Wan Shanhong, a passionate, bright, willful and persistent northeastern girl, remembered her teacher's teachings and began her arduous climb to the top of her artistic career.
Wan Shanhong's first role was that of the Three Immortal Nuns in Smaller Black Wedding. She asked her seniors for advice and read and studied the script over and over again. At the premiere, the "Three Immortals" took a big tobacco bag, step by step, just a twist of the appearance, won the audience's warm applause. Wan Shanhong has played the role of a matchmaker who is full of evil spirits, and she has made a vivid performance.
When the theater rehearsed "The White-haired Girl," she was assigned to play Huang Shiren's mother, and Wan Shanhong, without complaint, carefully studied the characteristics of the character. She drew on her teacher's on-the-spot guidance to "make up" her voice and vividly portrayed the character as a tricky, brash person.
A few years later, when the theater was rehearsing "The Hurt Locker," based on Lu Xun's masterpiece, Wan Shanhong was eager to play the role of Zijun, but the director arranged for other actors. Wan Shanhong was not discouraged. Every night, she rehearsed meticulously and repeatedly by herself in the large rehearsal hall. In twenty days, from the design of the singing voice to the modeling of the dao Bai, she actually finished rehearsing a play by herself. Then she found the supporting cast to rehearse with her. Many people thought that this Xiaowan was full of stupidity. Wan Shanhong, however, felt that this was a rare opportunity to learn and exercise. Even though she didn't get to perform on stage, she gained something from her performance. Her role as the first female lead in "Starlight, Starlight" was her first shot at playing a positive character, and she never recovered from it. She portrayed Gulandam, Fangfang, Xi'er, Han Ying, Jinzi and a number of other glorious images on the opera stage The opportunity to surpass the villainous character actors finally came! The director thought it was too bad to let Wan play only the villain, so he arranged for her to play the No. 1 heroine in the large-scale opera Starlight, Starlight. Wan Shanhong grasped this opportunity and lived up to the expectations with a generous and dignified costume, a clear and soft voice, and an infectious and vivid performance.
People have finally begun to recognize that this Wan, who can act as a negative character as well as a positive one, is an actor with potential. Opera is a comprehensive art. It has extremely demanding requirements for the actor's theater performance skills, dance body, the dao-liang between drama and opera, as well as the singing voice. The longer Wan Shanhong swam in the sea of art, the more she felt the need for a rich artistic reserve. So, she took advantage of the rehearsal interval to enter the social music academy sponsored by the Central Orchestra, and furthered her education at her own expense. During the three years, she systematically studied Chinese and foreign music history in addition to specialized courses in vocal music. Under the guidance of the famous musician Professor Weng Ruomei, Wan Shanhong, who specialized in folk singing, became well-versed in American vocal singing and mastered the Western scientific method of vocalization. This not only made her perfect in Chinese folk songs and Chinese operas in terms of line, voice and diction, but also able to sing arias.
After graduation, when the Chinese Opera and Dance Theater was rehearsing the Yellow River Cantata, Wan Shanhong decided to participate in the audition for the lead singer. This time, after three years of silence, Wan Shanhong once again took to the stage of Chinese opera with her strong strength in singing art. Colleagues praised her: "What an unquenchable fire! "At this time, Wan Shanhong already had a clear goal to strive for: endeavor to blend the essence of Western opera into national opera, organically kneaded into American singing in national singing style, and push Chinese opera to a new milestone. From "Gulandam" and "Heart of Fangcao" to "The White-haired Girl" and "The Red Guard of Honghu Lake", Wan Shanhong portrayed Gulandam, Fangfang, Xi'er, Han Ying and other glamorous images in a series of operas, which made her famous and was her successful attempt to explore the road of combining Chinese and Western arts. Wanshan Hong has created a strong wind on the Chinese opera stage! In the opera "The Wilderness", based on Cao Yu's masterpiece, she successfully played the lead role of Jinzi in American vocal singing, and won the Plum Blossom Prize, China's highest theater award, in 1988.
The opera, which was performed with American voices and a symphony orchestra, was one of the most difficult vocal performances, and has long been included in the Chinese music classics of the 20th century. The director at the time couldn't believe that a person who hadn't been formally studied in a conservatory could be capable of playing the female lead in this opera. On the recommendation of the famous composer Qiao Yu, the director allowed her to give it a try, "You'll have to be in Group C if you want to play it." Wan Shanhong said, "I don't care, even if it's Group F." In the end, Wan Shanhong's stunning singing and superb acting skills made her a huge success.
Cao Yu said to her, "You've brought gold to life, you're the gold of my heart." Famous performance artist Ying Ruocheng also said after watching the performance: Wan Shanhong is a rare and good actress. Whether on the opera stage, or in the Chinese folk songs, she is equally radiant; when "six pregnant" her belly on stage, a strong "bitter cauliflower, blooming in March", for her to win the trophy Wanshanhong although in the singing world hit the big time, but many people know her, familiar with her, but more because they have heard her sing Chinese folk songs.
She sang a string of folk songs such as "Ode to Coral," "Shandandandan Blossoms in Red," "Chinese Mother" and "Golden Autumn Earth" with flesh and blood and passion. As she adopted the western scientific vocal method in her folk singing, it sounded unique, so she was equally brilliant in the singing world, and she also held solo concerts in Shenzhen and Shanghai.
Over the years, she has won the "Peacock Cup" ethnic vocal Grand Prix Award of Excellence, and then with amazing perseverance and strength in one fell swoop to the fourth National Young Singers Television Grand Prix ethnic singing professional group laurels. At that time, she was already "pregnant". Should she have a child or take part in the competition? The general public may only take one, but Wan Shanhong preferred both. She was pregnant when she appeared on the stage, and sang the famous composer Shi Guangnan's song "Bitter Vegetable Flower, Blooming in March", which was specially composed for her, and made the audience drunk.
Her song as well as her spirit moved the judges and thousands of TV viewers. When Wan Shanhong held the first-place trophy, she smiled and put it on her stomach in order to let her child share her joy, "so that the child can carry it with me."
Wan Shanhong won the two top prizes for American and ethnic singing, which is unprecedented in the music industry, so many people praised her as a "talented performer in the music industry". Wan Shanhong said modestly, I'm not a genius, I just like to sing since childhood, and gradually clear the direction of their efforts, I have to continue to explore the combination of the two singing methods, and strive to make a difference.
Today, Wanshan Hong sang all over the north and south of the Yangtze River, Europe and the United States, Hong Kong and Macao and other countries and regions of the land also left her songs. "To be a singer" - Wan Shanhong's original dream has long come true; now, in the pinnacle of the artistic career to create more brilliant achievements has become the unremitting pursuit of Wan Shanhong.