Yueju Crossover part 1

For those who love Yueju opera, it shouldn't take long to recall what shows and roles Wu Fenghua, Qian Huili or Fang Yafen featured in. However, are you able to visualise them "crossdressing", that is, switch over to act the opposite hang dang in which they were not specialised in?

The first two clips here features Xu Ming from Hangzhou City Yue Opera Troupe singing an excerpt from "The Butterfly Lovers" and Zhang Ruihong from Shanghai Yue Opera Company singing an excerpt from "Female Premier Meng Lijun".

They were trained as xiao sheng and specialised in the Fan-style of singing, which is famous for it's ornamented and prolonged ending notes for each line. However, in this next clip here, they took on the role of Madam Chen and Sun Gumei respectively from the show "The Annulment". The role of Madam Chen, a mix of was to be taken onLaodan and Caidan, was to be acted by a Caidan actress while the role of Sun Gumei, a Huadan, was to be acted by a Fu-style Huadan actress.



My verdict:
Xu Ming's rendition of Madan Chen was really comical, and it's hard to imagine that she was in fact a Xiaosheng if you had not known her before. Zhang Ruihong's initial appearance on stage made me laugh, because I thought she looked weird, but her imitation of Fu-style singing was quite close to how Fu Quanxiang (the founder of this style) sang. However, her shen duan was too stiff for a Huadan, and she seemed a bit hunchedback at times. These made her performance weaker in comparison to Xu Ming.

My ratings:
Xu Ming's singing

Xu Ming's acting

Xu Ming's entertainment value

Overall rating for Xu Ming


Zhang Ruihong's singing

Zhang Ruihong's acting

Zhang Ruihong's entertainment value

Overall rating for Zhang Ruihong