invitation and agreed without thinking. After Su Nuan changed her clothes and went downstairs, Johnson drove the two of them to the Shanghai Theater Troupe.
After they arrived at the entrance of the drama troupe and registered at the door, they drove directly in. The entire drama troupe was not very big, with only two buildings in total. Chen Meirong was familiar with the place and took Su Nuan directly to the director's office.
After knocking on the door and entering, the director of the drama troupe warmly welcomed them. Chen Meirong introduced Su Nuan to the director. After the few of them exchanged greetings and sat down, the director briefly outlined the current scale of the entire drama troupe, the number of actors, the types of opera performances and program details, and the resumes of all the performers. Su Nuan had never been exposed to these and only had a general idea. Chen Meirong had lived in Hong Kong before and didn't know much about traditional Chinese opera. The most he had seen was Cantonese opera. Neither of them knew much about the types of traditional opera in Shanghai.
After the troupe leader finished introducing himself, Su Nuan asked, "Leader, are there any actors in your troupe rehearsing right now? Can I go and see them?"
The troupe leader said: "Yes, we are currently rehearsing the Shanghai opera Red Lantern, the Huai opera Legend of the White Snake, the Huangmei opera The Female Imperial Consort, and the comedy Fake Husband and Fake Wife. If you want to see them, I will take you there later."
Su Nuan: "Okay, thank you, Captain. I'll go right away."
The leader said, "Then you all follow me."
After coming out of the office, they first went to the nearest Huangmei Opera rehearsal room.
What they are rehearsing now is the classic Huangmei Opera piece "The Female Prime Minister".
"The Female Imperial Consort" is a classic Huangmei Opera work. It tells the story of Feng Suzhen and Li Zhaoting, lovers since childhood. However, due to the decline of the Li family and Suzhen's stepmother's preference for the rich, their engagement is forced to break off. In pursuit of true love, Suzhen decides to travel to Beijing to take the imperial examination, impersonating Li Zhaoting and successfully achieving the title of top scholar. She is subsequently recruited as a female imperial consort. However, when she reveals the truth on their wedding night, the emperor, for various reasons, ultimately pardons her and Li Zhaoting's relationship.
The actors in the rehearsal room performed superb Huangmei Opera singing, fluent recitation and skillful movements. It can be seen that their basic skills are very solid. Each actor showed good artistic accomplishment and innovative ability. The singing was melodious, the performance was natural and generous, and the dance was light and agile.
A few people watched from the window for a while. The play unfolded: Feng Suzhen, having won the top spot in the imperial examination, became famous and, by the grace of the emperor, had her cap decorated with imperial flowers. She left her hometown to save Li Lang, and now, she has been crowned the top scholar. After drinking at the Golden Steps and the Qionglin Feast, who knew I was in red?
The actor sang the melodious lyrics: "I left my home to save Li Lang, but unexpectedly I won the first place in the imperial examination. The first place winner wore a red robe and a palace flower in his hat. How wonderful, how fresh!"
Upon hearing this, Su Nuan couldn't help but hum along. In the era of explosive entertainment information in later generations, even if one had never been exposed to opera, one had heard this classic lyric.
After leaving the Huangmei Opera rehearsal room, I went to watch the rehearsal of Shanghai Opera, which was "Red Lantern"
The Red Lantern is a revolutionary modern opera that tells the story of the Chinese people's struggle against the Japanese invaders during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. The play is based on the film "There Will Always Be Successors" and has been adapted into various art forms. The main plot revolves around Li Yuhe and his family's efforts to resist the invaders during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. The main characters include Li Yuhe, Grandma Li, Li Tiemei, etc.
Shanghai Opera is a fusion of local culture and Western opera elements, with a strong Jiangnan water town style. Its performance forms include singing, reciting, acting, fighting, dancing and ventriloquism. Shanghai Opera pays attention to both form and spirit, attaches importance to detailed and practical performance, and emphasizes natural plots, brisk rhythms, and clever transitions, which makes people feel very refreshed.
The Red Lantern is a classic Peking Opera piece that has been adapted into various art forms. The Shanghai Opera Red Lantern is one of the local opera performances that has evolved from it.
Later, we followed the troupe leader to watch other opera performances. Although we could not fully understand the performances, the auditory and visual senses were still very good. Finally, we decided to watch all the repertoires for today. Among them, Huangmei Opera had an extra performance, which was the Huangmei Opera classic "The Legend of the Fairy".
After finalizing the performance program with the director of the drama troupe, it was almost time for dinner. At the director's invitation, several people had a meal in the troupe cafeteria. To be honest, the big pot meal was not very delicious, but the dining atmosphere in the cafeteria was very good. At that time, everyone attached great importance to food, unlike the later generations where there was no waste of food. Secondly, many young actors consumed a lot of physical energy during daily rehearsals, so they ate more. Watching the actors eating voraciously, Su Nuan also felt hungry and unconsciously ate a little more.
After dinner, after saying goodbye to the group leader, the few of them left by car.
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