Yao Cheng

essential information

Character experience

Yao Cheng, born in Jiangyin, is a famous performing artist of xiju opera and the founder of Yao school. Born in 1926, he joined his father's family care class in 1938 to learn Changxi opera. Later, he performed in Jiangsu and Shanghai, and was loved by the audience. After liberation, he joined the southern Jiangsu arts and crafts troupe, and later joined Jiangsu xiju troupe.

She not only works in Qingyi, but also plays Huadan and Xiaosheng. Her pronunciation is accurate and clear, her voice is mellow and crisp, her singing is euphemistic and colorful, her performance is real and touching, and she is good at depicting characters with complex emotions and changeable personalities. She also created many popular and wonderful aria, which are familiar and loved by the majority of xiju audience. It has the reputation of "Queen of xiju". Representative works include "recognizing mother in an Tang", "double pearl Phoenix", "plucking orchid", "women's tour notes" and "red seed". She has served as a member of the China Federation of literary and art circles, director of the China Drama Association, vice chairman of the Jiangsu Drama Association and deputy head of the Jiangsu xiju troupe.

She has been touring Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi and other places for a long time. She is well known, loved and respected by the majority of Xi opera audience, and is known as "Queen of Xi opera". In her early years, she joined the southern Jiangsu literary and Art Troupe, and later transferred to Jiangsu xiju troupe. She married Ye Zhicheng, a famous playwright (Ye Shengtao's youngest son). They shared weal and woe together and helped each other for half a century. Her son Ye Zhaoyan (taking Yao and Cheng as half characters) is a famous contemporary writer. Ye Zhicheng joked that "my name doesn't ring. Every time I'm introduced to a meeting or other public occasion, the host likes to add some weight. When I was introduced before my marriage, people said that ye Zhicheng was Ye Shengtao's little son; after my marriage, they often said that ye Zhicheng was the lover of Yao Cheng, Queen of xiju opera; after my son became famous, the way of introduction was changed to "Ye Zhicheng is Ye Zhaoyan's father".

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There is a place called yaojiadai in jintongqiao, SHANGUAN Township, east gate of Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province. People in the village are all surnamed Yao. It is a good place with beautiful mountains and waters. People in the village especially like tanhuang opera in their spare time, which is the predecessor of Xi opera. On a summer night in the 1930s, every household in the village carried bamboo chairs and stools, or put up the door panels with benches to enjoy the cool on the field. At this time, a middle-aged man was surrounded by many people in the village and asked to sing a few passages, but he did not refuse. He took out his huqin and said to his daughter standing beside him, "a Yu, sing!" The little girl immediately began to sing with huqin. That sweet slightly tender singing immediately won the applause of everyone. The girl named a Yu is Yao Cheng, the later famous performing artist of xiju opera. Her father Yao Genbao is playing a huqin beside her. The reason why Yao Cheng was able to embark on the road of xiju art later was inseparable from her father, whose enlightening teacher was her father.

Like many opera actors in the old society, Yao Cheng's family was very poor and forced to make a living. In order to make her daughter have a good way out in the future, her father sent Yao Cheng to the family care class in Wuxi to study drama, and from then on began Yao Cheng's artistic career. But at first, Yao Cheng didn't want to learn opera. She thought that her father's opera singing was looked down upon. She could neither support her family nor care for herself. One night before learning drama, Yao Cheng told her loving grandmother what she thought, hoping to stay with her grandmother. Yao Cheng recalled: "I said to grandma, grandma, I'm not going to learn drama, and it's not good for Dad to learn drama, and it's not good for me to learn drama. There's no money and people look down on it. At that time, the actor was called tanhuang, and I said I didn't want to be tanhuang! Later, grandma said that it was better not to go than to starve to death at home. So I went to learn drama. From then on, Yao Cheng embarked on a difficult, tortuous, both tears and laughter, both humble and glorious, full of bitterness and bitterness.

Maybe Yao Cheng is born to be an actor, or maybe she is destined to devote her whole life to the art of Xi opera. Due to Yao Cheng's talent and his father's guidance, Yao Cheng began to perform on the stage in the second year of learning drama. Yao Cheng still clearly remembers the scene when she appeared on the stage for the first time. Yao Cheng said: "at that time, it was the contract. I was the girl of the old lady. In order to escape marriage, the young lady was lying in her boudoir pretending to be ill. I took my wife upstairs to see the young lady. My singing was to look at the black heads below. When I was nervous, I forgot the words and remembered them again. But instead of singing in succession, I sang again, "the servant girl leads the way, the old lady follows her feet, and she comes to the high building and the young lady's room to see a doctor." I was so embarrassed that I hit the old lady on the back with a handkerchief when I entered the arena. I was very embarrassed at that time. I don't know how to play the role of the elder martial uncle and wife! That's the solution to my dilemma. "

Among the Xi opera companies, Zhengchang Huadan is the envy of everyone. However, in some special circumstances, Zhengchang Huadan can't or is inconvenient to appear on the stage, which gives the studious artistes a chance to show their talents. In one performance in Taicang, the audience didn't like it because Huadan was from Changzhou at that time, singing and reciting with a strong Changzhou accent. So the protagonist was temporarily replaced by Yao Cheng, and the repertoire at that time was Zhaojun going out of the fortress. The performance was very popular. At the end of the performance, the audience invited Yao Cheng to dinner with her master and teacher's mother. Yao Cheng was only 14 years old at that time. The play "Zhaojun leaving the fortress" made Yao Cheng popular. From then on, Yao Cheng often played main roles in "Jade Dragonfly", "splitting the mountain to save her mother" and "husband and wife in the middle of the night", and she also gradually became a leading actress.

Art is an endless ladder

Before liberation, Yao Cheng couldn't afford to go to school because his family was poor. In the process of acting, she gradually felt that she could not do without culture. First of all, she could not understand the script, and it was difficult to understand and grasp the characters in the play.

Read the script, she can't, anxious straight cry, others asked her, she said how illiterate row ah! They say you learn a few words a day. After a few months, you can read books! She can read five words a day for several months! For this reason, she slept a lot less. When people take a nap, she goes to learn Chinese characters! Later, others said that this is not good, we should learn to write! So she began to study culture in 1949 and kept a diary until the beginning of the cultural revolution! Later, she was able to read a dream of Red Mansions, and borrowed the feelings of the characters in books like Anna calanina and Notre Dame into the play.

Yao Cheng is strict with himself and takes every performance seriously. One day, Yao Cheng had a stomachache and sweating all over her head when she starred in "the black sheep turned back" on a tour in rural areas of Southern Jiangsu. She was lying in bed and couldn't eat dinner. The leader advised Yao Cheng to have a rest, but she refused. She came from a peasant family and knew the peasants. It's not easy for farmers to come so many times. She insisted on acting. When she came on stage, people couldn't see that she was sick. She rolled and vomited backstage. She survived a three hour drama. Later, I went to the small town (hospital) to check. The doctor said it was appendicitis. You can't take medicine. Once you take medicine, you can't find it out in the big hospital. Go to the surgery as soon as possible. Results to Kunshan hospital a check, the doctor said how this time to come, another hour will become peritonitis. So the operation was done quickly, and the day after the operation was over, it was already bright.

In 1953, Jiangsu xiju troupe was set up in Nanjing. During the Spring Festival, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, starring Yao Cheng, met the audience in Nanjing. This was the first time that Nanjing audience watched xiju. Since then, xiju has gained a foothold in non Wu speaking areas. Talking about the scene at that time, Yao Cheng said: "after I came to Nanjing to set up the provincial troupe, my first play was Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. At that time, Nanjing people didn't see Xi opera. After the performance, everyone liked it very much. It's the same play that entertains foreign guests for the first time. At that time, Tan Junqing played Liang Shanbo, and I played Zhu Yingtai, which was very popular. Later, I arranged luohanqian. After the performance, the audience wrote to me that I could play both ancient costume and modern drama. Later, luohanqian entertained foreign guests for several years. "

In 1954, the first East China Opera Performance conference was held in Shanghai. Yao Cheng's "on a new road" won six first prizes. Yao Cheng won the first prize for her successful portrayal of the heroine Li Ruizhen. At the closing ceremony of the conference, Yao Cheng spoke as the only representative of 35 plays, 158 plays and more than 1000 actors. The success of this performance has established Yao Cheng's leading position among many actors in Jiangsu xiju troupe.

Walk out of the broad road of drama

Yao Cheng has a very broad theatrical career. On the stage, she not only created many excellent female roles, but also successfully played the leading role of Wen bizheng in "double pearl Phoenix" and Jia Baoyu in "a dream of Red Mansions", among which "double pearl Phoenix" was also made into a film. But Yao Cheng didn't like the roles of the two little students at that time. She thought that she couldn't be a woman when she played the role of little students. When the leader asked her to play Jia Baoyu in the performance, she refused. Yao Cheng said that we are not Yue opera, so why should we have female students. Shaoxing opera should reform female students. Later, the provincial leader talked to her and said that the members of the party had to obey the assignment, so she agreed to play. “

Yao Cheng's success is due to his hard work. She has never been in an academic class, has not been able to benefit from a lifetime of childlike skills, and has never met a famous teacher who can turn stone into gold. She has no money to study and can't draw nutrition from books. Yao Cheng was forced to develop a valuable psychological quality -- studious! Under stage learning, backstage learning, pulling the wing curtain learning, running maid standing at the edge of the stage learning. Learn from Xi opera artists, sisters, Dan actors and Shengxing. Like hunger and thirst, diligent learning and hard training, learning from others' strong points, like bees brewing honey

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