A highlights reel of Elon Musk’s week, secretly filmed at Twitter HQ.
(Playing the role of EM is Hebei Clapper Opera artist Ma Zhao 馬曌， drawing on passages from Struck by a Gold Brick 打金磚)
Attention, Bay-Area Cantonese-opera folk: Here’s a chance to participate in an upcoming production.
Save Cantonese at Stanford writes:
My Opera Institute is looking for SF Bay Area-based Chinese dancers, for this unique opportunity to participate in a full CANTONESE OPERA production of 西樓錯夢.
The Company will provide all costumes and makeup. Cantonese or singing ability is NOT required. Please share with anybody you know!
Audition by July 23rd
Link in the QR Code OR https://rb.gy/
In August and September, Kaohsiung’s Cultural Center 高雄市文化中心 is hosting its first ever Festival of Taiwanese Serial Opera (歌仔戲連台本戲大匯演第一季）
Three troupes will appear in successive weeks, each performing a five-part, 10-hour opera.
Tickets are available here, though be warned this is fledgling ticket service created for the occasion and it does not accept credit cards.
reurl.cc/9VMVvd
I’m a bit concerned that San Francisco Ballet’s new artistic director Tamara Rojo is transphobic.
On Twitter she “liked” a post which said that trans men were either “lying or delusional”.
She also follows many transphobic accounts on Twitter.
In San Francisco, really?
I’d love to see an unambiguous statement from SF Ballet and Rojo that affirms the dignity of trans and non-binary folk.
I’ve been enjoying videos by Prince 坤生王子, a singer who specializes in male roles from Beijing opera. Here she is singing both the male and female leads in Wujia Slope 武家坡, fireside.
January’s diet: Imaginary Noodles
(Song Meijuan 宋美娟 as Jiao Shi secretly wolfs down a bowl.
From the Shanxi Jin opera “Killing the Dog 殺狗”)
I was told we’d have jet packs by 2023, but this is a close second.
“Fu Lai 福來” of Henan demonstrates his Qu opera 曲劇 one-person marching-orchestra contraption.
Artists at work: 75-year-old Beijing opera / Hebei Clapper opera star Pei Yanling 裴艷玲 (masked) beats the crap out of a much younger man in a rehearsal of “Drunken Pounding at the Temple Gates 醉打山門”, filmed a couple days ago in Hong Kong.
Three cheers for opera troupes who broadcast their 9:30 am performances. They happily coincide with my cocktail hour here in San Francisco.
(The Dapingdiao 大平調 troupe of Neihuang 內黃 county performs “Li Yanlong Tames the South 李彥龍征 aka The Two Scholars 文武雙狀元”）
You’ll occasionally find troupes in that region who give three performances a day, each performance lasting 3-4 hours with an hour+ break in between shows.
Bring your own chair.
