Advertisement
Published: June 14th 2009
Edit Blog Post
(I'm going to admit up front that I may be stepping over the line between respecting another culture and making fun of it; but hey - at least I tried
!) About two hours (and a little less than halfway) in to my first
Cantonese Opera experience, I quietly got up and walked to the lobby. After looking around a little guiltily, I flew down the stairs, out the door, and into the streets with a sigh of profound relief.
I should have taken that Cantonese Opera Appreciation class offered by the Hong Kong Tourist Office. Maybe then I would have been able to appreciate the five hours of caterwauling; at least I might have known better than to go in the first place without being
good and drunk. The thing is, I usually pride myself on being open-minded and enjoying new experiences. I had seen the posters for the performance of the
"Reincarnation of Plum Blossom" opera (see pics) and thought to myself, "How can this
not be fun?"
Listen to the video clip above and you'll see how.* If the sound of stray cats being held by their tails and beaten to death against a wall
is fun for you, then you don't even need the appreciation class.
I got a sheet in English that summarized the plot of the opera, which I will not try to convey here; it was too convoluted and involved a bunch of girls falling in love with the same guy. And why not? Who could resist a
guy wearing a pink silk dress, white platform shoes, and way too much makeup?
The opera opened with the orchestra on stage, comprising a two string bowed fiddle, oboe and flute, cymbals, drums, a viola, and a dulcimer-type instrument.
The heroine, Huiniang, entered and belted out her first tune over the extremely loud speaker system. Her elaborate make-up and costume were really cool, but it seemed like her main stage action was to fiddle with her
ridiculously long sleeves (they reached the ground). She would drop them to the floor, then gather them slowly up again with her wrists, just to very methodically drop them again. I noticed this was a problem for most of the characters, who spent the majority of the time mincing around and flapping their sleeves here and there.
As the opera progressed, the audience
got more and more into it. They laughed, gasped, murmured, and clapped. I could only guess why, since I speak not one word of Cantonese; but I could
imagine to myself what the characters might be saying:
"Look! Look what I can do with my sleeves!"
"My beard feels
sooooo good when I stroke it like this!"
"I'm pissed because I have to wear this ridiculous hat!"
"I've got this basket of flowers, so I must run in circles around you!"
Maybe it would have been different if I spoke Cantonese and could follow the dialogue and music. Even so, my ear is so attuned to Western music that I found it difficult to listen to this variety without cringing, and it pretty much all sounded the same to me. Then again, maybe the speaker system was just too loud, and maybe I am just too dumb to distinguish between songs.
I finally realized that I was not going to make it all the way through when the end of the second act arrived and we were only about one third through the plot as described in the summary sheet.
I had thought
I was the only non-Chinese person at the theater, but as I was crossing the road towards the train station, I saw another blonde Caucasian woman
fleeing the opera house. We exchanged a sympathetic smile.
*I was not allowed to take pics in the theater, so I had to sort of just take blank video to get the audio clip.
**If you enjoyed this post, then make sure you subscribe by clicking on the "subscribe" button at the top left of the page! Tell others!
**New readers: Get the quick and dirty at
. You can start at the beginning or pick anywhere you like to start living vicariously (or laughing vicariously, as it will most likely turn out)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.251s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 8; qc: 47; dbt: 0.1224s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
amber
non-member comment
Not sure which frightens me more- the guy's hat or his makeup? I thought the ladies looked beautiful, though far too made up. If you ever want to learn Mandarin, I highly recommend Fluenz. It's brand new and pretty pricey, but the best language-learning program I've ever used. They have a demo lesson online that I did and it was fun!