Night out at the Opera

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Had a big night out yesterday at the Shanghai Opera.

Started the journey with the very crowded, as usual, 993 bus from Jin Hai Road Pudong into the city, and got off at the ferry terminal which is the end of the line. The transport system here is all linked with a card which you can refill and top up, so taxi, bus, metro and ferry all are really cheap and use the one card.

So the bus is 3Y and the ferry across the Huangpu River is 2Y, which takes you into Puxi and The Bund area.

We walked down Fuzhou Road almost into the Renmin Square area and found the Yifu Theatre, which is one of the older smaller theatres in town.

Tickets ranged from 50Y to 280Y which is around Aus$15 to Aus$70, very well priced for a professional production. Live orchestra, great sound and lighting, excellent singers, brilliant costumes and staging.

The Baoshan Huju Opera House in Shanghai presents these local operas; they are some times referred to as “Flower-Drum opera”. It is all in the local Shanghainese dialect, which is apparently quite different to Mandarin, with some old people not speaking any Mandarin at all in this local area. They put up subtitles in Mandarin which meant us poor Westerners, all 6 of us, had to rely totally on the action on the stage.

The opera we saw apparently was a version of “Camille” which is the usual love story of a doomed romance, boy meets girl through match making parents, she loves another, something bad happened to the original boy, matched boy keeps chasing girl who sort of says yes but then runs away and becomes a bar girl, he tries to buy here back, she becomes ill with TB (we think), she dies, he is heartbroken. There is no intermission so it’s a full 2 ½ hours on the stage for the performers.

The opera uses the folk songs of the region, which mainly comes from this area of Pudong, prior to the huge development that is here now.

The audience really enjoyed the performance, clapping often at the end of dialogue or songs and singing along at times. The Chinese do not have the same protocols regarding how to enjoy a performance as we do, so arriving late is fine, just go to your seat, you may go out at anytime to the toilet or to have a cigarette, you can drink and chat quietly, and you can leave early if you like. At the end the audience rushes down to the front of the theatre and stands and applauds quietly for the end and the curtain calls. Magnificent bouquets of flowers are presented to many of the performers and some others too.

So doing things the Chinese way we did arrive late, as we needed to eat before we were entertained. Over the road from the theatre was a little restaurant, which was full of locals so we bravely went in and hoped that our limited Chinese, our dictionary and charades would be sufficient to order. They gave us an English menu, hurrah.

For 66Y we had a fantastic meal with a hotpot, which is cooking all the time on the table, chicken ginger capsicum onion and chillies seemed to be the main ingredients of the dish, spicy but yummy, bowls of rice and a side dish of eggplant with more chillies and a shared bottle of local beer. Very light beers, like a shandy really.

After the performance we ended up walking to the metro station, taking it to almost the end of the line and then a taxi home.

Getting a taxi was hilarious with queuing in an orderly fashion not a known thing here in China. We were at the front of the line, but a girl pushed in front and proceeded to hail our cab and tried to push Kim out of the way. Kim pushed back and hopped into the front of the cab before she could get the stunned look off her face.

40Y for a half hour taxi ride is a cheap way to get around when there is a group of you. Telling the driver where you are going and or want to go can be difficult; having it written does not always work either. Most are really good and honest drivers who try hard to please, although we have struck one that tried to pass off the notes for the coins which are Jiao instead of the notes for Yuan. So he tried to give us 2 x 5 Jiao, which are worth 1 Yuan instead of 10 Yuan. Must have thought the three foreigners looked good for a scam

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Photos

the opera
Sights from the ferry across the Huangpu river

The opera
more ferry sights

The opera
another ferry sight

The opera
The stage at the Yifu Theatre

The opera
Subtitles in Mandarin with the dialogue in Shanghainese

The opera
the bar girl scene

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The slease versus the jilted lover

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quite a large orchestra with violins, clarinet, flute and traditional instruments

The opera
Curtain calls with the audience now at the front and standing up

The opera
costume display in the foyer

The opera
Scenes from the 1930's operas

The opera
The foyer

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Magnificent chandalier in the foyer. No one socialises after they had the place locked up within 5 minutes of finishing

The opera
the hotpot meal

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Sue and Kim my dining companions

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Me yet again drinking beer

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busy little restaurant with diners eating so fast and leaving all within 15 minutes from start to finish

The opera
more diners