Mid-autumn celebrations @ The Frontier

In case you do not know, The Frontier is a community club in Jurong, near the Boon Lay MRT station. 

At first I had no intention of taking photos, so I missed taking photos of the earlier items - Chinese orchestra performance. The following are the other performances. 

新域慶中秋

瑞獅奔月

祥龍賞月

武當女俠

新域論劍

高手比武

武林盟主

月曲演唱

meanings

Melodic or melodious 
I used the word melodic in the previous post because it came to mind first. Later I thought, shouldn't it be melodious? I looked up the dictionary. Both have a same meaning - sounds like music or has a pleasant tune. So, in most cases we can use either one because usually that is the meaning we want to convey. 

However, melodic has another meaning - a technical one concerning the main tune in a piece of music. For example: There is very little melodic variation in the piece. Here we cannot use melodious


香夭 Xiang Yao
This is the name of the last scene in the opera The Patriotic Princess. Initially I was only guessing what yao means. Later, I checked it up.  Yao - tender; gentle; to die prematurely.

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Anyone knows what this means.

帝女花 Princess Chang Ping

The Drama Centre, 19 September 2009

 

This Cantonese opera has been performed for more than half a century and is still one of the most-liked and the most well-known Cantonese operas. If you ask an opera fan why she likes it, probably she will say hao kan meaning 'good to see'.

Many non opera-fans and non-Cantonese are familiar with the tunes of 'xiang yao', the signature song of the opera, because it is very melodic. To them xiang yao and Di Nu Hua are synonymous. Xiang yao means fragrant death. Though melodic, xiang yao is a sad song with many words associated with death and the couple drank the poison wine at the end of the song.



A poignant tale of love, loyalty, patriotism and despair

I think people like the opera because; first, they like the songs. Second, the opera has drama and passion. It is about the tumultuous period in the short life of a young couple -  first meeting, separation, reunion and suicide. Unlike most operas which have happy endings, this opera is a tragic one. In the second scene, the emperor, the empress, the concubine and a princess died. The opera ends with the death of Princess Chang Ping and the prince consort. There are several emotional scenes.

A competent cast can evoke the audience's emotions and bring them to empathize with the princess and the prince consort.

Like many other fans I have watched it many times already. Besides performances by foreign troupes, I have seen several local groups perform this opera.

Last Saturday is the second time I watched See Too Hoi Siang and Francis Wong perform this opera after a lapse of about 10 years. The main cast is about the same as it was then and they are an experienced and competent lot. They performed very well.


I only took a few pictures after the interval, so there are no pictures of the first few scenes .

 

第五場,迎鳳 - 李季樺, 司徒海嫦, 王金英, 陳美玲

第六場,上表 - 王金英, 郭廣麟, 司徒海嫦, 朱振邦, 李季樺


第七場,香夭 - 司徒海嫦, 王金英


謝幕 - 鍾慧玲, 盧少玲, 黃安妮

謝幕 - 司徒海嫦, 王金英

One for the album, with MP Fatimah Lateef. She doesn't understand Cantonese. However, she came before the show started and sat more than 3.5 hours from beginning to end. I think she also didn't go out during interval.

Photos of recent shows

The Drama Centre, 17 & 18 September 2009

公主 & 驸马 : from left, 鍾慧玲, 黃雯英 ;  陳美玲, 陳美燕 ;  盧少玲, 楊雅明

The pair in white are 许仙 & 白素貞 (洪清芳, 陳淑樺). The sheng in the yellow shirt is 周俊強.



from left 洪清芳, 陳淑樺, 黃兆平, 關小萍, 司徒海嫦, 胡桂馨, 王金英, 盧少玲

Where to buy Cantonese opera CDs

Cantonese operatic songs CDs and Cantonese opera CDs

Cantonese operatic songs CDs are those with one or more songs (can be from same or different operas) in one disc. Cantonese opera CDs are those which have audio recording of one whole opera from beginning to end on two or more discs. The total time can be more than 3 hours. Ti Nu Hua is one such opera on CDs.

Here are two shops which sell them:

The first shop (see first picture below) is at Basement 1, People's Park Centre. It has a wide range - quite recent titles as well as those which are 10, 20 years old or even older. There are many songs and artistes I haven't even heard of. It even sells audio tapes of these old songs.

There are also those in Teochew and a few other Chinese dialects.


Another one is at Level 1, Chinatown Point. Chinatown Point and People's Park Centre are linked by an overheard bridge which spans New Bridge Road. However, at this shop the range of titles is quite limited. There are more VCDs.

~ Flooding the enemy's troops ~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~ 水淹七軍 ~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

During the period of the Three Kingdoms, General Guan Yu led his army to victory in many tough battles. When he couldn't defeat the present enemy he lamented that he was getting old. But later, with his skills and experience, he thought of a plan. He won the battle and captured the opposing troops' leader. And his confidence was restored.

歷史名剧 - 水淹七軍

Evergreen Cantonese Melody 1

廣東小調 - 分飞燕 (陈浩德, 森森)





女：分飞万里隔千山
女：离泪似珠强忍欲坠仍在眼
女：我欲诉别离情无限
男：匆匆怎诉情无限
女：又怕情心一朝淡有浪爱海翻
男：空嗟往事成梦幻
女：只愿誓盟永存在脑间音讯你休疏懒

男：只怨欢情何太暂
男：转眼分离缘有限
男：我不会负情害你心灰冷
男：只你送君忍泪难
女：哎呀难难难
女：难舍分飞冷落怨恨有几番
男：身心托付鸿与雁
女：嘱咐话儿莫厌烦
女：你莫教人为你怨孤单

合：你莫教人为你怨孤单

Pampering your parents

Chicken rice
I think you have heard of the famous Chicken rice at Chatter Box, Mandarin Hotel. But have you tried it before? It is now $24 per set. You can eat about 5 sets at a normal food court.

I was reading a blogger's post saying she brought her father for the $24 Chicken rice. Her father, a thrifty man, had come down from Malaysia to visit her family. She wanted to pamper him and it was one way of honouring her father. Her father said that with that price he could have 20 meals back at the small town he is staying. But the meal was delicious and he was happy.

I think it is good to pamper your parents once in a while. Your parents might give you a lecture on thriftiness but in their heart they are actually very happy.

Nothing without labour
This is Victoria School's motto. I believe in it. Maybe because of this belief, I rarely get anything from lucky draws, Toto, etc. Then, last week, someone told me in an email : 'You have just been awarded the sum of One Million Pounds ..... in order to avoid unnecessary delay .... '

Incredulous! Give me so much money when I didn't even exert 1 mg of effort.

$1 less
At a market stall selling small packs of roast meat, a woman seller was shouting 'Buy 2 packets $1 less'. An auntie bought 2 packets costing $5. That means she had to pay only $4, right? Wrong. The seller left some words unsaid. It was $1 less per kg. That means if the original price of the meat was $16/kg, when you buy 2 packets it was $15/kg. The auntie only got 30 cents less. You only pay $1 less if your 2 packets weigh 1 kg.

I see quite a number of people tricked by the $1 less.

On the road

This is Guillemard Village at Guillemard Road. Do you know what building this was about a year or two ago?


Two days ago I stopped at a traffic junction at Paya Lebar Road. On my left was this sports car. Look at its window, so dark, can't even see the silhouette of the driver.



See the shaded triangle at the middle of the road. Some drivers avoid going over the triangle as if they are scared of violating some rule. I think it is okay to drive over the triangle. It is facing the Macpherson ITE. You can see two gates at the ITE building, one is the entrance and the other is the exit. Outside the exit is a yellow box. Does anyone know the purpose of the shaded triangle?

Free the son 二堂放子

This is another old post brought forward. The first 3 comments are old ones.

There are 4 excerpts in this video ...


The clip I'm posting here is Free The Son, an excerpt from the famous opera The Magic Lantern, 宝莲灯. The two leading artistes were 白駒荣 and 郎筠玉.

Two brothers had a fight with the arrogant son of the evil 'tai shi'. The son died. The Minister demanded that the father sent the brothers over for punishment. After much deliberations with his wife, they decided to send the younger son and free the older one.

The girl acting the older brother 沉香 is 小木兰.


名伶名剧 - 二堂放子

The sky is smiling

There is this blog called Happy Ideas, http://blurtinghappyideas.blogspot.com/
One idea it mentioned is 'go shopping'. Probably you guess the blogger is a woman and you are right.

Some other ideas the blogger suggested ...
give yourself a treat
develop a hobby
seek solitude
get enough sleep
try a little kindness
smile
sense of wonder

I have been doing some of these things all along.

Saturday adventure

Saturday afternoon, People's Park Complex
I went to level 3 and was surprised to see so many units doing foot reflexology or something related to health. It looked like business was good too. They are for both males and females. I have never done foot reflexology before so I don't know how it feels.


Business was very good at this Mr Lim's. When I lingered outside, a woman approached me and asked if I wanted a foot massage. I asked her must wait or not. She said yes, must queue. I said never mind I come next time. She said weekends 1 to 5 are their peak periods and asked me to come after 5.


Later as I was about to leave the complex, I saw 3 police vans and a police patrol car at the rear of the building. A crowd had gathered across the road to watch. There was excitement in the air. I asked a man in the crowd what was happening. He said the police were catching women soliciting in the area. I asked him where the women were. He said in the vans already. (Actually I meant to ask him where we can find the women.) Then the police vehicles started to leave. Too bad, I missed all the action.


As I was walking along New Bridge Road, I saw another massage and foot reflexology shop. I think it is at level one. A woman was standing below the staircase.


I went on to Kreta Ayer People's Theatre . There was a seminar going on inside the Theatre. There were two Malay women wearing white headscarves at the door. I think the seminar was organized by some Malay society.

When I was leaving Kreta Ayer CC, which is next to the Theatre, I saw this car parked beside a temporary wall. I think it was quite risky. Some workers were behind the wall digging the earth on the slope. The wall did not look very secure. What if it falls down and damage the car. Who is going to pay for the repairs? There were 3 prominent warning signs on the wall.

A story of love

I put up this post after reading Reporter Koo's post.

There are two free publications I receive quite regularly in my letter box. One is a quarterly publication by the Marine Parade Town Council. Another is Contact, a bi-monthly community magazine by the South East District. Quarterly means 4 times a year, bi-monthly means once every 2 months.

I keep a few of them for various reasons. For example, this one has some interesting stories of love, but not the romantic boy-girl type. Below is one example.

Yu Jia

Look at the old movie flyer at the previous post. There was an actor in the movie called Yu Jia or Yu Kai in Cantonese (羽佳). I happen to have a video in which he played the lead character, a hero in the history of China.

Here is a picture of Yu Jia from the video, a handsome young man ...


His mother and his wife in the story ...


Now, what are they doing to him? And what is the hero character he is playing? When you look at the last picture, I think most of you will know the answers.

.
.
.
.
.

The last picture ...


Yes, the hero is Yue Fei, 岳飛. His mother used a needle to prick the 4 words on his back. The words mean Be Loyal and Serve the Country.

The actress acting the mother was 鄧碧雲 and the wife was 鄭碧影. And the movie is 岳飛出世.