Changsheng Temple on July 7th
The Street Musical Club performs Changsheng Temple on July 7th at the Salvation Army in Bensonhurst and interview with Ng Yee Chuk.
The Street Musical Club is led by Ng Yee Chuk a 72-year-old Cantonese man. In Mandarin it is pronoucned Wu Yi Zhuo. He is seen in the video above playing the Gao Hu, a bowed stringed instrument, higher pitched than erhu and zhong hu. Because the large Southern Brooklyn Chinese population is rarely able to attend Chinese Opera in Manhattan, he started The Chinese Street Musical Club in Benshonurhst. The musical group consists of over 40 adults that gather at the Bensonhurst Corps Community Center--a former catering hall that now serves as a hub where Chinese seniors sing karaoke, dance, exercise, sit, play Ping–Pong and badminton, read, or just relax and watch television. The group practices several times a week, with full rehearsals on Wednesday afternoons.
Cantonese opera is a style of Chinese opera from southern China's Guangdong Province. It is a traditional Chinese art form, that has music, singing, martial arts, acrobatics, and acting. This art form is very popular to share in the Chinese community in Manhattan, but it is rarely, if ever, shared in Brooklyn. Chinese Opera features string and percussion instruments, with costumes and face painting. Instrumentation includes: Dulcimer, Flute, Saxophones, Ruan Qin (Chinese lute with a fretted neck, circular body, and 4 strings), Drum/Percussion & Chimes, Zhong Hu: (bowed string instrument, pitched lower than erhu, and gaohu), Gao Hu (bowed stringed instrument, higher pitched than erhu and zhong hu), Long Flute, Singer/Actor Male, Singer/Actor Female.
The Changshent Temple on July 7th is a love story between Emperor Xuanzong cm SJ§£) and Yang Guifei of Tang Dynasty had been passed down through the ages. During the peaceful and extreme prosperous period of Tang, Emperor Xuanzong and Yang Guifei devoted a lot of effort to music songs and dances. One of them was Ningshang Feathers, the famous. The Emperor held a grand banquet and a huge band to perform Ningshang Feathers Dance. The nobles dressed in gorgeous costumes, a band of high-pitched music and the event reached a climax. This is a glamorous romance and love story: "In the day of the wish to be a lovebird, in the land is willing to be a branch. Forever and sometimes do, sorrow rain no absolute period.
-- Written by Mee Wong, Street Musical Club Secretary