广东潮剧院三团 Guangdong Teochew Opera Troupe 3 In Singapore
12 Sep 2006 闹花灯

三团来了!
好个张楚武!

Time flies.

In Jul 06, 广东潮剧院一团 put up a 9-day performance at Kreta Ayer Cinema. This time, Kreta Ayer Cinema has another troupe from China to keep opera fans busy for 9 days starting from 9 Sep 06. This troupe is 广东潮剧院三团. It is a relatively new troupe.

This troupe will also put up a 9-day performance in Singapore. 广东潮剧院三团演出的 10 场戏是:节义夫妻、狸猫换太子、包公会李后、闹花灯、薛刚兴唐、忠烈双娇、碧血丹心、安禄山犯长安、梦圆锦香亭。日场演出折子戏有:穆桂英招亲、井边会、晨钟惊梦、铁弓缘。 On Saturday, 16 Sep 2006, 广东潮剧院三团 will put up 节义夫妻 again in the afternoon and tickets are offered at special rates of $10 and $20.

I have not seen 节义夫妻 but it must be a good show since 广东潮剧院三团 arranged for this show on day 1. I understand that it was full house on day 1. Subsequently, the support has been lukewarm. Actually, I planned to watch 狸猫换太子 on 10 Sep 06 but then I was too tired after dismantling the old desktop and cleaning my study room as my new PC was scheduled to deliver on 11 Sep 06. As I have to be at home, I missed 包公会李后.

I decided to support 广东潮剧院三团 on Tuesday, 12 Sep 06. I packed my digital camera and spare shirt before leaving home for work in the morning. After work, I travelled to Outram Station and headed straight to the ticket stall. I decided to buy a $30 ticket (fifth row from the front, left section facing the stage) as the $50 tickets for row 1 had been sold out. At about 6.45 pm, about 30% of the cinema was booked. I thought the show 闹花灯 should be able to attract more audience as no other troupes had put up this performance before. However, the box office was a far cry compared to that of 广东潮剧院一团. Maybe 广东潮剧院三团 is still new and the tropue needs times to prove its worth.

After dinner, I went to the back stage. I only saw one familiar actor. He is the 知名丑角方展荣. As 东潮剧院三团 is not as popular as 广东潮剧院一团, 新加坡潮阳会馆 also invited him and 中国潮剧著名青衣花旦姚璇秋 to make special appearance for about 15 to 20 mins before the commencement of each show. Other than 姚璇秋 and 方展荣, most of the actors are very young. As 蔡碧霞老师 and 林嘉老师 of the Singapore Opera Institute were out of town, there was no one to do any formal introduction. I just walked around and took some photos.

Then, I saw an actor who has the make up of 薛刚. I asked him if he was performing the role as 薛刚 and he affirmed his role. I asked him to pose for some photo taking and he was more than happy to do so. He even suggested that I took some photo with him. But I was alone and all the people at the backstage seemed very busy. But this 薛刚 was very nice, he asked one elderly fans to help me with the photo taking. Hm, a pleasant experience. Then, I went outside to look at the pictures displayed. That guy who played the role as 薛刚 is called 张楚武.

闹花灯 is also commonly known as 薛刚大闹花灯. More than 300 people of his family were killed because of 薛刚. It all happened when 薛刚 went for lanterns viewing and tried to save a village girl who was being bullied. Coincidentally, the Tang Emperor, Empress Wu and their son, the Prince, were present too. The Prince sought the Emperor’s permission to mingle with the crowd and was stepped to death by 薛刚 when 薛刚 tried to save the village girl.

The Emperor and Empress Wu were too truamatised over the death of their son. Following the death of the Emperor, Empress Wu took revenge. The family of 薛刚 was punished and sentenced to death and buried in a tomb reinforced with iron.

张楚武 dominated the second half of the show. The main scenes were how he met his wife and how he escaped after being caught praying at the iron tomb. This part is normally called 薛刚哭铁丘坟.