University of Alaska-Big City recently opened a branch of Major Chinese Philosopher Institute, whose mission is to foster Amurrikan-Chinese relations and promote Chinese language learning for K-12 schools. This means that we have more Chinese events to go to, put on by MCP Institute, if we’re willing to drive an hour each way. (It also seems that we may end up having Chinese lessons here! in Suburban Alaska! coming up after January 1! This is majorly exciting; the classes in Big City run from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday nights, which doesn’t work very well for kids that have bedtime at, say, 8:30 p.m., and also doesn’t work well when you have parents who are unnerved at the thought of driving on icy, snowy highways, in the dark, both ways, for months on end.)
MCP Institute’s latest event-with-a-capital-E was a performance of snippets of Chinese opera. For free.
Well! That certainly piqued my interest. So I ran it by the dotter, whose response was an enthusiastic “Yes!”
Since OmegaDad is out of town for a few days (bummer), it was the two of us, motoring into Big City, dining on exotic food at the student union, and figuring out how to get into the parking lot at the theatre.
I had figured, with the six snippets, it would be about an hour, maybe an hour-and-a-half.
No. It included the director of the opera company introducing each vignette, explaining what was going to happen, instructing the crowd on how to indicate approval and when (”Hao!” shouted out–enthusiastically–when the performers held a strategic pose now and then, or whenever you felt like the performers warranted it), all translated by a nice young Chinese lady who did a fairly good job of keeping up with him.
And! There was audience participation! After each segment, the director invited anyone who wanted to try something from the vignette.
One of the great things about getting older is that you lose a great deal of self-consciousness. It seems to start around the age of 35, and increase to the point where you’re willing to do just about anything if it sounds fun, and not even notice that there’s an audience fer Gawd’s sake! Staring at you!
At least, that has been my experience. Last year, I danced with Native Alaskans at the Native Alaskan Center; this year, I happily scooched up onto the stage to pretend to be a dainty Chinese nun trembling in fear at getting into a boat. I didn’t care that my hair was smashed down from wearing my winter hat, or that my jeans were lopsided from not being pulled down over one of my boots.
Anyway, with all the intros and the audience participation, we made it to two and a quarter hours–leaving while the last come-and-join-us portion was running. The dotter was pretty game throughout; there was a certain amount of snuggling down into (my) jacket (not hers), an “I’m booored” or two, but every time I asked if she wanted to go, she would reply that she wanted to see the last performance, which was supposed to be very acrobatic and very funny. So we stayed through the entire performance.
The first scene was the aforementioned dainty Chinese nun asking a boatman to help her chase after her One and Only True Love. It was very funny; they did a splendid job of miming climbing into the boat and the movement of the boat; the old boatman was a flirtatious goat who tried to get the nun to give up on her OAOTL and run away with him…The Chinese nun:
The boatman:
The next scene was a young maiden feeding her chickens and then sewing. Having had chickens for a year and a half now, I have to say you could almost see the chickens. And her sewing was very delicate!
Then we had a face-painted general proclaiming his studliness to all and sundry. Alas, he was moving so much that I couldn’t get a good picture of him–suffice it to say that he was quite grand.
Next up was some true opera drama: Yet another general was on the losing side; he escaped and hid away, changing his name, marrying, settling down, and living a quiet life for 12 years…only to discover that his mother was leading an army against his new family. He was full of lyrical Chinese misery. He was also quite grandly costumed–get a load of those pheasant feathers in his headdress!
Next was another lyrical piece, wherein a young princess, who has been locked away for years as she grew up, is lured out into the palace garden by her maidservant, and discovers the wonders of nature:
And then, the piece de resistance, the reason the dotter wanted to stay: a soldier is following his general–incognito–to protect him. They stay the night at an inn. The innkeeper notices the soldier, and fears that the soldier is an assassin out to get the general. The innkeeper sneaks into his room in the darkness, and tries to kill him, but fails–and then there is a comic and very acrobatic fight, where they keep missing each other, then finding each other, then fighting, then losing their opponent in the darkness. It was hilarious–and spectcular. The soldier is resting for a moment, after–he thinks–chasing away the bandit; the innkeeper is hiding under his bed, waiting for his chance to get the assassin:
It was amazingly grand fun. They had subtitles projected above the stage, which made following the stories much easier–though much of the physical action was stylized and very recognizable.
If you get a chance like this, by all means, take it! It was a really worthwhile evening.
(And, of course, the audience was sprinkled with many families like ours…)
Oh, and all these pictures were taken with my new camera. The old one would have been worse than useless!
