BAROQUE OPERATIC HIGHLIGHTS / A GRAND TOUR FOR WINDS / Singapore Lyric Opera & re:Sound / Review

BAROQUE OPERATIC DELIGHTS

Singapore Lyric Opera

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (15 January 2021)

 

A GRAND TOUR FOR WINDS

re:Sound

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (16 January 2021)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 20 January 2021 with the title "Young performers shine in two classical concerts". 

As the Covid circuit breaker is gradually lifted, local arts groups have been gearing up for live performances. One might not have guessed that last weekend, Victoria Concert Hall was filled with the sound of music for two consecutive evenings for the first time in months.

 

What a pleasure it was to witness live vocal music again, with the Singapore Lyric Opera (SLO) in a rare foray into baroque repertoire. Arias from five of Georg Friderick Handel’s operas and one oratorio (with no Messiah within earshot) were thrillingly delivered by two exciting young voices, soprano Joyce Lee Tung and baritone Alvin Tan.

 

Familiar favourites included Lascia Ch’io Pianga (from Rinaldo) and Ombra Mai Fu (the ubiquitous Largo, Xerxes), slow numbers with both singers exhibiting fine tonal control, varied colours and emotive qualities. There were also ample opportunities for outright virtuosity, such as in Tornami A Vagheggiar (Alcina) and Da Tempeste Il Legno Infranto (Giulio Cesare), with coloratura flourishes and stratospheric leaps from Lee, or Tan’s vehemence and rage displayed in Piangi Pur (Tolomeo).

 

Together in the celebratory duet Caro! Bella! Piu Amabile Belta (Giulio Cesare), the duo still managed to find sparks of chemistry despite the social distance of five metres between them. The 13-member SLO Chamber Orchestra conducted by Joshua Kangming Tan provided keen and responsive accompaniment, besides striking out on their own in the Overture To Alcina and the bustling Arrival Of The Queen Of Sheba from Solomon.

 

Not to be outdone, chamber collective re:Sound offered an evening of wind music from five of its woodwind and brass members. The quintet formed by Goh Tiong Eng (flute), Tay Kai Tze (oboe), Ralph Emmanuel Lim (clarinet), Chester Kang (bassoon) and Alexander Oon (French horn) generated an outsized sonority that easily filled the upper reaches of the hall.

 

The programme, while not so familiar to general audiences, comprised wind ensemble staples that was both varied and eclectic. After opening cheerfully with Jacques Ibert’s Three Short Pieces, Franz Danzi’s Wind Quintet in D minor provided some sobriety but still raised smiles for the articulate artistry involved.

 

Two players became soloists themselves, joined by members of re:Sound’s elite string group, the Concordia Quartet. The first movements of Mozart’s Oboe Quartet and Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet contrasted chirpy light-heartedness with autumnal nostalgia. In the latter, Lim’s mellow and long-breathed clarinet part, backed by violinists Edward Tan and Kim Kyu Ri, violist Matthias Oestringer and cellist Theophilus Tan proved the high point of the evening.

 

The concert concluded with a rare outing for Carl Nielsen’s quirky Wind Quintet. Its three movements combined spiky themes, piquant harmonies and folk influences that both surprised and delighted. The playing was alert to the music’s unusual twists and and turns, even if the finale’s Theme and Variations came across as somewhat disjointed. Nonetheless, these were two evenings well spent with some of Singapore’s finest young musicians.   

Photographs from OPERA MIXER: THE ITALIAN EDITION

If you love music for the voice, but are not too familiar about opera and its finer points, then Opera Mixer is right for you. Presented by Opera Viva, Opera Mixer aims to demystify the mystique and intrigue about opera by presenting arias, duets and ensembles in a fun and unstuffy manner. Melissa Chan, the evening's mezzo-soprano (also a Board Member of Opera Viva) set the tone by inviting the audience to relax and imagine attending a party on Venice's Grand Canal. Over drinks, crackers and cheese, the evening of Italian operatic highlights unfolded with lots of melodrama and very good singing.

This evening's programme was drawn exclusively from Italian opera, with a healthy dose from the bel canto tradition - Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini. There was just one Puccini aria, some Verdi and the occasional rarity, mostly because one did not expect such demanding numbers to be performed in Singapore! 

All four singers, soprano Wendy Woon, mezzo Melissa Chan, tenor Leslie Tay and baritone Alvin Tan were not only excellent in their delivery but also very conversant in sharing their passion for singing with the audience. They mused about their roles, revealing details and finer points about being an opera singer - their ups and downs - and also provided helpful synopses about each opera. It all came across as informal, informative and mostly enjoyable fun. In these days when the arts play second fiddle to entertainment and sports, such an injection of life is not only necessary but vital.

The evening opened with soprano Wendy Woon
singing Un bel di from Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

Baritone Alvin Tan sang some Handel and
Verdi's Di Provenza il mare (La Traviata)

Tenor Leslie Tay spoke about castrati and
offered more Handel and the gem that is
Una furtiva lagrima from Donizetti's L'elisir d'Amore.

Mezzo Melissa Chan explained and demonstrated
the "trouser role" by portraying Romeo in
Bellini's I Montecchi e I Capuleti.

Parigi o cara from Verdi's La Traviata.

Many expressions of Melissa Chan
in Bellini and Rossini (Non piu mesta from La Cenerentola)

A duet from Bellini's I Montecchi e I Capuleti.

Bromance time in a duet from
Verdi's Don Carlo.

Wendy Woon sensitively plays the ill-fated
Anna Bolena from Donizetti's opera.

The grand finale was the famous Quartet
from Verdi's Rigoletto.

All four singers take their bow and stand with
their "orchestra" pianist Benjamin Lim (extreme left).

UNREQUITED LOVE / Singapore Lyric Opera Gala Concert 2017 / Review

GALA CONCERT 2017:

UNREQUITED LOVE

Singapore Lyric Opera

Esplanade Concert Hall

Thursday (23 November 2017)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 November 2017 with the title "Brave, bold, brilliant".

This year's annual gala concert by the Singapore Lyric Opera provided a glimpse of the future of opera in Singapore. None of the usual SLO suspects featured in this evening of operatic highlights, instead the company boldly rolled out a cast of mostly debutants. Winners of the SLO-Asean Vocal Competition 2016 and SLO-Leow Siak Fah Artists Training Programme Rising Stars accounted for seven new voices among nine singers.

The repertoire choice also had a fresh ring about it, with not a single note of Puccini to be heard. Two very demanding Handel arias opened the evening, with the Competition's 1st prize winner mezzo-soprano Samantha Chong Ying Zing (from Malaysia) doing the honours in Dopo notte from Ariodante.

She had certainly earned that accolade, with a performance of clarity and depth of feeling. In Parto, ma tu ben mio from Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito, she upped the ante, and was not upstaged by the SLO Orchestra's excellent clarinettist Vincent Goh whose obbligato part was just as delicious.

Arguably more spectacular was the 2^nd prize winner soprano Pham Khanh Ngoc (Vietnam) who made light work of Handel's Tornami a vagheggiar from Alcina, and displayed gravity-defying coloratura abilities in Rossini's Bel raggio lusinghier from Semiramide. That last aria was, to these ears and eyes, the loftiest of many high points in the evening.

Singaporean baritone Alvin Tan, who garnered 3^rd prize, was very impressive too, warming up Korngold's Mein sehnen mein Wahnen (Die Tote Stadt) with a rich and burnished tonal colour. This suggests he will have many roles to fulfill in the near future.

The company's artist training programme named in memory of founding chairman Leow Siak Fah which mentors locally-based singers has also borne fruit. Five singers, sopranos Zhang Jie (China) and Cherie Tse (Singapore), mezzo-sopranos Chieko Sato (Japan) and Zerlina Tan (Singapore) and tenor Leslie Tay (Singapore) were involved in ensemble roles from Bizet's Carmen (Act 3) and Mozart's Cosi fan tutte (Act 1).   

The SLO Chorus and Children's Choir livened up the proceedings with choruses from Carmen (Les voici), Cosi fan tutte (Bella vita militar) and Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel (Evening Prayer). It must be said the children did well in the last chorus, despite singing well past their bedtime. The orchestra conducted by Jason Lai (above) played an excellent supporting role throughout, and had the bubbly Overture to Mozart's The Marriage Of Figaro all to itself.  

As a sneak preview to next year's production of Verdi's Aida, two favourite arias were trotted out by two more experienced singers making cameo appearances. Tenor Kee Loi Seng portrayed the heroic Radames in Celeste Aida while soprano Jessica Chen was spine-tingling in Ritorna vincitor.

The evening closed memorably with Gloria al l'Egitto (the Triumphal March) with choir and orchestra. There was no Brindisi (Drinking Song from La Traviata) as encore this time around, but it was stirring all the same.  

O FORTUNA! / CARL ORFF'S CARMINA BURANA / The Joy Chorale & Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra / Review

O FORTUNA!

The Joy Chorale

Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Sunday (18 December 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 20 December 2016 with the title "Seasonal cheer from a joyful chorale".

It is amazing how Carl Orff's Carmina Burana has become one of the most popular and performed of all choral works. Why performances of it have not been banned a long time ago remains a mystery. Its greatest indictment was that Nazis appropriated it as a glorification of German (read Aryan) peasantry and its racially “pure” values.

Then there are those Latin and antiquated German words extolling the joys of the tavern, feasting, drinking and underage sex. Not even meriting a M18 rating has its advantages. After all, how would one get all those children into the hall to sing lascivious lines like “Oh! Oh, Oh! I am bursting all over with love!”?

To present Carmina Burana as a Christmas-time concert was a coup, as the hall was well-filled with families and children, toting camera handphones and all ready for some seasonal cheer. The 170-strong Joy Chorale (Chorus Director: Khor Ai Ming), including 85 children's voices, was colourfully attired and in good voice. Accompanied by the Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra conducted by Adrian Tan, this was a visual and aural spectacular as much as those Mahlerian concerts that have come before.

The gauntlet was thrown in the first timpani thwack and the opening chorus O Fortuna, sung with much guts and gusto. The wheel of fortune, waxing and waning like the moon, had spun and Fate dealt its first hands. One might not expect the same polish as the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Chorus' previous performances, but the raw energy exuded was equally palpable.

The larger congregation of women singers were in their element throughout, easily the best section of the choir. Men's voices are always in short supply, but they excelled in In Taberna Quando Sumus with its repeated “bibit” toasts. In Si Puer Cum Puellula (If A Boy With A Girl), what was needed were several shots of choral Viagra. The children barely kept their tune in Amor Volat Undique (Love Flies Everywhere), but looking cute and innocent was all that mattered.

Of the soloists, baritone Alvin Tan was a confident and bellowing Abbot of Cockaigne, of hearty voice even if his pronunciation was not always perfect. Opposite him, soprano Xi Wang maintained a virginal presence, comfortably conquering the high notes even in the climactic Dulcissime, with the most joyous loss of maidenhood in all music.

The cameo role afforded to tenor Melvin Tan as the roasted swan on a spit was well characterised. His agonised voice and demeanour, and attired in tribute to Björk's ludicrous swan costume, were alone worth the price of entry. There was even a terpsichorean role which dancer Rachel Lum obliged with no little grace.

Full lyrics and translations were provided both on screen and in the programme booklet, a luxury given the prohibitive copyright costs involved. Kelly Tang's orchestral showpiece Apocalypso in a virtuosic performance served as a excellent prelude, and Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You as encore provided a suitably festive send-off.