严兰贞打破玉花瓶 - 陈楚蕙, 曾珊凤
白 字 戏 - 放走曾荣
严 兰 贞 - 背 夫
Another Tale of Teochew Opera

I like the original soundtrack of the Teochew Opera movie 严兰贞打破玉花瓶 by 陈楚蕙 and 曾珊凤 very much. I can sing several segments of the movie. However, I have not able to watch this movie on TV or via VCD.

In early 2000s, the Television Corporation of Singapore screened a 40-minute 白 字 戏 entitled 放走曾荣 on TV Central. I was extremely thrilled to discover the programme while reading the newspapers that Saturday morning. I told my mum about the good news and we watched that show that afternoon. The whole show centred on how 严 兰 真 saved her husband 曾荣 from her parents. Strangely, there was very little singing. The dressing and make ups were very different from 陈楚蕙 or local Teochew Street opera. But, it was my first time watching 白 字 戏. My late dad did tell me about 白 字 戏 but I could not understand what he was trying to tell me until I saw it myself. I undertand that in the past, 白 字 戏 was a type of performance dedicated to the high class rich Teochew people. Later, Teochew opera stole the thunder and emerged as a popular entertainment.

In Nov 2004, 陈楚蕙 returned to Singapore to perform two weeks. We did not have much time so we decided to watch some 折子戏 on a particular Sunday. Then, we were shocked that the tickets for that particular Sunday was sold out before 陈楚蕙 commenced her series of performance. Later, we discovered that all the tickets were booked by Nee Soon East Community Club. A/P Ho Peng Kee was the MP for that consituency. The tickets were sold to residents at $6 each, on a first come first serve basis with no seat number assigned. My wife and I made some enquiries and managed to buy 6 tickets for the whole family.

On that day, A/P Ho Peng Kee was present and he gave some short remarks. However, we were quite unhappy with the organizer. They changed the set of 折子戏 just before the commencement of the show. Actually, we wanted to watch 背 夫 of 严 兰 真 and 别 窑 of 红鬃烈马. These are two special 折子戏 that we wanted to watch. I recalled 陈楚蕙 actually performed 严 兰 真 in Thailand in 2002 but she never do so in Singapore. That year, I told myself that the 折子戏 背夫 should be good enough but to my disappointment, nothing at all. The only 折子戏 we loved for that day was 碧玉簪.

However, QL had a chance to watch the 折子戏 背夫 on a separate day. This blog shows some of the photos taken by him.