111020Thu cool：The Best and The Worst

I happen to have the best and the worst in a week. Both of the best happen today.

First, the best milk tea in many years at the Australian Restaurant (澳洲牛奶, a very meager local snack place not related to Australia in any way that I can see.) near Jordan Road.  Much better than the so famous 灣仔金鳳or擺花街蘭香閣。

Then the best show in more than a year: The National Ballet of China(國家芭蕾舞團) presenting Ballet Gala （舞躍中西）, selections of excerpts from modern Chinese creations and western masterpieces, about 20 pieces, each only a few minutes. Not advisable for arts connoisseurs. But for layman like me, really eye opening. Even the Chinese creations with revolutionary (or you may say propaganda) theme, like the Red Detachment of Women(紅色娘子軍), Yellow River （黃河協奏曲）are not that bad from aesthetic point of view (unless you are haunted by Cultural Revolution, June 4.......)

The dancers receive a long, and I think honest, audience after the show. But as usual for HK people, short of standing ovation which I think they deserve.

I would not mind seeing it another time or their other program at an affordable price. (Top price is pretty high.)

I have never seen the National Ballet before. As expected, their technique is superb. I think most of their dancers can perform with any top troupes in the west. The only problem may be their personal culture content, whether they can really grasp and amalgamate with the spirit of western classics. I hope they do, at least learn gradually.

On seeing their performance, the first thought that came into my mind is how many of these talents will stay in China and not flock to the west. I am not against that. Leaving home can let them integrate into the atmosphere that these western classics were created and may nurture a Chinese Margot Fontaine or Rudolf Nureyev, Mikail Baryshinikov. And then this Chinese ballerina can help to inspire other dancers in China……

Have to go to bed. Just to finish with the worst: the Hong Kong creation and production of“Dr. Sun Yat-sen”(中山逸仙). It's an opera 'sung’in mandarin. But the lyrics are simply daily conversations used in drama, not poetics you see in western or Chinese opera.  And the so-called singing is simply dragging the way you would say "How are you?" into a low drawl. Not only sounds terrible, but makes you feel embarrassed. You called this opera singing? I may be able to write one too.
I did not return to the show after the intermission, a very rare case, but I wanted to make a point. If this really stands for the standard of HK production, then is it a proper word to say that HK is an enfant terrible?

I don't know why I wrote in English tonight. I must say I am vey mediocre in English. If you see a lot of misusages (it's so late at night. i don't bother to check the grammar), that is just my standard. But if "中山逸仙" can be performed on stage as opera, then I can as well upload this garbage onto my private blog. At least I don't charge people for getting into my mess.