粵劇情懷 : November 2013

November 30, 2013

Busy watching shows

Lately I have been watching quite a lot of Cantonese opera shows as you can see from my recent posts. Attendances at the shows by local artistes were good. A few were free-admission shows as they were meant for senior citizens while some others charged a nominal fee to cover part of the costs which were mainly borne by the performers and organizers themselves.

A friend said the artistes from Kong Chow Wui Koon who partnered artistes from the Nam Neng Cantonese Opera Troupe in the Singing Concert had to pay quite a big sum to them.

Attendance at each of the shows by the Nam Neng Troupe was also good, especially for the second night. I guess the organizers were pleased with the turnout. I think one reason was that the shows were fresh, that means they were new to Singaporean fans. There was variety too.

One was a historical story about Ng Sarm Kwai and Chan Yuen Yuen. Another was a Buddhism story about a filial monk who rescued his mother in Hell. (This opera was performed by the Troupe when it first came here three years ago.) The third was a romantic fairy-tale about a tower in Nam Neng. The fourth show was a traditional one about Seet Ting San, Fan Lei Fah and Seet Yeng Long.

For the Nam Neng shows, the back seats (from row AA to row NN) were not for sale. I think this is a good thing. Otherwise many people would buy the cheaper back seats leaving many seats in the middle and front sections empty. This won't look very nice.

The lead xiao sheng, Wong Jern Seng, and huadan, Leong Soh Mui in the historical opera ...