Thunderstorm's Criticism

1. Fighting for the glory of Chinese culture--The feeling of watching the ballet "Thunderstorm" Cao Yu

The ballet "Thunderstorm" is attractive artistic creation. Its success is not due to the fact that there is a frequently performed play "Thunderstorm" in the past, which can be imitated and copied. Rather, it is to break the box of the play "Thunderstorm", with the vocabulary of the ballet, to rewrite it over, where the artist must have originality, courage, insight, imagination, performance ability. The Shanghai Ballet artists are endowed with these conditions.

A year ago, Comrade Hu Rongrong and her partners came to my house and talked about adapting "Thunderstorm" into a ballet. I thought it was fantastic and couldn't work. But they said, "We have ideas! We have a way!" There was an amazing gleam in their eyes. I have a strange idea that anyone who really has ideas, confidence, and courage, often shows this kind of look; but I am still confused, and although I am somewhat interested, I will believe it after all.

This year, we met a few times, the discussion is warm, unrestrained. Whether it was a clear day or a drizzling rain in Shanghai, the group of ballet dancers and composers always came and went back in joyful laughter.

In the late fall, the Shanghai Ballet invited me to a rehearsal of a dance drama. Wide and bright rehearsal room, set up a piano, no light and scenery, no gorgeous costumes, the actors in lieu of clothing, music accompanied by the ballerina's heart and flow of the whirlwind dance, sometimes cut private words, sometimes the dark hatred, sometimes fierce and vigorous, and sometimes stormy winds. This group of male and female artists, indulgent and enjoyable to dance a wordless sadness and joy to the play. Even after the rehearsal, we were very moved, and realized that this is the harvest of a year's hard work after a harsh winter and a hot summer, and a year's hard work. We believe that this dance drama or will occupy a prominent place among the thousands of dance dramas; time will prove that, with constant refinement, it will gradually become a favorite creation of the masses.

Officially performed on stage, this colorful dance drama has received many enthusiastic approvals from the audience. This dance drama is unique, and has its own realm of rhythm and transition in the interludes and rhythms. I agree with the abridgement and alteration. For example, the two dances, "Lu Gui's Listening" and "Park Park's Remembering", omit the plots of the drama, which can only be understood in so many words.

The choreographers, dancers and music specialists have worked very hard. What struck me most was the third act of the dance drama. In the scene where Fengyi desperately tries to stop Zhou Ping, who is trying to escape, the ballet gives her an abundant and powerful performance of great ups and downs. The Artemisia of the dance drama is much more spontaneous than on the stage of the play. The two Fengyi actors, Du Hongling and Shi Zhongqin, are each unique in their own way.

Now many people are talking about the ballet "Thunderstorm". Some people say: novelty and unspeakable; others say: just right, I hope to see it again. A friend said to me: "Ballet has always been inspired by myths, legends, novels, operas, music and poetry. In addition, the choreographer writes the story himself. There is only one ballet transplanted from a play that has been successful in the past, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet; and the current ballet, Thunderstorm, is one of the better examples." This achievement is certainly a credit to the ballet artists. What I am grateful for is that, under the leadership of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and the Cultural Affairs Bureau, the Shanghai Ballet has taken a half-century-old play and brought it to the ballet stage today, making it young again.

This production, as Comrade Hu Rongrong and her partners are proud to say, is "nationalized". This is important. Western art, when brought to China, should not just be copied. We are good at absorbing and integrating all cultures.

Artists say that the ballet should be "characterized". This is a difficult subject. It's as if most ballets have characters that are somewhat conceptualized. The best ballerinas have great artistry and technique, but they mostly just show "good and evil", "beauty and ugliness", "lyricism and intensity", "sadness and exuberance", and cannot be rooted in the soil of "human character". However, the ballet "Thunderstorm" in eight characters, have expressed the pursuit of "characterization" of the dance, but also a certain personality.

Ballet is a worldwide art. From the Renaissance to today, more than five hundred years of change and development, from Italy to the whole world. It is an art that has both a popular mass base and a broad prospect for improvement. The introduction of ballet in China was short-lived and fast-paced. However, today, both in the capital and in Shanghai, it is necessary to take a big step forward, to make great efforts, to improve physical strength, and to lay a deep foundation of ballet art and technique in a strict and solid scientific way. Hire good teachers of world ballet and good teachers of our ballet to collaborate in coaching, to feel out the way of Chinese ballet. To be like China's sports world, to reach the international peak. "It is easy to say, but hard to do. This requires great determination on the part of our cultural leaders and artists.

Chinese ballet, must carry forward the Chinese people's courage and strength, for the country to compete, for the glory of Chinese culture.

2. Celebrities comment on "Thunderstorm" --

(1) The complex beauty of human nature. "Thunderstorm has no work that can be compared with it in the whole history of Chinese theater and in the history of Chinese modern and contemporary literature. The good thing is that Lei Yu is a work that no one can say. A great work is bound to reflect the extreme richness of human nature, that human nature is too rich to say, precisely because it is not clear, he has achieved a great work of art that can not be said." --Chen Sihe, "The Sinking and Struggle of Human Nature: 'Thunderstorm'"

(2) The beauty of language art. "I do love the language in Cao Yu's plays too much. Every time I read Mr. Cao Yu's plays, I always have a feeling that is both affectionate and fresh; his brightly colored yet refined and vivid language often subtly brings me into a wonderful world of art and gives me unlimited joy. --Qian Gurong, "The Artistic Realm of Longing and Fascination--An Answer Book on the Appreciation of 'Thunderstorm'