Bulletin Autumn 1988

Mr. Yu Zhen Fei In the year 1790 when Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte had its premiere in Vienna, ha lf a world away four o f the best Qing opera troupes converged on the capital city o f China and started the process o f synthesis which resulted in the b irth o f Peking Opera as we know it in our time. A t the head o f the four troupes was a man called Cheng Chang Geng whose art was passed on through the fam ily to his grandson Cheng Ji Xian who became, at the turn o f the century, the most celebrated xiaosheng, the equivalent in Peking Opera o f a leading man. His star pupil is Mr. Yu Zhen Fei, the man this University is honouring today. Yu Zhen Fei was born in China towards the end o f the Qing dynasty, in 1902. He firs t learned the art o f Kun singing from his father, the renowned Yu Su Lu. Having mastered the singing o f Kun Opera, he apprenticed himself to the great Cheng Ji Xian and learned all the xiaosheng roles fo r which his master was ju stly famous. His apprenticeship completed, Mr. Yu began to make a name fo r himself in the 1930's during which period he sang and played xiaosheng, along side the four most famous danjiao or leading ladies, o f his generation, including the legendary Mei Lan Fang whose female impersonation is unequalled to this day. In contrast to European Opera in which some male parts, such as Mozart's Cherubino and Richard Strauss's Rosenkavalier, are entrusted to the fa ir sex, the female parts in Peking Opera can be per formed by very good-looking man. In the 1930’s there were danjiao aplenty, but there were not nearly so many leading men; and so Yu Zhen Fei was paired w ith one ‘female, lead after another. However, Yu's great reputation was firm ly established early in life not because leading men were scarce but because Yu's style was innovative and unique. In the words o f Zhang Li Hui who wrote the epilogue o f The A r t o f Yu Zhen Fei, ‘Mr. Yu had fused Peking Opera and Kun Opera by bringing to Peking Opera the perfect coordi nation o f singing and dancing which is charac teristic o f Kun Opera, and by introducing in to Kun Opera the pace, contrast and audience appeal o f Peking Opera, and in so doing had brought about the cross fe rtilization and eleva tion o f both these two opera styles'. Yu's most famous role was as the talented and flamboyant poet Li Po in the opera L i Po 'sDrunken Mischief. The role requires a leading man who is as dashing and cavalier as Lord Byron and who is able to drink, compose and do calligraphy all at the same time. Mr. Yu was perfect fo r the part. Unlike previous xiaosheng who merely acted at being poets w ithout knowing many words and w ithout being able to w rite a good hand, Mr. Yu is himself a scholar and calligra pher. And he is credited w ith bringing to this role that extra dimension o f cred ib ility which had hitherto been lacking when less accomplished actors played China's greatest poet. When Yu Zhen Fei played Li Po, there need be no suspension o f disbelief. M r. Chancellor, as a perform ing art, Peking Opera is extremely d iffic u lt to do well. Unlike European Opera which is prim arily a medium fo r great singers in fu ll voice, Peking Opera requires its artists to combine the talents o f singer, dancer, actor and acrobat in a single person. I am absolutely sure that, i f Italian Opera had demanded dancing and acrobatic skills o f its singers, the imposing Luciano Pavarotti and Joan Sutherland would not have made it to the stage. Indeed, I am reliably informed by an authoritative Hong Kong music critic that u n til the seductive Grace Bumbry appeared in the part o f Salome at Covent Garden, the dance o f the seven veils had always been a great embarrassment, to the audi ence as much as to the soprano or mezzo-soprano, and some had indeed made a mess o f it. But, Mr. Chancellor, when Mr. Yu was per form ing on the stage, and he had done that fo r sixty years o f his life , he had all the well-honed skills o f singer, dancer, actor and acrobat at his beck and call. For two generations, he entertained, th rilled and mesmerized his fans in many parts o f China. Sadly, there is today very few record o f those commanding performances when Mr. Yu and Mei Lan Fang and his other ‘female' leads romped and ruled the stage. This is because in China performances were rarely recorded, unlike in the West where great singers like Caruso and Melba had made recordings o f their art on the 7