On the way I met a friend. I asked if she was going for a show. No, she said, going to attend singing class. I didn’t know she had class on Saturday. So I asked how many singing classes she had in a week. Three, she said. I don’t know if they include opera class. How come she not tired, I thought – she has to go to work early in the morning and works till 5 or 6pm (off on Saturday) and she got family chore to do.
Went to the vcd shop on the first level at the end of Smith Street. This shop is always crowded. There is a wide range of vcds and dvds. Spent some time looking but bought nothing. Then went to Chinatown Food Centre to eat Chee Cheung Fun. This stall is also always crowded.
I walked down to Chinatown Square, just in time to see the last few minutes of a Pekin Opera performance by the Pei Yen Ling Opera Arts Troupe. It was just past 9pm. The last minutes were all fighting and acrobatics – there were the monkey king, 4 little monkeys, 2 painted faces, a prawn soldier, a turtle soldier and a ‘dan’ (female artiste). The audience liked the turtle with his cute face and comical actions. Here are 2 pictures I took when they were ‘undressing’.
This is the 'dan', behind her is the Prawn.
This is the Turtle.
10 comments:
I don't quite fancy her troupe, because I feel that her troupe members are not serious in their work. The actors are trained professionally in China before, but somehow their attitude somehow affected their performance quality.
same thoughts here......
Who is your friend who is learning singing? Where is she learning? Sorry for being KPO~
She is a cantonese opera 'fanatic' working in the Chinatown area. The place is called New Ming Sing Opera Studio at Chin Swee Road. The instructor is Ling Tung Mung who was a 'wen-wu sheng' with an opera troupe in China. He came here several years back to teach opera movements and singing. I think his studio is the most popular of all those centres 'teaching cantonese opera'.
Hope you don't mind the long blah blah blah. Not advertising for him.
Hey, there's Cantonese opera performing at a temple in Sims Drive, have you heard of it? The troupe is from Hong Kong, and is performing till Friday.
oh....is it by lau wai ying?
I shall ask ML abt it whether she knows or not.
not that lau wai meng, another one
not the whole troupe from HK, only a few and not top ones, others locals or from M'sia
musicians also local
No wonder I can't stand the way they perform! They're simply not serious in their acting. And on top of that they have no subtitles, making me confused throughout my stay at the show!
Some performers do not take street opera seriously. On the other hand, the audience do not expect much.
Another drawback of street opera is that they don't have enough people in supporting roles. Sometimes, with the emperor, empress and the princess all on stage, there are only 2 court maidens and 2 imperial guards.
I saw lau wai meng once in that same venue...I was drawn by her powerful singing. I could hear her singing so distinctively from a distance. Thou I may not understand what she sang , I like the way she sings.
She is actually petite in size but she looked tall on stage. Now I still receive her fan club letter...haha...I didn't join her fan club...but I was surprised to get her new year card greeting from HK.
Btw I heard that she is only an amateur, is it true?
But if so...she sure doesn't look like one.
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