Chinese Opera

I have never really taken the time to study the arts extensively. I enjoy going to various plays, symphonies, and other performances. I've even taken the opportunity to experience regular operas; however, I had never been to a Chinese opera. I actually had very little idea of exactly what made a Chinese opera unique, except for the odd costumes and slightly scary make-up effects I'd seen on billboards and other advertising material.

Luckily for me, the Chinese Opera Festival of 2013 ran from 6/20-7/28 in Hong Kong. I decided it would be a great idea to experience this art form since the opportunity may never present itself again.

The performance for Sunday, July 21 happened to be a set of excerpts, 5 of them. I figured this would be a good way to expose myself to different styles all at once.

Upon entering the theatre, we were given a program with information in it relevant to the performances and opera in general. I'll share some of the information with you since it is actually quite interesting. Mrs. Betty Fung (Director of Leisure and Cultural Services in Hong Kong) describes traditional Chinese arts as placing an emphasis on "passing passion through art." She goes on to explain how Chinese opera "displays the finest art of Chinese culture and provides for invaluable exchange of the spirit and sentiments of humanity." The purpose of the festival is to "enhance the audience's appreciation, interest and knowledge of Chinese opera." The Xiang Opera Theatre of Hunan is the performing arts group who performed during this year's festival. The Xiang Opera entangles itself with folklore art and local dialects which has four focal style genres (gaoqiang, dipaizi, kunqiang, and tanqiang). Many of the pieces are inspred by historical stories and novels in chapters while others are adapted or newly created repertoires. Anyway, there is a lot of other information provided. If you'd like to learn more, you can check out the festival's website. There are quite a few pictures and even a video clip or two. I'm not sure how long the link will work, but it's there for now:  http://www.cof.gov.hk/2013/en/

The excerpt plots that we watched were all quite depressing. The first (Su Qin's Retribution from Tale of the Golden Seal) told the tale of a man who had failed after spending time away from home to be an official. Upon his return he was basically rejected by his family for bringing shame. Even his wife no longer wanted anything to do with him. Anyway, he ended up throwing himself into a river and it ended. The second (Pan Ge Mourns for His Wife) was about a prime minister who convinced his wife, 13 years prior, to be killed in the place of the king's wife in order to bring honor to his family. The excerpt took place on his birthday as he continued to mourn for his late-wife. His son reminded him that he was the one who chose to give her up. A messenger appeared and informed him that the woman who his wife had taken the place of now had a 13 year old son, a prince, and that he could go inform an official in order to bring even more honor to himself and get a promotion. In the end, he decided against it and continued to mourn. The third performance (Meeting a Matchmaker and Being Forced into Marriage) told the story of a matchmaker and how she tricked a woman into boarding a boat to marry a man, despite the fact she had agreed to marry a different man. The woman ended up jumping off the boat and drowned, while the matchmaker was sold to a brothel since she had lost the man money. As for the forth and fifth, well, I didn't quite manage to watch those.

Now for the opinions of what was experienced this evening.
Two hours of Chinese Opera is quite enough to last a lifetime. I had planned to stay for all 5 of the excerpts, but after about 30 seconds of the first one, I knew there was no way I'd make it through. There was an intermission after the first 3, so I decided to stay for them and then head out. The costumes are extremely intricate and impressive. The singing/acting itself is also extremely impressive, however it is definitely not something that the average American would consider enjoyable necessarily. I definitely would recommend that everyone is exposed to Chinese opera, but not in the form of 3 excerpts that last a total of 2 hours. I would recommend a 5-15 minute clip perhaps. It would be enough to learn about it, see what makes it unique, and appreciate it, but anything more is a bit rough. There were English subtitles provided, so we were able to understand the stories which was a big plus.

Jim's opinion: "Interesting and excruciating. It will haunt my dreams."

Overall: Chinese opera is a very unique experience, but it is not one I care to have again. I do appreciate it for what it is, but I don't seem to have acquired the taste necessary to enjoy it.


(I skipped ahead to this event while it was still fresh in my memory. I'll catch up with other Hong Kong and Macau events soon!!)