Friday. After dinner at Circuit Road I walked to Seng Ong temple. It took about 20 minutes. The temple was a hive of activity. Some people were praying and some were viewing the exhibits. Tens of tables had been laid in the courtyard as there would be a feast for temple devotees. The caterers were preparing the dishes and roasting some piglets in the compound.
The opera was a comedy and much of the music was very chirpy. The story goes like this. A princess swooned over a young handsome man who was actually a lady in disguise and wanted to make her the prince-consort. Then a real handsome man appeared and the princess also swooned over him and decided to make this man the prince-consort instead. When she asked for his identity, the lady’s maid, also disguised as a man, tricked the princess and gave her the identity of a very ugly man. And so weaved a story of coincidence, mistaken identity and comical errors.
The opera is entertaining. Scenes 2 and 3 were hilarious as the court officials and then the emperor, the empress and the princess herself got to see the face of the ugly man. Also another scene in which the half-drunk princess mistakenly took the ugly man to bed.
Anyway, a happy ending. Despite her reluctance and resistance, the willful princess married the ugly man. The beautiful lady got the handsome man.
I only know the beautiful lady and the handsome man, but not the princess or the ugly man. I also can’t recognize Lin Xiu Zhen even if she was in the cast.
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