牡丹亭首演成功

1、牡丹亭 首演成功沈豐英（杜麗娘，左）和俞玖林（柳夢梅，右），於演出結束後謝幕，並接受戲迷獻花。(記者劉開平攝)【本報記者劉開平柏克萊報導】17日傍晚6時許，柏克萊加大Zellebch劇場舞臺上，死而復生的杜麗娘和父母親重新歡聚；高中狀元的柳夢梅和丈人杜寶盡釋前嫌，臺上一團喜氣，謝幕聲中，大幕雖緩緩落下，但臺上臺下難以散去的喜氣，代表連演三天的青春版崑曲牡丹亭在美首場演出成功。 該劇製作人、著名作家白先勇說，美國觀眾的反應比（中國）國內觀眾還要強烈。他們覺得（戲結束得）太快了，看了九個小時，還捨不得走。他們真的很懂戲，都是行家，非常內行。有的觀眾感動得掉了眼淚。 柳夢梅飾演者俞玖林的老師、著名崑

2、曲演員汪世瑜對徒弟的表現(xiàn)說，比以前的演出成功，比較接近（戲中）人物，還應該再提高。 對於這齣戲的整體表現(xiàn)，汪世瑜說，意料之中是一定會成功，意料之外的是超成功。無論是老外，還是華僑，都非常懂戲。劇場效果比大陸好。說明崑曲是國際性的，應該走向世界。 杜麗娘飾演者沈豐英的老師、著名崑曲演員張繼青說，沈豐英的表演有進步，表演技巧有提高，她的精神狀態(tài)也保持得非常好。 對於整場演出，張繼青認為，現(xiàn)場氣氛好，觀眾理解戲的內容，這對演員也是一種精神鼓勵。 演出前，俞玖林曾擔心因為唱詞譯成英文，而失去原詞韻味，但他發(fā)現(xiàn)老外觀眾很懂戲，如杭中，杜麗娘說便和我到牡丹亭上去了，劇場裡馬上笑聲四起，說明他們聽懂了。在國

3、內有的觀眾不一定聽得懂。 沈豐英說，白先師說了很多次，這次演出很重要，所以之前有點緊張，但壓力可以變成動力。她認為，所有演員都發(fā)揮了最好的水準，演出得到了美國觀眾和專家學者的認可。 該戲作曲兼樂隊指揮周友良說，觀眾的熱情超過想像；樂隊採用西方的大提琴和低音提琴，是因為國產(chǎn)低音樂器一直不過關。 蘇州崑劇院院長蔡少華說，崑曲牡丹亭在此成功演出，說明東方藝術在美國找到了知音。藝術沒有國界。也激起我們更加努力地保護和傳承中國傳統(tǒng)戲曲。 四百年前湯顯祖的文字，以及戲文中的典故，即使是華人也不一定完全明白，華人精神健康協(xié)會執(zhí)行長徐嘉佳說，戲中有的部分，她必須看英文才明白。戲中二千六百多行唱詞，由東灣州大退

4、休教授李林德翻成英文，被稱為一美，即譯文美。 散場後，白先勇被許多白迷圍住，有人問下一部戲是甚麼？白先勇笑而未答，馬上有人大喊長生殿。 這是唐玄宗和楊貴妃的故事，也許不久的將來，崑曲舞臺上，將會出現(xiàn)新版在天願為比翼鳥，在地願為理連枝的故事。慶功宴 興奮寫在每個人臉上【本報記者徐敏子艾姆瑞維爾報導】柏克萊加大澤洛巴赫舞臺上牡丹亭的大幕才剛降下，另一齣充滿溫情的演出隨即在艾姆瑞維爾的東海海鮮酒家上演17日晚上，二百多名牡丹亭戲迷追著白先勇、杜麗娘和柳夢梅，從柏克萊轉戰(zhàn)艾姆瑞維爾，參加慶祝牡丹亭海外首演成功的慶功宴，喜悅、激動、興奮，盡寫在每個戲迷的臉上。 當晚席開26桌，每桌坐滿剛從牡丹亭唯美情境

5、中走出來的戲迷，包括不少崇拜中華文化的老美；灣區(qū)黃河鼓樂隊的好手以熱烈的鼓聲歡迎劇組演員進場，戲迷則夾道歡迎。 身穿絳紅色唐裝的白先勇(見左圖)手裡拍打著小鈸進入會場，鈸聲匯入鼓聲中，會場的氣氛high到最高點。白先勇高興地向大家致意，感謝演員、觀眾等及幕後義工的通力合作，使牡丹亭海外首站演出圓滿成功。 會場上活躍著不少灣區(qū)北一女校友的身影，為歡迎蘇州崑劇團的演員，校友會早早發(fā)起捐款活動，籌足款項為演員慶功，原來北一女是當年臺灣唯一有崑劇社的高中，不少校友當年就參加過牡丹亭的演出。 滿堂崑曲迷中包括柏克萊加大胡正明教授，他與太太梁淑玲一連看了三天，直呼過癮，細談之下才知道這已經(jīng)是看第二遍了。

6、胡正明說，崑曲是中國戲劇始祖，也符合現(xiàn)代人對美的追求，他本來對崑曲知之不多，但透過欣賞牡丹亭演出及聆聽演出前的講座，受益不淺，他因此感謝同為加大系統(tǒng)教授的白先勇為崑曲找到更多戲迷的貢獻。 史丹福大學講師朱琦說，牡丹亭演出前灣區(qū)媒體有很多宣傳，未看之前有人懷疑是否真的像白先勇說的那麼美？看了演出後才了解為何白先勇如此沉醉其中，因為真的好美。他說，他用望遠鏡看演出，所以看到了演員的一舉一動、一頻一笑都好美，真是莫大的享受。 慶功宴上，許多戲迷都圍著扮演杜麗娘與柳夢梅的演員合影留念，但是更多的人則走馬燈似地來到白先勇面前向他致謝，一位旅居美國幾十年的女士告訴白先勇說，她在觀劇中數(shù)度流淚，因為演出觸動

7、了她的民族文化感情。 白先勇表示，這裡的觀眾更熱烈，他說對崑曲讚譽有加的不僅是戲迷，更有各大學的專家，他並以西方人發(fā)現(xiàn)了中國、中國人發(fā)現(xiàn)了自己來概括牡丹亭海外演出成功的意義。 2006-09-18 REVIEW From a girls dream springs an operatic experience ravishing to the ear and eye. At nine hours long, Peony will fly by. HYPERLINK mailto:swinn Steven Winn, Chronicle Arts and Culture CriticTuesda

8、y, September 19, 2006A single scene in Fridays opening night of The Peony Pavilion at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley vanquished all doubts for anyone wary of devoting nine hours over three days to a Ming Dynasty-era Chinese opera. Fittingly, in a masterwork of theatrical and musical illusionism, it was

9、 a dream that made it happen. Sixteen-year-old Du Liniang (a transfixing Shen Fengying) wandered through a garden, alert to every trellised vine shoot, swallows chirp and perfumed scent of spring. Singing along to a swaying flute melody, as a dulcimer and other string instruments trembled in anticip

10、ation, the girl filled her senses to the fullest before falling asleep back in her room. In a swirl of gorgeously patterned fabric, a swarm of female Flower Gods surged onstage on quickly shuttling feet, conjuring a young scholar (the tenderly heroic Yu Jiuling as Liu Mengmei) from behind their opal

11、escent robes. Have we met somewhere before? he asked Du, in sweetly baffled wonderment. This being a dream, the two fell instantly and profoundly in love. Circling, dancing and singing in sublime accord, the long water sleeves of their costumes trailing and twining together and their white-face make

12、up shining, they played out a gloriously sustained and erotically charged courtship. The music surged and tingled, sighed and shivered. And then, with a single woodblock thwack, it was over. Du woke up, realized shed only been dreaming and fell into a heartsick swoon that eventually killed her off.

13、It was a teenagers fantasy crush raised to the heights of complex music drama. Everything in The Peony Pavilion flows from that vividly rendered dream. Dubbed the Chinese Romeo and Juliet, this 400-year-old classic spins out a tale of redemptive love that rescues the young girl from her grave, unite

14、s her with the scholar and resolves assorted familial and military complications along the way. For the local theatergoer fortunate enough to experience this extraordinary Suzhou Kun Opera Theatre of Jiangsu production, the Interrupted Dream also served notice of what lay ahead through the weekend -

15、 a ravishment of the eye and ear that simultaneously plunged the viewer into an art form remote to most Western audiences and glowed with unmistakable immediacy. All but a few hundred seats for the Friday through Sunday performances in Zellerbach were sold. Sung and spoken in highly inflected falset

16、to voices, the dialogue was subtitled in both English and Chinese. Once again, Cal Performances ventured where no other local presenter would, with this multi-part Kunqu (Kun opera) production, and scored a richly deserved success. Tang Xianzus original 1598 text is ageless, poetic, theatrically exp

17、ansive and replete with human understanding. Even in this taut 27-scene version (a full Peony Pavilion has more than twice as many scenes and takes 20 hours to perform), the dramatic amplitude was apparent. The young lovers shared the stage with conniving warlords, grieving parents, scheming servant

18、s, an underworld teeming with acrobatic sprites, a mystical self-portrait, a Lady Macbeth-ish conniver, a comic hunchback and a wise emperor. Its no wonder Pavilion continues to lure artists. A controversial staging by Peter Sellars (Doctor Atomic), with a modern score by Tan Dun, played Zellerbach

19、in 1999. In this 2004 version, now on tour to four California cities, classic and contemporary values were held in mutually reinforcing balance. Traditional vocal cadences, music, instrumentation and stylized gestures were set off by Kenneth Pais Young Lovers Edition adaptation and Wang Shiyus visua

20、lly resplendent physical production. At once lush, supple and suggestive, this Peony Pavilion not only evoked various works of Shakespeare but also, at various times, La Bohme, Bertoluccis The Last Emperor and the Ziegfeld Follies. In a pre-performance lecture Friday, Kunqu specialist Ben Wang quote

21、d William Blake to evoke the embracing spirit of the art form - the lusty song of fruits and flowers. Generally performed in smaller theaters on bare or minimally furnished stages, Peony Pavilion was re-conceived for both maximal romantic and eye-dazzling appeal. Pai, a Taiwanese novelist and profes

22、sor emeritus at UC Santa Barbara, lavished attention on the love scenes and pared down the military and political plotlines. The sensuality was enhanced and enlarged by attractive, age-appropriate leads and a floodtide of color, texture and visual contrast. The 200-plus costumes, from the gaudily gi

23、lded and extravagantly plumed to the densely embroidered and subtly harmonized, created a narrative spectacle in their own right. So did the painterly backdrops, which ranged from mountain lake scenes and misty forests to pure abstraction. All that was thoroughly, romantically modern, by Kunqu stand

24、ards. But sweeping spectacle was only one component - and not, finally, the most important - of this Pavilion. In its river flow of story, character, music and movement, the show kept revealing tangled currents and deep reflecting pools beneath its surface shimmer. Turning their shoulders toward or

25、away from one another, eyes widening warmly or clouding over, the young lovers dramatized coyness, fear, vanity, insecurity and playfulness as well as passion. Chen Lingling played a mother staggered by loss and fear during wartime. Fang Jianguo, as a masked diplomat veering out of control, staggere

26、d from the effects of too much drink. Shen Guofang was pert and charming as Dus devoted and sometimes prying maid, Spring Fragrance. The musicians, under Zhou Youliangs direction, performed the score with fluidity and grace. Lyrical passages gave way to clangorous exclamations by the percussionist a

27、nd sometimes to tense silence. The actors, their voices arching, melismatically busy or languidly stretched over a single note, sang heroically (if perhaps a little wearily by Sunday afternoon). The choreography was both rigorous and endlessly rich, from the geometric crowd scenes and looping migrat

28、ions of the lovers to the branching poise of orchid fingers or the sudden, startling rush of an anguished, loving daughter to her mother on her knees. Like Wagners Ring, the two-part adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby or other great long works for the stage, The Peony Pavilion recalibrated the audiences metabolism, its way of apprehending and understanding. Patterns emerged and deepened over the three days. The notion of lovers summoning one another across space and time was especially rich. Dus self-portrait, and