An Afternoon at the Opera

January 2

We found a traditional Singaporean coffeeshop, or kopitiam, where we had breakfast on New Year’s Morning. Much better than the hawker center, a convention which seems to be largely overpraised here. The hawker food isn’t better than anything in the local restaurants or in many cases as interesting.

Hands down, the best food we had on the trip so far has been the claypot and softshell crabs in Geylang. The Capricci comes in second, but then I am from New Jersey and therefore a big fan of Italian cooking.

The Hindu temple was filled with people when we walked by. There were shoes all over the sidewalk and more people going. People in a procession inside the temple seemed to be carrying vases, possibly containing votive offerings, on their heads.

I had a little work to do to prepare for an interview on Thursday, so we killed some time at the Porcelain. By the time I was finished, breakfast had worn off. We went to a Szechuan place across the street, one of four or five just like it on the block, where we had stewed pig’s intestines and beef with bitter melon. The beef dish wasn’t spicy at all, but the intestines were served with dangerous-looking pieces of red and green chili. To my surprise, they were only a little sharper than Cubanelles, and Joanna was able to enjoy both dishes without heartburn.

Both dishes were savory and delicious, perfect with a bottle of Tiger.

We stopped next door at the Internet cafe to print out directions to a meeting on Friday afternoon.

The Sri Mariamman temple had emptied by this time, in the midafternoon, so we took our shoes off and went inside. Entry is free to visitors, but they ask you to pay a $3 fee to take photos and $6 to shoot video inside. The place was still busy, although nowhere near as active as it was in the morning.

Workmen were taking down a large tent that had sheltered the procession earlier in the day. A few men sat on the floor inside. A man in traditional South Indian dress slept in a chair. Another man filled butter lamps.

A handbill posted by the government warned everyone that rioting is injurious to order and therefore to prosperity, and that rioters will be punished. I imagine something like that is in every Hindu temple and gathering place in town. Singapore’s first riot in 40 years broke out a month ago in Little India.

The effigies of the temple are intriguing. The only ones I can identify are the blue god Krishna, an incarnation of the god Vishnu, and the good-natured elephant-headed god Ganesh. The colors are striking and the features realistic. I can’t tell what they are made of. They could be glazed earthenware or painted plaster for all I can tell.

We wandered through the tourist market to buy some T-shirts and when we came to Smith Road, I remembered that one of the guide books said an opera company, The Chinese Theatre Circle, is based at No. 5. It’s on part of the street largely closed for construction, but the narrow sidewalk is open.

We had passed No. 50 a few minutes earlier, and there was there was a sign for a music organization on an upper floor, so we thought that might be it and I had the number wrong.

When we got to No. 5, we heard the distinctive singing and music of Chinese opera coming, logically enough, from the Chinese Opera Teahouse. We went in and there were fewer than a dozen people in the place. That’s counting the two in front who were singing. They were in a duet between a man who returns from a long journey to find his wife seriously ill. They reminisce about their courtship.

They didn’t have a band. It was a karaoke version, but the singing was terrific, and we must have spent an hour or more there listening.

Each of the opera selections we saw was a duet between a man and a woman. The conventions are very different from Western opera. There is a lot of falsetto, for instance, and the music is punctuated by cymbals and other percussion. You can hear lightning and clashes, footsteps and bird calls in it. The melody is also different from Western music. I find the meters and the underlying rhythm fascinating. I had heard bits of it on television and never cared for it much until I heard the singers on Temple Street in Kowloon.

When the first couple’s piece ended, another couple took their place. A defeated general is looking for his wife and child who have fled to the wilderness. They meet, but are attacked by a contingent of the enemy. During the melee, she is seriously wounded. Rather than be a burden on her husband and child, who are at risk, she throws herself into a well. Very operatic.

Another involves a judge who refuses a queen’s request to release her brother. No, your brother abuses women and takes bribes. She tries to seduce gthe judge. He still refuses. When she starts overturning the furniture in court, he tries to have her arrested, too, but seeing how she is under the emperor’s protection, can’t quite do that. He orders her to leave the court, and the scene ends with him declaring himself righteous.

The selections were performed on video with the words scrolling across the bottom of the screen. So when actors were dancing the parts, I got some help in understanding the broad strokes.

The singing was in Cantonese, and with the help of the Han characters running across the screen, I was able to identify maybe a half-dozen words during four opera selections that ran a total of an hour or so. So most of the information I am reporting, as you might guess, is due to Joanna, who gave me occasional updates on the dialogue.

The lady who seemed to be in charge of the coffeehouse sang the part of the queen. I believe she is the principal performer for the troupe, which has apparently done world tours and even has one opera, “Madam White Snake,” which it performs in various languages, including English. Her name is See Too Hoi Siang, and she has been studying Chinese opera since she was 15. She also won a martial arts contest years ago because part of opera training involves handling weapons.

We came out of the Opera Teahouse and strolled past Temple Street, which was full of drumming and partly blocked by people standing in front of an awning that covered the sidewalk. First we saw a couple of Commedia dell’Arte looking guys, who were easy to spot because they were wearing bright colors and walking on stilts. When we came closer, we could see the lion dancers. I think I was able to get some video of them. The place was the headquarters of a Chinese cultural association, and the dance was probably for the New Year.

After Szechuan lunch, we wanted a light supper, so we went back to the health-dessert place. We had another kwai leng guo and 24-herb tea, and this time we tried aloe vera with lime and honey. Gosh, I am feeling so healthy now.

Anyhow, this is how we spent New Year’s Day.

Be well, all.