Growing Up With Teochew Opera - 16

Heavenly King Continues To Perform For Another Decade

另一个十年 - 陈楚蕙马不停蹄的来新加坡，泰国和马来西亚登台演出

From 2000 to 2009, 陈楚蕙 stagged fewer performances. This could be attributed to the limited pool of die hard fans and her age. From 2000 to 2007, she still performed the long shows, I mean a complete show lasting about three hours where she played male lead. In 2008 and 2009, she only acted in 折子戏 and the performance lasted not more than 4 days. See the list below.

2000年与「中国诏安潮剧团」联合，赴新加坡演出

2002年与「中国诏安潮剧团」联合，赴泰国演出

2004年与「中国云霄潮剧团」联合，赴新加坡演出

2007年与「中国诏安潮剧团」联合，赴马来西亚新山演出

2008年与沈惠贞，林玉和余丽莉在新加坡演出陈楚蕙潮剧艺术演唱会

2009年与沈惠贞，林玉和余丽莉在新加坡演出陈楚蕙潮剧艺术演唱会

Below is a pciture of the extracted from the magazine featuring her performance in Singapore.

In 2002, 陈楚蕙 performed in Thailand. She paired up with 林玉 and put great shows like 告亲夫,背夫 and 扫窗会.In 2004, she took part in a fund raising project and sang two segments of the play from 四郎探母 and 春香传.

In Nov 2004, 陈楚蕙 returned to Singapore to perform two weeks. We did not have much time and only managed to watch one performance comprising 折子戏 inlcuding 碧玉簪. On that particular day, we were quite unhappy with the organizer. They changed the 折子戏 just before the commencement of the show.

Actually, we wanted to watch 背夫 of 严兰贞 and 别窑 of 红鬃烈马. These are two special 折子戏 that we wanted to watch. 陈楚蕙 actually performed 严兰贞 in Thailand in 2002 but she never did so in Singapore until 2008.

I like the original soundtrack of this very much and I can even sing several segments of 严兰贞. That year, I told myself that the 折子戏'背夫' should be good enough but to my disappointment, nothing at all. The programme was changed without any notification in advance. 严兰贞 married her husband 曾荣 but did not know that her grandfather and father had actually killed his parents and many other officials.

There was once 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 that 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 严兰贞 saved her husband 曾荣 from her parents. Strangely, there was very little singing. The dressing and make ups were very different from Hong Kong 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 experience it myself.

For that year, we only watched one show. Other than our busy schedule, another key reason was because other than陈楚蕙, we were not familiar with the troupe that paired off with her.

In 2005, I managed to buy an old film production by 陈楚蕙 called 扫窗会. My family and I viewed the film together and commented that 陈楚蕙 was quite green in her acting skills when the film was produced. This was one of her earliest movie productions.

陈楚蕙 stagged a 10-day performance in Johore, West Malaysia in Apr 2007. I took leave to cross the causeway to watch 一门三进士 and 宋弘拒婚.

Later, she came to Singapore. With QL's assistance, my wife and I managed to meet up with her at Hotel Royal.

Then, 陈楚蕙 returned to Singapore to pefrom in 2008 and 2009. She paied up 林玉,沈惠贞,陈国来 andmany others in different segments of 折子戏 including 梦魂,碧玉簪,别窑,五子挂帅 and 一门三进士.