While holding a prominent place the city’s contemporary and historical relevance Cantonese Opera is only one element of Singapore’s wonderfully diverse entertainment and cultural background. This elaborate style of theater features many of the same elements as other traditional Chinese performance styles. They all share some of the same dramatic components, acrobatics, martial arts, singing and dancing to name a few. Frequently Western tourists are encouraged to attend a production of an opera and partake in the Singaporean cultural experience. Doing so, they usually walk away astounded by the talent of all those involved with these shows. Information regarding Cantonese Opera productions can usually be found at the best hotels in Singapore hotels , many times the posters of well-known performers and productions can be found on display.
The erhu, a two string bowed instrument, is a unique instrument the operas uses. The drums, saxophone, and guitar are other instruments more commonly known by western audiences. The background theme music performed in the productions many times relate to standard Cantonese instrumental tunes. Cantonese Opera was beginning to be influenced by foreign styles and sounds after trade with the West became more common. This helped to create a chronological progression in the art coinciding with social and cultural developments.
Cantonese operas consist mainly of two types of plays. There is Man, meaning highly educated and the martial arts based Mou. Military generals or warriors are its main characters. The Mou plays primary focus is on epic war themes. The battle scenes are full of action and are exciting to watch as great care is given to the details. The Man plays on the other hand are typically more eloquent and gentle. Members of academia are the usual characters of these plays. The water sleeves worn by the female characters create movements expressing the fragile nature, tenderness and beauty of the characters. Emphasizing the important need of loyalty to the country, governments have used both types of plays because they can and often do contain moral and political lessons.