银幕《神女》在舞台亮相，“巴洛克女王”在音乐厅演出

司马勤

从来都不属于那群崇拜阮玲玉的粉丝。我不是中国人，

更不是女性，所以从一开始，我就被逐出了殿堂。我也不算是葛丽泰·嘉宝（Greta Garbo）的影迷——她跟阮玲玉一样，在默片年代以演妓女一举成名。但嘉宝的例子却又有不同：她虽然活到85岁，但电影生涯却没有持续下去。有声电影流行之际，她已毅然离开了娱乐圈。

不可否认，我们每次得悉一个悲惨的生命突然结束，必会感到伤心——更可以用“歌剧性”来形容这类事件——尤其是那些辞别人世的艺术家，他们的一生与所演绎的艺术有不少雷同之处。阮玲玉就是这种人物。还有另一位，就是作家萧红。

过去几年，萧红在银幕上频频出现。在许鞍华导演那亮丽的《黄金时代》之前——该作品囊括了一座又一座的电影奖项，可能比买票入座的观众还多——有2013年霍建起执导的《萧红》。两部电影公映前后，还有一部像是室内乐歌剧的《萧红》。可惜的是，三部作品都犯了同样的错误，而歌剧的效果最为令人失望。正如我之前已经提到的，重塑名人，让他们在观众面前亮相，与把名人故事叙述出来，真的是两回事。

尽管如此，阮玲玉的个案有点不一样。关锦鹏于1992年拍摄的《阮玲玉》是个难得的最佳示例：电影叙述阮玲玉的一生，同时也令观众领略到这位明星值得敬佩的特点。在电影中，令人感动的细节是从演员张曼玉的口中说出来的。电影中重整1934年经典默片《神女》的各个段落，张曼玉面对镜头把阮玲玉的故事诉说出来，更详细分析了这位明星遗留下来的，影响后世与现代中国女性的意义。虽然《阮玲玉》这部陈述阮玲玉一生作品的电影不一定是最权威的，它却让张曼玉于1992年在柏林电影节上荣登了影后的宝座。在过去20多年里，这部电影被公认为最令人信服、最值得欣赏的关于阮玲玉的电影。

这个情况在不久之前却有了改变，部分原因是更多的观众渐渐地熟识了阮玲玉最负盛名的电影。2013年，北京人艺重演19年前以阮玲玉为主题的话剧。在过去的一个演出季里，向来热爱老上海的纽约前卫吉他音乐家卢卡斯（Gary Lucas）为其配上现场音乐，带着《神女》这部电影到处巡演。不久以前，英国电影协会（British Film Institute）完成了《神女》的修复版。去年10月份，英国电影协会举办伦敦电影节，特地安排一场别开生面的放映会，重金礼聘英国室内乐团（English ChamberOrchestra）同场演奏北京作曲家邹野的电影新配乐。

你现在或会抱有这个疑问：那么《阮玲玉》的歌剧呢？玛丽莲-梦露（ Marilyn Monroe）的故事在歌剧舞台上已经出现过三个版本：1993年，纽约市立歌剧院搬演了艾兹拉·莱德尔曼（Ezra Laderman）的《玛丽莲》：2012年，荷兰歌剧院演出罗宾·迪·拉夫（Robin de Raaff）的《等待梦露小姐》（Waiting forMiss Monroe）；英国作曲家格文·布莱尔斯（Gavin Bryar）的《永远的玛丽莲》（Marilyn Forever）于本年3月份在长滩（LongBeach）举行美国首演。选择加州长滩这个与好莱坞近在咫尺的地方，简直是恰当之极。以上三部歌剧都没有获得好评——更谈不上重演或新制作——因此，也引起了不少乐评家的推测。他们的论点是：本质上，电影明星就不适合被用作歌剧主题。但我不同意。我认为到了今天，还没有人有技巧、有把握、有效地处理这个主题。

好了，终于进入正题了：现在有一部名叫《神女2.O》的作品。由中国出生、美国长大的艺术家隋然（Michelle Sui）自编、自导、自演的多媒体歌剧。她受过声乐训练，而她的演出跨越不同艺术门类。她设计的舞台布景令人刮目相看，可惜相对来讲，演出效果比较逊色。容许我先把制作的强项列出来：在《阮玲玉》这部电影中，导演安排张曼玉扮演阮玲玉，根据原作，演出《神女》的不同片段。隋然用上“绿布景”（chroma-key）科技，把自己的影像介入电影里。整个晚上的演出中，真人版的隋然在投影空间徘徊，以歌声与独白回应阮玲玉电影世界中隋然的影像。

这些年来，我看过在舞台上运用的科技——很多剧院与歌剧院利用投影技术，目的是为了证明昂贵的机器是值得的——但是这一趟，我觉得投影与作品的主题绝对吻合。令我搞不清楚的，却是这场演出的主要动机。作品没有怀旧的意味，因为隋然与阮玲玉的年代没有任何直接的个人关系。我猜，关锦鹏的《阮玲玉》首映当年，隋然还没有出生。但是，隋然的年龄与当年阮玲玉自杀时年岁（24岁）却差不多。青春所燃起的那种原始动力，让《神女2.0》超越了高科技玩乐园的境界。

隋然确实“闯”进了阮玲玉的世界，却又保持着局外人的身份。我们可以说，隋然创建了多层次的注释，她所探讨的不单是阮玲玉本人与阮玲玉这位艺术家，还有电影媒介的魅力以及崇拜名人的社会风气。阮玲玉的一生——她出殡那天上海街头挤满了人，殡仪队伍延伸至三英里之外——不可能只是代表一个天真的女子，在一个天真的时代的遭遇？演出当天，观众目不转睛地凝视屏幕上的美女。问题是，隋然成功地带领了她的观众进入阮玲玉的世界，却没有任何重要的信息要传递给我们。

《神女2.o》今年4月在纽约下城一个名叫“迪科信之地”（Dixon Place）的酒吧剧院演出，深夜时分只演了一场。我觉得用“首演”这个字眼未免言之过早，因为作品还停留在实验阶段。到现在为止，隋然没有全方位探索自己的思维。但是，“迪科信之地”与那里的观众对于这个显得半生不熟的作品显然十分宽容。我也同意：我很乐意在未来的日子重返剧院，观看隋然更成熟的《神女》版本。

上期我讨论过深受广大观众爱戴的歌剧女神，却遗漏了另一位女神。我忘记了，可能是因为她没有新出版的自传要推销，也没有参加百老汇剧目，还有就是：她并不是女高音！可是，当我们谈及今时今日，吸引新观众的热门歌唱家的时候，乔伊斯。迪多纳托（Joyce DiDonato）是不可或缺的重要人物。

几周前，我终于在香港遇上了迪多纳托小姐，她在中国巡演，音乐会命名为“巴洛克女王”。突然之间，我明白为什么我忽略了她。蕾内·弗莱明（ Renee Fleming）与黛博拉。沃伊特（Deborah Voigt）这两位女高音致力于拓展歌剧舞台以外的新观众群。迪多纳托却在歌剧这个范畴内自得其乐，把新观众引入歌剧世界。

正当弗莱明与沃伊特这两位美国女高音用尽法宝——尽管她们的秘密法宝截然不同——来证明她们只不过是“普通人”，她们都没有像迪多纳托那么成功，在过去十年来创建了著名的“洋基歌剧女王”（Yankee Diva）博客。迪多纳托的笔锋锐利，除了描述音乐以外，更披露后台的点滴、巡演的苦乐，以及她随时随地想分享的事物。迪多纳托也有自己的YouTube频道（名为“Yankeediva”），让她拓展欣赏歌剧、音乐会或者大师班以外的观众——同样也让观众有机会反馈意见，与她建起了联系。

迪多纳托一手一脚建立起的社交媒体，看起来真的有点厚颜无耻，甚至令人发笑，但这种厚脸皮有时候却是关键之所在。4月份，当她刚好完成了自己策划、展示自己喜好多种音乐风格的“角度”（Perspectives）系列演出后，迪多纳托被委任为卡内基音乐厅董事局成员。在这系列演出进行期间——刚好与美国总统选举起步同时——不少卡内基观众带着“支持乔伊斯”（Pro-Joyce）字眼的、好像是竞选总统的别针。

十年前，那些食古不化的古典音乐人或许会批评迪多纳托是毫无实际的夸夸其谈罢了。就算今天，我们也很难鉴定，媒体推广与艺术有什么直接关系。这样说吧，必须先达到艺术巅峰，才可以谈及其他。但是，现今社交媒体的规模越见巩固——从很多角度来说，它已经超越了传统媒体——它也脱离了“市场推广”的铜臭，与观众建立了更为纯粹的互动联系。

“巴洛克女王”就是一个最好的例子。在亚洲，通常任何独唱音乐会（不只是女中音独唱音乐会）的出票情况都是很棘手的问题。如若选择演出17、18世纪的冷门曲目，那更加是个愚笨的方案，尽管曲目冠有“王室”主题或打着由格莱美大奖歌唱家录制成唱片的旗号。但这次，我可以向你保证：在香港，那位“洋基歌剧女王”的演出，却出其不意地卖了个满堂红。

上月我提到蕾内·弗莱明与她在百老汇主演的闹剧《靠爱活着》（Living On Love）。让我告诉你们吧：只靠爱情，真的活不下去。虽然原计划该剧只安排演至夏天，制作人却在托尼奖入选名单公告后宣布了取消演出。原因很简单：《靠爱活着》连一个托尼奖提缶都没有：最后一场演出在5月3日举行。这部剧在百老汇的寿命很短：21个预演场次加16场正式演出。

《靠爱活着》于4月20日开演后，剧评褒贬不一。《纽约时报》认为弗莱明的人物太温柔，一点都没有歌剧女王那种霸气与泼辣。而《华尔街时报》的评论更苛刻：“一丁点都不幽默，令观众感到沮丧，恐怕今后都没有机会大笑了。”大部分剧评都埋怨祖·迪彼尔特罗（Joe DiPietro），说他的剧本令人失望。

取消制作的另一个原因，可能是朗埃克剧院。上月，我已经提醒过大家：这个剧院在过去的一百年来，从来没有搬演过成功的长寿的百老汇剧目。关于《靠爱活着》的停演，大家应该心里有数了。

I've never belonged to the cult of Ruan Lingyu. Being neitherChinese nor a woman， I was pretty much excommunicated from thestart. I also wasn't much into Greta Garbo-another silent-filrn starfamous for playing a prostitute. Though in Garbo's case， it was onlythe career that died young.

There's something undeniably touching-operatic， you mightsay-about a tragic life coming to such an abrupt end， especiallywhen that person is an artist whose life so resembles the work. Ruanwas such a figure. So， too， was the writer Xiao Hong.

Xiao Hong has recently found life anew on the silver screen. Evenbefore Ann Hui's luminous Golden L'ra-a film that may possiblyhave garnered more awards than actual viewers-there was alsothe 2013 biopic Falling Flowers. In between came an opera of sortsentitled Heart of Coral， which sufiered from the same faults as thefilms， only more so. As I've said before， holding famous charactersup to the audience is not the same as telling their stories.

The Ruan case， though， has been a bit different. StanleyKwan's1992 film Cen，ter Stage was that rare example of a biopic thatboth told its story and let audiences know exactly why its subjectwas so great. Most of the details came， appropriately enough， fromthe mouth of Maggie Cheung， who in between recreating iconicscenes from Ruan's film The Goddess （1934）， spoke at length oncamera about what Ruan's story and legacy meant to her as both anactress and a Chinese woman. It may not be a definitive statement，but Cen，ter Stage-which garnered Cheung a Best Actress award at1992 Berlin Film Festival-remained the final word on the subjectfor at least two decades.

That seems to be changing， partly because more people havediscovered Ruan's most famous film. In 2013， the play Ruan Lingyureturned to the Beijing People's Arts Theatre for the first time in 19years. Last season， The Goddess began touring the US with a newlive score by Gary Lucas， a New York-based avant-garde guitaristwith a love for old Shanghai； then the British Film Institutelaunched a newly restored version of'the original fllm. Last October，the BFI London Film Festival featured a screening of the film withthe English Chamber Orchestra playing a newly commissionedscore by the Beijing-based composer Zou Ye.

So where， you rrught ask， is Ruan Lzngyu： The Opera？ Especiallywhen we've seen at least three operas devoted to Marilyn Monroe（Ezra Laderman's Marzlyn， at New York City Opera in 1993， Robinde Raaffs Wazting for Miss Mon，roe at the Netherlands Opera in2012， and Gavin Bryars' Marilyn. Forever， which had its US debutin March， appropriately enough， near Hollywood in Long Beach，California）. That few of them have gotten good reviews-or evensubsequent productions-have led some critics to claim that moviestars are inherently inappropriate subjects for opera. I disagree. Itonly means that no one yet has gotten it right.

Which brings me to Goddess 2.0， a multimedia opera conceived，directed， designed and starring the young Chinese-born， US-educatecl singer and interdisciplinary artist Michelle Sui. The setupwas striking； the results less so. But first， the strong points： unlikeMaggie Cheung， who had to recreate scenes from ThE Goddess， Suiused chroma-key （"green-screen"） technology to insert herselfintoactual footage from the film. The evening unfolded with the live Suicircling the projection area， responding vocally to images of herselfin Ruan's cinematic world.

Of all the recent uses of technology I've seen onstage-mosttheatre and opera companies seem to employ projections mostlyto justify the cost of the equipment-this was one of the few thatmakes total sense with its subject. What wasn't so clear was theprimary impetus. It wasn't proper nostalgia， since Sui has nopersonal recollections of Ruan's era. She probably wasn't evenborn when Kwan's Cen，ter Stage came out. But Sui being not muchyounger than Ruan at the time of her suicide （at age 24） surelysparked much of the raw power that made Goddess 2.0 more thanjust a playground for high-tech toys.

By literally breaking into Ruan's world while still remainingoutside， Sui set up multiple layers ofcommentary not just on Ruan，the person and artist， but also on the seductiveness of the mecliumitself and the cult of celebrity it generated. How can we think ofRuan's story-or her legendary three-mile funeral procession-as merely a nalve woman m a naIve time when even the audienceat Sui's show had their eyes glued to the screen？ The problem wasthat， after effectively enticing her viewers， Sui soon fell short ofthings to say.

Goddess 2.0 made a late-night， one-time-only appearance lastmonth in a New York downtown venue called Dixon Place. Ihesitate to call it a "premiere" because it was in no way a fmishedpiece. Nor can I believe that Sui has fully explored her thoughtson the subject. But both Dixon Place and its audience seem highlyforgiving ofideas that are-in the most generous use of the term-half-baked， and I for one will gladly return whenever Sui decides toput her project back in the oven.

My account last month ofthe battle of'the populist divas had oneglaring omission， probably because she wasn't hawking a book orworking on a theatre piece. And probably， too， because she's not even a soprano. But no report of singers embracing new audiencesis complete without mentioning Joyce DiDonato.

I finally caught up with Ms. DiDonato last month in HongKong on her "Drama Queens" tour， and suddenly it becameall too apparent how I overlooked her. Unlike Renee Flemingand Deborah Voigt， the two sopranos most overtly recruitingaudiences beyond the opera stage， DiDonato remains in placeand brings audiences to her.

While Fleming and Voigt， both American singers， have bothgone to great-ifvery different-lengths to prove that they're 'just normal people：' neither could credibly generate a blog called "YankeeDiva，" as DiDonato has clone for the past decade， writing not onlyabout music but also backstage antics， life on the road， and basicallywhatever runs through her mind at any given moment. That，together with her own YouTube channel （also called "Yankeediva"），has extended her reach well beyond the usual audience capacityfor opera， concerts or master classes-and also given audiences achance to reach back to her.

The brazenness of'DiDonata's one-woman social-media campaignis often laughable， which can be the point. In April at Carnegie Hall，where she'd just fmished curating a "Perspectives" series showcasingher wide-ranging musical interests， DiDonato was elected to theBoard of Trustees. Throughout much of her series-corresponclingwith the start ofthe US presidential race-Carnegie Hall audienceshad been bombarded with campaign buttons declaring "Pro-Joyce."

Ten years ago， cynics in the classical music world would'veciismissed all this as hype， and even today it's hard to argue that itadds anything directly to the artistry. Indeed， the artistry has to bein place already. But as social media has become more entrenched-in many ways transcending traditional media-it's also removedmuch of the stigma from marketing， returning that much-malignedfield to its humble roots in audience connection.

"Drama Queens" was a prime example. In Asia， where any vocalrecital （not just a mezzo-soprano） is a tough sell， an evening of 17th-and i8th-century obscurities would be foolhardy， no matter howclever its royal-themed program， or how well it had been recorded by a Grammy-winning vocalist. But rest assured， in Hong Kong theYankee Diva brought audiences out in droves.

Speaking of Renee Fleming， Livin.g On Love， the Broadway farceI featured last month， proved unable to live solely on love. Althoughthe comedy had been scheduled to run only through the summer，the producers closed the play immediately after it failed to garnerany nominations for the 2015 Tony Awarcls. The final showing wason May 3， after only 21 previews and 16 regular performances.

Reviews， too， had been decicledly mixed， with the New YorkTimes claiming that Fleming seemed way too nice to be playing adiva， while the Wall Street Journal called it "so unfunny as to makethe viewer despair of ever laughing again." Most critics blamed JoeDiPietro's script.

Or maybe it was just the Longacre Theatre， which as I'dmentioned last month has never had a successful long run inits hundred-year history. The closing shouldn't be much of asurprise.