A multimedia full-length Cantonese opera entitled “Bonds of Hato” under the Cultural Affairs Bureau’s (IC) 33rd Macao Arts Festival (MAF) will be staged at Sands Theatre in Nape next Saturday and Sunday (April 29-30).
The festival, which is slated to take place from next Friday to May 28, features 20 programmes that cover theatre and visual arts, among others.
The two-day show, produced by the Zhen Hua Sing Cantonese Opera Association, will be performed in Cantonese, with subtitles in both Chinese and English.
The Cantonese opera’s Executive Producer Chu Chan Wa, Director Cheng Wei Guo and Playwright Chan Chi Mui, as well as a young Cantonese opera performer, Mok Weng Lam, attended a media briefing yesterday at the House of Macau Literature on Avenidado Conselheiro Ferreira de Almeida to share their stories about the upcoming performance and their views on Cantonese opera.
According to Chu, a local Cantonese opera artiste, “Bonds of Hato” is the adaptation of his work created in 2017 entitled “Striving through the Storm”, both presenting Macau’s difficult time when Typhoon Hato lashed the city in 2017, while the upcoming show will place more emphasis on highlighting the mutual love and caring between Macau residents.
“Striving through the Storm” has received special recognition from the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Apart from the traditional performance skills of Cantonese opera, Chu said, “Bonds of Hato” will be performed with a “rich multimedia array”, such as videos, photos, animations, dynamics, sound and lights, presenting “modern” Cantonese opera in a novel form, integrating Chinese and Western music, as well as modern life.
Chu underlined that in the future, on the basis of respecting the tradition of Cantonese opera, he will continue to pursue innovation and dig deeper into more local sujets, so as to attract more young people to participate in and pay attention to Cantonese opera.
According to Cheng, more than 100 cast members are participating in the play, with many of them amateur thespians and young students.
The 25-year-old Mok, who has been involved in Cantonese opera since she was aged five, said: “Cantonese opera is a challenging but attractive art.”
Mok pointed out that with the addition of multimedia, the scenery, sound and costume design have been “greatly” changed in Cantonese opera, representing cultural progress.
Mok said she hoped that the upcoming performance could break people’s stereotype that Cantonese opera was only suitable for the elderly, and attract younger audiences to learn about Cantonese opera, which she believed would benefit the future of the Cantonese opera culture in general.
“Bonds of Hato” Cantonese opera Executive Producer Chu Chan Wa (second from right), Director Cheng Wei Guo (second from left), playwright Chan Chi Mui (left) and artiste Mok Weng Lam attend yesterday’s media briefing at the House of Macau Literature on Avenida do Conselheiro Ferreira de Almeida. – Photo: Yuki Lei
