They also center around song and music produced by instruments. As opposed to other types of Asian theaters, Kabuki and Chinese Opera incorporate speaking and dialogues. Neither make use of women in performances. Also, both types of theater have males that specialize in portraying female roles. Chinese Opera uses make-up to indicate characters such as a clown character and female character.

For Kabuki, there were different make-up patterns to indicate the hero and villain. Both incorporate different types of make-up designs that indicate different kinds of characters. These factors contributed to the observed western elements in Cantonese opera.įor instance, the use of erhu (two string bowed fiddle), saxophones, guitars and the congas have demonstrated how diversified the musical instruments in Cantonese operas are.Today in class, I could not help but see the many similarities between Kabuki and Chinese Opera. In addition, Hong Kong was under heavy western influence when it was a British colony. The reason for this is that Canton (Guangzhou) was one of the earliest places in China to establish trade relationships with the western civilizations. The use of instruments in Cantonese opera is influenced by both western and eastern cultures.

Cantonese instrumental tunes have been used in Cantonese opera, either as incidental instrumental music or as fixed tunes to which new texts were composed, since the 1930s. Whether a song is well performed depends on the performers' own emotional involvement and ability.Ĭantonese instrumental music was called ching yam prior to the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949. Lyrics are written to fit the play's melodies, although one song can contain multiple melodies, performers being able to add their own elements. The western music in Cantonese opera is accompanied by strings, woodwinds, brass plus electrified instruments.

The 'four great male vocals' (å››å¤§å¹³å–‰) were notable exponents of the 'single stage' style in the early 20th century. While the 'singing stage' style is always Western music, the theatrical style can be Chinese or western music. The theatrical style of music is further classified into western music (è¥¿ä¹) and Chinese music (ä¸ä¹). Cantonese opera pieces are classified either as 'theatrical' or 'singing stage' (æŒå›).

Chinese opera instruments