Excerpt of A Cantonese Opera, a treat from PCCO
For those of us who attended the MPO concert featuring PCCO
(Professional Cultural Center Orchestra) on last Thursday 30th
August, we were given a treat and a pleasant surprise. Not only were we
entertained with some really melodious Chinese music, there was a folk dance
and an excerpt of Cantonese Opera to boot! 
The folk dance accompanied the musical piece “Harvest Drums”.
The Cantonese Opera excerpt (fairly long, 20 minutes) was the very popular “Meeting
of Yeung Chung-bo and Muk Kwai-ying” from the famous opera about the Yeung/Yang
family of warriors in the Sung Dynasty. The costumes of the couple were
beautiful, both the acting and singing were superb! It was an enjoyable evening
well spent at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas. J
Another thing worthy of a special mention: While the
orchestra was playing the piece “Jasmine Flower” (which Puccini included in Turandot), a narrator walked around the
musicians on stage to give brief introductions about the various instruments used in the
performance. It was very educational and informative, especially for the
uninitiated. For me, I now know of this newly invented Chinese musical
instrument called Wen Qing (文琴). I think it is
probably easier to play than a lot of other Chinese musical instruments, especially the erhu. J
The next MPO concert I am looking forward to is the ever popular La Traviata....this coming weekend!
