“小百花”狮城演绎“蝴蝶爱人”

没有赠票的演出

《The butterly loves》是新版越剧《梁祝》在新加坡的英文译名，最高票价每张卖到130新元，换算成人民币是650元。

滨海艺术中心是新加坡最好的剧院，设计者将整个中心设计成巨大的榴莲造型，在新加坡河畔熠熠生辉，新加坡人以往在这个艺术中心看戏曲演出，最高票价不会超过30元新币，这次真是破例了。

浙江小百花在这个巨大的“榴莲”里如诉如泣地演绎了这对“蝴蝶爱人”的生死恋情，艺术中心1800个座位几乎是全满的。值得一提的是在新加坡任何一场商业演出都是不予赠票的，每一张票都通过票房出售。新加坡卫生部部长来观看演出，据艺术中心告知部长的票是她自己花钱买的。我国驻新加坡大使张小康、参赞朱琦也观看了首演。

“小百花”茅威涛回忆她第一次来到新加坡时的场景，说“那时候，我披着大波浪的长发，穿着一身黑色连衣裙，戴着大大的白帽子，在总统门前留了个影。”20年后，新加坡依旧美丽和洁净。灰色的鸽子在街道上起飞，它们自由穿越，自由降落，然而第一代“小百花”们千娇百媚的长波浪早已换成利索的短发。

在新加坡，茅威涛接受当地媒体采访时说，有太阳的地方就有华人，有华人的地方就要有越剧，这是我们更大的目标。“小百花”瞄准国际市场，在海外做最成功的商业演出，新加坡之行掀开了浙江小百花越剧团新运营策略的一页。

牙医sasa是浙江“小百花”众多香港戏迷中的一员，她在香港中文大学学了两年半的普通话是为了更好地和茅威涛她们交流，她还把酒店订在滨海艺术中心附近，看来她是一个熟门熟路的戏迷。

新加坡滨海艺术中心在两个月之前就全面铺开了《梁祝》和《藏书之家》的门票出售，他们在新加坡很多场合摆放了这两场演出宣传册子，甚至在“7-11”这样的便利店中市民就能买到戏票。

滨海艺术中心还在全新加坡展开调查，了解新加坡人在哪一个时间段愿意观看“小百花”的演出，这次“小百花”是第一次受邀进艺术中心演出。由于新加坡越来越多的新移民来自中国的江浙地区，新加坡戏曲学校校长蔡曙鹏博士认为，“在新加坡，向民众推广越剧的机会越来越多，市场会越来越大。”

越剧因她而时尚

由茅威涛、陈晓红主演的新版《梁祝》，令新加坡十分关注。新加坡《联合早报》以“茅威涛，越剧因她而时尚”为主题做了整版报道，舆论一致认为，新版《梁祝》很好地承接了华人对“梁山伯与祝英台”这个神奇传说的集体记忆。

茅威涛在受访时说，现在中国一些地方剧种，开始出现“天下第一团”现象，即一个剧种只剩下一个由国家支持的剧团。她说“‘天下第一团’乍听很了不起，实际上这个现象表示这个剧种已接近灭亡。我不希望有一天越剧会变成‘天下第一团’，我相信我们能把百年越剧发扬光大，有下一个百年。”

事实上这次赴新加坡公演的《梁祝》《藏书之家》，是两部代表浙江小百花越剧团革新态度的作品，其中尤其是《梁祝》，该剧经过反复酝酿与修改，时间长达七年之久。

以宁波天一阁为素材的《藏书之家》，以“抱残守缺，继承斯文”为主题，反复强调主人公范容对传统文化的坚守。主演茅威涛说，她曾经“一度讨厌传统”，想过越剧可以不要水袖、扇子、靴子，“但因为我的反叛，我反而感悟到越剧可以在重新确立美学形态和风格之后，更好地回归传统。”

据新加坡滨海艺术中心节目策划蔡素芳女士介绍，在新加坡，戏曲同样呈现衰落之势，但政府有意识引进优秀的中国戏曲团体来新加坡演出以挽救颓势，在此之前著名京剧表演艺术家尚长荣也应邀在滨海艺术中心演出。蔡女士表示，越剧在新加坡的市场较大，这里拥有很多“茅迷”。据悉，滨海艺术中心经过充分的市场摸底，出资约100万人民币引进《梁祝》与《藏书之家》，这完全是按照商业演出模式进行操作的。

与“粉丝”的有趣对话

在滨海艺术中心，浙江小百花的演员们还接受了一次前所未有的挑战。每次演出结束后，所有主要演员和编剧冯洁还必须留在舞台上接受观众的现场提问，这是国内演出中从来没有尝试过的。

茅威涛与她的新加坡“粉丝”对话十分有趣：

有“粉丝”问：“祝英台‘倒坟’，为什么要穿着小生衣裳呢？她明明已经还原成女孩子了呀。”

茅威涛回答说：“作为新的一代戏曲人，我们是想尝试一下‘意象’这样的一种表现方式。我们心目中的梁祝爱情，是从他们耳鬓厮磨的同窗三年开始的，他们爱情始于友情，男孩子模样的祝英台，可能是梁山伯最美好的记忆。”

有“粉丝”问：“你们大量运用了何占豪的小提琴协奏曲《梁祝》，这样做符合越剧特点吗？你们就不怕观众认为，这个戏其实成了那首著名小提琴曲的配角了吗？”

茅威涛回答：“《梁祝》的主旋律，其实就是来自越剧《梁祝》。当年尹桂芳的一句‘妹妹――呀’，给了协奏曲作者何占豪灵感，他是根据尹先生的这句声腔，写出了著名小提琴协奏曲主旋律的，何占豪本人就是一个越剧作曲者。全球音乐剧大腕韦伯讲过，哪一天我能够超越这首小提琴协奏曲了，我才有勇气创作音乐剧《梁祝》。我们和韦伯不一样，我们的《梁祝》与小提琴协奏曲《梁祝》仿佛水融，难分彼此。”

有“粉丝”问：“我来看戏是准备掉眼泪来的，梁山伯死了我的眼泪在眼眶里打转，可就是不肯掉下来，为什么？”

茅威涛回答：“在袁雪芬的《祥林嫂》之前，中国越剧也不是像《祥林嫂》那般模样。当年的越剧十姐妹，在革新中寻找她们新的观众，最后她们找到了。今天我们也在寻找，我们希望那些从没有看过老版《梁祝》的21世纪观众，看了我们这个戏以后，能成为他们将来记忆中的一个影像，这是‘小百花’的信仰与对文化的一种忠诚。”

Little Flowers Bring New Yueju Opera to Lion City

By Pan Ning

The recent performances staged in Singapore by Zhejiang 100 Little Flowers Yueju Opera Troupe were a big sensation. The success testifies to the charms of the provincial opera which has been under constant innovation and development since its debut 100 years ago. The ticket prices convincingly indicated the popularity of Little Flowers in the island state. The most expensive ticket at the Singapore Durian Art Center for the Butterfly Lovers cost 130 Singapore dollars. In comparison, a ticket for an ordinary show there sells for 30 dollars. It is worth mentioning that commercial performances in Singapore do not entertain guests free of charge. All people buy tickets. There is no exception. The Chinese ambassador bought tickets out of his own pocket to watch The Butterfly Lovers.

Overseas Promotions

The play was presented at Singapore Durian Conferences Center, the best theaters venue in the island state. The ultramodern shape of the center looks like durians. Local theatergoers flocked to see the famed Chinese romance.

Mao Weitao, now director of the troupe, remembers her first visit to Singapore twenty years ago. In a picture taken during her visit, she looks charming and pretty young: She stands in front of the presidential residence, wearing a wavy long hair, sporting a white cap and a full-length black frock. Twenty years later, the garden city still looks tidy and beautiful, gray pigeons taking wings from streets, soaring and descending, butsome little flowers who had visited Singapore twenty years before wore short hair now. They no longer wear long hair that touches their shoulders in twenty-year-old photographs.

In an interview with the local media, Mao Weitao stated the mission of the troupe: "We want Yueju Opera to be found wherever the sun shines on a Chinese community. The commercial performance for international audiences is now high on the priority of the troupe.The visit to Singapore is part of the troupe's international strategy."

These shows aimed at the fast growing Chinese community in Singapore, as the island state has embraced more and more immigrants from Zhejiang province of China.

In order to attract more audiences, the center spent one million Singapore dollars to promote the show. The promotion started two months before the arrival of the troupe. Leaflets could even be found in 7/11 convenience shops around the garden city. The center also conducted surveys to determine the opportune periods of the day for the performances. It was the first time the Little Flowers were invited to stage shows at the center.

Mao Weitao said at the press conference, "As the domestic market for some local Chinese operas is fast dwindling now, it is not unusual to find that in many places only one government-subsidized troupe exists to represent and carry on an opera tradition." Mao is worried about the one-troupe phenomenon. According to her, it means that the opera is on the verge of extinction. For Yueju Opera, she hopes there would be more Yueju Opera troupes so that the opera will survive and flourish long enough to celebrate its 200th anniversary.

New Changes for New Audiences

China is not alone in experiencing a declining interest in local operas. Singapore has run into a similar dilemma. The government is taking active measures to revive the local interest. Inviting troupes from China to stage shows is part of the revival strategy on the part of the government. Shang Changrong, a celebrated Chinese Peking Opera master, staged his shows in the center right before the Little Flowers. Ms. Cai, a producer with the Center, says that Yueju Opera is popular in Singapore and Mao Weitao has a large group of enthusiastic fans there.

After each performance, the lead performers of the Little Flowers and playwright Feng Jie answered questions from audiences. The interaction constituted a challenge, for the Little Flowers had never engaged themselves in such two-way communications at home before.

Mao Weitao found the dialogues about the romance of Chinese Juliet and Romeo interesting.

One question was why Juliet was dressed like a young man when she was about to jump into the grave and join her Romeo. Mao replied that Juliet wanted her sweetheart to see her exactly what she looked like when she masqueraded herself as a boy for three years studying together with Romeo.

Another fan questioned why the opera used so much of the namesake violin concerto. Mao explained that the violin concerto is a sublimation of the original Yueju opera melodies; in fact, the composer was inspired by a melody of the Butterfly Lovers in the first place and wrote the concerto; the concerto is actually westernized Yuejue Opera music and it suits the stage performance very well.

A fan asked why she failed to shed the tears she had thought she was ready to shed when it came to the death of Romeo. Mao commented that the new Yueju artists want to fascinate the 21st-century audiences who had never seen the old Yueju Opera plays with things brand new; old expectations might not work any more. According to Mao, Yueju Opera has been evolving all the time since its debut 100 years ago. The plays in the 1940s were brand new due to the effort, dedication and passion of the stage artists of that time. Now the new-generation stage artists want to keep the innovation momentum up and keep the audiences intrigued with new things. The new version of the Butterfly Lovers is an effort to create a fresh image of Yueju Opera for those whose experience with the performance is their first ever contact with Yueju Opera. By doing this, the artists hope that the first impression will be unforgettable and lasting so that new audiences will fall in love with the opera and come back to see it again and again.

There are large groups of Yueju Opera fans overseas. Sasa is one of them. She is a dentist in Hong Kong and fan of the Little Flowers. She studied Chinese for two and half a year in a Hong Kong university in order to have smooth communications with the artists. In order to watch the Little Flowers shows in Singapore, she flew in from Hong Kong and stayed in a hotel near the opera house.

At the press conference, Mao talked also about the dilemma she had encountered. She once abhorred the old performing formula such as the traditional fan, the boots and the long sleeves a character-type must use on the stage. But her rebel against the tradition was brief. She soon realized that Yueju Opera could flourish better on the strength of its age-old tradition after positioning itself in the new century with reestablished aesthetics and style.

(Translated by David)