"The Sound of Music" Marionette Style

"The Sound of Music" by Julie Andrews is such a classic. But, can anyone imagine it being performed not by flesh and blood actors, but with marionettes? Take a look at it:


This production is presented by the world-renowned Salzburg Marionette Theatre which I like very much. Hopefully I'd have the chance to watch them live one of these days.

Surprise Surprise: Hokkien Marionette Performance Near My Workplace

It was a boring Sunday as I had to work in the evening. Actually it wasn't that bad, if not because I had worked the previous night (which meant I had no off days for this week!). But what perked me up a bit was that there was a Chinese marionette performance near my work place, held in conjunction with the celebration of Lord Guan Ti's celestial birthday. This was rather exciting for me, as I had loved watching Chinese marionette performances since young.

Of course, I could not stay throughout the whole show since I had to work, therefore I could only sneaked out to catch a short peek at their show during the lull periods of my work. The troupe performing was "Sin Ho Peng", and if I am not wrong, they are the only string marionette troupe left in Singapore. Although their marionettes belonged to the Heng Hwa (a sister dialect of the Hokkien dialect) style, the marionette troupe performs in both Heng Hwa and Hokkien dialect, depending on what occasion it is. I was plesantly surprised that they were performing in Hokkien dialect, something which I had not watched for many, many years. There were more surprises coming my way, as I saw familiar faces at the backstage...

As I walked to the back of the stage, I saw Haining (a.k.a. "Teacher Zhuang" or ZHN) in charged of the percussion instruments. Haining used to help our opera troupe in percussions for some of our shows, and was sort of my mentor as I had learnt the basics of percussion instruments from him before (though still not very skillful). He saw me, and eagerly invited me up the stage to have a sit, and when I went up, I saw "Senior Zhuang" (Haining's father) playing the lead string instrument as well. I'm less familiar with "Senior Zhuang" as I had only seen him once, during our latest performance at Taman Jurong Community Club. He still recognised me anyhow.

And then, Haining threw me a "bomb", by asking me to help out in the gongs while he concentrate on his drums! I agreed without much thoughts, but it turned out that it was no easy feat! Although I had played alongside him before, this was much tougher than expected as I didn't know what to expect (since I didn't know how the plot would unfold on stage), and also due to the fact that I had not touched Chinese opera percussions for quite a long time). I felt I had fumbled on stage, but the marionette operators of the troupe thought I played rather well, and Haining came to my rescue saying that I was more used to playing well-rehearsed and scripted shows than palying inpromtu. Indeed, playing inpromptu is not easy, and I had to take my hat off to Haining!

After messing around with the percussions for quite a while, I decided that I had to leave, as I had left my office for quite a while. Before I left ther performance, I bidded both teachers goodbye and take one "final look" at their show down stage (but of course I did return again after an hour or so to catch another glimpse)...

Haining trying to shun from my camera, but I caught him anyhow


"Senior Zhuang" and another fellow musician during their "break" from playing music


Marionette operators in action; don't think handling the marionettes are easy, they're in fact very heavy! (I've one of these at home, so I know)


This is not a ghostly scene; it's just me taking a snapshot in the wrong white balance mode!