A New Cantonese Opera “Phoenix of the Red Chamber”
Xiqu
Description
Description
The illustrious Jia clan in the capital of Jinling traces its origin to two brothers who were conferred the titles of Lord Ningguo and Lord Rongguo for scoring merits for the country.Wang Xifeng, pet name ‘Fengjie’, is the wife of Jia Lian who is now the eldest son of the Rongguo branch.Fengjie runs the Rongguo household.She is smart and gorgeous, astute and capable, but can also be overbearing and ruthless.Qin Keqing, wife of the eldest grandchild of the Ningguo House, dies young.As her bosom friend, Fengjie goes over to the other House to mourn her.At Jia Lian’s first cousin Jia Zhen’s earnest request, Fengjie agrees to run the Ningguo household during the funerary period.She presides over Ningguo House and takes charge of everything big and small.Superbly smart and astute, she single-handedly rids the Ningguo House of long-standing undesirable practices such as the lack of clear delegation of duties, fraudulent claims of expenses, unjust handing out of punishment and rewards, and over-spending and indulgence of family members.The Ningguo House is put in order and she amply proves herself.
A distant relative Jia Rui, style name Tianxiang, comes from an inferior branch of the Jia clan and is the grandchild of Jia Dairu, schoolmaster of the family school.He is devious, selfish, greedy about money, vile and lascivious.Seeing Fengjie’s attractive mien, he lusts after her and accosts her repeatedly.Fengjie sets up a clever but nasty love trap to trick him.Jia Rui falls for the hoax and falls ill afterwards.A lame Taoist monk comes by to offer him an erotic mirror.At first, Jia Rui does as he is told and looks in the back of the mirror only, which shows a skeleton.Then he looks in the right side of the mirror and sees Fengjie beckoning him with inviting looks.He calls out to her and dies in the end.
Now Fengjie’s husband, Jia Lian, is a philanderer, but because he has a jealous wife, he can only womanise in secret.Fengjie has given birth to a daughter but is short of a male heir. Because of this, she adopts a laissez-faire attitude towards her husband’s philandering, but deep down she burns with jealousy. Jia Lian is smitten by You Erjie’s beauty and unbeknownst to Fengjie, sets up a second home with You Erjie as second wife.Not long after, Uncle She rewards him with the handmaid Qiutong as concubine.Fengjie becomes wildly jealous and comes up with a murderous plan – she will make Qiutong kill You Erjie first and she will kill Qiutong after.Fengjie lures You Erjie to move into the Rongguo House and subjects her to various kinds of torture in secret.She even commissions Imperial Doctor Hu to prescribe overly strong medicine to abort You Erjie’s male fetus. Later, she eggs Qiutong on to make a scene and hurl abuse outside You Erjie’s window. Overwhelmed by such indignities, You Erjie kills herself by swallowing gold the very night. With You Erjie’s death, Fengjie sheds crocodile tears while her eye is now set on Qiutong…
Playwright：Chow Kit-ping
Director：Geng Tianyuan
Executive Director/Music and Lighting Designer：To Wing-sum; Christie
Ensemble Leader：Chan Siu-lung
Percussion Leader：Mai Jiawei
Co-ordinator：To Wai Sau-ming; Marilyn
Manager：Esther Wai
Stage Manage：Martin Cheng
Production Group：Super Talent International Limited
Lighting and Set：Kwong Hing Stage Scene Production Company
Costume and Props：Kam Yee Costumes Company
Leaflet Information and Surtitles Translation：KCL Language Consultancy Limited
Info
$140
$380
Indoor
Local
