Madam White Snake in English

No, this post is not about Chinese Theatre Circle's English version of "Madam White Snake". It is "Madam White Snake" in the style of Western opera. Yes! Western opera!



I was quite surprised when I was randomly web hopping again when I saw this news, that Opera Boston, a professional opera company in US, is going to stage "Madam White Snake" next year. I'm very curious as to how this opera is going to be like, because after all, Western opera focuses more on singing, and it's hard to imagine how they are going to portray the different mystical and fighting scenes. Will they include acrobatic choreography in this production, or will they replace all these scenes with singing? So far there hasn't been much news on these over the net, but I understand that the production team is trying very hard not to let this production be biased towards the Asian or Western community.

This production is going to be staged in Beijing as well, and there is also plans for it to go to Hangzhou, the "birth place" of this legend. I'm looking forward for it to come to Singapore; we just have too few opera performances despite having an Esplanade which was supposedly built for opera performances!

PS: The role of Xiao Qing, the green snake, is performed by a famous male soprano! This is interesting, because other than the Chuanju version (non-human persona), I've never, ever seen a male actor taking on this role before.

Zhangpu Da Che Gu Opera

Other than being home to the Bamboo Horse Opera, Zhangpu county is also home to 1300 year-old Zhangpu Da Che Gu Opera (漳浦大车鼓). Zhangpu Da Che Gu is a sub-branch of Che Gu folk opera which was once popular throughout the whole of Southern Fujian province, Chaozhou districts in Guangdong province and also Taiwan. The other notable styles of Che Gu opera include Tong'an Che Gu (同安车鼓) and Taiwan Che Gu (台湾车鼓阵).

Zhangpu Che Gu opera, compared to other forms of Che Gu styles in the region, is more robust, as it was originally performed by male soldiers in ancient times. It was said that Chen Yuanguang, the founding pioneer of Zhangzhou, brought his troop into Zhangzhou after a victorious battle, and in celebration, the soilderis performed a dance accompanied with strong drums and percussions. This form of military dance formed the basis of Zhangpu Che Gu, and centuries later, singing was added to the dance to spice up this ancient art form.

"Zhaojun Leaves Her Hometown"