Cantonese Opera

Sept 16, 2007
John has been in Bangkok for this weekend, so although I miss him, it gives me an excuse to do some things he probably wouldn’t want to do. Tonight was one of those times. My friend, Sarah, and I like to experience the Chinese culture when at all possible. We’ve been wanting to go to the Cantonese Opera, that is apparently very popular here. We finally got around to doing it tonight.

I had Karen at John’s office help me figure out when the show was and how to get there. It turns out the theater is at the bus stop I get off at when I go to the bank for the company, which is about once a week. The ladies at the office got a huge laugh when they heard that I wanted to see the Cantonese Opera. They said “Be sure to bring your pillow & ear plugs.” They double checked to make sure I understood what I was going to see, by singing a few notes in a really high pitched annoying voice. I said, yes we realized that was how it sounded. They said we’d be the only westerners there and it would be all old people. I said I understood that too. They said it is really boring even for them & they can understand the language. I said I still wanted to go.

Sarah & I had both been to the Peking Opera in Beijing, so we knew what to expect. The Peking Opera does have cameras that tell you what is going on in English, so you have some idea. Peking Opera is also filled with Westerners.

When we arrived there was a huge sign up saying FULL HOUSE. We decided to give it a try anyway. There were a few seats left & we got center seats about half-way back. They were actually very good seats. We got lots of stares & giggles as we entered the theater. We were indeed the only Westerners there. The show started & people were still talking very loudly & milling around in the aisles. It was a good sized theater and I think the seat next to me was the only empty one.

As best we could figure there were several unrelated acts that make up the night’s show. The first one was 4 kids. They must have been around 8 to 10 years old. They were excellent & did some amazing acrobatics during their act. Off to a good start. The second act was very acrobatic also & not much high pitched female singing, so we enjoyed that one too. As the acts went on, they got less physical & more romantic/tragic & high pitched. We lasted 2 hours (it was a 3 hour show) before our heads couldn’t take any more of the music & singing. Don’t get me wrong, we did enjoy it & were glad we went, but also knew when enough was enough.

The costumes & makeup were amazing. They did a lot with the sleeves of the clothing. The sleeves were really long & they were always swinging them around, then they’d somehow push them up & get them all folded neatly so they could do the very intricate detailed finger movements. This is the culture of Tai Chi, so each little movement of the finger or tilt of the head is very important. Then the sleeves would come down again & get swung all around. It was very strange.

It was really funny to observe the people’s behavior during the show. People never stopped talking & they didn’t whisper, just spoke in regular voices. People were on cell phones & eating & drinking in the theater. People got up at any time during the performance to go to the rest room or outside for something. People were milling around the entire time. I think for them, this is more of a social event than cultural. Many people seemed to know each other & there were many large groups, especially of women. It was not all old people, there were many younger people, but I’d say nobody under 25.

Now I’ve had that cultural experience, so won’t need to do it again. I was not even tempted to get one of the many CD’s being sold out front!