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A Night of Cantonese Opera Ageless Grace
She gracefully moved her fingers to the emotions of her words. Despite not understanding a word of Cantonese, I could comprehend their narrative as their body language and facial expressions played story teller to the re-enactment of Chinese classics.
The Actors Studio Teater Rakyat was back with another traditional art production, A Night of Cantonese Opera, this time bringing forth the Chinese art of Cantonese opera as part of its efforts to revive its glorious days.
Directed by Kam Sin Kiew, a Hong Kong native who is actively involved with the Jade Leaf Association, Kuala Lumpur Kwang Tung Association and Yue Jin Cantonese Opera Club, the evening saw the presentation of three well-known Chinese classics – Dream of the Red Chamber’s (Wan Kwok Lei Han Tin): act Reunion in the Dream (Chui Gong Sap Joi Ling Fa Mong); The Mirror Reunion’s: act Seducing the General and General Dik Ching’s (Dik Ching Zhi Zhui Fu); act In Pursuit of the General.
Kam Sin Kiew Cantonese opera is a dramatic art form originating from China that dates back to the third century CE. Evolving from folk songs, dance and dialectical music, it gradually combined music, art and literature into one performance. The beautifully written dialogue and lyrics are accompanied by traditional Chinese musical instruments such as the Erhu, the gong, and the lute. One of the interesting aspects of Cantonese opera is the makeup, where each colour signifies the difference in a character and their behaviour. Red symbolises courage and loyalty; pink stands for sophistication and cool-headedness; black symbolises boldness and impartiality; blue faces are fierce and far-seeing; white nosed characters symbolise jovialness and white faces symbolise treachery and cunningness.
The clothes derived mostly from the Ming dynasty feature magnificent embroidery, headdresses and jewelled girdles for men, hair ornaments for women and high court shoes. While A Night of Cantonese Opera was performed in Cantonese, each act was introduced in English and Cantonese to allow non Cantonese speaking viewers to follow the story.
The first excerpt from Dream of the Red Chamber’s: act Reunion in the Dream, a classic written in the 18th century; tells the story of Jin Baoyu and his relationship with two young gals – Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai. Although Baoyu falls in love with Daiyu, his family chooses Baochai to be his wife. Struck by grief Daiyu kills herself. Reunion in the Dream re-enacts her return in Baoyu’s dreams to tell him to forget her and move on with his life.
Jin Baoyu was played by Sam Yip, a Cantonese Opera fan, who started training in opera singing and performance six years ago. He later trained as a lead actor under Kam Sin Kiew and has appeared in numerous performances with her since then. Lin Daiyu’s character was played by the director Kam Sin Kiew herself.
Dancing to the tune of separation and lost love, both actors expertly expressed the anguish of forlorn lovers. Their graceful movements and melodic dialog recital held the audience captive.
This was followed by the second set from the story The Mirror Reunion’s, Seducing the General. Set during the Chui Dynasty, upon the death of her father, imprisoned Princess Zhao Guoyi in the guise of a lady-in-waiting seduces General Yang Yue to escape exile.
General Yang Yue’s character was played by Ng Sui Yuen while Princess Zhao Guoyi’s role was played by Cheong Yin Ping. Both actors are members and main performers of the Yue Jin Cantonese Opera Club.
The princess attempts many tricks to seduce the General but each time he would spurn her away. Her attempts often had the crowd laughing away as a sullen general would stand aloof of her advances. Her cunning and at times loving expressions delighted the audience.
The final piece brought back on stage Sam Yip as General Dik Ching and Kam Sin Kiew as the Mongolian princess in the tale of General Dik Ching excerpt In Pursuit Of the General. Upon fleeing China to Mongolia, the general is forced to marry the princess of Mongolia. Soon the general becomes homesick and sneaks back to China to meet his parents. Realising her husband had fled; the princess pursues the general and confronts him. Discovering his true intentions, she finally relents.
Again both actors flawlessly emoted their respective expression, he as the homesick man and she as the distraught wife. A short duel ensues between both characters, where the general loses to the princess and explains his true intentions.
The costumes and exquisite headdresses were remarkable. As each actor came out to perform their scene, the costumes became grander in appearance. Painstaking hours had definitely been spent in perfecting the make-up, which seemed perfectly flawless.
The actors appeared to live their characters. It seemed as if we were eaves dropping on private conversations as they flawlessly delivered their lines. Not even once did they break out of character, always making sure each line was accompanied with the emotions befitting their role while maintaining the grace and sophistication of that era.
The set was true to all Cantonese Opera performers, simple and static. Both the technical and the lighting crew did a good job in ensuring the progress of the performance.
I had however been looking forward to seeing a villainous character in one of the sets to offer a different emotion to the performance. Cantonese Opera villains are said to be the most dramatic characters on stage, often executing kung fu moves and dramatised movements.
While the performances were flawless I left the venue with a lot of questions. Having watched the previous show by The Actors Studio Teater Rakyat such as Mak Yong Titis Sakti where the producers brought to live the traditional Malay art Mak Yong, I was hoping the same treatment would have been lent to the Night of Cantonese Opera. It would have been interesting to watch one story unfold instead of three different heroic themed acts.
I was also unsure why a non speaking character played by Kyonis Chong who did nothing but stand or move chairs was needed in any of the acts. It was sad to see his talents not put to use for it would have been interesting to witness his acting skills as a female of which he briefly appeared as in the first act. There were also long unneeded intervals between each act. I had assumed the characters needed to change only to find a different set of actors appearing in the second act.
Cantonese Opera is definitely an interesting but acquired taste as it offers a window into heroic stories of different Chinese dynasties. Art lovers should catch it at least once to marvel at the grace and effortless acting by seasoned artists. I hope more such endeavours in reviving traditional art while be undertaken by The Actors Studio Teater Rakyat.
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