Zhangzhou's Zhangpu Xiangju Opera Troupe In Action

Lately I've visited Zhangzhou and caught 2 Xiangju opera troupes performing in 2 different places on a single night. One of which is Zhupu Xiangju opera troupe from Longhai; it is a professional non-government sponsored troupe, and is considered one of the better troupes of its kind in terms of performing standards.



I had not finished watching the entire show, but from what I see, the storyline is as such:

The crown prince of the Emperor is a brave warrior, but is reckless and always foul things up. His brother-in-law, the Princess consort, is on the other hand good at foreign diplomacy and strategies. Fearing that the Emperor would change his mind and decides to pass the throne to the Princess consort, the ruthless crown prince poisoned his father and tried to pass the blame to the Princess consort instead.

Personally I feel this troupe is not bad as the standard of the main acting team quite uniform. Usually in non-government sponsored Xiangju opera troupes, the male xiaoshengs don't sing well, but for this troupe, I find the male actor assuming the role of the evil crown prince passable. The female xiaosheng performing the role of the Princess consort sang and acted well too.

Main drape for the troupe

Troupe in action

The evil crown prince

The Princess consort

See the hua lian at the far corner? She's the troupe leader; one of the very rare few female hua lians in an opera genre whereby male and female actors share the same stage

Fight!

Freeze!

I don't understand why palace maids in non-government sponsored and amateur troupes like to stand in such an aggressive pose!

Another thing I don't like about some Xiangju opera troupes is that the hairdo for the huadans are simply too ugly, like this one here.

This actor, performing the role of the Emperor, is a multitasker; during scenes where he's not required to appear on stage, he doubles up as the cello player