Hồi sinh hí kịch Trung Hoa qua vở Mẫu đơn đình

với vô số bản chuyển thể, vở kịch "Mẫu đơn đình" là lời đáp lại của Trung Quốc với vở "Hồ Thiên Nga". Nhưng những nỗ lực tái hiện bản gốc của vở kịch vẫn chưa đáp ứng được kỳ vọng. 

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As part of last month’s Shanghai International Arts Festival, the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe (Đoàn kịch Côn Khúc Thượng Hải) presented a “distilled” version (phiên bản tinh gọn) of the famous Ming dynasty (1368-1644) opera “The Peony Pavilion.” (Mẫu đơn đình)

Originally penned (chấp bút) by Tang Xianzu, one of the Ming’s greatest authors and dramatists (nhà viết kịch), “Peony Pavilion” is to Kun opera what “Swan Lake” is to ballet. It tells the story of a noble (quyền quý) woman, Du Liniang, who — in a bout of what the poets used to call “spring melancholy” — slips into a deep, dream-filled slumber (giấc mộng). There she falls in love with a scholar named Liu Mengmei. Upon waking, Du is so distraught at the loss of her lover that she dies. Roaming the mortal realm (cõi phàm trần) as a spirit, she finds the real-life Liu and the two fall in love. Finally, he brings her back to life so that they can truly be together.

That’s a very short summary of an exceedingly long story. Ming dynasty epics (sử thi) can have as many as 30 to 50 scenes, including numerous self-contained side plots (tình tiết phụ) that bear little relation to the primary narrative. On top of that, the format of Kun opera — a style of opera native to (bắt nguồn từ) the Jiangnan region surrounding Shanghai and distinguished (nổi bật, đặc sắc) by both the use of local dialect and the heavy involvement of the literati (giới văn sĩ) in its creation and production — demands that several songs with similar melodies (giai điệu) be strung together into sets... To present Tang Xianzu’s work in its entirety, you’d be singing non-stop for about three days and three nights. 

Since 1949, Kunqu opera troupes have generally limited performances of “Peony Pavilion” to two or three hours. .

...Nevertheless, in the past 30 years a handful of troupes have attempted more “complete” performances of “Peony Pavilion” — even if they still technically involved some omissions (lược bỏ). In 1998, the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe staged a production of “Peony Pavilion” with 55 scenes that took three afternoons and evenings to perform. The following year, the same troupe staged a six-hour version of Tang’s opera, splitting it into three parts: Dream Interrupted, Revival (hồi sinh), and Reunion.

In 2004, renowned (nổi tiếng) author Bai Xianyong helmed (biên đạo) an adaptation (chuyển thể) of “Peony Pavilion” aimed at young audiences and performed by the Suzhou Kun Opera Troupe. That show features 29 scenes, takes over nine hours from start to finish, and is still staged today. 

More recently, the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe premiered (công chiếu lần đầu) a new adaptation last year, this one comprising 55 scenes spread out over eight hours.

...All of these adaptations were abridged (rút gọn) and aimed at wealthy audiences — itself a kind of return to the genre’s roots. Kun opera emerged in the mid- to late-16th century, when it was performed largely by family-based troupes — at least until such troupes were banned by the Emperor Yongzheng in 1724. These troupes were typically run by members of the elite, who would compose (soạn nhạc) the operas, select and train their own actors, and host performances at their own residences, reception halls, or pavilions, either for their own entertainment or that of guests.

So, on the one side, we have the revival of longer, largely unabridged (không rút gọn) performances of “Peony Pavilion” that seek to present the original in its entirety to as wide an audience as possible, even as they are altered (biến đổi) to conform to (phù hợp với) Western-style stages and conventions (quy ước). On the other, we have heavily truncated (bị cắt bỏ) adaptations, organized or promoted by private companies and set in traditional Chinese venues as a way to appeal to the country’s wealthy modern elite.

source: Sixth Tone,