Yesterday's the debut performance for Tong'an City Hokkien Opera Troupe at Lor Koo Chye Sheng Hong Temple. This was held in conjunction with the Spring Festival, as well as the fund-raising facilities for the temple's charity funds. I think this temple is getting "well-to-do" now, as recently they've just engaged 2 Taiwanese troupes to perform in their temple, and a few months later, it was said that Xiamen Municipality Gezi Opera Troupe is coming again; it is not cheap to engage foreign troupes to perform here!
So how do I rate the performance? Well there're good and bad aspects of the troupe. The good point is that the accent used by the troupe in general belongs to Xiamen region, which sounds more "homely" for me. The bad point is that the costumes and hairdo for the troupe is not good. I'm very particular about
dans who sport very ugly wigs, as if their "hair" is totally detached from their head, and some of the costumes simply screamed "cheap" into the audience's face. Other than that, I think the troupe in general is rather average. Some of the actors could sing rather okay, but some simply sound like screaming and wailing. Musically speaking, I was rather surprised that their musical style resembled that from Longhai region, which was under Zhangzhou territory; I'd have expected their music to be more biased towards Xiamen, since Tong'an is a territory of Xiamen. Well, this was only their first performance, I shall be more lenient towards them. I shall see if things will get better as they perform!
Baddie in green: You spoil my costume and you buy me a new one!
Palace maids: Help! Someone had released toxic gas! *fainted*
Royal concubine: Put out the toxic gas! Quick!
Palace maids: We'll try... we'll try to fan the fumes away!
As a reward for your hard work, I shall give all of you $1 each!
General in white: My costume's colour is nicer!
General in green: Yeah right, but my costume is newer than yours!
General in green: You tell us; who has got the nicer costume?!
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