Performance Context as a Molding Force: Photographic Documentation of Cantonese Opera in Hong Kong

Abstract

As the most traditional form of performing art in Hong Kong, Cantonese opera has accumulated rich stylistic characteristics that are shown by its practitioners but not necessarily comprehended by either insiders or outsiders of the profession. Borrowing ideas from “evolutionary musicology,” which assumes that music originated from mating and communicating behaviors, and music has been functionally deployed by men for enhancing their survival, this article puts forward the idea that many stylistic elements of Cantonese opera are products of the genre's negotiation with its performance context, where physical, cultural, and human factors play important roles in shaping the genre's stylistic characteristics. This article discusses in detail the use of audio elements such as: high-pitched falsetto singing, penetrating melodic instruments, and resonating percussions; the strategic deployment of improvisations; the use of visual elements such as “enlarged” and exaggerated gestures and on-stage movements, symbolic space, time and stage property, in terms of how such stylistic conventions and characteristics solve problems for the practitioners and further enhance the performance. As the focal attraction within a series of rituals that are held to celebrate religious events, traditional Cantonese opera often features plots with happy endings. In short, the traditional repertory of Cantonese opera has been shaped to adapt to its environment. With a selection of 35 photographs for illustration, this article concludes that one can understand the stylistic characteristics of Cantonese opera only within its performance context. Images of Cantonese opera performance can be intelligible only when they are documented meaningfully within their context.

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