It was not the most comfortable moment these seasoned San Francisco politicians had had in the public eye.
In fact, they seemed hesitant as they took to the stage at the Great Star Theater, smiling awkwardly, as if they did not want the attention.
The group of San Francisco politicos, including Sen. Scott Wiener, Board president Rafael Mandelman and Supervisor Danny Sauter, had been invited to perform one of the most renowned Cantonese opera songs on Saturday.
“I want to say a combination of thank you and a little bit of I’m sorry — but we tried,” said Sauter, sounding much shyer than his usual self. The audience of hundreds of loyal opera fans responded with thunderous applause.
The song, “Fragrant Sacrifice,” depicts — in Cantonese — a princess and her husband’s suicide after the fall of the Ming Dynasty. Each politico was assigned a part alongside an orchestra’s accompaniment, while professional actresses took over the rest.
Sauter, who speaks basic Cantonese, played the princess’s husband, lamenting the catastrophe that has destroyed the country and honoring the late emperor’s kindness. He performed his three lines surprisingly well, considering that this was a daunting task even native Cantonese speakers might shy away from. During rehearsal, he had been able to sing those lines after the teacher had sung them only twice.
“We know that the Cantonese language has been part of San Francisco from the very beginning,” said Wiener, who is running for Congress. “Thank you to everyone who made this possible.”
Wiener played the princess, who sees death as a reunion with her husband. He attempted only one line, seven Chinese characters long: 合歡與君醉夢鄉 Together we grow intoxicated in the land of dreams.
Still, Wiener was more courageous than Willie Brown: The 92-year-old former mayor removed his name from the performers’ list in the days leading up to the show.
He had initially been on board, but then he got intimidated by how difficult the song was, he told the crowd. “For your information, I was supposed to sing,” Brown said, earning laughs from the audience (one shouted, “Solo!”). But “clearly, I am in for an enormous amount of rehearsal just to start.”
The organizers had no intention of letting Brown off the hook. “May next year is coming around very soon. We will be calling on you to take lessons,” said Claudine Cheng, a San Francisco Film Commissioner and the woman behind the more than 100 events during AAPI Heritage Month.
Mandelman sang four lines, like Sauter, as the princess’s husband.
He said he agreed to perform because of the persistence of Esther Tang, a program director at Jing Ying Cantonese Opera Institute who works at the San Francisco Environment Department.
“When Esther told me that I was going to be singing in Cantonese, I had concerns,” said Mandelman.
“It is both terrifying for elected officials and also a wonderful thing about this city, that there is the expectation that leaders from all communities will show up and learn how to sing some Cantonese opera.”
The invitation, Tang said, was extended to more city officials, including Mayor Daniel Lurie, who was not in attendance. But, there’s always next year. “Hope this is gonna be a tradition in San Francisco’s political circle,” she said in an interview.
