Memoirs of Mei Lanfang (24)

The second time I went to Shanghai I "Female Solution"

"At the turn of the autumn and winter of the third year of the Republic of China, Shanghai Dangui No. 1 sent a representative Wen Fengxiang to Beijing to invite me and Feng Erye to perform in the south. This time it has nothing to do with Xu Shaoqing, it is completely undertaken by You Hongqing and Wen Fengxiang and others. It's still just the two of us. At the beginning of December, I brought my buddies, that is, the original team from last time, and came south in the Jinpu car. You Hongqing rented a two-storey and two-bottom alley house near the theater for us in advance, and then found a cook from the north to cook for us. These are all within the scope of the 'four pipes' (eating, living, connecting, and sending), and the theater owner should fulfill the conditions as usual. When we got out of the car, we were inevitably going to be busy for a while. This time, my aunt didn't come with her, it was Wang Minghua and Yong'er from my front room who followed. There are some trivial things, she can be distracted to take care of me, and it is more comfortable. The allocation of housing is still that Feng Erye lives upstairs and I live downstairs.

"When the new corner arrives, the theater owner usually wants to entertain a meal, which is called a dismounted meal. The guests invited that day, in addition to us from the north, also had actors from Shanghai. The first time I met Zhao Junyu was at this dinner table. He arrived earlier than me, and as soon as I entered, Boss You pulled him over, introduced us, looked the two of us up and down, and said with a smile: "You two want to sing a duet at the same time, is it more appropriate." He also lined us up next to each other so we could talk.

"He is the son of Zhao Xiaolian, who sings Xiaosheng. sang blackhead at first, and later changed to a small life. The last time I came, he also accompanied Feng Zihe to sing Xiaosheng, and only changed to singing Danjiao this year. I heard that he can play a lot, Hua Face, Xiaosheng, Hua Dan, Dao Ma Dan, and Bangzi can all sing. It already has a place in the opera troupe in Shanghai. Boss You tried his best to win us over today, and seeing his plan, some scenes are definitely going to be co-starred by Zhao Junyu and me.

"After eating, everyone who had something to do on the stage left first. The rest is left with Feng Erye, and we will discuss the three-day bubble play. On the first day, "Cailou Pei" and "Cinnabar Mole", on the second day, "Female Solution" and "Take Chengdu", and on the third day, "Fenhe Bay".

"The basic actors of Dangui Stage 1 this time have increased or decreased somewhat from last year. What is subtracted is Wusheng Yang Ruiting, the old student Xiao Yang Yuelou, eight-year-old red, Hua Dan pink chrysanthemum, and Yueyuehong. The addition is Huadan Zhao Junyu, the old student Gui Junqing, and a senior of the Hui class, San Mazi (Wang Hongshou), who is named after singing Hongsheng. He is known for his work and is very famous in the Yangtze River area. The rest of the martial arts are called Tian, Zhang Dejun, Lao Shengshuang, Liu Shoufeng, Lang Deshan, Feng Zhikui, Xiaosheng Zhu Suyun and Chen Jiaxiang have not changed. It's a lot of talent.

"December 7 (October 21 of the old calendar) is the first day of our second visit to Shanghai. My "Cai Lou Pei" is the second-to-last yard. There are a few famous actors from the south in the head, who are in the same class as me for the first time. I had planned to go backstage earlier to see their play. I caught up with Mr. Di Pingzi and asked us to have dinner in a restaurant in the small garden, he was the one who picked up the wind with Feng Erye for me, so I couldn't help but go. Most of the people in the seat were several old gentlemen who stayed in Shanghai at that time, such as Zhu Guwei, Shen Zipei, and Wu Changshuo...... They were in good spirits that day, and their conversation style was also very healthy. I saw Mr. Shen read a new poem he had written to Mr. Zhu. The two of them were still carefully working on the words filled in. Another middle-aged man, wearing a very gorgeous dress, a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, and a cigar in his mouth, was asking Mr. Wu for a pen and ink debt. I heard him say to Mr. Wu: 'I will not hand in the banner you have drawn for half a year, and you will not use the knife if there is a stamp.' I bought that Tianhuang stamp at a great price, so don't lose it for me. Mr. Wu glanced at him and said coldly, "If you don't worry, send someone to get it back tomorrow." After saying this, he turned back to me and said, 'Wanhua, when you come this time, I will paint you a good colored red plum.' The friend interjected and said, 'Boss Mei, you wait.' Come back to singing next year, you may be able to get your hands on it. Mr. Wu assured me in a straight way: 'Before you leave, I will definitely finish the drawing and send it over.' I thanked him first. At this time, the master was talking to an old man about Buddhism, and I didn't know anything about it, so I could only sit and listen, and I couldn't interject.

"We accompanied these old gentlemen, and we didn't wait until we finished eating, and it was not too early to see the time on the watch. Feng Erye's drama is behind, and the old student's pretense is simple, it doesn't matter. My yard is in front, and it takes a lot of time to act, and I am a little anxious. If you sit down again, you will have to taste the rush of Beijing again. It just so happened that Mr. Wu and an old man were going to go first, so we also said goodbye, jumped into the carriage and left. Fortunately, it is not far from the restaurant, and it is only a corner away. My follow-up Bao Songshun was at the door of the backstage, looking around and waiting anxiously, when he saw my car, he grabbed it and opened the door for me. The mouth urged me to go upstairs and pretend to play. I asked him, where was the scene? He ignored me, walked into the theater with his head down, and then I realized that I was really confused by the rush. Song Shun is a deaf person, how can he hear what I whispered. It's funny to think about it. When I finished dressing up and went downstairs, the time was still very calm. After a while, there was a small gong playing on the stage, and I met the audience in Shanghai again for the second time in the sound of color in the audience. The faces in the first few rows are very familiar, and most of them are our old spectators from last year.

"On the first day, because I was in a hurry, I couldn't see the drama in the head. The next day, next to my yard, was San Mazi's "Xu Ce Running to the City", and I couldn't see it when I was acting. The fourth is Gui Junqing Zhao Junyu's "Dragon and Phoenix", I have to come and see it early.

"The next day I went backstage, and Zhu Suyun's "Yuejiazhuang" was almost finished. After a while, Gui Junqing's Emperor Zhengde appeared. His voice wasn't too good, with a slight whin. It is more appropriate to sing this kind of playful play. Zhao Junyu saw me by the curtain, and he whispered to me, 'Don't laugh. After speaking, the audience had already sung 'Lonely Shogun vibrated to see who came, and drank a cup to patrol'. He said 'here' from inside the curtain and went out with the tea tray. I watched him carefully a few times, and I felt that his singing style was the way of Feng Zihe. Probably because he and Feng Zihe have co-starred on the same stage more times. He was young at the time, and he also relied on his sweet voice and bright appearance to win the audience's popularity.

When I saw his makeup, I remembered Feng Zihe, Seven Lamps (Mao Yunke) I saw in Shanghai last time, as well as Jia Biyun and Lin Haoqing, who had been to Beijing, all of them were the same way. Some places are different from us. It seems that the southern ones are a little more aesthetically pleasing, so let me give you two examples:

"(1) Facial circles. In the past, Danjiao in the north did not pay attention to drawing dark circles, and a few strokes were just a thing. The eye circles of the above people I saw were all drawn quite black, and the eyes were particularly good-looking.

"(2) Patches. In the earliest northern Tsing Yi boudoir and Hua Dan, the parts of the film paste were taller and wider than now, and the face shape was often pasted square. If there is a sharp corner on the sideburns, the insider calls it a 'wide open face'. Put a 'mushroom leaf' on your head, that is the authentic Tsing Yi appearance. The era of my grandfather's performance, needless to say, was exactly this kind of sticking. Even in the early days of Old Master Chen, he was still 'open-faced'. After I sang in the big class, I slowly changed, and I changed the way I posted the film to the boudoir back then. But I think the sticking of the southern Danjiao seems to be more beautiful.

"I was influenced by them, and the last time I returned to Beijing, I had already begun to have new reforms in terms of eye circles and films. Don't look at this little trick of drawing, the technique is still very particular. If the eyes are too big, you can draw them smaller, and if they are smaller, you can draw them bigger. It's all up to you. In addition, there are different ways to paste the patch, such as 'front', 'back', 'high', and 'low'. If the face is large, it should be pasted forward, and if the face is small, it should be pasted back, if the face is short, it can be pasted a little higher, and if the face is large, it should be pasted lower. In short, makeup is not very simple. I'm constantly researching it, and I don't know how many trials and improvements it took to get it to the way it is now.

"I was watching, the deaf man came to urge me to go upstairs again, dressed up Su San, he took the fish flail down for me, and San Mazi on the field was playing "Running City", I heard the soles of his boots stepping on the board, that kind of neat and powerful sound, I knew that his waist and legs were not shallow.

It is said that the old-school "Female Liberation" was sung in conjunction with "Three Sessions of Trial". Su San only had four original sentences in prison. This anti-Erhuang was added by Uncle Wang (Yaoqing). After singing more, everyone will stop singing "Trial".

"My "Female Explanation" was given by my uncle's father. The lyrics of the original section are not very different from others. My uncle taught me to sing 'Ten Hatefuls', which is a way of singing, and the actor is quite restricted. You want to sing from one to ten next to each other, and the audience will hear it too clearly. If the actor has a bad voice today and wants to sing two less sentences, it is not easy, and the audience will hear it immediately.

"I played "Female Liberation" at that time, but I just relied on my wide voice to let the audience listen to a few words of singing, and when it comes to facial expressions, I am not yet mature. There is a small figure in it, which he taught me backstage when I first co-starred with Wang Changlin. He said: "Before Chonggongdao put Su San in prison, Su San should first touch her left chest with her hand, which means that she should always pay attention to that picture, which echoes the later reading, 'Some people in prison are not satisfied, write a great complaint for me'. As soon as he got out of prison, Chong Gongdao then recited the sentence 'I want to wash you' (washing you are the local language of Beijing, which means searching), and also made it look like he wanted to search Su San, Su San retreated, and at the same time read 'Uncle, you go to submit the text, I will wait for you there'. Chong Justice and read, 'You are really an old man in lawsuits'. The old words were originally read like this, if there was no previous explanation, Su San was afraid of what the intention of the search was, and the audience would not understand. Therefore, this figure of touching the chest with the hand is really important. I have always done this after I have been instructed by him, refusing to ignore it. But this simple and small figure is not very easy to do. It's too hidden, it can't attract the attention of the audience, it's too obvious, there is a solution standing next to it, and it's unreasonable, you can only touch it on your back, and when you turn around and see the solution, you should put your hand down.

"Su San left the prison, and he traveled the same way, and there was a difference between the pace of the assembly board and the original board. A section of the flowing water is still in the city, and there are many people in the streets and alleys, so you have to go faster. The original section has already gone out of the city gate, because the weather is hot, and the flail is also removed, and it should be slow to recount her case all the way. Therefore, the speed of the steps should not only follow the singing, but also match the plot, rather than following a certain step.

"Although the Chonggong of "Female Liberation" is a supporting role, it has a lot to do with it. There were only two people on the stage. In the original section, every time Danjiao sings a sentence, he has his confession. If he says too much, the audience will be disgusted when he listens to it, and if he says too little, it will appear dry and tasteless, and second, the person who sings will not have to rest. It is not an easy task to say no more, no less, just right, so that the audience listens to it and finds it relaxed and interesting. That day was Kexiushan's Chonggong Dao, he was originally an old horn in Beijing, and he took a class in Shanghai. This time, he sang with me in many scenes. "There are a lot of harlequins who have sung "Female Solution" with me. In the early days, it was Wang Changlin and Li Jingshan...... In recent years, it has always been Xiao Changhua. Wang Changlin reads according to the old words, and sometimes he catches a little bit, but there are not many of them. Li Jingshan and Xiao Changhua, they are more proficient when they catch them. Once upon a time, the rules of our troupe. Harlequin can be used as many as he likes, but only for the ugly. The square scarves in the text are ugly, such as Jiang Gan and Tang Qin...... There are certain lines, and they can't be added or subtracted arbitrarily. Secondly, Hua Dan can also tell a few jokes on stage.

At that time, the harlequin grabbed on stage, and the emphasis was on being cold on his face, relaxed in his mouth, and making puns without leaving the plot. Some actors talk casually on stage, they like to catch low-level and vulgar things, and the reaction from the audience only feels disgusting and will not have a good impression of him. The clown old-timers I have seen are the first to be Luo 100 years old. He played a long-term worker in "Velvet Flower Strategy" - trough head tether, and his character is a bit like Ge Wei of Chu Opera. When he saw the eldest lady coming home outside the door, he added these lines temporarily: 'Didn't the eldest lady run away? Why did she come back again? Oh, I see, now that the peace has been made, so she can come back again.' At this time, the Empress Dowager Cixi had just returned to Beijing from Xi'an, didn't she also run away? You see how sarcastic he is in these words, and at the same time every sentence is in the play, this is a good hand who can catch it. ”

2. "Five Flower Caves"

"After three days of bubble play, Boss You proposed that Zhao Junyu accompany me to sing "Five Flower Cave". He thinks that the two of us can be called for this play together. He has already made an appointment with Zhao Junyu to come to me tomorrow to play.

On the afternoon of the next day, Zhao Junyu really came. He said, 'In this play, two people have to sing the same thing.' You hum it to me twice, and I'll sing along with you, and I won't touch it. I said, 'Okay, that's it.' You are with me offstage, and when you get on stage, you have to follow you. Because "Five Flower Cave" has two real and false Pan Jinlian, I have always pretended to be fake, and I have to imitate the singing and movements of the real Jinlian everywhere on stage. When I co-starred with Wang Huifang, we sang in a different way, and I sometimes played the real golden lotus. These two roles have slightly different actings. It's really Tsing Yi who should do it, and the fake is changed by monsters. If you look at his appearance and open the fan, you can see that this contains the flavor of Hua Dan.

"We had a good show, and we invited Mr. Ru to hang for us for a while. He said, 'Your two are in the right direction. When you get on stage, just do it. These two Pan Jinlians sang a sentence next to each other, and they couldn't change the huqin. agreed to use my scene, so I asked Mr. Ru to pull it.

"The singing part was solved, and we discussed that everyone should make the same outfit, so that they would look neat and good. He has a familiar shop, so I asked him to do it for him. At that time, the theaters in Shanghai had new plays all year round, so Jiao'er was a regular customer of the shop. On the day of the performance, it was Bao Gong of Langde Mountain, Zhang Tianshi of Shuangchu, Justice Xiao Guichun, Wuda of Kexiu Mountain, Zhao Junyu and my real and false Pan Jinlian. Boss You also solemnly put this "Five Flower Cave" on the main axis to sing, as soon as we came out, the audience saw this pair of Pan Jinlian, they are very young, they are not separated, the costumes are the same, and the singing tone is also the same, they all feel fresh and chic, so the mood is quite enthusiastic.

"The plot of this play is absurd, but in "Water Margin", there is no clue to be found. It's a completely fictional funny drama to the wall. However, it has a characteristic, that is, Pan Jinlian's character, her romantic and romantic are described in the old plays, focusing on style, not singing, and she is played by Hua Dan. Pan Jinlian in "Five Flower Cave" is a decent character. You can see that she has a lot of slow Sippi's singing skills in this play, and you know that she wants Tsing Yi to do it. This is similar to Pan Jinlian, who picks up the curtain and tailors. caught the monster at the end, and the case was revealed, as if telling the audience that the real Pan Jinlian was a well-behaved woman, and the fake Pan Jinlian was a monster. Her wrongs have been cleared up by Master Bao, who is recognized as honest and selfless. Writing about her like this is still an ingenious creation in the old play.

It is said that "Five Flower Cave" was blown first, and the plot is not very different from what is sung now. There is a singer named Zhang Xi, also because he saw that there were two Danjiao - Hu Xilu and Wang Changgui looked very similar, so he adapted it and let them perform.

"The line of this play is often new, and it is really troublesome. Because the color, material, and style of the clothes worn by the real and fake Pan Jinlian must be the same, so as to fit the plot. So as long as someone else sings with me, the clothes have to be made differently.

Pan Jinlian's dress, with a big head combed on her head in the old play, and a jacket, hakama, and waist sweat scarf on her body, is very similar to the fashion of women back then. I have sung this play from Xiliancheng to the present, and there have been three changes in the costumes: (1) Bamboo cloth hakama with lace, long jacket, narrow cuffs, and a section of embroidered sleeves on the wrist. (2) The material of the jacket pants is made of wool blue cloth, and the style is very different. The jacket was short, the cuffs were large, not trimmed, and the sleeves were eliminated. (3) A jacket of foreign yarn, with black velvet shoulders, fat and short cuffs, and a large round hem. The costumes of this play were originally fashionable, so its style has changed with the times. ”