Saturday with myself - Part 5 (Teochew Opera)

My Saturday ended at the Singapore Flyer to watch a free Teochew Opera Performance. I knew that I would not be able to understand what was spoken and sung by the artistes. Nevertheless I was interested to just go and feast my eyes on the beautiful opera costumes and headgears and to enjoy the graceful gestures and movements of Chinese Opera and I was not disappointed at all.

There were two acts - a short one and a longer one. 

This one is about a couple in the nuptial chambers expressing their happiness about their marital status - I guess.

The second performance as explained by a lady next to me who was one of the Opera performers on her day off. She told me that the average age of the artistes is 60 and that she was already a sixty-five-year old grandmother of three. She explained the story to me as it unfolded. Thanks to her I was able to enjoy the performance a lot more. 

The story was about a young couple bethrothed to each other from young and had never met each other until one day when the boy went to the girl's house to pay his respects to his prospective mother-in-law.

Later, as he was leaving, he bumped into the girl in the garden by chance. The girl fell in love with him and as a token of her interest in him, she 'accidentally' dropped her handkerchief and made a graceful exit.

Tjhe young man picked up the handkerchief with the intention of keeping it but was advised to return it to the girl by his faithful servant. He went looking for the girl and found her and her maid in attendance in the bedroom. While they were getting acquainted over the business of the handkerchief, the girl's mother came to fetch her to her Aunty's Birthday dinner. 

At the approach of the girl's mother, the boy had to find a place to hide and in desperation climbed into a large trunk in the room. The trunk is at the bottom right hand side of the picture below behind the girl.

The mother came into the room unaware of what had been happening and quickly shooed her daughter along to the birthday dinner. While toasting her Aunt and making the usual pleasantries over dinner, the girl appeared to be listless as her mind was on the boy locked in her room.

There was a funny scene in which the girl pretended to eat but was actually dropping food into a handkerchief held by her maid with the intention of bringing it back to feed the starving lad in her room when she got back. 

At this point, I had to leave and never saw the end of the opera. I really enjoyed the beautiful silk costumes and backdrops that were sewn in China. Unlike the costumes of Cantonese Opera, these costumes were in the style of Beijing Operas. Though I have a preference for Cantonese Operas, I was still able to enjoy this particular opera in the Teochew dialect because the nice lady next to me took the trouble to explain the story and the actions to me - in English because she thought that I could not speak Chinese well.

Chinese street opera

I stumbled upon this make-shift wooden stage on the grounds of a temple near my house.There was a performance being held there and being very interested in this Chinese art form I decided to take a look.

The actors and actresses were resplendent in glittering costumes of brilliant hues and the backdrop of the stage was probably sewn and embroidered by a dying breed of tradesmen or tradeswomen in China or Taiwan. A banner above had four characters that explained the purpose of the performance which was to thank the God of the Temple for having granted a favour. So we deduced that someone had been blessed in some way by the God and he or she hired this opera troupe to perform for the God as an act of gratitude. 

 

When I was  a child, street operas were more common especially during the seventh lunar month of the Chinese calendar which is the annual Ghost Festival. As years went by the popularity of these performances diminished due to a lack of interest  and the inability to understand Chinese dialects amongst the younger generation  as these operas were inevitably performed using local dialects - Cantonese, Hokkien and Teochew. My interest in Chinese opera, in particular Cantonese opera, came a little too late in life. It is a pity that at a time when I am truly interested in Chinese language and art, Chinese Opera does not look like it will stay around for the next five years.

 

 Although I only watched the middle section of this opera I was able to get the gist of the story based on my very limited understanding of Hokkien and watching the body language and facial expressions of the actors and of course listening to the tone of voice when they were singing or speaking.

 

The story is about this man who was not of a very fine character who had two wives - one who was his age and the other, a much younger one. Apparently the three were living harmoniously under one roof. 

 

 This is the God of Fortune. I could not grasp what he was up to exactly but it looked like there was something he wanted to get to the bottom of.

 

The God of Fortune was joined by Tua Pek Kong who was also the Deity of the temple where the performance was held. They seemed to be arguing about something and at the end of it they struck some kind of a deal. 

 

As the singing was rather lengthy my attention diverted to the temple next to the stage.

 

The God of Fortune was going to go down to Earth to prove a point.

 

On Earth, the man with the two wives was out in the night probably on his way home after a night of revelry. 

 

He decided to lie down to take a rest from all that singing and as he slept, the God of Fortune appeared disguised as a beggar. 

 

He asked the man for some money to buy food and the man beat him up for bothering him. I have no photos of this scene. After he walked off in a huff leaving the 'beggar' on the ground, Tua Pek Kong, the deity of the temple appeared with a "I-told-you-so" song.

 

The backdrop was about to be changed. This was done in a very efficient way as the various backdrops were rolled up like a scroll above the stage and each one could be rolled up or let down very easily.

 

The new backdrop represented the interior of a weathy man's house. 

 

Here is the brother of the man who had unwittingly beaten up the God of Fortune earlier.

 

This is his wife and they appeared to be very happy together. 

 

 He was also bidding his wife farewell as he had to go his brother's house to ask a favour of some sort.

 

Here's the merry trio before the arrival of the man's brother. 

 

See the second wife's costume. It has taken its inspiration from the Star Trek costumes. 

 

I love Chinese Opera because of the beautiful costumes and the head ornaments.

 

The brother arrived and was introduced to the man's second wife who was more his age but not his type. 

 

As it was getting late, the man asked his brother to stay the night and here he is taking leave of his family to retire to the bedroom. 

 

Now we discover that the second wife is actually a schemer. What she is scheming I could tell but the reason was not clear to me. 

 

Late in the night, the second wife knocked on the door of her brother-in-law to offer some tea to him. Actually it was an excuse to get into his room. 

 

She tried ways and means to seduce him. 

 

He told her off rather politely saying that it was not proper for her to be seen in his room as in olden China, a man and a woman not married to each other should not be together alone at all times. 

 

She begged to differ and gave a long-winded excuse not to leave. 

 

Just then, the man's first wife was passing by and was shocked to see the second wife with the brother-in-law alone in the room. To save herself from disgrace, the second wife ran out of the room crying accusing the brother-in-law of some inappropriate behaviour. 

 

The two wives summoned their husband and told tales about his brother. The man was infuriated and he beat his brother up. 

At this point, I had to leave the performance before it ended. It probably had one-third more to go. I do not know when I will be able to come across another Chinese Opera performance. Street performances are ad hoc and the professional troupes from Guangzhou and Hong Kong that I used to pay to watch do not come here often.While surfing for more information on Chinese Operas I found this site that gives a rough guide on opera performances in Singapore and also links to people who are interested in this dying art form in one way or another.