A few days ago, Lv Yana, an undergraduate student of the class of the spring of 2013 majoring in administrative management at Ninghai RTVU won the silver prize in the professional group during the finals of the “2013 Yue Opera Actress Competition”, held by the traditional opera channel of CCTV, as well as the award for “Most Popular” in the competition.
Lv Yana once studied at the Shaoxing Art School. From 2004 till now, she has been working in Ninghai Yueju Opera (flat tone) troupe, where she has a lead role. Due to her work in this grass-roots troupe, she often performs in villages, and has a busy schedule as a leading actress. She has made great contributions to Ninghai's cultural prosperity over the last 10 years.
Practice makes perfect. In 10 years Lv Yana has been constantly enhancing her own skills and never relaxes her commitment to improving. She practices the "Lv" style, having studied with Teacher Chen Tiankuang of Zhejiang Art School. At the same time, in order to promote her own artistic appreciation, she enrolled herself at RTVU in the autumn of 2010, and continued to pursue undergraduate courses at RTVU in the spring of 2013 after graduation from college.
Lv Yana is the only person who has competed in the “Yue Opera Actress Competition” three times and won an award each time. Before this, she had won the silver prize in the “2006 Yue Opera Actress Competition”, and was named one of the top ten stars of the “2009 Yue Opera Actress Competition”. She also won a Top Ten Outstanding Rising Stars Award at the second session of China Yue Opera Art Festival, and the first prize at the Zhejiang Youth Opera Performers Contest of 2012, “Xinsong Plan”.
Having found such success in her previous competitions, Lv Yana set her sights on the gold prize at 2013's event. As a result, she turned in a very confident and solid performance in each qualification round. The judges remarked that her performance reflected her experience. An online comment read: “No matter whether it’s her interpretation of the character or the expression of emotion, or even the character’s posture and movement, her performance has reached a consistent level. The way she melds her treatment of the opera score and her emotional expressions is very harmonious, revealing her solid skills." Lv Yana ranked fifth and advanced to the 8th round, where the 20 remaining contestants would be narrowed down to just 10.
She seemed to be on a march to claim the gold. However, in the 9th round, in which the field would be further narrowed from 10 to 7, Lv Yana failed to get ideal scores for her performance of “Snow in Midsummer”. The audience felt pity for her, with one online comment reading: “We think that Lv Yana’s performance and singing are very good. It’s not easy to go to the rural villages and perform for them. We support you!”.
“Lose at sunrise and gain at sunset”. Although she didn't get the gold prize, she unexpectedly won the competition's “Most Popular” award. When talking about what she has gained from the competition, Lv Yana says: "As an actress in a small county-level opera troupe, I often perform in rural villages. So being on the CCTV stage and competing in the Yue Opera Actress Competition is a great achievement. I also want to thank all of my online fans for their support. Entertaining others is more important than winning prizes, and from now on I vow to increase my efforts to repay peoples' encouragement.”
Additionally, in 2013 the Ningbo Yifu Theater put on the opera “Complicated Love by Beauty” starring Lv Yana, which received many favorable comments. Afterwards, this show was presented on the traditional opera channel of CCTV. The monthly magazine “Zhejiang Culture” and “Ningbo Daily” commented on and recommended the show.
By Du Jianguo, Ninghai RTVU