Street Opera

This cantonese street opera at Chinatown is into its 11th day today (Saturday, 18 Nov) with 3 more days to go. So far I have watched only one night show. For a street opera, the ticket prices are expensive, from $4 to $25. There is only one row of $4 seats – the last row. I heard that the male lead from HK is also very expensive; someone told me $1500 per day and he only performs the night shows during weekdays.

The enclosure is very very warm and humid even though the three sides are open and the fans are working full speed. One good thing is the floor plan – from the row nearest the stage the floor slopes upwards so that everyone gets a clear view of the stage.

At one end of the field is the opera show and at the other end the religious rites of the ‘San Wang Wu Ti’ sect are carried out.

In the past years there was also a Hokkien opera (for 3 or 4 days) going on during the same period in an adjacent field in conjunction with the religious celebrations of another Taoist sect. The juxtaposition of these different operas in the same area and together with the fervent religious activities going on presents a unique Singapore Experience.

But this year there is only one vacant field. I don’t know where the Hokkien opera has been moved to.




Saturday afternoon I went down to have a look. It was extremely hot. But there were quite a lot of opera-crazed people outside and inside the enclosure enduring the oppressive heat to watch the opera.

Photo-taking

A short clip of the artistes getting ready for the photo-taking after their performance. (See the post below)

鴛鴦淚灑莫愁湖

Cantonese opera show
on 11-11-2006 at Kreta Ayer People’s Theatre
organized by Kolam Ayer CC Chinese Cultural Group
lead artistes: Ng Lily, Chik Chiew Kuarn (黃莉莉, 戚超群)
guest artiste: Fung Kong Ngai (馮剛毅)

This opera has high entertainment value which is an important factor in opera shows. But there is one part which is rather unconvincing. In scene 6, the scheming wife told the physician to add an item to his prescription for her sick husband. She claimed she had some medical knowledge and threatened to get the physician arrested for being incompetent if he did not do so. How could an experienced an upright physician gave in to such flimsy threat…

Lily Ng was the leading xiao sheng for the first six scenes. Guest artiste Fung Kong Ngai from China took the last scene. She gave a spirited performance in scenes 3 and 5. On the whole she did creditably.

True to his reputation, in the final scene Fung gave a stirring rendering of the theme song to an attentive audience.

Chik Chiew Kuarn was the leading hua dan. She has the physique of a dan. She also has a pleasing appearance. I feel her look and the way she recites some lines bear a slight resemblance to Leong Seok Heng, a hua dan in China. But I think she sings better than Leong. She sang the theme song in scene 5 very well.

Others in the main cast were the scheming wife, the unethical tai jun and the conceited maid. They too performed well.

All these are just my personal non-professional view

鐘麗蓉, 戚超群, 馮剛毅, 黃莉莉

guest artiste 馮剛毅

tai jun & the maid 陳惠嬋, 鐘麗蓉

the wife 譚彩雲

Street Opera at Chinatown

click on image for larger version

Old pictures

My friend Victor mentioned in jest that MM Lee was an opera fan. It made me think of something and I went to check up an opera book. Sure enough, I found this photo of the then PM Lee and MP for Tanjong Pagar presenting an award to an opera artiste during a show to raise funds for the Tanjong Pagar Community Centre. It was in1972, 34 years ago.

And it says opera artistes from Hong Kong were popular then. The names of these artistes were not stated. They look a little familiar but I am not sure who they are. Anyone knows?

Going to the movies was a common form of entertainment for many people in the 60s. Some popular movies were shown to full-houses for weeks. The picture below shows a billboard on wheels advertising a mandarin movie and three other advertisements - one for a cantonese movie, one for a hokkien movie and one for a teochew movie. (Click on picture for larger version)

Long-winded compere

邱小娜 Qiu Xiaona, Zhuhai fah dan

Attended a cantonese opera show on Saturday at the Kreta Ayer People’s Theatre.

I think the compere talked too much. A man sitting in the same row and another in the row in front of me also expressed similar comments. Ironically, the compere said this a few times: ‘due to the constraint of time’. So the man in front said: ‘you yourself are wasting our time’.

It was not because the artistes or the stagehands needed more time to prepare. There was ample time for the artistes to change costumes or for the change of sceneries.

There were seven items, so the compere came out seven times to introduce them. Except for the last introduction which was very brief, the others were quite lengthy. If each introduction took 3 to 4 minutes the compere himself would have used up about 25 minutes already.

A little about the show.

It was a showcase of local talent Philip Chan Fook Hong organized by the Kong Chow Wui Kun and the Chinese Opera Society. Philip has engaged a fah dan, Qiu Xiaona, from Zhuhai to partner him in three excerpts. But I feel that her performance fell short of expectation.

Of his four excerpts I like the one about Lin Chong best.

There was one excerpt by Aw Yeong Peng Mun and a relatively unknown artist, Gan Wah Ee, from Kuala Lumpur. I last saw Peng Mun perform here.

Another item was a duet by Ling Tung Mun and Woo Wai Fong. Wai Fong portrayed the character Lin Xiangru competently. Somehow her voice seems to suit the character well.

Roast duck

I ordered ‘roast duck drumstick rice’ at a roast duck rice stall.

“Don’t put gravy,” I told the aunty assistant. I don’t like the gravy of most roast duck stalls. Instead of enhancing the taste, I feel it spoils the roast duck.

“You want to put soya sauce and cooked oil?” she asked.

“Put,” I said.

Simple instructions.

So, I expected the duck with the soya sauce and oil on it to come on the rice itself or in a separate plate.

But the aunty seemed to have a different interpretation of my instructions.

The plate of rice came with soya sauce and oil added and the duck came in another plate with gravy added!!!

First time this happened. I think she might have thought I referred to the rice only. Must give very specific instructions if I patronize the stall again.

Maybe in a similar way, we sometimes misunderstand each other.

Pictures

Recent pictures of some opera artists as their own selves, not the scholars or princesses they portray on stage. These pictures, except for the first one which I took in August this year, are scanned from a cantonese opera magazine,粵劇曲藝.

彭炽彭
(Pang Zhi Quan, the blind beggar & emperor)

琼霞 (Kheng Har, the village girl & ghost)

姚志強 & 丁凡 (Yew Chee Keong, Ting Fan)

郭鳳女 & 蘇春梅 (Kwok Feng Lui, Soh Chun Mui)

蔣文端 & 曹秀琴 (Jeong Mun Tuin, Cho Sau Karm)
I have seen Cho perform in Guangzhou but I don't think she has ever performed in Singapore.

倪惠英 (Ngai Wai Ying)

歐凱明 (Aw Kai Meng)

麥玉清 (Mak Yeok Ching)

曾慧 (Zhen Wai)

Plain english

Once I attended an English Language course. The lecturer was a Canadian. He was peeved at people using phrases like: ‘in the Singapore context’ and ‘at this point of time’. His reason was “you don’t need to use unnecessary fanciful phrases when simple words will do.”

Why ‘in the Singapore context’, just ‘in Singapore’ will do, he said. As for ‘at this point of time’ it can be replaced with ‘now’ or ‘at the moment’. Or it could be omitted altogether.

I don’t think you see these 2 phrases being used often. Came across this about 2 weeks ago: ‘At this point in time, the offer still stands’.In this case I think the lecturer is right. That phrase can be replaced or omitted.

SATAN

One day we were puzzled to see this on the whiteboard in the office:

Message from SATAN :- Please …….

On closer look, we were all smiling away.

Actually it was S.A. Tan (Senior Administrator Mr Tan)

This Mr Tan was away and he had asked someone to post the message. But this fellow with his wicked sense of humour made the full stops so faint and the letters so close that it looked that way.

Mid Autumn at the Esplanade

On Thursday evening I was on my way to the Esplanade to watch a show. The sky was quite hazy. The sun was a beautiful orange colour, like a huge egg yolk. This photo was taken from Nicoll Highway.


On Saturday evening I was going to the esplanade again. The haze was getting denser.

The Esplanade was a hive of activities. It was quite crowded. There were two major shows, one at the Theatre and the other at the Concert Hall. Besides these, there were a few other free performances and activities at various venues.

I went to the Waterfront and saw Dr Chua taking photos of his performers. I went beside him and took a picture too. Later the COI students performed a Huang Mei opera, The Magic Lotus Lantern. I watched for a short while; it was not interesting.



Then I went to the Concourse. A musical performance by a small group with chinese musical instruments was going on. It was followed by a Tai Chi demonstration accompanied by a lady playing a harp.

Five minutes before eight I went to the Theatre to watch an opera show, The Gift, by the Tang Mei Yun Taiwanese Opera Company. It was a simple but nice story and the show was entertaining.

EM3, RK and NS

The scrapping of EM3 in primary school brought to mind the scrapping of RK in secondary school years back. RK is religious knowledge. When RK was started people said good and when it was scrapped people also said good. I think one good thing was that students who otherwise knew nothing about religions learnt something about religions.

Because of this RK thing I learnt about Buddhism. I am not a Buddhist and I didn’t become a Buddhist after the taking the courses in Buddhist Studies. But I find the Buddhist doctrine of compassion and self-reliance agreeable with me.

Similarly because of compulsory NS I experienced army life. Otherwise I would not join the army or volunteer to do NS. Would you? I think now I am glad of it.

Guo Jing

If you were a fan of chinese sword-fighting novels, you probably would have read Jin Yong’s 'The Condor Heroes'. In this story there is a type of wu kung called 降龍十八掌. In this wu kung there is a ‘stroke’ called 飛龍在天. This is what the pictures reminded me off.

My favourite character in this story is the hero Guo Jing. He is an exponent of this wu kung and he has powerful internal strength. Guo Jing is a trustworthy man who loves his country and family and is true to his friends. He personifies the values of righteousness and loyalty.

Attitude

I was at Chinatown last Saturday night intending to see the Mid-autumn light up.

One stretch of New Bridge Road was out-of-bounds to traffic, so buses plying NBR could only enter NBR further down the road after making a detour. At the first bus stop here, a girl from the bus company was helping to guide commuters and to direct the buses to prevent congestion at the bus stop. She was wearing the company’s white jacket with the reflective yellow stripes.

The girl was short, small-sized and dark-complexioned. She didn’t look like a local. My guess is Filipino or Cambodian. When a bus came, she would stand at the bus lane facing the bus and used both hands to signal to the driver to stop further down so as to leave space for the following buses to stop. She had to be on her feet for hours.

It was tiring work. But she took pride in her job and I think she did a good one. Someone asked her if no.80 stopped there. “No problem,” she said; a smile flashed across her face, “all buses stop here.”

It brought my mind to another ‘observation’. It was several months back at a large superstore in a shopping center. At one section the salespersons gathered together at one side gossiping among themselves, oblivious to the few shoppers who were browsing the goods. They behaved as if the world owed them a living.

See the contrast in work attitude.

Hee..hee..sorry, nothing about the light-up.

Free advice

There is a cute cashier at this Fairprice supermarket nearby.

One time I was buying oranges and I was coughing.
“Cough, don’t eat oranges,” she said, like a teacher giving instructions to her pupils.
“Or,” I said.
“Chicken also don’t eat,” she added.
“Okay,” I said.

Another time I bought two bottles of milk.
“Buy bigger bottle cheaper you know,” she said, like a mother advising her daughter-in-law.
“Next time,” I said.

On another occasion my total purchase was just short of $20.
“Buy one more thing lah, $20 then got points,” she said, like a credit card officer from the bank persuading people to spend more.
“Never mind,” I said. .

I visit there quite regularly.

Recent events

[You can stop the video playing at the right column by clicking on the ‘pause button’.]

‘down Bian' demonstrations

I feel that they should not force Ah Bian to step down. If he is corrupt, then charge him. If Taiwan laws do not allow it, then they should pressurize the court to amend the laws.

But if Ah Bian feels that he has done wrong, then he should step down on his own.

Street protests during IMF-WB meet

I think these should not be allowed.

From past experiences the supposed peaceful protests always turned violent.

These are not the only way to express your views.

Of course they are illegal in the first place.

Ownership

Occasionally I send my feedback to reporters on their commentaries published in the Straits Times. Most of the time there were no replies.

Here is one example, with reply. The article was published last year. I think it was about ownership. This topic is relevant anytime, especially now with our ‘welcome foreigners’ policy.

This is my letter:

I think the person who commented on the lack of ownership is just expressing his personal perception.

I don't know what is your definition of ownership but I feel ownership in Singapore, like nationalism, should include love, pride and passion. You are right that this comes from having a role to play. However, I do not agree that it must be in the form of taking part in discussions, speaking up, and so on. Having a role could simply means the work we are doing, be it our humble jobs or just little acts of keeping our country clean. You seem to link ownership with the freedom to speak our mind without any rules. You mean if we allow this Singaporeans will feel they have ownership. How could it be. We should feel ownership in the country just because we are born here or for some others because they choose to live here…….

I think ownership of home is one important factor that roots people here whether then or now.


This is the reply:

Dear Mr __,

Thank you for writing to me.

You are right that ownership means different things to different people.

That is a point I should have included in my column. I am happy to hear that you feel pride and passion for Singapore and yes, I am sure many other Singaporeans do too.

_____
Senior Correspondent
The Straits Times

Opera at fund-raising shows

Some Hong Kong opera artistes talking about their experience at fund-raising charity shows. They include Lisa Wong, Johnson Yuen, Wun Fei Yin, Chan Wing Yee and Wai Churn Ying. There are a few flashback clips.

Dinner talk

This was one of our occasional get-together dinners - this time at East Coast.

We had a guy who is a great prawn eater. He bit off the prawn's head, crushed it and sucked out the ‘nectar’ inside. Then he deposited the residue on the plate and picked up the prawn’s body with chopsticks and began peeling the shell off with his teeth. All the while his fingers never touched the prawn.

“Hei, SL, prawns high in cholesterol you know,” said HW.

“Don’t worry lah; healthy people, don’t eat this and that also die suddenly.”

“These are very rare cases, form an insignificant percentage but those who eat anyhow – the probability of getting diseases very high,” : HW.

HW is a maths man, always talks about percentage and probability.

“Ya, can eat the unhealthy food but eat less and less often,” said the health expert from F&N. I think she ate only one prawn.

Later came a plate of chicken. One lady picked up a piece and examined it carefully. When others looked at her, she said, “See cooked properly or not, if not got bacteria.”

Haha...this lady is in the biology discipline.

There was no one in the arts or humanities, so no one to wax lyrical about the food.

...more talk on food…then some gossips...

Then someone said he intended to organize a trip to Genting in the last week of November, before the end of the O-level exams. I indicated my interest as I have not been there for quite some time and I like the cool weather. Cameron Highlands also has cool weather and is a relaxing place but no one seemed interested. Perhaps it is too quiet. But if you like a few days in solitude, CH is a good place.

Animal abusers

A cat torturer was sentenced to eight weeks’ jail – a report in the papers.

You read about some people who go about torturing and killing cats and dogs. Now, if I were the judge….besides the usual sentence, I would

send them to the areas where they have committed their crimes, hang a placard describing their evil deeds on their necks and parade them around the markets and hawkers' centres to let people see who they are,

add another few weeks to their jail term which would be spend at the zoo to learn to take care of animals and to clean up animal dung,

And I think caning should be an option for serious cases.

薌劇玉堂春

Hokkien Opera Yu Tang Chun

Just doing a bit of advertising for my xiangju blogger friends who are performing in this show. The details are in the poster. Click for larger version. The picture is copied from Amai's blog.

They have rehearsed hard, sacrificed their precious time ….. and some have shed a lot of tears too. Their Xiangju troupe has been invited to Taiwan to perform in the 2006 Taiwanese Opera Art Festival in September and they will be presenting this show, Yu Tang Chun.

Wish them a successful performance here as well as in Taiwan.

八和會館 - Pat Wo Wui Kun

Pat Wo Association is the umbrella body for cantonese opera groups and artistes. This show (19 August 2006 at KAPT) was to commemorate its 149th anniversary. There were 3 artistes from Hong Kong and one from China participating with local artistes.

This is Yuen Siu Fai and Tang Mei Ling from HK. Yuen is a versatile artiste with his own inimitable style of acting and singing. He, together Mei Ling, gave an excellent performance of Song Jiang kills his concubine, 宋江怒殺閻婆惜.

Another picture of Mei Ling.

This is Ting Fan and Joanna Wong. Joanna is the chairman of Pat Woh and the artistic director of Chinese Theatre Circle. She only sang a song with Ling Tung Meng. Ting Fan is a top artiste from China. He performed an excerpt with a local artiste. Unless the gap between the standards of the 2 artistes is not too significant, I do not quite favour this type of arrangement. It somehow mars the joy of watching an otherwise nice show.

This is Ting Fan and Lily Ng. Lily is the leader of her opera troupe at Kolam Ayer Community Club.

This is Ling Tung Meng and Joanna Wong. Tung Meng is the director and instructor of the Xin Meng Sing Opera Centre.

The girl on the right is budding artiste Chung Lai Yong. She performed an excerpt with Lily Ng. This is the second time I see her perform. She did well, I think better than many amateur artistes with more experience.

Terrorists

It was reported that some groups in Britian have written to the British Prime Minister that the hostilities in Iraq and the conflict in the Middle East "give ammunition to extremists to threaten us all". They blame the US and Britain’s policies in Iraq and the Middle East for the terrorist acts. So? Don’t blame the terrorists?

How unhappy or angry these extremists are with the US and Britain, they cannot do horrendous things like bombing 10 planes killing thousands of innocent people. Fortunately their plan was foiled.

A few days ago there was a newspaper commentary which explains why it was a mistake to put terrorists on trail and the best thing is detention. Even if there is not enough evidence, it doesn’t mean they are not guilty. They should not be freed. The rights of other people to live is more important.

Magazine

Chinese opera magazine, August edition.



王志萍 - 新版《春香傳》

周慧敏 - 效龍劍笙養尊穩守策略

Photos

Some photos of the 2 shows at Kreta Ayer People's Theatre on 8 and 9 August. Got videos also but YouTube and Sharkle do not accept the format and I doubt there is any software to convert them to another format.

Zhen Weng Sun, organizer and chief percussionist


young performers from Hong Kong


child artiste as a princess


.....in her normal self


from right, Mun Chin Sui and Leong Siew Sum (the children's teachers)


Pang Chee Quan


Chik Chiew Kuarn


Leong Sau Fong