Intrigues In The Qing Imperial Court by Chinese Theatre Circle (yes, very intriguing indeed)
Warning: Long blog post ahead. Proceed with caution. Please mind the platform gap.
Last night I went to watch my first ever Chinese opera and it was in English. You've heard it right - it is actually performed in English.
Anyway it was one of the many free performances sponsored by ExxonMobil in NUS campus. I finished work about an hour before the opera started, went to the oh-so-cheap NUS canteen for a quick fix, and hurried back to get a good seat - I only managed to get one on the mezzanine.
I didn't really know what to expect from the show (although my heart sank when I saw that it was going to be performed in English). I just kept imagining how they are going to do all the opera singing in English and it was weird. Surprisingly, the real thing was even weirder than what I imagined it to be.
3 points to make:
1. Unlike Chinese, English words often have more than one syllable. So it is quite awkward to transpose English lyrics onto Chinese opera music. Singing out syllable-fraction of a word (English) instead of singing out a word (Chinese) in Chinese opera style not only takes away the sense of rhythm, but imparts to it an ill-fitting nursery-rhyme like quality.
2. The English in the performance was garnished with a hearty serving of Singaporean accent. Let's say it does not match up well with the characters (emperor of China, Empresses Dowager, and court officials) who are dressed in elaborately designed Chinese costumes.
3. The Chinese-to-English abdrigement/translation. The lines (e.g. the Shakespearean "I am more sinned against than sinning", the literal translation of "人之将死，其言必善" into "A dying person always has kind words", and descriptions like "nasty and crafty" ) does not flow well with the overall feel of the performance. For one, the use of English is inconsistent - sometimes natural sounding English proverbs are used, and other times literal (cliché-sounding) translation of Chinese proverbs are used; sometimes classier English words are used, while other times basic/crude English is used. This is exacerbated by the need for the words to rhyme, hence lines such as "Throw her into the well/ Hear not what she yells".
Since I can't seem to find any videos on this performance, I have found a few clips to give you a rough idea of how it sounds like.
While I am highly critical of the performance, it does have some merits. For one, the costumes look beautiful, so does the makeup. The props were decent - I especially liked the large drawings used as backgrounds. In fact, before they started speaking/singing, it looked like it had potential to be a good show. In a way, it is still enjoyable, just not in the way I had originally thought of enjoying a Chinese opera.
There was a scene where the Chinese was negotiating with the foreign imperialists and a Caucasian started singing Chinese opera (very entertaining). A bit later all the foreigners stood up and sang a song (a very familiar one but the title eludes me) with a adulterated (in a good way though) lyrics. Ironically that was the best point of the Chinese opera. One curious detail though: the foreigner who was supposed to be German spoke with a thick French accent - was it a blunder, or purposely crafted so? Either way it is still pretty awkward. However I must say the Japanese played his part exceptionally well.
Another nice touch: When the emperor was writing 斩袁 (execute Yuan Shi Kai) in the air, the subtitle screen showed the 笔划 (strokes of Chinese characters) one by one in accordance with his hand movements. Unfortunately around the same time, the playwright suddenly took a sudden change in direction and tried too hard to portray CiXi as a Shakespearean tragic-hero-like character (before that she was portrayed as a merciless, "nasty and crafty" "monster") which I find not very convincing.
I looked at the opera's website and was surprised to see that the cast consists of acclaimed and award-winning actors. But I think their acting that day was a bit weak (I think the actor playing 珍妃 gave a good effort, but could not make it when it comes to singing) - probably because it was performed in English.
Not the best pick for my first Chinese opera, but hey it was free. And despite its anomalies, it was an eye-opener and did ignite in me a desire to seek out a proper Chinese opera. While I think it can serve as an introduction to Chinese Opera for non-Chinese speaking community, I hope they don't take this as the gold standard of Chinese opera, because it simply is not a good representation. But then again, I am a total noob when it comes to Chinese opera, so why listen to me? Listen to the what the ministers say lah haha.
Last night I went to watch my first ever Chinese opera and it was in English. You've heard it right - it is actually performed in English.
I know this is done in bad taste, but I just couldn't help it.
Anyway it was one of the many free performances sponsored by ExxonMobil in NUS campus. I finished work about an hour before the opera started, went to the oh-so-cheap NUS canteen for a quick fix, and hurried back to get a good seat - I only managed to get one on the mezzanine.
I didn't really know what to expect from the show (although my heart sank when I saw that it was going to be performed in English). I just kept imagining how they are going to do all the opera singing in English and it was weird. Surprisingly, the real thing was even weirder than what I imagined it to be.
3 points to make:
1. Unlike Chinese, English words often have more than one syllable. So it is quite awkward to transpose English lyrics onto Chinese opera music. Singing out syllable-fraction of a word (English) instead of singing out a word (Chinese) in Chinese opera style not only takes away the sense of rhythm, but imparts to it an ill-fitting nursery-rhyme like quality.
2. The English in the performance was garnished with a hearty serving of Singaporean accent. Let's say it does not match up well with the characters (emperor of China, Empresses Dowager, and court officials) who are dressed in elaborately designed Chinese costumes.
3. The Chinese-to-English abdrigement/translation. The lines (e.g. the Shakespearean "I am more sinned against than sinning", the literal translation of "人之将死，其言必善" into "A dying person always has kind words", and descriptions like "nasty and crafty" ) does not flow well with the overall feel of the performance. For one, the use of English is inconsistent - sometimes natural sounding English proverbs are used, and other times literal (cliché-sounding) translation of Chinese proverbs are used; sometimes classier English words are used, while other times basic/crude English is used. This is exacerbated by the need for the words to rhyme, hence lines such as "Throw her into the well/ Hear not what she yells".
Since I can't seem to find any videos on this performance, I have found a few clips to give you a rough idea of how it sounds like.
This comes pretty close to what I have witnessed, but you get Singaporean accent (and one guy with Malay accent) instead of Hongie accent
This is to give you a feel of the English they use in the script. Compare it with the concise and elegant 古文, if you please
While I am highly critical of the performance, it does have some merits. For one, the costumes look beautiful, so does the makeup. The props were decent - I especially liked the large drawings used as backgrounds. In fact, before they started speaking/singing, it looked like it had potential to be a good show. In a way, it is still enjoyable, just not in the way I had originally thought of enjoying a Chinese opera.
There was a scene where the Chinese was negotiating with the foreign imperialists and a Caucasian started singing Chinese opera (very entertaining). A bit later all the foreigners stood up and sang a song (a very familiar one but the title eludes me) with a adulterated (in a good way though) lyrics. Ironically that was the best point of the Chinese opera. One curious detail though: the foreigner who was supposed to be German spoke with a thick French accent - was it a blunder, or purposely crafted so? Either way it is still pretty awkward. However I must say the Japanese played his part exceptionally well.
Another nice touch: When the emperor was writing 斩袁 (execute Yuan Shi Kai) in the air, the subtitle screen showed the 笔划 (strokes of Chinese characters) one by one in accordance with his hand movements. Unfortunately around the same time, the playwright suddenly took a sudden change in direction and tried too hard to portray CiXi as a Shakespearean tragic-hero-like character (before that she was portrayed as a merciless, "nasty and crafty" "monster") which I find not very convincing.
I looked at the opera's website and was surprised to see that the cast consists of acclaimed and award-winning actors. But I think their acting that day was a bit weak (I think the actor playing 珍妃 gave a good effort, but could not make it when it comes to singing) - probably because it was performed in English.
Not the best pick for my first Chinese opera, but hey it was free. And despite its anomalies, it was an eye-opener and did ignite in me a desire to seek out a proper Chinese opera. While I think it can serve as an introduction to Chinese Opera for non-Chinese speaking community, I hope they don't take this as the gold standard of Chinese opera, because it simply is not a good representation. But then again, I am a total noob when it comes to Chinese opera, so why listen to me? Listen to the what the ministers say lah haha.