The "big production" of stage art must have a degree

There is no doubt that stage art needs innovation and development, but how to innovate and develop is worthy of further study and discussion. In recent years, "big productions" on the opera stage have been surging, with millions of dollars per play, and more than half of the funds are spent on stage art. Most of the colleagues' starting point is to devote themselves to the innovation and development of stage art, but it also causes Many problems of the industry. I am not opposed to "big productions", but "big" must have a "big" reason.

It should be admitted that many "big productions" of opera stage design are generally successful. They make full use of modern high-tech means, such as computer three-dimensional animation projection sets, computer lights, laser lights, dry ice, computer mixers, microphones (headsets, chest mics, etc.) and other technical means of sound, light, chemistry, and electricity. , to create a dynamic, colorful, magnificent, and colorful stage art, which has played an important role in shaping the image of actors, expressing the thoughts and feelings of characters, creating an opera stage environment, and exaggerating the atmosphere of the opera stage. What is particularly commendable is that these "big productions" of opera dance beauty have attracted the attention of a large number of opera audiences with their unique and distinctive artistic features of the new era and new characteristics.

From the perspective of acceptance aesthetics, the greatest success of artistic creation is to deliver a satisfactory answer to the audience. Stage art is an important part of theater and other stage performances, including sets, lighting, make-up, costumes, effects, props, and more. Its task is to create the external image of the environment and characters in the play and render the stage atmosphere by using a variety of plastic art means in a unified artistic conception according to the content of the script and performance requirements.

I think that whatever is conducive to the completion of this task, as long as conditions permit, we should open our hands and boldly pursue development and innovation. But we should also see that some "big productions" that deviate from this task in the name of innovation and development, which are purely "show-offs", have indeed brought about many negative effects: First, they have led to a serious imbalance in economic benefits The second is that it violates the aesthetic characteristics of the opera performance art itself; the third is that it hinders the development of operas to a broad cultural market; the fourth is that technology replaces art, and computers replace human brains. People only see its technological content, but not its artistic content. The author has been engaged in drama screenwriting work for a long time. From the perspective of screenwriting, I think that the development and innovation of our stage art should at least adhere to the following basic principles, namely: first, it should be conducive to shaping characters, and second, it should be conducive to the creation and organization of drama. Action space, thirdly, it should be conducive to expressing the environment and place where the action takes place, fourthly, it should be conducive to creating emotional atmosphere, fifthly, it should be conducive to revealing dramatic ideas, and sixthly, it should try its best to obtain the best artistic effect with the smallest investment.

On the opera stage in recent years, the stage art of Huangmei Opera "Huizhou Woman" should be regarded as an example of innovation and development. Its most unique features are the use of lighting colors and unique artistic processing. The designer borrowed from the lighting treatment techniques of the drama, exaggerated and integrated the beauty of the times into the art of Huangmei Opera, so that the bright spots and contrasting color changes in the stage performance of "Hui" all resonated with the plot. For example, in the prologue scene, a beam of white light shoots down into the sky and hits the big sedan chair in the center of the pitch-dark stage, completely placing the sedan chair under the light beam.

At this time, accompanied by the ups and downs of the music, and with the red sedan chair as the lead, the stage was suddenly full of red and purple, making the stage burst into a fiery welcoming scene, dyeing the quiet and empty sky red, and making the slightly isolated mountain village suddenly boil stand up. At this time, the lighting is depicted in heavy colors, which sets off the ups and downs of the whole scene with strong and large-scale warm colors, making people feel every atmosphere and momentary change, and truly harmonizing the external form and connotation of art. with unity. Another example is the "Pan" scene in the play. At the front of the empty stage, a large carved bed with Hui style tradition is placed on the platform. The scenery reminds that it is an ancient and simple mountain village interior.

The kindness and simplicity of the "Huizhou women" and their longing for a better life, their souls are like empty and cold houses, appearing pale and helpless. In addition to the basic tone treatment of the lighting, it is a series of artistic shapes that follow the "Huizhou women"'s desire for beauty, ingeniously let the actors perform on the transparent big bed, and show a woman under the feudal traditional precepts more vividly and exaggeratedly. desire for life. At the climax of the plot, the dazzling backlight penetrates the snowflakes and crosslights on the stage, creating an infinite artistic beauty.

In the "return" scene in the last scene, the lighting here gives a very connotative hint. The remote mountain village street scene, remnant walls and deep alleys, under the reflection of a slanting sun, look mottled and waxy yellow, and the lights follow each step of the "Huizhou woman" to outline a stone path leading to the distance layer by layer. , there is also a bunch of green light sources that symbolize life, making a woman's figure thin and long, implying the infinite extension of artistic life, and also symbolizing a never-ending road of life, which makes the audience linger and dream. This mutual comfort with the overall art makes us realize the essential sublimation of the combination of light and artistic aestheticism.

An important artistic feature of the traditional opera stage is its "virtuality". To manage the relationship between virtual and real is a key issue in stage art design. The design of the theater stage is the set, using the real set to serve the virtual drama. All the sets and spaces on the stage are hypothetical. A scene or block can be a wall, door, mountain, etc., which is simple. The real creation, and the part above the stage is the real treasure bag, which is the birthplace of the audience's infinite reverie.

It can be said that the stage design is to manage the space above the stage through the planning of the real setting, and the main task of the design is to lay out the "empty" rather than the "real". Realistic drama (drama) requires actors to provide a fulcrum that conforms to the logic of life. Such as doors, windows, balconies, tables and chairs, hillsides, tree stumps, etc.

This requires designers to carefully observe and analyze life at ordinary times, and refine and process it in creation. In the performance of realistic plays, stage art must organize and limit the performance space, provide actors on and off the stage, arrange scenery and props, and make them meet the needs of the characters in the play. With the increasing number of large-scale theatrical performances, stage design has gradually moved from the stage to large-scale stages such as studios, squares, and gymnasiums.

The "big production" stage design of these large-scale cultural evenings is actually the product of economic development and the survival and development of theater art. "Majestic scenes, luxurious installations, flashing lights, strange costumes" and so on, make stage designers gradually realize the importance of "art packaging". With the development of science and technology, the improvement of lighting production level and control technology, lighting has become an important stage vocabulary, and the application of new materials has greatly enriched the expressive force of stage art.

Lyricism is an aesthetic feature of Chinese opera. It is not advisable to apply the realistic setting of drama to the stage of opera, which will lead to seeing things but not people, and blocking the audience's imagination. It is also not advisable for those who "scene cancel the theory" to make the stage pale and poor by using simple methods or "dealing with poverty". For any artistic innovation, there is a problem of "degree", whether it can be accepted by the audience.

The innovation of the traditional stage with a hard shell must control the relationship between "degree" and the audience's appreciation taste and appreciation habits. The positioning of innovation should be based on its own artistic characteristics, looking for creative means that are different from other arts and full of expressiveness, so as to make its own stage design features more distinctive, more impressive, and more intense. Stage art needs innovation and development, but innovation and development do not mean spending money on competitions. How to maximize the best artistic effect with the smallest investment should still be regarded as an important contribution of stage art staff to stage art! .