管波戏艺热京华

二十五年磨一剑

与管波相约会面是在她的家里．在这个充满现代浓郁生活气息的房子里，若不是衣帽间里露出一角的华美戏装，很难看出这是一个京剧演员的家；可见到管波的人，谁都会承认，一眼看上去她就是个京剧演员，她的一笑一颦、举手投足，活脱脱一个荀派花旦。这种发自内心的活泼气质，不会随着年龄的增长而减损。

2006年9月3日晚上，保利剧院花团锦簇、掌声雷动，一场别开生面的京剧交响音乐会在这里举行。时而是潇洒儒雅的琴师拉着深沉、悠长的京胡，时而是娇俏靓丽的花旦唱着婉转动听的曲调。这次音乐会的主角花旦和琴师，就是如今在京剧舞台上非常活跃的张顺翔、管波夫妇。

张顺翔、管波何许人也?提起管波，她的许多“粉丝”们都亲切地称她为“管管”、“波波”，“声似管弦形似波”是戏迷们对她的赞美。她嗓音甜润，扮相俊美，做功活泼洒脱，善于刻画人物，无论是狡黠活泼的小红娘（《红娘》），还是温柔多情的大家闺秀俞素秋（《勘玉钏》），都被她拿捏得恰到好处。管波师从著名京剧表演艺术家刘长瑜，又受到过宋长荣、吴素秋、张正芳、张逸娟等艺术家的指点，一路走来，似乎一帆风顺，总是受到上天的眷顾，可有谁知道，当年她进入“菊苑”却完全是一场误打误撞。

小时候的管波和现在一样爱说爱笑，能歌善舞。1991年当营口戏校来到她就读的小学招生时，从未接触过京剧的管波动了心，她以为进戏校就能唱歌跳舞，于是就瞒着父母报了名并通过了考试。别看管波那时年纪小，在这件事上她很有自己的主意。在她的坚持下，通情达理的父母同意了她的选择。

可进了戏校才知道这里完全不是她想象中那种唱歌跳舞“幸福生活”：每天都要早起吊嗓、练功，冬练三九、夏攻三伏，老师的要求非常严格，动作要是做得不到位，挨批评是家常便饭。整整半年，她都在偷偷掉眼泪。可每当父母劝她放弃时，她却坚决不肯，一直咬牙坚持着。有一次练习下腰的时候，头撞在水泥地上磕破感染了，她不敢让爸爸妈妈知道，妈妈来看她，她就偷偷躲起来。她说：“我从小就要强，虽然那时候不懂京剧，可想着为自己和父母争一口气，不能让别人笑话。”凭着这股韧劲，她很快就在同学中崭露头角，13岁时她随营口戏曲学校进京演出《卖水》，引起了轰动。

长大后进了百花齐放的京剧群芳苑，如果说小时候是憋着股劲儿要比别人强，长大后吸引管波在京剧这个“群芳苑”中深入钻研的，则是京剧本身的魅力了。“不入园林，怎知春色如许。”在京剧艺术的探求过程中，有一朵奇葩让管波留连忘返、如醉如痴：这就是纯真自然、不拘一格的荀派艺术。她在这条道路上越走越有心得，如今的管波，已不是当年那个在姹紫嫣红中左顾右盼的小姑娘，而是亲身将“荀香”传承下去的接力手。

比翼双飞夫妻档

“我在艺术上的成长，绝对离不开顺翔的帮助。”这句司空见惯的话在管波口里确实发自肺腑。张顺翔，中国京剧院国家一级演奏师，电视连续剧《大宅门》片尾那一声崩云裂帛的京胡声，就出自他之手。这对夫妻，从营口戏校开始青梅竹马的爱情到如今鹣鲽情深的婚姻生活，在梨园行有口皆碑。

张顺翔含蓄内敛、细心体贴，这与活泼外向的管波形成了互补。在采访中，他不多话，可总是适时地走来添茶。管波不无骄傲地说，“在业务上我们都是尖子，总是互相比着。比如说考中国戏曲学院、留在中国京剧院、评上‘国家一级’，我们都是前后脚。”管波上台演出，张顺翔经常用摄像机全部录下来，回来以后两个人在一起慢慢研究，哪里做得好，哪里需要改进。张顺翔是个完美主义者，他这么一做，把管波的潜质充分挖掘了出来，但这也留下了“后遗症”：出去演出前，管波经常把好多衣服都拿出来，一件件往身上套，叫张顺翔每一件都要作个中肯的评价。张顺翔每次都被折腾得头昏眼花，有时竟倒在床上昏昏睡去。管波笑着说：“谁叫他总是追求完美呢？我要把最好的一面呈现给观众呀！”

张顺翔多才多艺，除了京胡，月琴、笛子、唢呐等中国民族乐器他都精通。他还创作了很多京剧音乐，比如这次音乐会上演奏的《京胡印象》《琴瑟悠悠》《万众共育和谐篇》《贵妃情系百花亭》等。来到他们家的地下室，各种各样用于音频和视频制作的专业器材叫人颇为震惊，这里是他们夫妻俩的工作室，他们常常在这里工作到深夜。

京剧舞台上最耀目的是台上的“角儿”，琴师往往都是幕后英雄。但这次交响音乐会，管波终于实现了自己的愿望，把老公推到了台上最光彩夺目的位置，由此，可以说这次音乐会既是两人艺术的集中展示，也是多年爱情的见证。

古典传统也时尚

天真、烂漫、稚气、纯真的少女形象，是“荀派”艺术的典型代表。在表演上，“荀派”唱、念、做、表不拘于一格，唱腔甜润，身段婀娜，步法、身段、都依人物性格而定，贴近生活、贴近大众，具有特殊的亲和力。这种“先天”的优势加上管波走到哪里都能感染别人的热情性格，她带动身边很多朋友都喜欢上了京剧。管波2006年刚刚加入中国民主促进会，就组织了民进第一次京剧名家演唱会。她希望通过民进这个一向致力于保护和弘扬中国传统文化的组织，更好地传播京剧艺术。

管波还经常赴境外演出，亚洲、欧洲、非洲，世界各地走遍，观众有当地华侨，也有外国友人，“老外”们能够理解京剧吗?“能!”管波斩钉截铁地回答。京剧虽然是原生态的中国本土艺术，可兼容性很强。过去出国演出的都是《拾玉镯》《三岔口》这样的经典做功折子戏，可前年的一次英国之行改变了她的想法，他们演出了整本《辛安驿》，结果大获成功。这使管波领悟到，不管在国外还是国内，演出的成功首先要靠成功运作，目前她与张顺翔创办的文化公司，为京剧的市场化做了很多工作。

管波同样是个“多面手”。她喜欢做主持人，因为这个角色能够与观众有更多的沟通和互动。反应灵敏的管波，总能在主持过程中直接观察到观众的反应，挑起观众的情绪，争取观众。在京剧的普及推广上，管波更是不遗余力。去年她参加了“京剧进校园”活动，深入浅出地向大学生介绍京剧各方面的基本知识。她一边表演，一边声情并茂地诠释着人物的行为和心理活动，并通过实列说明京剧人物的心理活动，往往是通过程式化的表演来展示的。管波的特殊讲解方式让年轻学子们不再觉得京剧“看不懂”，体会到了京剧的魅力，“京剧进校园”在大学生中掀起了“京剧热”。今年3月，她刚刚结束了为“两会”代表的演出，又踏上了西去甘肃的列车。这次，她作为北京市西城区的人民代表，参与“送戏三下乡”活动，让京剧与普通老百姓的距离更加接近。

管波爱京剧，但并不讳言京剧当前存在的诸多问题。她也有很多苦恼，比如找不到适合自己的新剧本。当年荀慧生身边有很多人扶持，给他量身定做，写了大量优秀剧本的陈墨香先生就是其中一个。可现在新剧本不多，即使有也只能昙花一现，得过很多奖就不再演出了，无法流传下去。荀慧生先生一生演出过300多出剧目，代表作有20多出，可流传到今天的只是其中的一小部分。关于未来，管波中肯地说，最大的愿望就是能够抛开各种外界的喧嚣和干扰，沉下心来挖掘整理一批荀慧生先生留下的老剧目，将荀派艺术发扬光大。

Couple Passion for Peking Opera

By Zhang Yonghua

The Poly Theater in Beijing witnessed an unusual Peking Opera concert on the evening of September 3, 2006. The show was unusual on two counts at least. First, it was staged by a wife and husband team. Guan Bo and her husband Zhang Shunxiang are a perfect combination of high-profile Peking Opera artists in Beijing. Second, it was not just a wife-singing-and-husband-accompanying-on-the-Jinghu* concert. It was a Peking Opera musical gala. Four major pieces played by a symphony orchestra were composed by the versatile husband.

Like many accomplished Peking Opera artists, Guan seems to have had a good smooth career from the very beginning.She seems to have everything going her way to become a successful Peking Opera artist. Her good looks and physical beauty looks were predestined for the stage; her voice is sweet and her interpretation of characters always accurate and enjoyable. Though her success can be attributed to the important teachings from many masters, her personality is also a key contributing factor. A light-hearted girl loving to laugh, she was fond of singing and dancing in her childhood years. When a Peking Opera school in Yingkou in northeastern China’s Liaoning Province came to pick budding talents at the primary school where she was studying, Guan, though without any idea of what Peking Opera really was, signed up for an aptitude test, thinking that singing and dancing was all the Peking Opera would take. She participated in the test without her parents?prior knowledge. After learning she had passed the test and she wanted Peking Opera as her life goal, her parents agreed to let her try.

But a life of singing and dancing happily ever after did not materialize as she had imagined. Learning the professional art of Peking Opera at the school was hard and rigorous. For the first half year, the little girl cried frequently, trying hard to adjust herself to the opera reality and her new life. When her parents asked her if she wanted give up, she replied in a blunt “No? One day, while bending down in practice, she bumped her forehead into the concrete ground and later the cut became infected. When her mother came to the school for a visit, Guan hid away so that her mother would not see the cut. A girl eager to excel, she persisted and began to excel. At 13, she appeared in a performance in Beijing staged by her school’s troupe. Her sensational success paved a smooth way for her career. Over years, she was enrolled into the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts. Now she is a class-one state artist with Beijing Peking Opera Theater.

In a way, Zhang Shunxiang’s career has resembled that of his wife. An accompanist, he went to the same school where Guan started her career. It was at the school that the young Zhang and Guan fell in love with each other. He later studied his accompaniment art at the same academy in Beijing. Now he also works as a class-one state artist for the Beijing Peking Opera Theater.

The wife and husband complement each other. A perfectionist, the husband often films the wife’s performance and then they go through a video session to study for improvements. He also acts as his wife’s fashion advisor.

Zhang Shunxiang is more than an accompanist. The versatile musician is also good at playing flute, yueqing, and suona, which are traditional Chinese musical instruments. And he composes. Their house is well decorated, exuding an air of modernity and suggesting nothing of Peking Opera except for their dress room where colorful costumes are stored. Their basement studio, however, suggests everything about their shared career. The high tech studio is equipped with a great variety of professional-level audio and video instruments. The couple often works there into deep night. Nowadays, the couple runs a company to market Peking Opera.

Guan and Zhang’s successful Peking Opera concert was only one part of the couple’s endeavors to promote Peking Opera. An outstanding Xun-Huisheng-style Peking Opera artist, Guan Bo is enthusiastic about the promotion of the operatic excellence. Because of her mastery of Peking Opera and delightful personality, many people have become her friends and then become fans of Peking Opera. She has successfully emceed many Peking Opera promoting activities in higher-education institutions in Beijing. She spares no efforts to take part in promotional Peking Opera tours across the country. Though she has done quite well in the Xun-Huisheng style and staged many of her master’s plays, she wants to do more to keep her master’s repertoire of more than 300 plays alive.

*Jinghu: a two-stringed Chinese fiddle exclusively for Peking Opera

(Translated by David)