Cantonese opera

Characteristics

Cantonese opera shares many common characteristics with other Chinese theatre genres. Commentators often take pride in the idea that all Chinese theatre styles are similar but with minor variations on the pan-Chinese music-theatre tradition and the basic features or principles are consistent from one local performance form to another. Thus, music, singing, martial arts, acrobatics and acting are all featured in Cantonese opera. Most of the plots are based on Chinese history and famous Chinese classics and myths. Also, the culture and philosophies of the Chinese people can be seen in the plays. Virtues (like loyalty, love, patriotism and faithfulness) are often reflected by the operas.

Some particular features of Cantonese opera are:

1. Cing sik sing (Chinese: 程式性; Jyutping: cing4 sik1 sing3) – formulaic, formalised.
2. Heoi ji sing (虛擬性; heoi1 ji5 sing3) – abstraction of reality, distancing from reality.
3. Sin ming sing (鮮明性; sin1 ming4 sing3 – clear-cut, distinct, unambiguous, well-defined.
4. Zung hap ngai seot jing sik (綜合藝術形式; zung1 hap6 ngai6 seot6 jing4 sik1) – a composite or synthetic art form.
5. Sei gung ng faat (四功五法; sei3 gung1 ng5 faat3) – the four skills and the five methods.

The four skills and five methods are a simple codification of training areas that theatre performers must master and a metaphor for the most well-rounded and thoroughly-trained performers. The four skills apply to the whole spectrum of vocal and dramatic training: singing, acting/movements, speech delivery, and martial/gymnastic skills; while the five methods are categories of techniques associated with specific body parts: hands, eyes, body, hair, and feet/walking techniques.

The acting, acrobat, music and singing, live on stage, are well known as essential characteristics of live performances in theaters. Recordings did not replace the human voice backstage behind prop only when choir members were actually introduced to the audience at curtain call.

Significance

Before widespread formal education, Cantonese opera taught morals and messages to its audiences rather than being solely entertainment. The government used theatre to promote the idea of be loyal to the emperor and love the country (忠君愛國). Thus, the government examined the theatre frequently and would ban any theatre if a harmful message was conveyed or considered. The research conducted by Lo showed that Cantonese Operatic Singing also relates older people to a sense of collectivism, thereby contributing to the maintenance of interpersonal relationships and promoting successful ageing. (Lo, 2014). Young people construct the rituals of learning Cantonese opera as an important context for their personal development.

Operas of Deities

Cantonese opera is a kind of Operas of Deities. Operas for Deities are often performed in celebration of folk festivals, birthdays of deities, establishments or renovations of altars and temples. A community organises a performance of opera, which is used to celebrate the birth of the gods or to cooperate with the martial arts activities, such as "Entertaining People and Entertaining God" and "God and People". These performances can be called " Operas for Deities ". This king of acting originated from the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty. It was also called the sacred drama in the performance of God's birthday. It is a meritorious deed for God. According to the study, most of the Cantonese operas in Hong Kong belong to the Operas for Deities, and the nature of the preparations of the "God Circus" can be broadly divided into three categories: the celebration of the gods, the Hungry Ghost Festival, the Taiping Qing Dynasty, the temple opening and the traditional festival celebrations. In the 1960s−1970s, the Chinese opera was at a low ebb. However, due to the support of Opera for Deities, some of the troupes can be continue to perform. In the 1990s, the total performance rate of Operas for Deities has been reduced from two-thirds to two-fifths in the 1980s, there is no such thing as a performance in the Cantonese opera industry.

Performers and roles

Types of play

There are two types of Cantonese opera plays: Mou (武, "martial arts") and Man (文, "highly educated", esp. in poetry and culture). Mou plays emphasize war, the characters usually being generals or warriors. These works contain action scenes and involve a lot of weaponry and armour. Man plays tend to be gentler and more elegant. Scholars are the main characters in these plays. Water sleeves are used extensively in man plays to produce movements reflecting the elegance and tenderness of the characters; all female characters wear them. In man plays, characters put a lot of effort into creating distinctive facial expressions and gestures to express their underlying emotions.

Roles

There are four types of roles: Sang (Sheng), Daan (Dan), Zing (Jing), and Cau (Chou).

Sang

The Sang (生; Sheng) are male roles. As in other Chinese operas, there are different types of male roles, such as:

• 小生; siu2 sang1 – Literally, young gentleman, this role is known as a young scholar.
• 武生; mou5 sang1 – Male warrior role.
• 小武生; siu2 mou5 sang1 – Young Warrior (usually not lead actor but a more acrobatic role).
• 文武生; man4 mou5 sang1; 'civilized martial man' – Known as a clean-shaven scholar-warrior. Actresses for close to a century, of three generations and with huge successes worldwide, usually perform this male role are Yam Kim Fai (mentor and first generation), Loong Kim Sang (protégée and second generation), Koi Ming Fai and Lau Wai Ming (the two youngest listed below both by age and by experience).
• 老生; lou5 sang1 – Old man role.
• 鬚生; sou1 sang1 – Bearded role

Daan

The Daan (旦; Dan) are female roles. The different forms of female characters are:

• 花旦; faa1 daan3; 'flower of the ball' – Known as a young belle.
• 二花旦; ji6 faa1 daan3; 'second flower' – Known as a supporting female.
• 武旦; mou5 daan3 – Female warrior role.
• 刀馬旦; dou1 maa5 daan3 – Young woman warrior role.
• 閨門旦; gwai1 mun4 daan3 – Virtuous lady role.
• 老旦; lou5 daan3 – Old woman role.

Zing

The Zing (淨; Jing) are known for painted-faces. They are often male characters such as heroes, generals, villains, gods, or demons. Painted-faces are usually:

• 文淨; man4 zing6 – Painted-face character that emphasizes singing.
• 武淨; mou5 zing6 – Painted-face character that emphasizes martial arts.

Some characters with painted-faces are:

• Zhang Fei (張飛; zoeng1 fei1) and Wei Yan (魏延; ngai6 jin4) from Three Humiliations of Zhou Yu (三氣周瑜; saam1 hei3 zau1 jyu4).
• Xiang Yu (項羽; hong6 jyu5) from The Hegemon-King Bids His Concubine Farewell (霸王別姬; baa3 wong4 bit6 gei1).
• Sun Wukong (孫悟空; syun1 ng6 hung1) and Sha Wujing (沙悟凈; saa1 ng6 zing6) from Journey to the West (西遊記; sai1 jau4 gei3).

Cau

The Cau (丑; Chou) are clownish figures. Some examples are:

• 丑生; cau2 sang1 – Male clown.
• 丑旦; cau2 daan3 – Female clown.
• 文丑; man4 cau2 – Clownish civilized male.
• 彩旦; coi2 daan3 – Older female clown.
• 武丑; mou5 cau2 – Acrobatic comedic role.

Notable people

Major Cantonese Opera artists

Major Cantonese Opera (Stage) Career Artists include:

• Kai Tak Amusement Park nurtured generation.

Political-economic crisis led to overall very hard time for Cantonese Opera in Hong Kong. Early 1960s, a sole proprietor in private sector built and operated this facility to provide performance venue, similar (in purpose) to the current Yau Ma Tei Theatre, in which upcoming artists could attain stage experience. Volunteers who managed this Amusement Park Theatre were veteran performer Chan Kam Tong with his wife and others. Work opportunities and incomes nurtured these young promising performers for years.

The Female Leads

This is a list of female Cantonese opera performers who are known for female leads (Chinese: 文武全才旦后):

Female Vocal Styles

This is a list of female Cantonese opera performers who are known for her own female vocal styles (著名旦腔):

The Male Leads

This is a list of female Cantonese opera performers who are known worldwide for singing and performing as male leads. They each has or had spent decades on stage, managed own troupe and established own repertoire as career performers.(著名女文武生):

Great Male Vocals

This is a list of female Cantonese opera singers who are known as Four Great Male Vocals (平喉四大天王):

Four Super Stars

This is a list of male Cantonese opera performers who are known as Four Super Stars (四大天王):

Four Super Clowns

This is a list of male Cantonese opera performers who are known as Four Super Clowns (Cau) (四大名丑):

Visual elements

Makeup

Applying makeup for Cantonese opera is a long and specialized process. One of the most common styles is the "white and red face": an application of white foundation and a red color around the eyes that fades down to the bottom of cheeks. The eyebrows are black and sometimes elongated. Usually, female characters have thinner eyebrows than males. There is black makeup around the eyes with a shape similar to the eyes of a Chinese phoenix (鳳眼; fung6 ngaan5). Lipstick is usually bright red (口唇膏; hau2 seon4 gou1).

A female-role actress is in the processes of applying her markup: spreading a creamy. foundation on her cheeks and forehead; putting blusher on her cheeks, eyelids and both sides of the nose; darling her eyebrows and drawing eye-lines and eye-shadows; pasting hairpieces around her face to create an oval-shaped look; lipstick has been put on prior to this; placing hairpins on the hairpiece.

Actors are given temporary facelifts by holding the skin up with a ribbon on the back of the head. This lifts the corners of the eyes, producing an authoritative look.

Each role has its own style of make-up: the clown has a large white spot in the middle of his face, for example. A sick character has a thin red line pointing upwards in between his eyebrows. Aggressive and frustrated character roles often have an arrow shape fading into the forehead in between the eyebrows (英雄脂; jing1 hung4 zi1).

Strong male characters wear "open face" (開面; hoi1 min6) makeup. Each character's makeup has its own distinct characteristics, with symbolic patterns and coloration.

Costumes

Costumes correspond to the theme of the play and indicate the character being portrayed. Costumes also indicate the status of the characters. Lower-status characters, such as females, wear less elaborate dresses, while those of higher rank have more decorative costumes.

Prominent performers (大老倌) listed above, playing the six main characters (generally a combination of 2 Sang, 2 Daan, Zing, and Cau), are usually supposed to pay for their own costumes. Over time, these performers would reinvest their income into their wardrobe which would give an indication of their success. A performer's wardrobe would be either sold or passed on to another performer upon retirement.

To career performers, sequin costumes are essential for festive performances at various "Bamboo Theatres" (神功戲). These costumes, passed from generation to generation of career performers, are priceless according to some art collectors. With time, the materials used for the costumes changed. From the 1950s to the 1960s, sequins were the most prevalent material used for designing the costumes. Nowadays, designers tends to use rhinestones or foil fabric (閃布). Compared to sequins, rhinestones and foil fabric are lighter. However, many older generation performers continue to use sequins and they regard them as more eye-catching on stage.

Most of the costumes in Cantonese Opera come from traditional design. Since costume design is largely taught through apprenticeships, costume design remains largely constant. Some designers are taught the skill from family members, inheriting a particular style.

In 1973, Yam Kim Fai gave Loong Kim Sang, her protégée, the complete set of sequin costumes needed for career debut leading her own commercial performance at Chinese New Year Bamboo Theatre.

Some costumes from famous performers, such as Lam Kar Sing and Ng Kwun-Lai, are on loan or donation to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum.

Hairstyle, hats, and helmets

Hats and helmets signify social status, age and capability: scholars and officials wear black hats with wings on either side; generals wear helmets with pheasants' tail feathers; soldiers wear ordinary hats, and kings wear crowns. Queens or princesses have jeweled helmets. If a hat or helmet is removed, this indicates the character is exhausted, frustrated, or ready to surrender.

Hairstyles can express a character's emotions: warriors express their sadness at losing a battle by swinging their ponytails. For the female roles, buns indicated a maiden, while a married woman has a 'dai tau' (低頭).

In the Three Kingdoms legends, Zhao Yun and especially Lü Bu are very frequently depicted wearing helmets with pheasants' tail feathers; this originates with Cantonese opera, not with the military costumes of their era, although it's a convention that was in place by the Qing Dynasty or earlier.

Aural elements

Speech types

Commentators draw an essential distinction between sung and spoken text, although the boundary is a troublesome one. Speech-types are of a wide variety: one is nearly identical to standard conversational Cantonese, while another is a very smooth and refined delivery of a passage of poetry; some have one form or another of instrumental accompaniment while others have none; and some serve fairly specific functions, while others are more widely adaptable to variety of dramatic needs.

Cantonese opera uses Mandarin when actors are involved with government, monarchy, or military. It also obscures words that are taboo or profane from the audience. The actor may choose to speak any dialect of Mandarin, but the ancient Zhōngzhōu (中州; zung1 zau1) variant is mainly used in Cantonese opera. Zhōngzhōu is located in the modern-day Henan province where it is considered the "cradle of Chinese civilization" and near the Yellow River. Guān Huà retains many of the initial sounds of many modern Mandarin dialects, but uses initials and codas from Middle Chinese. For example, the words 張 and 將 are both pronounced as /tsœːŋ˥˥/ (Jyutping: zœng¹) in Modern Cantonese, but will respectively be spoken as /tʂɑŋ˥˥/ (pinyin: zhāng) and /tɕiɑŋ˥˥/ (pinyin: jiāng) in operatic Guān Huà. Furthermore, the word 金 is pronounced as /kɐm˥˥/ (Jyutping: gam¹) in modern Cantonese and /tɕin˥˥/ (pinyin: jīn) in standard Mandarin, but operatic Guān Huà will use /kim˥˥/ (pinyin: gīm). However, actors tend to use Cantonese sounds when speaking Mandarin. For instance, the command for "to leave" is 下去 and is articulated as /saː˨˨ tsʰɵy˧˧/ in operatic Guān Huà compared to /haː˨˨ hɵy˧˧ / (Jyutping: haa⁶ heoi³) in modern Cantonese and /ɕi̯ɑ˥˩ tɕʰy˩/ (pinyin: xià qu) in standard Mandarin.

Music

Cantonese opera pieces are classified either as "theatrical" or "singing stage" (歌壇). The theatrical style of music is further classified into western music (西樂) and Chinese music (中樂). While the "singing stage" style is always Western music, the theatrical style can be Chinese or western music. The "four great male vocals" (四大平喉) were all actresses and notable exponents of the "singing stage" style in the early 20th century.

The western music in Cantonese opera is accompanied by strings, woodwinds, brass plus electrified instruments. Lyrics are written to fit the play's melodies, although one song can contain multiple melodies, performers being able to add their own elements. Whether a song is well performed depends on the performers' own emotional involvement and ability.

Musical instruments

Cantonese instrumental music was called ching yam before the People's Republic was established in 1949. Cantonese instrumental tunes have been used in Cantonese opera, either as incidental instrumental music or as fixed tunes to which new texts were composed, since the 1930s.

The use of instruments in Cantonese opera is influenced by both western and eastern cultures. The reason for this is that Canton was one of the earliest places in China to establish trade relationships with the western civilizations. In addition, Hong Kong was under heavy western influence when it was a British colony. These factors contributed to the observed western elements in Cantonese opera.

For instance, the use of erhu (two string bowed fiddle), saxophones, guitars and the congas have demonstrated how diversified the musical instruments in Cantonese operas are.

The musical instruments are mainly divided into melodic and percussive types.

Traditional musical instruments used in Cantonese opera include wind, strings and percussion. The winds and strings encompass erhu, gaohu, yehu, yangqin, pipa, dizi, and houguan, while the percussion comprises many different drums and cymbals. The percussion controls the overall rhythm and pace of the music, while the gaohu leads the orchestra. A more martial style features the use of the suona.

The instrumental ensemble of Cantonese opera is composed of two sections: the melody section and the percussion section. The percussion section has its own vast body of musical materials, generally called lo gu dim (鑼鼓點) or simply lo gu (鑼鼓). These 'percussion patterns' serve a variety of specific functions.

To see the pictures and listen to the sounds of the instruments, visit page 1 and page 2.

Terms

This is a list of frequently used terms.

• Pheasant feathers (雉雞尾; zi6 gai1 mei5)

These are attached to the helmet in mou (武) plays, and are used to express the character's skills and expressions. They are worn by both male and female characters.

• Water sleeves (水袖; seoi2 zau6)

These are long flowing sleeves that can be flicked and waved like water, used to facilitate emotive gestures and expressive effects by both males and females in man (文) plays.

• Hand Movements (手動作; sau2 dung6 zok3)

Hand and finger movements reflect the music as well as the action of the play. Females hold their hands in the elegant "lotus" form (荷花手; ho4 faa1 sau2).

• Round Table/Walking (圓臺; jyun4 toi4 or 圓台; jyun4 toi4)

A basic feature of Cantonese opera, the walking movement is one of the most difficult to master. Females take very small steps and lift the body to give a detached feel. Male actors take larger steps, which implies travelling great distances. The actors glide across the stage while the upper body is not moving.

• Boots (高靴; gou1 hoe1)

These are black boots with high white soles worn by males, which can impede walking.

• Gwo Wai (過位; gwo3 wai6)

This is a movement in which two performers move in a cross-over fashion to opposite sides of the stage.

• Deoi Muk (對目; deoi3 muk6)

In this movement, two performers walk in a circle facing each other and then go back to their original positions.

• "Pulling the Mountains"' (拉山; laai1 saan1) and "Cloud Hands" (雲手; wan4 sau2)

These are the basic movements of the hands and arms. This is the MOST important basic movement in ALL Chinese Operas. ALL other movements and skills are based on this form.

• Outward Step (出步; ceot1 bou6)

This is a gliding effect used in walking.

• Small Jump (小跳; siu2 tiu3)

Most common in mou (武) plays, the actor stamps before walking.

• Flying Leg (飛腿; fei1 teoi2)

A crescent kick.

• Hair-flinging (旋水髮; syun4 seoi2 faat3)

A circular swinging of the ponytail, expressing extreme sadness and frustration.

• Chestbuckle/ Flower (繡花; sau3 faa1)

A flower-shaped decoration worn on the chest. A red flower on the male signifies that he is engaged.

• Horsewhip (馬鞭; maa5 bin1)

Performers swing a whip and walk to imitate riding a horse.

• Sifu (師傅; si1 fu6)

Literally, master, this is a formal term, contrary to mentor, for experienced performers and teachers, from whom their own apprentices, other students and young performers learn and follow as disciples.