Friday, March 24, 2006

Shanghai Yue Opera Charity Night at Victoria Theatre

Food from the Heart, a charity organisation in Singapore is organising another event, combining culture and charity and involving the community and the school. I have taken the liberty (with permission of course) to re-post this here. You can also read this at its website at:

http://www.foodheart.org/news/news.php?id=13

------
Shanghai Yue Opera Charity Night at Victoria Theatre (Volunteers Needed for the 2 evenings!)
Venue: Victoria Theatre Date / Time: 12th / 13th May 2006, 7.45pm Tickets: S$20 / S$30 / Complimentary Ticket

Yue Ju (越剧) or Shanghai Yue Opera originated from the Zhejiang Province where Shanghai was the catalyst for its popularity. Yue Opera’s dramatic style, drawing on modern theatrical techniques and its expressive, emotional and melodic singing style should go down well with the young generation. The language is akin to spoken Mandarin, another important draw for the young who are more comfortable with the official Chinese language than dialects. As an art form, Yue Opera is extremely beautiful and enjoyable to watch. Despite the historical settings of its stories, most plots are relevant in the context of modern day society. For instance “The Peacocks Flying to the Southeast”, adapted from the famous Han Dynasty poem. Stories like these extol the greatness of true love – a universal language.

Tales of love and sacrifices make riveting drama; most stories evolve around other universal virtues like humility, courage, loyalty and duty, filial piety and responsibility. For the younger generation who have missed an orientation in a theatrical form that was once popularly embraced by the common people, the excerpts selected by Marine Parade Community Club, Shanghai Yue Opera Club for this charity performance are carefully picked for their educational and entertainment as well as artistic values.

Members of MPCC Shanghai Yue Opera Appreciation Club and students from CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls' School will be performing together with 2 Yue Opera stars, Hua Yi-Qing & Huang Hui who will fly in all the way from Shanghai for our 2 nights’ charity shows. As for the music, the SAF MDC Chinese Instrumental Ensemble will be a perfect accompaniment to both our evenings at Victoria Theatre. The conductor of this orchestra is MAJ Tay Soon Huat. To help appreciate this traditional art form, we will provide line-by-line English translations of the scripts.

“越剧”起源于中国浙江嵊县,发祥于上海,以表演细腻,唱腔优雅著称,优美深情的越剧音乐,集中体现中国人民的美学情趣,而中国戏曲以发扬忠孝仁义等中国优良传统美德,通过鲜明的人物塑造与性格刻画,优美的表演,优秀的唱腔,淋漓尽致的倾诉人情、人性、人的命运、人的真善美,从而激动观众心弦,引起共鸣,使广大观众从中获得美感而留下难以忘怀的印象,“红楼梦”、“梁山伯与祝英台”、“孔雀东南飞”等更是享誉海内外,令人百看不厌的不朽经典剧名。

马林百列民众俱乐部――上海越剧欣赏学会,正是以发扬中国优良传统美德、推广优美越剧为宗旨而成立的一个本地年轻活跃的业余团体,成立短短几年,对于推广越剧艺术从来不遗余力,为本地越剧舞台凭添许多光彩的同时,更为慈善事业尽绵力,每次演出都为本地慈善团体筹募善款。

今次为“爱心粮食”筹募善款,乃感于该慈善团体对于慈善事业的热忱与积极,虽然成立时间与上海越剧欣赏学会一样只有短短的几年,但是其善行义举已经遍布全国各个角落,更网络了一批为数不少的义工,义工队伍还在不断的扩大中,同样本着推广艺术与慈善事业的热忱,促成了今次的慈善越剧晚会。

晚会特别邀请了上海越剧院著名小生黄慧、花旦华怡青担任主要演出项目 现场乐队 : 新加坡武装部队华乐团 指挥: 郑顺发少校

Food from the Heart (FFTH) has chosen this event as it wants to encourage the better understanding of a Chinese culture and language. The funds raised through this event will go towards the 7 community programmes run by Food from the Heart. To find out more, please contact Ms. Ain at 62597176 (ext 5) or email to ain@foodheart.org

Friday, March 10, 2006

Book: Ritual is Theatre, Theatre is Ritual

Street wayangs or street operas in Singapore are in most cases dependent on temple celebrations. More so for the Hokkien and Teochew operas. The symbiotic relationship between the street operas and the Chinese temples must have gone back centuries. In the days when most people are illiterate, the street opera is a very powerful medium of education and knowledge transfer.

Our grandparents and even parents learnt much about Chinese history through the operas. In many ways, so were our knowledge of Deities in the Chinese temples. Interestingly, when a spirit medium go into trance, representing a Deity, somehow we might try to relate to the same character we saw at the opera. The only difference is that now the temple ground is a stage, and all of us, devotees and onlookers become part of that stage.

Margaret Chan's book: Ritual is Theatre, Theatre is Ritual: Tang-ki: Chinese Spirit Medium Worshop, is a timely piece of book and information for us to better understand rituals and their powerful relationship with theatre, and vice versa. Many questions that we have but have yet to find the answers, could well have the answers in this book. (^^) A very valuable guide for local Chinese temple and sintua observers and even devotees.

The details of the book:

Ritual is Theatre, Theatre is Ritual
Tang-ki: The Chinese Spirit Medium Worship
By Margaret Chan

Published by
Wee Kim Wee Centre
Singapore Management University
& SNP International

ISBN : 981-248-115-X

Bookshop Price: S$39.90