It was the last night for the Zhangzhou City Xiang Opera Troupe. They performed for 17 nights. It must have been quite exhausting for them. It would be nice if the organizers had put a rest day in between.
It was full-house tonight. I came early as I expected more people. The hall was already half-filled. At the row in front of me a woman was showing her neighbours a stack of photos of ZZ opera artistes. Like a busybody, I went forward and asked to see some. She said 1 for 50 cents. Oh, she was selling them. I looked through and bought two.
Later everyone in the audience was given a little red bag with two mandarin oranges. I ate one. The orange was easy to peel and very sweet.
Before every performance, there was a simple ceremony. A lady in opera costume came to the edge of the stage and a man below handed her some oranges and other things. She squatted down to receive them, stood up and made a few bows before walking backstage.
The opera was one I have seen before. It didn’t matter much. There was one stunt I have not seen performed in cantonese opera before. This actor wanted to kneel down to apologize to his wife. But he did not kneel the way you and I would do. He jumped high into the air, bent his knees and then landed with both knees hitting the hard wooden floor with a loud thud. I thought it was quite dangerous - very painful and might dislocate his knees.
Just before the last scene Lin Xiuzhen came on stage and gave a short speech thanking the audience.
After the show the artistes and some other troupe members gathered on stage for a photography session. Then it was photography time for the fans. It was a joyous occasion for everyone. I took a few photos and then sat down to watch others taking pictures. Zhang Yaling, Xiuzhen and ‘The Twins’ all were smiling happily taking photos with their fans. I felt happy for them too.
I sounded like a Xiang opera fan now. Hahaha…
The empty opera stage.... what emotions does it evoke in you?
Miko : "人去楼空"
Amai : "曲終人散"
bye-bye!
10 comments:
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The woman was selling ZZ actresses pics!!!!!! I think my zz friends will freak out if they know.
Being a kepo, whose pictures did you buy?
One picture is zheng Yaling, the other I'm not sure. She looks a bit like Pang Jin Lian. She was dressed simply, maybe as a maid. I like her pose and her hand and foot posture.
can put up and let us c? pls, pls, pls.^^
hehehehehehe, we are good at recognising actresses. ^^
A group of them came to visit our troupe and zheng ya ling taught us some gestures. Most of them are getting ill. Director Wu is now down with flu and fever. Zheng Yaling and Yuxiang - the comical princess are in the midst of falling sick. Yaling is losing her voice and Yuxiang is having a headache.Not enough rest. The twins recovered from heat stroke. I think they are too weary after a non-stop 17 days of performance and now in china is still cold. When they reached SG day one, they couldn't adapt to our hot weather here suddenly. I hope they will be able to come again!!! I think the audience likes them alot. I heard that they still have many scripts back in ZZ. Good ones! ZZ is renowned for their music composition and scripts!
Do you know what are the ZZ people doing now? Everyone is now clearing the stage and stacking their props and costumes up the lorries. Think they could only rest around 2plus in the morning. That's what they did on lst night when they reached SG past midnite and worked till 4am.
Oh yeah, lin xiuzhen came to our KH and AC was so happy sitting next to her. (LOL)
I missed the twins as they stayed back at the temple and guess who sat beside me.....hehe....Zheng Ya ling. The two of us were giggling and chatting happily. Yuxiang is quieter as she is having a headache. Occasionally I threw glances at her to cheer her up. (I saw her touching her back of her head.) At last their performances are over and Yaling told me that when she went back to China, she wants to sleep and rest for 2 days. (^_^)
Oh ya, the stunt that u mentioned, We asked Lan Haibing about it. He said that it isn't that dangerous and they have tactics to do it. We had rehearsal in the afternoon and we were suggesting our main sheng lead to do the stunt, my leader shook her head as she felt the same as you. So she didn't allow us to do the stunt. Furthermore, we do not undergo the kind of training that they had as we are only amatuers. I wanted to try but my role cant use this stunt, it would definitely look awful to c a princess do that...N i felt awful being a princess cos I kept on reminding me that in this show, I aint a sheng, so have to go as graceful as I can. Er....how graceful can I go... I am still trying to catch the feel.(LOL)
Such stunts are not uncommon actually. If you've seen Peking opera or Shaoxing Yue-opera, you'll see this stunt occassionally. Anyway, not everytime when they acted this show do you get to see this stunt. I was told back in China in the rural areas whereby the stage can be covered with sand and the floor not well carpetted, Haibin will go away with that stunt to protect his knees.
I would like to see a dan do that stunt, must be quite... spectacular.
Your last photo reminded me of 人去楼空。
Yesterday, saw a show about world war 2 and the life of pekin opera actors during that time. So sad and so touching. I want to cry~ But I only caught the ending of the show, I am going to find the VCD.
Ya, very spectacular - the audience clapped and clapped. Dan do not nice - not feminine.
I think your feeling for the empty opera stage is verp apt. I wonder if there is an english phrase that expresses the same feeling.
English ah? er.... gone with the wind?
Empty Stage - 曲終人散
That Zhen Zhen's pic is not dressed like a maid, is a page boy in disguise. ^^
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