In 1961, Cai Yaomou graduated with honors from the Shanghai Theatre School and was assigned to the Shanghai Youth Peking and Kunqu Opera Troupe, becoming the first generation of kunqu performers cultivated after the founding of New China, and successively rehearsing the kunqu opera Bai Luoshang and the Peking opera The Legend of the White Snake, before returning to the Shanghai Theatre School as an assistant teacher in 1963.
In March 1965, Cai Yaomou was transferred to the Shanghai Peking Opera Theater's "Seaport" troupe to take part in the creation and performance of the modern Peking opera "Seaport," in which she played the role of Fang Haizhen in Group B of "Seaport". During the 13 years of working in the cast of "Seaport", Cai Yaowu accomplished the transition from playing traditional opera characters to modern characters of modern opera, and had pleasant cooperation with the famous Peking Opera performer Li Lifang, the famous film director Xie Jin, Fu Chaowu and others.
From 1975 to 1976, Cai Yaomou and many other renowned artists participated in the recording of ancient poems and the recording of traditional operas for Mao Zedong at that time. During this period, Cai Yaomou recorded Song lyrics such as Hong Hao's Jiangmei Lian, Yue Fei's Man Jiang Hong, Zhang Yuan Gan's He Xin Lang, Xin Qiji's Nanxiang Zi and Shui Long Yin, as well as the famous long poem Pipa Xing by Bai Juyi, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty. At the same time, Cai Yaomou also recorded the classic Kunqu traditional folding plays "Touring the Garden" and "Sifan". These plays (programs) were praised by Mao Zedong and other leading comrades of the Central Committee, and have become very precious art materials. In 1978, Cai Yaomou was transferred to the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe, and in July 1979, after 25 years of performing kunqu in the south of China, Cai Yaomou came to Beijing as an actor in the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater. During the 25 years of working in the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater, Cai Yaomou played the roles of Chen Yuanyuan in Splash of Beauty, Du Liniang in The Peony Pavilion, Cui Yingying in The Western Wing, Dou'e in Dou'e Grievance, Zhao Wuniang in The Story of Pipa, as well as the roles of Zhang Sanqiu in Female Bomb, etc., which made her a renowned kunqu performer and her representative plays also became the most famous kunqu performances in Northern Kunqu Opera Theater. These representative plays have also become the reserved repertoire of the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater, and her art is loved by audiences at home and abroad.
Cai was awarded the Plum Blossom Prize of the Fifth Chinese Drama in 1988, and the Wenhua Performance Prize of the Ministry of Culture in 1994 for her role in The Tale of Pipa.
Cai Yaomou has made significant contributions to the inheritance and promotion of the traditional art of Kun Opera. She respects knowledge, art, teachers and the audience; she teaches by example, and strives to bring up and cultivate the young generation; she does not take credit or pride in her work, and strives for excellence and perfection in her art; her art, which draws on the strengths of famous artists from the north and the south, and encompasses the essence of the classical operas, will surely be passed down from one generation to the next.
Cai Yaomou endeavors to implement and practice the Party's guidelines and policies on literature and art, and has always regarded the traditional art of her country as her life. Cai Yaomou love the party, love the motherland, love the people, as a democratic party member, she has served as a member of the eighth Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the ninth Beijing Municipal Committee of the CPPCC Standing Committee, the ninth National People's Congress, the tenth National People's Congress, the Democratic Progressive Party of Beijing Municipal Committee, the Democratic Progressive Party of the North Kunqu Opera House branch of the main committee and other positions, she has always maintained a relationship with the Chinese ****anufacturing party." She always maintains the political relationship with the Chinese ****productivity party, she cares about national affairs, social development, public life, the construction of the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater, and actively advises the development of kunqu, the cultivation of talents, and the construction of the theater has put forward many suggestions and proposals, which are valued and supported by leaders at all levels. During her illness, she was also very concerned about the cultivation of the theater's young performers and the progress of the construction of a small theater for kunqu, which were also her last two wishes.
Artistic life
Shanghai, the place where dreams begin
1943 was not a peaceful time; Shanghai was not a peaceful city. Cai Yaomou was born in such an era and such a city. However, in her childhood impression, there were not too many memories of war and turmoil, but scenes of Shanghai citizens dancing rice-planting songs to welcome the People's Liberation Army (PLA) into the city, and all the good things she experienced in her childhood.
Cai Yaomou's family was an old-fashioned intellectual family, and her parents were the oldest in the family, so she naturally became the oldest of her grandchildren and was y favored by her family. Cai Yaomou's grandmother and grandma were both fans of Yueju opera, so they often took her to watch Yueju opera. Although she could not understand the joys and sorrows of the characters in the opera when she was a child, the word "opera" was y engraved in her tender heart, and accompanied her throughout her life. Interestingly, Cai Yaomou's introduction to the world of kun opera was somewhat of a mistake: in 1954, Cai Yaomou was in the sixth grade of elementary school, coinciding with the enrollment of the Kunqu Actor Training Course of the East China Institute of Opera. At that time, she did not know what the East China Opera Research Institute was, and did not understand what kunqu really was, but in the name of Yuan Xuefen, the director, and the word "actor", Cai Yaomou enrolled with that little dream in her heart, and successfully passed the preliminary examination and reexamination, and stood out from the thousands of people who were admitted to the course, becoming one of the 60 people finally admitted. The first is the one of the 60 people who were finally admitted to the program.
However, from the time of acceptance to officially enter the East China Opera Research Institute to study, during the period there is a little bit of a small ripple. At that time, Cai Yaomou even forgot about the physical examination of the theater school, ran to play at her grandmother's house, and her parents are fond of Western music, has been letting her learn the piano, hoping that she graduated from elementary school to go to the examination of the Conservatory of Music attached to the middle school, and therefore did not take this matter to heart. However, an enthusiastic teacher, Zhou Chuancang, went to the Cai family to find Cai Yaomou and convinced her mother to let her try this path. In hindsight, it is thanks to this teacher that if it were not for him, the history of kunqu might have missed out on a talented and famous artist. In this way, Cai Yaomou, with her original dream, a little ignorance, a little excitement, embarked on the road of Kun Opera, and has been walking for more than half a century.
The Kun Opera Actor Training Course of the East China Opera Research Institute was later renamed the Shanghai Opera School, with its original location at 1448 Huashan Road in Shanghai. Around 1958, the school moved to the Shanghai Culture Square at No. 597 Fuxing Road, where Cai Yaomou graduated. Cai Yaomou studied and lived at the Shanghai Theater School for eight years, a carefree and happy time that allowed her to truly understand and fall in love with kun opera, and to have the determination to dedicate her life to kun opera.During these eight years, Cai Yaomou met a number of excellent teachers, such as Zhou Chuanming, Fang Chuanrun, Xu Boqiu, and so on, all of them were very famous kun opera masters. With her own talent, hard work and perseverance, Cai Yaowu gradually grew into an outstanding kun opera actress. During her school years, Cai Yaomou had the honor to meet masters such as Yu Zhenfei, Mei Lanfang, and Yan Huizhu. In her eyes, Kun Opera has become more beautiful and holy because of these masters, and they are so beautiful and elegant and graceful that the time she spent with them brought Cai Yaomou not only a certain kind of admiration and respect, but also aroused in her an infinite love for the Kun Opera. In the years to come, she fully integrated this love into her life, and Kun Opera became the most important part of her life, which could no longer be separated.
In 1965, Cai Yaomou was transferred from the Shanghai Theatre School to the Shanghai Peking Opera Theatre's "Seaport" troupe, where she served as the lead actor in the B role. It took 13 years from the beginning to the disbandment of the Harbor production. In these 13 years, Cai Yaomou witnessed the whole process of the birth of "Harbor", and learned a lot of things, but also saw the process of artistic refinement, which later on in her artistic career, had a very important impact.
Although "Harbor" was a special play created in a special era, its artistic value will gradually emerge when the political factor fades away with time, we all know the reason, and Cai Yaomou, who has been through everything, must have a deeper experience and understanding. When life has been refined for a long time, you will want to go back to look for something, those once misunderstandings and hurts, past events and thoughts, after the baptism of time, was given a new meaning and value, more y printed in the heart, carved in the brain. 1975 and 1976, these two years, Cai Yaomou, for the art of the career of the two years is very important, during this period, she was secretly sent to Beijing, for President Mao During this period, she was secretly sent to Beijing to record traditional lyrics and traditional repertoire for Chairman Mao. At first, she didn't know what the task and purpose of this secretive work was. At that particular time, she didn't dare to ask and couldn't ask, but just quietly, together with a group of excellent literary and art workers from all over the world, she carefully accomplished this special task. To a certain extent, her quietness and care helped her get through that period relatively calmly.
The Beijing years also had another important meaning for Cai Yaomou: love. She and her lover, Ma Shuming, met while recording poems for Mao Zedong, when Ma was in the audio-video crew and an erhu player at the China Opera and Dance Theater. They shared the same hobbies and did the same work, so naturally they couldn't help but talk about the same things, so love began to sprout and grow slowly, and soon they came together. on September 8, 1976, Cai Yaomou and Ma Shuming started their family in Beijing. The newlyweds were sweet and happy, but on the day after their wedding, Chairman Mao passed away, and the sadness has not yet subsided, one change after another has come, breaking the original pace of life. Chairman Mao's death marked the end of their secret mission, and Cai Yaomou returned to Shanghai, while Ma Shuming stayed in Beijing to work at the Chinese Opera and Dance Theater, and they began to live apart. During this period, Cai Yaomou experienced a downturn in her career, with nothing to do, she felt confused and at a loss, life and work, seemed to be unsatisfactory. 1977, the birth of her daughter, Ma Lan, brought a new meaning to her life, a new hope.
In 1979, in order to reunite with her husband and to get out of the trough of her career, Cai Yaomou decided to leave Shanghai, the city where she had lived for 36 years. For this city she loved and familiar with, she has a thousand reluctance and attachment, but in the end, she still took her daughter, riding the north train, step by step towards Beijing, step by step towards the real splendor of life. Shanghai, this will be the ancient tradition and modern civilization perfectly compatible with the city, carrying CaiYaoMou initial dream, it brings CaiYaoMou, is the gentle and delicate temperament, is the perseverance of the stubborn character, there is an everlasting heart of longing, in the later days of her dream, she always can not forget, is the beginning of this dream place.
Beijing, where dreams bloom
Unlike Shanghai's sophistication, the ancient Beijing has more atmosphere and solemnity. Although Beijing is no stranger to Cai Yaomou, she was still a little apprehensive about actually living in the city. 1979, Cai Yaomou was officially transferred to the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater, which opened a new chapter in her life. Her first play in the Northern Kunqu Theater was "Splattered Beauty". In the play, she played "the sound of the world's voice, color of the world's color" Chen Yuan Yuan, although not much, but played a wonderful role, so the audience could not help but sigh: the North Kun when out of such a role, so, Cai Yaomu in the North Kun hit the nail on the head.
However, because Beikun had just been restored, coupled with the general background of the time, the development of traditional opera encountered a lot of problems, at this time, the famous literary scholar, opera theorist Ma Shaobo was sent to Beikun as an artistic adviser. And his arrival was a very important opportunity for Cai Yaomou, and that opportunity was The Peony Pavilion.
The Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzu of the Ming Dynasty is an immortal classic masterpiece in the history of opera. At that time, based on his knowledge of Beikun and his many years of study of Kun Opera, Ma Shaobo felt that Beikun should rehearse some masterpieces of classical literature, and so he began to rehearse The Peony Pavilion, and named Cai Yaowu to play the play's heroine, Du Liniang. Although the play was first-rate, from the artistic advisor and playwright to the director and composer, they still faced a lot of pressure. Because of the popularity of popular art in the society at that time, the audience for traditional and elegant art like Kun Opera was gradually losing, many people did not think highly of this play, and even the director, Ma Xianglin, began to worry that the play would not be well received. But Cai Yaomou's heart was always full of confidence, and she bet her passion to sing this opera to the best.
During the National Day in 1981, "Peony Pavilion" was performed in the Auspicious Theater, and the three-day play was sold out, which was a great success, not only well received, but also well received, and caused a great repercussion in the literary world, and even the overseas newspapers reported on this grand event. Cai Yaomou's hand, foot, waist, and eyes in the play presented a dignified but lovely, steady but passionate Du Liniang in front of the audience, and her performance was recognized by her predecessors and loved by the audience. At this time, Cai Yaomou's dream slowly bloomed, waiting for her, is a more brilliant splendor.
The success of The Peony Pavilion made Cai Yaomou firmly believe that kunqu should be rehearsed in masterpieces, and then she rehearsed many masterpieces, such as The Story of the Western Wing, The Sinus E Grievance, and The Story of the Pipa. On the stage, she is graceful, beautiful and virtuous, with the exquisite headdress, gorgeous costumes, and her subtle, deep, delicate performance, euphemistic and elegant, clear and moving singing voice, shaping one classic character after another: the beautiful and brave Cui Yingying, the kind and strong Dou'e, and the gentle and virtuous Zhao Wuniang....... Each character, through Cai Yaomou's interpretation, is endowed with a unique characterization. Each character, through Cai Yao's interpretation, is given another kind of life, so that the audience on stage is y attracted by the play and can't stop. Famous Kun Opera scholar Fu Xueyi once commented on Cai Yaomou's performance, "Passion is in subtlety, splendor in simplicity." How many people can really reach such a state of art?
On May 18, 2001, Kun Opera was named by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, which was great news for Cai Yaomou, who has always been committed to the promotion of Kun Opera. In 2004, Cai Yaomou has been engaged in the art of kun opera performance for 50 years, half a century, Cai Yaomou grew from a little girl who did not understand kun opera to an outstanding kun opera performing artist. The famous theater writer Guo Hancheng once gave Cai Yaoyu this evaluation: "Yaoyu is beautiful and intelligent, smart and upright, not adoring pomp and circumstance, not chasing fame and fortune, and tireless in her career." It is because of this tireless, Cai Yaomou again and again interpreted the classics of opera, climbed the peak of art.
Cai Yaomou was also elected as a deputy to the National People's Congress. In order to carry forward the essence of traditional culture, she had put forward the proposal of "promoting traditional culture into schools" in the "two sessions", and personally went into Tsinghua University, Beijing No.2 Middle School, performing traditional plays for the students, hoping that this embodiment of the spirit of the Chinese nation and the soul of traditional culture deeper and wider. She hopes to pass on this traditional culture, which embodies the spirit and soul of the Chinese nation, in a deeper and broader way. She has also trained a number of excellent performers in the art of Kun Opera.
On November 30, 2005, in Beijing, on a cold day in the middle of winter, Cai Yaomou left us forever after failing to be treated for cancer. The years rushed by, took away her 62 years of age. What is left behind is the hundreds of turns on the stage and the melodious singing sound that flows in the air. She used her dream, her persistence, to bring the infinite color of Kun Opera. Now, with her infinite and deep love for Kun Opera, she quietly left this world.