YUE OPERA FROM HANGZHOU

Wang Danli (Daring) found tickets two days before the performance date of an opera out of the city of Hangzhou.  Everyone in Beijing was persuading me to see the kung-fu show because I would surely fall asleep in the Peking opera, and people who knew this opera warned me that Peking opera has action but this kind of opera has a lot of singing.  I would be bored, most likely.

We had dinner first, a rather small, quick dinner and caught a taxi to People's Square, where the opera was being performed in a nearby theater.   Of course, there were signs posted in Chinese that forbade taking pictures and videos, and I don't read Chinese.  There were two observers in the theater whose job appeared to be spotting violators.  They traded off during the show, so it appeared only one was on duty at a time. (Last year at the  Shanghai Theater, there must have been dozens who had little laser beams that they show on a violator's camera or hands from the back of the theater.)  The young man mostly sat while he was on duty, but the lady was seriously persuing violators.   I watched her travel from side to side of the theater (actually only one side, and I saw no one on my left.)   She had a pen-sized flashlight that she would use.   She reminded me of a bird dog or a retriever, casting about for a bird, and then finding one, focusing on it, raising her flashlight like the dog might its nose. The lady next to me was caught and physically and verbally chastised for shooting.  Of course, she had made the error of having her flash on.

Although Danli was shooting pictures without worry, I watched where the woman was, and when she was searching the right side of the theater I did my shooting.  

The storyline was a romance.  In fact, the translated name is "Romance of the Western Chamber." The story goes something like this:   A young man on his way to take exams in Peking so he can be employed by the government stops at a monastery where he discovers a widow and her two children, a young boy and a beautiful daughter, are staying.  The daughter has an attendant, whose performance I thought was full of energy, bright singing, movement, and great variety of emotions.
At any rate, the young man sees the daughter and falls in love.   The daughter, too, is interested, but the mother has an iron hand.   When they discover a soldier with 2000 men have surrounded the where they are living and threatens to overwhelm the group unless the daughter will marry him, the mother proclaims whoever might save them may have the daughter.

The young man hearing this says he can help, for he knows a general on whom he can call, and he does and (offstage), the matter is resolved.  But, of course, the mother reneges on the promise and what ensues is a series of communications between the daughter and the young man, facilitated by her attendant.  By the end of the second hour, they are in love but no closer to being together.   Finally the maid is trapped by the mother and ends up telling the mother that she (the mother) is as much to blame for this budding romance because of the way she has been dishonest.  Thus the story ends with the mother accepting the young man, but throwing another barrier in his way.  He must go to Peking, take and pass the test and acquire a government job; only then would she accept him.  This is a step in the right direction and he agrees.  The daughter tells him no matter the outcome of his examination, he is to come back to find her.   Thus ended to show.Three hours of solid singing with no breaks; people headed for the washrooms whenever they needed to. In one of the videos, you can hear Daring explaining what's going on to me.  People talked during the show, but they applauded and showed appreciation.  There isn't that same feeling in an American theater where everyone must be completely silent.    I noticed this as I was reading Mark Salzman's Iron and Silk when he describes how audiences seem to pay little attention to what goes on during lectures and performances.

Here are some "smuggled" shots of the opera in progress.

 I thought the designs were great and the costumes absolutely gorgeous.

The flower arrangements filled theater lobby  both physically and aromatically.  There may have been twenty of these arrangements.

Here are some "smuggled" videos of the performance, too.  

We had nice seats.   We paid top price and did not want the front row, and we did not want the ends of the rows either.    The main floor rows were very long, and sitting in the middle meant taking a patient stroll to the end of the row in order to reach the wash rooms.  But across the theater was an aisle that separated the two halves of the theater, and we were in row 11, not far from the stage, and just on the far side of this aisle from the stage.  Thus, we had no heads to peer around, and only a periodic distraction of someone heading for the washroom  

We had been sitting, listening to the singing, watching the .small but graceful movement, the body language, and the changes of scenery for almost three hours, so we knew that the opera would soon be ending, but here in the middle of this act, people started standing and moving toward the aisles.  A large number of people walked stage right toward the stage itself, where the exit was situated, while others moved in front of us, partly blocking our view.  Danli kept saying "What are they doing? It's not done yet."  But it was indeed about to end.  Unfortunately, for Danli, there wasn't a clear climax and denouement.  She wanted to young man to go the Peking and come back for his bride, but there was to be no clear happy and final ending, just the hope of change.  

People applauded at the end of the opera; they didn't leave.  Many had moved to the front just so they could applaud.  There were two curtain calls, with moderate clapping. And then there was even more clapping, and when the curtain opened, only the singer who had played the young man came out; apparently, she was the reason for the applause, for the audience seemed satisfied to have her take her bow.

Here.below is her brief acapella encore, of which I caught only the last few seconds.   I assume it was done without the orchestra because it truly was caught in the moment.

I hope you have enjoyed these clips.