Chinese Opera

Our opera teacher talking about the different costumes

a fan made of US money used as a prop

My guests did some research and found a free "Chinese Opera Appreciation" class that we all went to yesterday.  We had a short lesson about Cantonese Opera first and then watched about 20 minutes of a live performance from the balcony (there was an audience below who had paid to sit for the entire show) and then had a tour of the opera section of the museum.  I couldn't have been happier with this free event put on every Saturday by the tourism board!  I'm also glad that I didn't have to sit through an entire opera- because the false-sett o that the female role sings in is pretty shrill.  However, I got a lot more out of the experience since than I would have with out a class.
Chinese Opera is quite popular, I learned there's about 4 shows a day in different locations throughout Hong Kong.  In outdoor venues, the show is free and the audience may do whatever they like (eat, talk, drink, gamble, etc) since the performers are actually preforming for the gods.