Wai Ling Ho, playing hero Man Hong. It is customary for woman to play male roles in Cantonese Opera. | Photo courtesy of Rosa Cheng
Cantonese opera fans, or anyone looking to learn more about Chinese culture, can look forward to the famed production The Legend of the Red Peony, featuring English and Chinese subtitles, put on by the Vancouver Cantonese Opera April 18 at the Michael J. Fox Theatre in Burnaby.
Robin Leung, a stage actor who came to Canada from Hong Kong in 1972, explains that the opera is a fairy tale about Empress Wu Zhe Tian. Wandering around her garden during the winter, the empress ordered all the flowers to bloom, but the red peony did not. A young handsome scholar falls in love with the red peony flower fairy and begs a goddess to save her. The goddess gives him a magic potion with which he saves the flower, and they live happily ever after.
“Cantonese operas always have happy endings. It gave people hope during unstable times when life was tough. Do your good deeds and you will be rewarded – God will help you,” says Leung.
An opera of nuances and metaphors
“The Legend of the Red Peony is so popular that most Cantonese opera audiences are familiar with the arias and demand perfection from the performers,” says Rosa Cheng, who plays the main female heroine.
Cheng identifies with, and is very attracted to, her character.
“The Red Peony is a very strong-willed fairy; she is not afraid of speaking her mind, and she values righteousness. I find myself very attracted to her character and I can easily portray myself as The Red Peony,” she says.
Cheng describes the lyrical prose of The Legend of the Red Peony as a woven fabric of nuances and metaphors that elegantly transgresses the divide between the beauty of nature and man’s inner cosmos of emotions and desires.
“Through the lights and shadows of its lyrical fabric, the magic of the play’s language quickly carries the audience to a unique experience of literary and musical pleasure. The Legend of the Red Peony offers a banquet of metaphors, a dance of imagination and most of all, a celebration of sensitivity,” she says.
Cheng and her husband took Cantonese Opera singing lessons from Mr. Tze Ming Tse, a famous musician from Hong Kong. Then Cheng began teaching singing in 1996, offering free lessons to Chinese seniors at SUCCESS in Coquitlam. They formed the Friends of Cantonese Opera, and one year later put on their first show – “Chinese Opera Extravaganza.” The Vancouver Cantonese Opera became incorporated in 2000.
Meaning behind the make-up
The Red Peony did not blossom as ordered so the Flower God threatens her. | Photo courtesy of Rosa Cheng
Cantonese Opera did not always have elaborate sets, and the audiences were often not familiar about the stories being told. Leung explains how performers would use universally understood actions, like miming, to convey certain actions, such as riding a horse, opening a gate or climbing a wall.
As there were no microphones or sound systems, actors used exaggerated actions and face paint to help communicate who were the good guys and who were the bad guys. Colours were used to represent certain characteristics: white meaning sly, red – faithful, purple – majestic and black – upright and straightforward.
“Yellow, blue and green were used for ferocious, violent characteristics,” says Leung.
Historical roots of Cantonese Opera
In 1644, Leung says, when Manchurians entered Beijing, many Han Chinese did not like the changes the Manchurians made, causing a revolutionary atmosphere. Many Cantonese opera costumes come from the Ming dynasty, the one previous to the Manchurian ruling.
The Ching government, a Manchurian government, forced Cantonese operas to stop performing, leading many of its members to escape overseas.
“Opera troupes were often hiding places for revolutionists, specifically Chinese Free Mason or secret society members, who were fleeing from the government. They brought Cantonese opera to North America,” says Leung.
For more information, please visit www.explorasian.org
