The famed Cantonese opera “Floral Princess 65th Anniversary Macao 2023” is slated to be staged at The Venetian Macao’s theatre in Cotai from July 28-30, with details announced during a press conference at The Parisian Macao yesterday.
Marking its Macau debut, the 65th anniversary edition was created by Utopia Cantonese Opera Workshop and celebrates “Floral Princess”, which a Sands China statement yesterday noted as “one of the most famous Cantonese operas of all time”.
Sands China President Wilfred Wong Ying-wai said in a speech: “In celebration of Floral Princess’s 65th anniversary, Sands China is delighted to showcase this exquisite classical Cantonese opera for enthusiasts in the Greater Bay Area [GBA], paying tribute to Pak Suet Sin, Yam Kim Fai, and Tong Tik Sang, and ensuring the preservation of this intangible cultural heritage for generations to come”.
The “65th Anniversary Remake of Floral Princess Professional Edition” pays tribute to the Cantonese opera trio Yam Kim-fai, Pak Suet Sin and Tong Tik Sang.
According to Wikipedia, Yam Kim-fai was a renowned Cantonese opera actress across the nation from the 1950s to the 1970s. She was able to sing in a lower register, with her opera voice being indistinguishable from a male one, which allowed her to play male and female roles. Yam died in 1989.
Pak Suet-sin also known as Baak Syut Sin from Guangdong is a former Cantonese opera actress renowned in the whole nation. Pak was awarded the Gold Bauhinia Star in 2013, according to Wikipedia.
Wikipedia points out that Tong Tik-sang, also known as Tang Ti-sheng, was a Cantonese opera playwright, scriptwriter and film director. His contributions to Cantonese opera influenced Hong Kong’s reform and development of the genre beginning in the late 1930’s. He passed away in 1959.
The lead roles of Floral Princess and Consort Chow will be played by a different mix of trans-generational actors in each performance, according to the statement, adding that the show will go beyond tradition and fuse art and technology through lighting, rearranged music and tailor-made Harmonic Canto-opera Audio (HCA), among others.
The show’s “controller” Ip Ka Po said in his speech that the upcoming show “harmonises Tong Tik Sang’s stage version and his film version”. Ip added that the show is a 160-minute condensed version and has a “newly added scene of Emperor Sung-zing’s self-reprimand and suicide”.
Moreover, he said: “It is our hope that Tong’s 2.0 script upgrade will revive the stage presence from the film version, presenting Macau’s audience with a seamless fusion of the 65th-anniversary classic and modern theatre in Floral Princess.”
Tickets for the upcoming show will be sold from June 9 at Cotai Ticketing box offices and Kong Seng Ticketing Service. The tickets are priced at between 280 patacas a and 880 patacas. One can also visit www.cotaiticketing.com and www.macauticket.com.
The show’s lead actors Wang Zhiliang (from left to right), Lin Yingshi, Monica Bai, Lee Lung and Nan Fung pose for a group photo after yesterday’s press conference at a ballroom of The Parisian Macao yesterday. – Photo: Rui Pastorin
