The queen of Huangmei Opera remembered
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While music lovers around the world are celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Polish pianist and composer Chopin this year, a small group of Chinese artists in Anhui province is doing its bit to commemorate a legendary actress of a local opera.
Yan Fengying, widely considered as the most famous actress of Huangmei Opera, was born in 1930 and in her short life of 38 years, forged a unique performing style. She created many popular roles, helping Huangmei Opera to flourish.
For the 80th anniversary of her birth, Wu Qiong, today's leading Huangmei Opera actress, and her colleagues have come up with a show on the tragic life of the beloved actress.
Originating in Huangmei, Hubei province, and popular in Hubei and neighboring Anhui and Jiangxi provinces, Huangmei Opera is basically derived from the folk songs that the locals sing while picking tea.
Yan took to the folk songs at a young age. At 12, she started to learn Huangmei Opera from a local artist. But owing to society's prejudice against local opera performers at that time, she ran into opposition from her family.
The determined girl left home and joined a troupe touring around Anhui. Her talent was soon noticed. To improve her singing, Yan also learned Peking Opera and Kunqu Opera.
After the founding of New China, Yan joined the Anhui Huangmei Opera Troupe in 1953 and was soon promoted as vice-director of the company.
But the actress suffered greatly during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) and committed suicide in 1968, when she was just 38.
However, Yan's influence on Huangmei Opera has endured and her signature repertoire including The Emperor's Female Son-in-Law (Nu Fuma), Fallen Stars (Niulang Zhinu) and A Goddess' Marriage (Tianxian Pei), are still very popular today.
Almost all of today's Huangmei Opera actresses are proud of being compared to Yan. Wu is one of them and has even been hailed as "young Yan Fengying".
Born in Wuhu, Anhui province, Wu started to learn Huangmei Opera at 15. After five years of training, she and four other young actresses were dubbed the "best five" of Huangmei Opera. She started to specialize in Yan's style of performance at 20 and has learned all of Yan's repertoires.
In the 1990s, Huangmei Opera - like other local operas - was faced with the challenge of retaining audiences who were turning increasingly to other, modern forms of entertainment.
Blessed with a golden voice, Wu turned to pop music and even won a few national awards. She also received vocal training at the China Conservatory of Music.
"But Huangmei Opera was always in my heart. Whenever people said local opera should be kept in the museum, I felt the pull to return to the stage," Wu says.
She did return in 1996 and is now head of the Wuhu Yanfengying Theater.
Directed by Cao Qijing, the upcoming performance zeroes in on the most important periods of Yan's life and career to explore the personality of the actress, and her devotion to Huangmei Opera. It will feature some of the most popular arias of Yan's trademark repertoires.
"With its lyrical tunes and simple words, Huangmei Opera is easy to understand and learn. The score and lyrics of the new play Yan Fengying, I believe, would also appeal to young audiences," Wu says.
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