I INTERVIEWED TIAN HAOJIANG IN CHINESE FOR OUR NOV. 2007 LAST WORD. THEN I TRANSLATED THE CONTENT INTO ENGLISH.
LAST WORD
TIAN HAOJIANG
During the Cultural Revolution, 15-year-old Tian Haojiang furtively rooted through an underground Beijing bookshop and discovered his first book of poems – a collection authored by the Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai. Covertly, Tian set about memorizing lines that endowed new color to a life washed gray by militarism and marches. Today, after years of hardship and ultimate success in recreating himself as a world-renown opera singer, Tian channels the poet in the title role of the Chinese opera, “The Poet Li Bai,” which made it debut in the U.S. before playing for audiences in Beijing and Shanghai in mid-October. Newsweek Select’s Megan Shank speaks with Tian about his art, his audiences and his aspirations.
What were the particular challenges of this role for you?
This is one of the most difficult roles that I’ve ever done. I feel pressure because I’m singing in Chinese and I have to rethink my tones, my throat and my larynx after 25 years of singing mostly in Italian and French. It’s a big challenge for me. Also, Beijing is my hometown, so people have big expectations, and people know Li Bai and can recite his poems. They have his image in mind.
How did you work with and sculpt that image?
The composer, director, designer, librettist and I wanted to bring not just a romantic poet, not just a man of another space and another time. We wanted to bring a fuller man. During the creation period, when we sat together, when we had a cigarette or a cup of wine, we felt that Li Bai was there with us. And for the premiere in Central City, Colorado, with its blue skies and its beautiful clouds and its moon so big with the mountains so high, we almost felt we could reach the heavens, and Li Bai could reach us.
Why pick “The Poet Libai” as your return to China show?
It wasn’t me that decided—it was the Beijing International Music Festival’s decision. But I feel that China has been waiting for this opera. We’ve already worked for more than two years on it, and there’s been a little news of it here and there. Everybody was already talking about it. And Chinese audiences have been looking forward to seeing a work produced via collaboration of artistic greats like Guo Wenjin, Lin Zhaohua and Li Yiming. It’s difficult to put together an opera. It involves a lot of people, a lot of money and a lot of time. And because the opera hadn’t been performed in China, there were a lot of question marks floating around—we didn’t know if it could succeed.
What’s been the response from Chinese audiences?
In the West, the media really loved the stage design and the direction of the work. They felt it was simple and refined, the music clean and natural. They found it balanced and restrained. In China, I think at bare minimum people accepted it. This is a new opera, and I think it has vitality. It should become a classic work.
Using a Western method—opera—to introduce a Chinese story—Li Bai’s—to foreigners, and using the Western method and Chinese story in presentation to Chinese audiences here – it seems as though it would be tough to ingratiate yourself with everyone.
We all have happiness, sadness, indignation, jealousy, love and hate. These are actually humanity’s most natural desires. On the stage, we are opera singers, we are actors. We use our most honest, most natural methods to take these human emotions and use them in the role. We take the part and give it to the Western audiences, we take it and give it to the Chinese, and it resonates with everyone.
You once said that The Poet Libai is “The most important opera of my career. An opera has never made me think so much.” What have you been you thinking about?
I think my experience and Li Bai’s has some similarities. Li Bai was a poet, but as I see it, he was first a human. His life was full of ups and downs and he experienced much in his lifetime. He wanted to serve (as an official for) his country, he was jailed and punished and sent into exile. He also had his poetic, romantic times. My parents were both musicians, and we suffered persecution during the Cultural Revolution. I went to music college in China, also for opera, and went to America where I became a very ordinary person without a cent to my name. I struggled with my career, and I worried about China. The farther I moved from it, the more I felt concern. So for so many reasons, when I play the role of Li Bai, I can completely enter this part. It’s because I’m looking at myself.
Average Chinese people I’ve spoken with say the desire for financial security prohibits pursuit of the arts, but it doesn’t seem to have stopped you from chasing a career in singing. How did you dare to dream so big?
From then to now, I’ve had a feeling of risk. Because our contracts are one opera with one opera house instead of a steady set down position, we must always strive for a spot. Whether I’m on or off the stage, I can’t let up even for a minute. But I feel I have a sense of mission—that I need to absorb as much as possible and experience as much as possible and move forward as far as possible. I also feel there is a sort of responsibility awaiting me to undertake it. I don’t what it is. I don’t know what I can do, but I feel a calling is awaiting me.
What sort of prospects await this generation’s artists? Can you compare them with your generation?
As an artist, I believe experience is quite important. After passing through 10 years of the Cultural Revolution, China produced a group of world-class artistic talent, including film directors, writers, painters and musicians. Today’s generation is much different than ours. Today’s is a generation of commerce, of consumerism. The current generation faces the risk of making art commercial and turning people’s hopes into mere consumerism. Many people want to make money, to enjoy themselves, but people are unclear about what the spirit of the world requires. I believe this will directly affect a generation of Chinese artists, and it greatly troubles me.
Naturally, I don’t hope for another Cultural Revolution. Instead I want to train the next generation. This is very important. We should follow a concept that asks how we can truly develop them into real artists, but it’s quite difficult because of the environment being as it is. My ideal would be to have a school tucked within a mountain range in a very quiet place by a clear still lake surrounded by pines where people can quietly study art. This is a dream of mine. Artists should draw their creation from nature’s embrace. Right now, we’re doing too much to devastate the world.
LAST WORD
TIAN HAOJIANG
在文化大革命期间，当时15岁的田浩江偷偷地去了北京的一家地下书店中淘书，在那里他发现了人生中的第一本诗集——诗人李白的作品选集。后来他开始暗地里默记书中词句，使那时充满了政治运动和斗争的灰暗生活因此而增添了些许色彩。如今，在经历了多年的磨难以后，他最终获得成功，并且成为了一个世界知名的歌剧演唱家。 他还在中文歌剧——《诗人李白》中扮演主角，惟妙惟肖地再现了这位诗人的形象，，并在美国进行了首演。在十月中旬这出歌剧又同北京和上海的观众见面了。日前田浩江接受了《新闻周刊 中文月刊》单梅兰的采访，并且谈到了他的艺术、他的观众和他的渴望。
这个角色对你而言最大的挑战是什么？
这是我表演过的最困难角色中之一。我感到有不少的压力，因为过去的25年中，大部分时间我都是用意大利语和法语表演，但是这次我是用中文演唱，我需要重新考虑表演时的音调、音色和发声等（ok)。而且北京是我的家乡，所以人们也会抱有很大的期望，他们了解李白并且可以背诵他的诗歌。在他们的脑海里，已经有了李白的形象。
你是如何排练以及塑造这个角色的？
作曲家、导演、设计师、 歌词作者 和我一起希望呈现给大家的李白不仅是一位浪漫诗人，也不仅是来自另一个时空的人。我们希望带给大家的是一个更加丰满的人物。在创作的时候，当我们坐在一起点上一支烟，或者倒上一杯葡萄酒的时候，我们会感到李白就在我们的身边。当这个剧目在美国科罗拉多州的Central City歌剧院首演时，台上表现出来的蓝天、白云、明月和峻岭的效果使我们感到我们几乎可以到达天堂，而李白也能够到达我们。
为什么选择《诗人李白》作为回国的首演歌剧呢？
田浩江：这个不是我们选的，是北京国际音乐节选的。但我觉得中国也在等这个歌剧，我们工作了两年多，断断续续总是有一些新闻，大家都在谈李白。另外，因为郭文锦，林兆华，易立明都是中国出名的艺术家，大家很期待这些人聚在一起会出一个什么样作品。要做一个歌剧是很难的，要涉及很多的人，很多的钱，要很多时间排练，而且这个歌剧没有在中国演过，所以有很多问号，不知道是否可以成功。
中国观众有怎么反应？
田浩江：在西方，西方媒体很喜欢它的舞台设计，也喜欢导演的手法，觉得很简练，音乐干净而且很自然，很平衡，没有什么可炫耀的，也没有什么做作的东西。在中国，我能感觉到这个歌剧至少在很多方面让观众接受了。这是个新的歌剧，我认为这个歌剧是有生命力的，应该可以成为经典作品。
用西方的方式把中国的东西介绍给外国人，和用西方的方式向中国人介绍中国的东西，有时是不讨好的做法。
田浩江：我们都有喜悦、悲伤、愤怒、嫉妒，有爱、有恨。这其实是人类最自然的欲望。在台上我们是歌唱家，也是演员。用你最真实，最自然的方式，把人的情感放在这个角色里面，把角色拿给西方的观众，拿给中国的观众，都会引起共鸣的。
你曾经说过《诗人李白》是“我歌剧生涯中最重要的一部歌剧，从来没有哪部歌剧让我想那么多。”你究竟想到什么呢？
田浩江： 我觉得我的经历和李白有相似之处。李白是一个诗人，但是对我来说，他首先是一个人，他的生活经历很坎坷，经历过很多东西，他想走仕途，也坐过牢，也被大赦过，流放过，他也有他诗情浪漫的时候。我的父母亲都是音乐家，我所出身的环境在文化大革命受过迫害。我上过音乐学院，在中国也是一个专业唱歌的，到了美国变成一个很普通的人，一分钱都没有，然后在事业的过程中有很多挣扎。我也非常关心中国，尤其离的越远就越关心。所以，出于种种原因，我演李白的时候可以完全进入这个角色，是因为我看到了我自己。
一般中国人要一个安全感，但是你一直在追求歌唱艺术，你怎么敢有这么大的梦想？
田浩江：我从过去到现在都会有危机感。因为我们的合同都是一部歌剧，一个歌剧院，不是终身制的工作，我们必须得去争取。对于我们来说，在舞台上，舞台下，每一分钟都不可能放松。但我觉得自己有一种使命感，就是尽可能吸收，尽可能经历，尽可能向前走。我也觉得有一种责任在等着我去承担，我不知道是什么。我不知道我能做什么，但是我觉得有一种呼唤在等着我。
中国这一代的艺术家有什么前途？能跟你的年代比较嗎？
田浩江：我觉得作为一个搞艺术的人来说，经历是非常重要的。经过10年的文化大革命，中国出了一批世界水平的艺术人才，包括电影导演，包括作曲家，包括画家，包括音乐家。今天的时代和我们那个时代有很大的区别，今天是一个商业的时代，是一个物质的时代。但是这个时代有一个危险，会使艺术商业化，会使人的欲望物质化。很多人就想着赚钱，享受，精神世界需要什么很多人不知道。我认为这会直接影响到一代艺术人才，这是我很大的忧虑。
我当然不希望出现另一个文化大革命。所以我们培养下一代，这个很重要。我们应该用“什么把他们培养成为了真正的艺术家”这个理念来培养他们。但这个非常难，因为大的环境是这样。所以我有一个理想，在群山峻岭中，在一个安安静静，清澈见底的湖边，松柏环绕的地方有一个学校，大家在那里完全沉浸在艺术中去。这是我的一个梦想。搞艺术的人应该是从天地自然的拥抱中诞生的，我们现在做了太多的事情去毁掉这个世界。
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