Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Editorial post on Butterfly Lovers

I was amused when I found out that Steven and Susanna sang 樓台會 as one of their Sunday Songbird duets. Incidentally,Susanna and the late Roman Tam (Lo Man) were the original singers of that song, which is in fact a subsong in the TVB adaptation of the Chinese classic《梁山伯與祝英台 - Butterfly Lovers》 . Although I've not watched that series, I recognized the song as I did for many of TVB classic theme songs - courtesy of my parents' tvb theme songs cassettes and cds. haha! I really enjoyed listening to old TVB classic theme songs, especially the wuxia's.  Anyway, I checked out Sunday Songbird episode 1 yesterday, and sure enough, I recognized all of the songs sang though I've not watched any of the series.  Adam looked so suave and debonair then. But...but the invited guests only sang and did not get to say anything at all.  So, Steven and Susanna would just sing and get off the stage when done?

Incidentally,  Ivy Ling and Betty Loh Ti's classic《梁山伯與祝英台》movie is my mother's absolute favorite movie, and surprisingly I love it too. I also enjoy listening to the Chinese opera Butterfly Lovers "化蝶" played on traditional Chinese musical instruments, and it was simply heavenly when ex-Chinese female figure skater, Chen Lu, skated to that piece of music. Link

tag: Sunday Songbird

3 comments:

  1. Yea, that’s one of the things about Sunday Songbird that’s kind of odd (the lack of talking and mostly only singing) – personally, I think that has to do with the editing more than anything else, but don’t know for sure.  Anyway, it kind of depends on the episode and what’s being covered – some guests get to speak and others just perform…like the episode that aired this past weekend for example (not sure which episode number it is)…it was a tribute to Leslie Cheung and some of the guests who performed were Leslie’s friends who worked with him in the past (i.e. Eliza Chan, Kitman Mak, Kiki Sheung) so they talked a little bit about their memories of Leslie.  Some of the others who performed just sang and that was it.

    To be honest, I prefer more interaction from the guests, especially on the episodes where they invite singers who haven’t graced TV screens in years or who already retired from the industry but still went on the show to perform their original song – it would’ve been nice to hear a little bit about their recent lives and/or hear them talk about memories from back in the day.  Instead, most of the talking is from the 3 hosts….

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The show is more of a showcase for Adam's and Liza's past accomplishments, that of a back patting and an unabashed trumpet blowing kind. Ostensibly a trip down memory on tvb classic theme songs, the show came across to me more of a mini Adam concert, and a weekly tribute to Adam's and Liza's past tv series. Definitely the show is a treat to the fans of Adam and Liza's. Good for them! If only they would interact with their guests so that the show is a nostalgic reminiscence for all not just for them.

      So far, I've watched epi 1, the duet episode, epi 11-12. I was shocked to see that all the guests were dismissed with nary a greeting from the hosts - never mind onstage interactions (shown on tv). I hope they were informed only their singing scenes would be shown on screen, if not I can only imagine their chagrin. Anyway, I was relieved that Liza did not sing all that much, her singing in the duet episode was bad.I was most happy to see Albert Au's performance - love his voice and singing.

      Delete
    2. @tamaya: Definitely agree with you there!  I always felt the format of the show was a bit odd in that the talking/interaction scenes from the guests were pretty much cut from each episode – now that you mentioned it, the show is more of a showcase for the hosts than anything else (I wonder if that was done on purpose?).  Ah well – it IS a TVB production after all, so I can’t really expect it not to be biased and poorly produced, I guess....fortunately, I usually pay less attention when the hosts are speaking (since I don’t care for Liza or Adam so not too interested in what they have to say) and instead focus on the guests as well as the songs.  And at least the ‘guests’ that TVB invites on the show are more varied and makes sense for the most part (unlike most of their other music-related shows where all you see are TVB and EEG singers…bleh!)....I appreciate the fact that most of the singers they invite on the show are veteran singers whom I grew up watching/listening to (and some cases, even the original singers of particular songs, which is definitely nice), as I know I won’t have to sit through horrible singing (except whenever Liza opens her mouth to sing, which is not often thank goodness!).

      Delete