MY NIGHTS WITH DIDO AND MY DAYS WITH AENEAS / New Opera Singapore / Review

 

DIDO AND AENEAS

New Opera Singapore

SOTA Drama Theatre

Friday & Saturday (26 & 27 July 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 July 2013 with the title "Baroque breakthrough".

Given that Singapore has no tradition of performing Baroque opera, it was a massive leap of faith by New Opera Singapore to attempt English composer Henry Purcell’s classic Dido and Aeneas, rather than yet another version of La Traviata. It is this spirit of adventure and experimentation that makes the company founded by Korean soprano Jeong Ae Ree (right) relevant and vitally necessary.

The cumbersome title My Nights with Dido and My Days with Aeneas may have confused some. Virgil’s Dido and Aeneas was a classical tragedy where Love and Fate conspired to clash with disastrous results. Updating the setting to modern newly-weds settling in their HDB apartment  with Ikea bags and kaypoh neighbours might also have given the mistaken impression this was another of the company’s opera comique farces. Thus the realisation that this was opera seria (serious opera) came rather late in the evening.

Whoever thought that the Brit Purcell
could blend so well with the Yank Ives?

As the original opera lasts under one hour, this production was padded up to about 100 minutes with songs by the 20^th century American composer Charles Ives. This was an inspired stroke of juxtaposition and innovation by director Mathias Behrends, even if the words alternated between old and modern poetic English (and in one song, French). While the musical accompaniment segued from the orchestra conducted by Chan Wei Shing to a barely-in-tune piano valiantly mustered by Thomas Ang, the transitions were almost seamless.

As some singers were unused to the Baroque style of singing, there was going to be a struggle to adapt. It was not a surprise that some of the Ives songs and choruses came off better than the Purcell. There were parts when the production resembled a high school musical, something out of the School of the Arts perhaps. However New Opera Singapore is our nation’s de facto opera school, as none of the tertiary institutions of musical education have opera programmes in place. So if there are going to be trials and errors, this is probably the best place to begin.   

The pivotal aria, Dido's When I Am Laid In Earth.
Teng Xiang Ting's Dido is foiled in numerous suicide attempts.

New Opera’s A-list cast, past and present students of Jeong, stole the show. Soprano Teng Xiang Ting (left) as Dido, was the face of ultimate pathos, and a force to be reckoned with. Her final aria, When I Am Laid in Earth, evinced so much sympathy that it stood out as the evening’s finest and most gut-wrenching moment. Opposite her, the Sorceress sung by mezzo Rebecca Chellappah was a most natural and experienced hand, exuding a malevolent charm that was wholly apt.

The supernatural forces of Lim Yanting and Moira Loh
haunt Teng Xiang Ting's Dido.

This opera, first performed in 1688 at Josiah Priest’s Girl’s School in Chelsea, was to be a girl’s night out. Soprano Rebecca Li was supportive as Belinda, Dido’s BFF, while Thai Lehlin, Moira Loh and Lim Yanting hovered around adding mischievous spice (including what must be the first-ever getai and lesbian scenes portrayed on the local operatic stage). Even the women in the boisterous choir of busybodies were the driving force. The men, David Tay’s Aeneas, Jonathan Tay’s sailor and Shaun Lee’s spirit cum solicitor, shone in their numbers but seemed almost peripheral. Do not blame them; their unintentional “bad guy” parts never had much of a chance.

The tone of this review may read like something of a qualified success, but that should not impede New Opera Singapore from further exploring uncharted territories of opera, and pushing the envelope with its own brand of guts and gumption. Singapore’s meagre and all-too-predictable opera scene really needs that kind of spark.

Production photographs by Eugene Soh.

SCHUBERT'S DIE SCHÖNE MÜLLERIN / New Opera Singapore / Review

 

 

 

SCHUBERT’S DIE SCHÖNE MÜLLERIN

New Opera Singapore

The Chamber @ The Arts House

Thursday (20 December 2012)

 

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 December 2012 with the title "Sing, don't dance".

 

Almost everyone knows the prohibitive costs of staging an opera, so New Opera Singapore has exercised the option of appropriating a Schubert song cycle for the basis of a production. Why not, as all good vocal music deserves champions, and it is vanity to split hairs over what talented young singers should or should not sing.

 

The concert began unusually with all the performers loitering on stage, looking on idly as the audience made their way to their seats. A classic case of role reversal but put into practice.

 

Franz Schubert composed no great operas, but his three major song cycles are matchless. Die Schöne Müllerin (The Fair Maid Of The Mill), 20 songs set to poetry by Wilhelm Müller, was composed around 1823. It is not the bleakest of the three but in certain ways is the saddest. The predictable plot of young love cruelly unrequited does not end in aimless wandering, as in the darker Winterreise (Winter Journey), but instead in suicide.

 

Five male singers, three tenors and two baritones, undertook the task of musical story-telling. Tenor David Charles Tay was the very able narrator, guiding listeners to the action and the protagonist’s ever-shifting moods. Transliterations in English were helpfully provided, and there was to be no excuse for not knowing what was going on.

 

Shaun Lee (left) and Lim Jingjie (right) opened the song cycle.

 

The younger and less experienced singers took on the earlier and less gloomy songs. Tenor Shaun Lee opened the cycle with Das Wandern (Wandering) in a hearty spirit, but his brash earnestness could have been served with better intonation for Mit dem Grünen Lautenbande (With The Green Ribbon). Baritone Lim Jingjie, who sang three songs including Wohin? (Whither?)  and Danksagung an den Bach (Thanksgiving to the Brook), has yet to attain the gravitas and experience to be truly convincing.

 

 

Baritone Jeremy Koh (above), armed with superior pronunciation and intonation, made a good case for the contrasting emotions of Ungeduld (Impatience), Tränenregen (Rain of Tears) and Mein (Mine), and the cycle was taking on a definitive direction and shape. It was little surprise that the final five songs, the emotional core, climax and denouement of the cycle, were shared by Tay and his twin brother Jonathan Charles Tay who as relative veterans both stole the show.

 

David Charles Tay was the excellent narrator, as well as sang five of the songs.

 

The paired songs on greenery, Die liebe Farbe (Favourite Colour) and Die böse Farbe (Hateful Colour), were wonderfully delineated as hope rapidly turned into despair. The cycle’s greatest items, Trockne Blumen (Withered Flowers) and Der Müller und der Bach (The Miller and the Brook), from David and Jonathan respectively, were coloured with a shuddering vividness and ultimately beauty beyond mere words.

 

David's twin brother, Jonathan Charles Tay was not to be outdone in his five songs.

 

The final song Des Baches Wiegenlied (The Brook’s Lullaby), gentle but an immovable force, rang like a requiem with ever-steady chords from pianist Albert Lin, who as a collaborator was a tower of strength throughout.

 

Do the dancers - good as they were - add anything more to Schubert's wonderful music? 

Last and least, some of the songs were choreographed, with dancers Kenneth Tan and Koustav Basu Mallick playing the miller and the brook respectively. In this case, the dancing – however artistic - was a needless distraction and more became less. Schubert’s song settings provide endless stimulus on their own and will succeed without extraneous help.    

 

Albert Lin (2nd from left) was the perfect collaborator in the 20 songs sung. All the singers take a final bow.



OPERA COMIQUE (IN THE OFFICE) / New Opera Singapore / Review

OPERA COMIQUE (IN THE OFFICE)
New Opera Singapore
The Chamber @ The Arts House
Saturday (6 August 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 9 August 2011 with the title "Pure delight in the office".

As of tonight, there are three Western opera companies in Singapore. The latest entry is New Opera Singapore, brainchild of Korean-Singaporean soprano and voice teacher Jeong Ae-Ree. Its debut concert was greeted by a full house but more importantly, it signalled a very bright future for operatic singing here.

Forget the title, merely the premise to string along 18 operatic arias, duets and art-songs into a coherent whole. The flimsy plot of an opera company, with its share of romances, politics and shenanigans, was clumsily scripted and, of course, overacted. There were several in-jokes within the industry. For example, the company’s boss is an ageing tenor who is deathly afraid of his diva wife. Sounds vaguely familiar?

Thankfully the music was far more memorable, sensitively accompanied by Hyerin Oh on piano. The ten singers, all students of Jeong, included undergraduates, amateurs and professionals, but all were beyond competent. Some would even make it to bigger stages.

Take the astonishing bel canto sequence which saw soprano Teng Xiang Ting, the evening’s best singer, emote in Ah non credea mirarti (Bellini’s La Sonnambula), followed by David Charles Tay hit the high spots of Una furtiva lagrima (Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amour), for example. Such beauty of tone, confidence and showmanship were almost unheard of here twenty years ago without involving foreign singers.

The couple would later go on and polish off Puccini’s duet O soave fanciulla (La Boheme) with much intimacy and chemistry. Add David’s twin brother Jonathan into the mix, Lehar’s Dein ist mein ganzes herz (The Land of Smiles, above) was pure delight shared by the threesome.

The scenario’s protagonist Lim Yan Ting (above left) , looking very distant from her scientist day job, was a scream with her coquettish, nudge and wink demeanor, but dealt a mean Agitata a due venti (Vivaldi’s Griselda) with its spitting repeated notes. Other femme fatales included teenager Bethea How (above middle) who proved that age was no impediment in nailing the Queen of the Night’s aria Die holle rache (Mozart’s Magic Flute), and Alexandra Ioan (above right) who flirted with the audience in Musetta’s Waltz Song (La Boheme).

Time and space does not permit elaboration of the contributions of Moira Loh, Shaun Lee, Yap How Joo and Daniel Fong, but suffice to say, New Opera Singapore’s first staged production, of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amour in July 2012, will be keenly anticipated.

A toast to New Opera Singapore and further endeavours!

Highlights from New Opera Singapore's OPERA COMIQUE (IN THE OFFICE)

OPERA COMIQUE (IN THE OFFICE)
New Opera Singapore
The Chamber @ The Arts House
Saturday (6 August 2011)

Here it is in pictures, the debut of Singapore newest Western opera company, New Opera Singapore. I was fortunate to get "ringside" seats, close to the action and passion. The future of opera in Singapore looks in very good hands indeed. A review will follow.

Jonathan Charles Tay & Lim Yanting 

open with Beethoven's Jetzt Schatzen (Fidelio). 

Moira Loh joins Yanting for 

Arditi's Il Bacio (The Kiss).

Yap How Joo is the lecherous towkay 

in Verdi's Questa o quella (Rigoletto) 

and later sang a Chinese song 

while his staff looked on idly.

Shaun Lee played the luckless and 

loveless office boy in Verdi's Il Poveretto 

and Donaudy's O del mio amato bene.

Bel canto heaven: Teng Xiang Ting 

sings Bellini's Ah non credea mirarti 

(La Sonnambula) 

while David Charles Tay puts a shine 

on Donizetti's Una furtiva lagrima 

(L'elisir d'amour).

The twins, David and Jonathan Tay, 

join Xiang Ting for 

Lehar's Dein ist mein ganzes herz 

(The Land of Smiles).

Daniel Foong snarls in Mozart's Se vuol ballare 

(The Magic Flute) and takes 

Yanting's hand for La ci darem la mano

(Don Giovanni).

Femmes fatales all: 

Bethea How in Die holle rache 

(Mozart's The Magic Flute), 

Alexandra Ioan flirts with 

Musetta's Waltz Song (Puccini's La Boheme) 

and Yanting vents her fury in 

Vivaldi's Agitata da due venti 

(Vivaldi's Griselda).

Jonathan Tay expresses his love in 

Tchaikovsky's Lensky's Aria (Eugene Onegin), 

while David Tay and Xiang Ting 

get close up for Puccini's O soave fanciulla (La Boheme).

Xiang Ting's coloratura display in 

Gounod's Juliette's Waltz Song (Romeo et Juliette) 

and the company of ten singers join up 

for the finale of Act Two of 

Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus.

Bring out the bubbly for Du und du 

from Strauss's Die Fledermaus.

New Opera Singapore's chairman 

Jeong Ae-Ree makes a speech, 

while VVIPs grace the evening's proceedings.

Vocal Recitals / David & Jonathan Tay / Brendan-Keefe Au & Lim Yanting / Review

VOCAL RECITALS:

ON WENLOCK EDGE

David & Jonathan Tay
The Arts House
Tuesday (10 August 2010)

L'HEURE EXQUISE

Brendan-Keefe Au & Lim Yanting
University Cultural Centre
Tuesday (17 August 2010)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 19 August 2010.

There have been an increasing number of voice students, to judge by the number of vocal recitals taking place of late. Some pursue their art overseas while local voice teachers have also been kept busy.

25-year-old twin tenors David and Jonathan Tay are undergraduates at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. They are no two peas in a pod. David has the richer tone, coming closer to the “heroic tenor”. In Vaughan Williams’ song cycle On Wenlock Edge, his ease of expression carried the gamut of emotions, from furtive hope to dark resignation. Assertive but not loud, he transcended the impressionist hues provided by the Artsylum Quartet and pianist Rachel Teoh.

Jonathan possesses a darker shade, more like a baritone’s. In five songs by Vaughan Williams, Quilter and Finzi, accompanied by pianist Valarie Wilson, he faithfully captured the moods and nuances, even if there was audible strain and approximate intonation in higher notes. In the Italian song segment, his guitar serenade from Rossini’s The Barber Of Seville provided a muted contrast from his brother’s booming Alfredo from Verdi’s La Traviata.

Together, their duet from Act IV of Puccini’s La Boheme was a touching moment. David sang Rodolfo while Jonathan sportingly settled for the baritone Marcello’s role. As they say, there can only be one primo tenore in a family.

Tenor Brendan-Keefe Au and soprano Lim Yanting, both non-music students at the National University of Singapore, provided what the title of their recital promised – an exquisite hour. Their selection of songs, accompanied by pianist Shane Thio, were mostly Romantic and about romantic love.

Being non-native to the German language, there was some unfamiliarity of pronunciation in Schubert and Hugo Wolf Lieder, and songs by Beethoven and Mozart. However in Italian, where mere expressions alone can bring out the amore, they seemed more at home.

Au’s ardent demeanor in Bellini’s Malinconia and Tosti’s La Serenata left little to the imagination, while Lim took flight in Arditi’s waltz song Il Bacio (The Kiss) even if she was occasionally overmatched by its dizzying coloratura. Her pair of Belle Epoque songs by Frenchman Reynaldo Hahn, and Au’s fine control in Quilter’s Now Sleeps The Crimson Petal were poignant and evocative, epitomes of grace.

Together, their flirtatious Schumann duet Unterm Fenster, acted out with a twinkle in the eye, brought the short evening to a delightful close.