Preview: Nam Hwa Blazes by Nam Hwa Opera

Set up over 50 years ago as an amateur music and drama association, Nam Hwa Opera has grown to become one of the leading preservers and promoters of traditional Teochew opera, creating accessible public performances and continuing to enrich the local arts and culture scene.

As part of their outreach programme, they’re bringing back their quarterly performance Nam Hwa Blazes at the Aliwal Arts Centre this April, with an afternoon of classical Teochew Opera performances absolutely free of charge. Having featured over 100 performers since it was first launched in 2016, this edition of Nam Hwa Blazes will be showing three classic excepts – 《换偶记》Huan Ou Ji, 《芦林会》 Meeting in the Reed Forest and 《新台会》 Meeting at the Pavilion.

《换偶记》Huan Ou Ji is a classic comedy of errors following an old man and a young man who each buy home a wife for themselves. But after crossing paths one evening and sharing their respective plights, a little switcheroo comes into play and each set of wives and husbands somehow find themselves mixed up with each other.

In the second performance,《芦林会》 Meeting in the Reed Forest, audiences will be introduced to star-crossed lovers Jiang Shi and Pan San Niang as they struggle against the odds hell bent on keeping them apart to stay together forever.

Finally, in《新台会》 Meeting at the Pavilion, audiences will once again meet a set of lovers Ji Zi and Xuan Jiang torn apart by by tragic circumstances. Set in the years after the Warring States Period, Meeting at the Pavilion promises to be heartbreaking and epic in scale.

Even if you have no prior experience or exposure to Chinese Opera, Nam Hwa Opera ensures that audience members will be eased into the art form.Spend an afternoon with Nam Hwa Opera this April, and before you know it, you’ll find yourself enchanted by these classic tales and realize exactly why its an art form that’s been preserved all these years.

Nam Hwa Blazes plays on 8th April 2018, 3pm at Aliwal Arts Centre Multi-Purpose Hall, with English and Chinese surtitles. To register for the free performance, contact Nam Hwa via e-mail at namhwaopera@gmail.com, call 6323 5528 or SMS/WhatsApp 96770209.