Gao Jia's drama "Li Guangdi" was performed in Jinjing

Photos of Li Guangdi from interviewees

In recent days, the excellent stage art works of Fujian Province, "Literature and Art Advocate Integrity", jointly sponsored by the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, have been exhibited in Jinjing, and six representative high-quality plays on anti-corruption theme in Fujian have taken turns to stage. Among them, Li Guangdi, a Gaojia play rehearsed by Anxi County Gaojia Play Art Protection and Inheritance Center, was staged in Beijing Mei Lanfang Grand Theater on March 24 and 25, and was widely praised by the audience.

Numerous drafts are carefully polished to become a good play

Li Guangdi, a famous official of the Qing Dynasty from Anxi, has served successively as the editor of the Imperial Academy, the governor of Zhili, the minister of the Ministry of Officials, the great scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion, and assisted Emperor Kangxi for 48 years. He has served the people with integrity and integrity throughout his life. During the reign of Emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, Li Guangdi, as the governor of Zhili, tried to remonstrate against the harm of enclosure, and fought against the then prime minister of power, Pearl, and finally abolished the evil politics of enclosure. The story of Gao Jia's play "Li Guangdi" began slowly here.

An excellent character play is not just a shortened version of a character's life. How to tell a good character story is the key to a good play. "Li Guangdi has left many stories in his life. We have consulted a lot of historical materials and made many choices in the process of script creation, and the final script was decided after several drafts." Xie Zhibin, director of Anxi County Gaojia Opera Art Protection and Inheritance Center, told reporters that in 2017, the center started the script creation of Gaojia Opera "Li Guangdi", Fang Chaohui, the first level screenwriter of Zhangzhou Drama Research Institute, Lv Zhongwen, a famous director artist and national level inheritor of intangible cultural heritage of top rated dramas, and other "celebrities" were invited to participate in the event.

After carefully reading the "Barefoot Prime Minister Li Guangdi", "Li Guangdi's Commentary" and many other local cultural and historical materials, the team did not completely adhere to historical facts, but centered on the theme of "combating corruption and promoting integrity", and took the enclosure order as the main line to create. "In the process, we also considered the stories of Li Guangdi's entanglement with his friend Chen Menglei, and the villagers' plans to build a house for Li Guangdi after he returned to his hometown, but after careful consideration, we felt that these stories were not enough to support Li Guangdi's image of being honest, upright and dedicated to the people." Fang Zhaohui said, "Finally, we changed our draft three times and decided to use the conflict between Manchu and Han Dynasty between the enclosure of the flag men and the loss of cultivated land during the reign of Kangxi as the background, and use the way of echo from beginning to end to connect the stories of saving the victims of unjust cases in the literary prison, dealing with river disasters, punishing corrupt officials and so on."

In 2018, Li Guangdi, a Gaojia drama that has been polished and modified for several times, came out. Through a series of characters, events and struggles of "enclosure", "refugees", "slander", "chess remonstrance", "corruption control" and "flood fighting", the whole drama portrays Li Guangdi as a character who works hard for the country and the people, is honest, brave and brave. In terms of artistic style, Gao Jia's play "Li Guangdi", on the basis of focusing on showing the atmosphere and righteousness, is also interspersed with ugly humor. "In the fifth scene, we joined the" Ugly in Official Robe "and" Ugly in Yamen Runner ", which set off Li Guangdi's wisdom and righteousness through the humorous and exaggerated clown performance in Gaojia Opera." Xie Zhibin said, "In the third scene, we also designed a sentence in Yifei's lines," This is the iron temple sound of Anxi ", which not only made the audience laugh, but also promoted Anxi's tea culture."

After 29 years, the grand play appeared on the capital stage again

Gaojia Opera, a national intangible cultural heritage, is one of the traditional local operas of the Minnan language family, with a huge audience base. This time, Li Guangdi, a high-class drama, was performed in Jinjing and was highly praised by the audience in the capital. At the performance site, the actors performed well in singing and speaking, with both spirit and shape, and the story of interlocking and dangerous scenes won the applause of the audience.

"This is my first time to watch Gaojia Opera. Previously, I only knew that Gaojia Opera was a local opera in Quanzhou, but I didn't know that its connotation was so rich. From the body performance of the actors to the plot arrangement and cohesion, and then to the high sense of purpose, it was very good." Zhang Yajuan, a Beijing audience, repeatedly praised. The reporter learned that for this performance, the Anxi County Gaojia Drama Art Protection and Inheritance Center sent 99 performers to make adequate preparations for repertory rehearsal, dance beauty improvement and the strengthening of the main creator's singing skills, and finally presented a wonderful performance effect for the capital audience.

"This is the second time that Anxi Gaojia Opera has appeared on the capital stage after the 1985 Phoenix Crown Dream and 1995 Jade Beads String." Wang Qiongfen, the actress of Yifei, said excitedly, "I have participated in the two previous performances. As an ordinary local opera actor, it is really a great honor to stand on the Beijing stage again, and I am grateful."

After watching the performance, Wang Kui, director of the Drama Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Arts, said: "This play will bring the character image of Li Guangdi, a famous official of Anxi in the Qing Dynasty, onto the stage. It not only has a strong artistic promotion role in promoting the culture of southern Fujian and Anxi regional culture, but also has practical significance in the spirit of honesty, public service and serving the country and the people."

It is reported that "Li Guangdi" was awarded the third prize of the 9th Hundred Flowers Literature and Art Award in Fujian Province, the first prize of the 27th Drama Festival of the 7th Fujian Arts Festival, and the outstanding plays of the first "Li Yu Cup" National Honest Opera Excellent Works Exhibition. (Reporter Guo Yaying)