Review-Southeast the Peacock Flies-Chinese Opera Festival
28-6-14
By: Meaghan McGurgan
I feel the need to start off this review with a bit of disclaimer: I enjoy Cantonese Opera. (Some people don't...) I like the different tones they sing in, especially the dans, they remind me of little kitty cats singing. Some westerners are hesitant to attend their first Canto Opera. It's very different than the traditional opera we're exposed to in the Western world and often favors presentation of the stock character over a linear plot line.
Southeast the Peacock Flies was presented this weekend as part of the Chinese Opera Festival. The festival's mission statement is to present and highlight the different styles of Chinese Opera and make the art form a bit more accessible to the general public. Peacock is based on a yuefu poem from the 3rd Century, written by an anonymous poet. Wang Yaoqing, a maestro in Peking Opera, adapted it for the stage in 1938, and later again adapted it for Yue Opera. It was a phenomenal success in Shanghai, and from then on, has become a classic and was staged in many places.Yuefu is a Chinese style of poetry that is composed in folk song style. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that this lyrical poem was turned into an Opera.
The storyline is actually very similar to Romeo and Juliet, except the young lovers are married and forced to have an annulment over two teens caught in the passions of puberty. It's a star-crossed lover story, very sad in parts but with some beautiful songs in it and some tragic deaths at the end (as all good Operas have...) I enjoyed seeing the stock characters in the show; it was very clear from the beginning who was the hero, the lover and the villain.
My favorite performance belonged to Wu Fenghua. I thought she had beautiful stage presence, a wonderful singing voice and great physicality on stage. I found out after the show that she's being doing Cantonese Opera for over 25 years! That was pretty amazing to me, I would have guessed she was in her twenties. She had so much energy on stage and was hands down the most enjoyable part of the show.
Costumes and staging for Cantonese Opera, in general, are pretty fabulous. I'm sure the costumes were nothing out of the ordinary for my fellow audience members but I've seen less than ten Chinese Operas in my life, so the costumes are always so spectacular for me. The amount of beading that goes into some of the ladies' dresses is ridiculous.
Things that could have been improved for the performance all have to do with translations and making the show a bit more accessible to people who are not familiar with the art form. The program didn't have a lot of information about the play, the cast or the crew and so I was bit confused when the show began. A plot summary in English, even outside the stage door, would have been immensely helpful. The surtitles are provided in English and Chinese but I found myself not paying attention to them as there were inconsistencies in the timing of the slides. (We would get told the surprises in the story before they happened on stage.)
If you're a fan of Opera, I think you should definitely check the festival out. It's playing until August 30th at various theatres all over Hong Kong. Each show gets only one or two performances, so make sure to pick your show carefully and have a read of the plot online before you go. For newbies to Opera I would suggest a salon style showcase over the full productions, as the materials provided for English speaking audience members and surtitles leave something to be desired. A showcase requires less knowledge of the plots and is generally shorter, so I think it's a better pick for those unfamiliar with Cantonese Opera.
The Chinese Opera festival is playing through August 30th. For more information, click here.
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