Cantonese Opera Event at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts on July 7, 2017

Young Actor Returns to Richmond Hill Centre to Perform Cantonese Opera

On July 7, Master Ruan Guo-Xuan, one of the prominent percussionists in Chinese Music, will present his Annual Guo-Xuan Cantonese Opera and Singing Event at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts.  A young rising actor, Huang Chun-Qiang, who had performed last year here in Toronto for the Guo-Xuan Show, will come back as an honourary guest to perform two acts and sing a song with local amateur actors and singers.  Huang had graduated from the Guangdong Opera Theatre School and had been frequently invited to perform in Hong Kong, the United States and Canada. 

There will be six songs and two acts performed for that evening.  Each song or act comes with a story and it often involves history; hence it is necessary to explain the background of each song and act. 

Below is the Programme listed for the Guo-Xuan Annual Cantonese Opera and Singing Event:

1.         Flying Drums – Music by Master Ruan Guo-Xuan and his Chinese Orchestra

2.         The Purple Hairpin Story – Bidding Farewell           

The Purple Hairpin Story is a famous Chinese opera written in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1662).  The story began with a scholar named Li Yik, who happened to pick up a purple hairpin which belonged to a beautiful girl called Fok Siu-Yuk.  They fell in love the moment they met and got married thereafter.  However, Li had previously met General Loh's daughter who was also in love with Li.  Failed to get Li to marry her, Miss Loh asked her father to separate Li and Fok.  General Loh then forced Li to leave Fok by assigning him to a position as a military advisor and sent him far away to the border.  This song describes the two lovers, Li and Fok, saying goodbye to each other, not knowing when they could meet again.  Fok vowed she would always remember the one who had picked up her purple hairpin, as in the title of this song.

3.         Joining Forces Against Tsao

During the period of the Three Kingdoms (222-264), Wei, Shu, and Wu were always trying to find ways to oust each other.  Eventually, Wu and Shu had decided to join forces against Wei to get rid of Wei's emperor, Tsao.  From the Wu Kingdom, a young man serving the court called Chou Yu, wanted to set fire to Tsao's military ships which were in thousands, but could never come up with a feasible plan because they needed the easterly wind.  However, at that time of the year, it was only blowing northwesterly wind which would only burn their own ships.  Unable to move forward with his plan, he got sick worrying about it.  Meanwhile, ChuGe Liang, the advisor for the Shu Kingdom, came to visit Yu and offered a way to cure his sickness.  Liang's solution was that, he said he had the power to get the easterly wind to burn all of Tsao's ships.  Then Yu was cured without any medicine!

4.         Love Story Between Lok Har and Gu Mou - Prequel

This song was written as a prequel to another love song between the same two lovers.  The male, Gu Mou had to go to the capital to take the Grand Examination which was only held every few years, in the hope to be selected as the next Champion and be given a high honourary position in the royal palace.  However, his love, Lok Har was sick but still wished him to go so that he could come back with honours to marry her.  So now they're saying goodbye to each other in this song.

5.         Last Ruler Li and His Lost Kingdom

Ruler Li was the last ruler of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907-960), a period before the Sung Dynasty (960-1279).  After Ruler Li's kingdom was conquered by the Emperor of the Sung Dynasty, he changed his name to Li Yu and focused on writing poetry.  Both he and his beloved new wife, Lady Chou, the younger sister of his queen who died earlier, were being kept as prisoners of the Sung Emperor.  One day, the Sung Emperor sent in a glass of poisonous wine for them.  This song recounts the situation of that sad last moment between the two.                                                       

6.             Unyielding to Foreign Conquest     

            

Wen Tian-Chiang was the last prime minister of the Southern Sung Dynasty (1127-1279). When Kublai Khan invaded the Southern Sung Dynasty, Wen tried to negotiate peace but to no avail.  Later, he was captured by the enemy, the Mongols, who later formed the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1367).   While he was in the enemy prison, he was forced to write a letter to the Sung generals asking them to surrender.  However, Wen just wrote a poem declaring that he would rather die than to surrender.  This song narrates that time when his wife came to visit him in prison and they both expressed that they would not be afraid to die to show their loyalty to the Sung Kingdom.

7.        One-Act Operetta - Hitting the Princess

During the Tang Dynasty (618-906), General Kuo Tzui had successfully crushed the Anshi Rebellion.  In order to reward him, the Emperor tried to marry his daughter off to one of Kuo's sons.  Now the young couple, both grew up in classy and powerful families, were somewhat spoiled!  When the General's birthday came up, the young husband told the princess to go and send her greetings in person to her father-in-law.  But the princess, thinking she was royalty, did not bother to show her face at the birthday party.  The husband was so mad at his wife’s no-show especially when he was being ridiculed by his brothers and relatives.  So when he came home, he scolded her first and when she said it wasn’t any big deal, he hit the princess on her face.  The princess, not expecting this kind of action could come from her loving husband, was infuriated.  She cried as she stormed out their home, heading to the palace to tell her father, the Emperor.  Before she left, she warned her husband that he could not get away with his action! 

8.         Two Poems Written On the Wall In Shen's Garden  　　 

The famous poet, Lu Yiu, from the Southern Sung Dynasty (1127-1279), was in love with his cousin Tang Wen and married her while they were quite young.  Unfortunately, Tang could not give him any children and his mother forced him to divorce Tang.  Lu was heartbroken but had to obey his mother and married another woman.  Later Tang also remarried.  More than ten years had passed, and one day Lu accidentally ran into Tang and her husband in Shen's Garden.  Sadly, he wrote a very doleful poem on the wall in Shen's Garden, expressing his unfailing love for her, claiming their divorce was a mistake.  Following the same rhyming order, Tang retorted by writing another bitter poem on the same wall, describing how hard life was for her after the divorce and that she cried her tears at night without letting anyone know.

9.         One-Act Operetta - The Fall of Lu'an City        

During the Northern Sung Dynasty (960-1126), the Jurchen tribe grew very powerful in the north and formed a kingdom called Chin (1115-1234).  Lu Deng, a general who was guarding the city of Lu'an knew that the Jurchen General was leading 500,000 soldiers to invade Lu'an while he only got 5,000 soldiers.  He had sent for help but help never came.  He vowed to guard his city and told his wife to take their son and leave.  But his wife wanted to stay by his side, so she sent her son away with the nanny.  Lu then returned from battle, badly wounded.  To his surprise, his wife did not leave!  Now he knew he could no longer guard the city but he was more worried that his wife would be mistreated by the enemies.  To ease his fears, his wife took her life.  He died at the end.One-Act Operatta - Hitting The Princess

　　                                     

Postscript: All Chinese names and dynasties translated here are mostly based on John K. Fairbank and Edwin Reischauer – East Asia, The Great Tradition