29 June 2011 (Wed)
Excerpts
The Meeting at Nanshan
Jinhua refuses to marry into a rich family, but chooses the penniless scholar, Liu Yong, to whom she was long betrothed. As Liu is going to sit for the spring session of the national civil examination, Jiuhua accompanies him. But on the way they are robbed. Jinhua is saved and returned to her elder brother’s home. Her sister-in-law forces her to remarry. When she adamantly refuses, her sister-in-law sends her to herd the flock of sheep on Nanshan Hill. Liu passes the examination with flying colours, and is appointed Imperial Inspector. On his inspection tour to Nanshan, he has the help of an officer at the station post and is finally reunited with his wife.

Cast: Lin Chufa, Tang Lijuan

Winning the Hand of the Top Beauty
Qin Zhong is an oil-seller. After a chance meeting with Wang Meiniang, the beautiful courtesan who is also famous for her accomplishments in the literary arts, he falls head over heels in love with her.

Cast: Lin Yanyun, Zhang Shutong

Wu Song Killing His Sister-in-law
This is taken from an episode in The Water Margin. Wu Song becomes a hero for beating down a tiger by his bare hands. He happens to bump into his brother, Wu the Elder, in the street, so he goes to live with him. When his sister-in-law, Pan Jinlian, tries to make a pass at him, he gives her a set-down for such lascivious act before moving out. Later, he goes to another city on an official assignment. Pan attracts the attention of a local rogue, Ximen Qing, who pays Madam Wang, Pan’s neighbour, to act as the go-between. Their adulterous affair is discovered by a young man, Yunge, who tells Wu the Elder. Wu barges in on the two, but gets kicked in the chest by Ximen. Madam Wang puts the idea of ridding her husband altogether into Pan’s head, and abets her by giving her poison to put in the herbal tea for Wu the Elder. When Wu Song returns and finds an altar set up for his brother who has died from a suspicious cause, he forces the truth out of the local beadle. Then he arranges a banquet and invites all the neighbours to come. There, under their eyes, he avenges his brother’s death by killing Pan in front of them all.

Cast: Huang Yinwei, Wu Yimin

Meng Jiang Nu at the Pass
Meng Jiang Nu’s husband, Wan Xiliang, has been despatched to the north to build the Great Wall. Knowing the harsh cold weather there, she wants to bring warm clothes to him. But at the northern pass, a greedy and corrupt officer detains her on all sorts of pretexts. First he wants her to entertain him with singing, then makes passes at her and makes fun of her. Finally, with the sympathetic help of the two guards, Ren and Yi, she is able to cross the border to look for her husband.

Cast: Chen Chuyun, Chen Shuchun

Xue Rengui Returns to His Humble Abode
The story takes place during the Tang Dynasty. Xue Rengui has been knighted as Duke of Pacifying the Liao’s after his valiant military successes. He misses his wife at home, so he takes the long journey back to the cave dwelling where they set up home. It has been eighteen long years since they part, and his wife has led a very hard life. As they see each other again, all the doubts, disbelief and bitter-sweet feelings are expressed through the many probing words and tears. All comes to a happy end when love, though much tried, proves to stay true.

Cast: Lin Wuyan, Hong Chuyun

30 June 2011 (Thu)
The Patriotic Lady Chai
The story takes place during the Southern Song period. The patriotic commander, Yue Fei, has died under false accusations by the treacherous Prime Minister, Qin Hui. But Qin would not stop at that – he wants Yue’s family to be totally annihilated. So he sends them all to Nanning, the seat of power of Prince of Liang.

Now the Prince was killed by Yue Fei’s spear eighteen years’ ago in a military tournament, and his wife, Lady Chai, and her children have wanted vengeance. On reading Yue’s declaration of patriotism, Lady Chai is touched and changes her mind. She is willing to set aside personal grudges, release the family members of Yue, and join forces with the Yue army to defend the country against the encroaching Jins.

Cast: Liu Xiaoli, Deng Shaozhen

1 July 2011 (Fri)
Filing a Prosecution against Her Husband
A scholar, Gai Liangcai, has travelled to Nanchang where he meets Yan Qiurong, and the two become secret lovers. Later, Gai receives a letter from his father who wants him to return home to marry Wen Shuzhen. By then, Qiurong is already pregnant for three months. Gai insists on leaving her, and presents a false excuse. When Qiurong has waited several months for his return in vain, she disguises herself as a man and goes to find him in his hometown. Gai bluntly turns her away, citing as an excuse that the two were not formally married: he would not take her in, nor does he care about how she is going to fend for herself and the baby. His wife, Shuzhen, learns of this. Gai, desperate to cover up, wants to silence Qiurong forever. Aghast at the evil intention of her husband, Shuzhen helps Qiurong and her maid to escape. In hot pursuit, Gai comes to the river bank and sees Qiurong’s parcel. He is led to believe that Qiurong has thrown herself into the river. Shuzhen castigates him for his heartless deed. Gai, fearing that Shuzhen would leak out the crime he has committed, pushes her into the river. Fortunately Shuzhen is saved by a fisherman. She takes Qiurong and her maid to the Temple of the Goddess of Mount Hua to hide. But Qiurong is already on the verge of death. On seeing her sufferings before she dies, Shuzhen is filled with rage and a desire for justice to be done. So she bites her finger until blood comes out, and continues writing the petition that Qiurong was unable to finish, and goes with Qiurong’s maid to Suzhou to file a prosecution against her husband, Gai.

Cast: Zhang Yihuang , Wu Yimin, Lin Chufa, Lin Wuyan

Chiuchow Opera is one of the three main regional operatic genres in Guangdong. Performed in the Chiuchow dialect, the tunes of Chiuchow Opera took shape amidst a wide range of sources and influences, including music from the ancient ‘northern’ and ‘southern’ genres, Kunqu Opera, Yiyangqiang, Clapper Opera and Huangpai music, as well as from local narrative singing, song books and folk ditties. The musical accompaniment is a combination of Chiuchow daluogu (gong-and-drum) music, Chaoyang ‘dizi suite drum music’, ‘string poems’, xiyue and temple music, which together, give the music its strong vernacular colour.

The repertory of Chiuchow Opera comes from plays of Southern opera of the Song and Yuan periods, presented in the form of vivid, affable dialogue and lyrics, making the performances highly accessible and enjoyable for all. There are four main role-types, in particular, the chou role, further categorized into ten sub-types with finer differences, is well known for its witty depictions. The dan role is equally varied with seven possible presentations: virtuous role; high-born, unmarried lady; female wearing shirt and dress without flowing sleeves; leading female; black-hair and white-hair old women; and military female. These precise distinctions reflect one of Chiuchow opera’s celebrated features: its beautifully nuanced portrayals of role-types.

For over forty years since its founding in 1958, the Guangdong Chiu Chow Opera Theatre Number One Troupe has built a repertory of outstanding and well-loved opera works that number close to a hundred, in the form of both new productions and adaptations. They included The Love Story of Chen San and Wu Niang, A Farewell to My Lover, Su Liuniang, The Burning of Linjiang Tower, Reunion by the Window, A Ghost in the Firewood Room, A Misunderstanding Caused by a Hairpin, The Story of An Unintended Tonsure, Old Master Chen Picking His Son-in-law, The Courtesan and the Top Scholar, The Incident at Gourd Temple, The Monument of Benevolence and Virtue, and Princess Shangxiang of Wu. The Troupe has won the prestigious Cao Yu Drama and Best Script awards on multiple occasions, and has garnered other accolades, such as Class One Awards in the categories of Repertory, Script, Directing, Music Composition and Performance at the Guangdong Arts Festival. Its many talented members include outstanding performers in the young to middle-aged category – Cai Minghui, Zhang Yihuang, Liu Xiaoli, Chen Xingxi, Lin Chufa, Chen Hongfei, and Wu Yimin. Over the years the Troupe has given widely acclaimed performances in Europe, the United States and Southeast Asia, and contributed significantly towards cultural exchange between China and other countries.

The Hong Kong Sun Hon Kwong Chiu Chow Opera Troupe is formerly the Hon Kwong Chiu Chow Opera Troupe which was founded in 1959 and turned professional in 1987. It gives regular performances at the town halls and at alms-offering functions in Hong Kong. It has toured Thailand, Singapore and the Chaozhou-Shantou region. Its repertory totals nearly 100 titles, including The Story of the White Rabbit, Su Liuniang, Filing a Prosecution against Her Husband, Qin Xianglian, The Magic Lotus Lantern, The Female Generals of the Yang Family, etc.

Its members consist of virtuosi in Chiu Chow Opera in Hong Kong, most of whom with more than thirty years of experience, as well as young artists groomed in recent years. The cast is supported by veteran musicians, producers and instructors in the field of Chiu Chow Opera. The Troupe has maintained close contacts with other troupes in Chaozhou and Shantou and often collaborates with them in giving joint performances. The artistic exchanges are conducive to the development of the genre.

Zhang Yihuang
Zhang Yihuang is a National Class One Performer. She is also Associate Company Director of the Guangdong Chiu Chow Opera Theatre, and Director of the Theatre’s Number One Troupe. She graduated from the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts in 2000, where she specialised in dan (female) roles. She has played Chuncao in Chuncao Barging into the Courtroom; Wang Baochuan in The Red-maned Steed; Sun Shangxiang in Princess Shangxiang of Wu; and Li Yaxian in The Courtesan and the Top Scholar, which was made into a movie in 1995. Zhang has won many awards over the years, including the Gold Award at the 1^st ‘Red Prunus’ Awards for Chinese Traditional Theatre Singing Competition, a Class One Award at the 9^th Guangdong Arts Festival (2005), the 23^rd Plum Blossom Award for Chinese Theatre (2007), an Outstanding Performance Award at the 9^th China Arts Festival (2010), and was named one of the ‘Ten Outstanding Young to Middle-aged Theatre Performers in Guangdong’ (2004) and a ‘Star of the Millennium’ in Guangdong province (2006).

Lin Chufa
Lin Chufa is a National Class One Performer specialized in xiaosheng (young civil male) roles. A graduate of the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts in 2002, Lin has starred as Liu Yong in The Story of Jin Hua, the title role in Di Qing the Emissary, Liang Shanbo in Recalling the Eighteen Hints at Parting, Xue Pinggui in The Red-maned Steed, and Liu Bei in Princess Shangxiang of Wu. He was winner of the Gold Award at the 2^nd and 3^rd Chinese Opera Competition in Guangdong province, and a Class Two Award at the 9^th Guangdong Arts Festival (2005).

Liu Xiaoli
Liu Xiaoli is a National Class One Performer specialized in qingyi (virtuous female) roles. She has starred as Jiaoxing in The Incident at Gourd Temple, the title roles in The Queen of Emperor Wen of Han and The Patriotic Lady Chai, Li Banyue in Chuncao Barging into the Courtroom, and Lady Zhuang in The Orphan of the Zhao’s. Her awards include an Outstanding Performance Award at the 7^th China Theatre Festival (2001) and a Class One Award in the Regional Opera category at the Singing Competition of Classic Arias in Chinese Opera (2002). 

Wu Yimin
Wu Yimin is a National Class One Performer specialized in guimendan (high-born, unmarried lady) roles. She performed the title role in The Daughter of Yue Fei, Liu Ruiyun in Lu Wenlong, Wang Baochuan in The Red-maned Steed, and Pan Jinlian in Wu Song Killing His Sister-in-law. Wu was winner of a Class One Award at the 6^th Guangdong Arts Festival (1995), a Gold Award at the 3^rd Chinese Opera Competition in Guangdong province (2002), and was named one of the ‘Ten Outstanding Young to Middle-aged Theatre Performers in Guangdong’ in the same year.

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