JOHN SHARPLEY & ROBERT YEO'S KANNAGI / Review

KANNAGI

John Sharpley & The Arts House

Play Den @ The Arts House

Sunday (5 October 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 7 October 2014 with the title "Stirring opera based on Indian legend".

Kannagi – The Jeweled Anklet is John Sharpley’s second opera with libretto by Robert Yeo, but was first presented in 2009, before their much-acclaimed collaboration Fences which had a much longer gestation. Its first performance took place at the Wedding Hall of the Sri Mariammam Temple, which was totally apt given its ancient Tamil settings.

The story is based on the 1500 year-old legend of Sillappadikaram by Prince Illango Adigal. Kannagi, whose unfaithful husband Kovalan is unjustly executed for theft after selling off one of her jewelled anklets, reaps a harvest of death and destruction on the city of Madurai. Her deification unites all facets of womanhood, restoring peace and balance in the universe.

This new production of the 6-part chamber opera directed by Christopher Jacobs may be said to be a reincarnation of the original. By performing at The Arts House Play Den in near-complete darkness, all traces of its Indian origins were removed. Kannagi was no longer constrained by time or place, becoming instead an Everywoman for whom history, geography and ethnicity becomes irrelevant.  

While Kannagi was previously played by a single soprano, her complex personality is now represented by three women, soprano Akiko Otao, dancer Susan Yeung and pianist Bronwyn Gibson. The Overture, The Burning of Madurai on the piano was atmospheric and stirring, befitting the epic that unfolded. Gibson’s handling of the accompanying music and interludes was excellent, and very often one veered towards Sharpley’s always tonal and coherent music when the visual senses went on overload.

Otao’s singing captured the nuances of Kannagi’s long-suffering personality, drifting between song and oration, with the full gamut of expressive and narrative devices. Her anguished face for much of the melodrama remains firmly etched in the memory, while her alternating fluid and contorted movements had a shadow and mirror in the athletic Yeung.

Unfortunately not all the words were caught with clarity, and the absence of a libretto or synopsis was a stumbling block for first-timers. One would have to find the complete libretto in the collection The Best of Robert Yeo, published by Epigram Books.

The lack of a male presence, either Kovalan or the King of Madurai, was no longer an issue in this three women tour-de-force. The hour-long opera closed with Restored, Returned, Regained, as Otao’s voice was overdubbed manifold, and the final apotheosis of Shantih, Shantih, Shantih which provided a big bang of an ending with cosmic forces in alignment.

Sharpley promises more operas to come. Given his proven track record and penchant for lyricism, he is likely to be the most important opera composer operating from Singapore. 

Photographs by the kind permission of John Sharpley.

FENCES by John Sharpley and Robert Yeo / Opera Viva / Review

FENCES

Opera Viva

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts

Sunday (19 August 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 August 2012 with the title "Home-grown opera breaks through barriers".

Only the second opera to come out of Singapore, John Sharpley’s Fences with libretto by Robert Yeo finally came to fruition after an eight year gestation. Opera Viva, Singapore’s second opera company, was specifically created to produce this opera about inter-racial love set in the turbulent 1960s of Singapore and Malaysia. The premise of the story was the brainchild of local opera connoisseur Leow Siak Fah, who himself played a major part in Singapore’s first opera, Leong Yoon Pin and Edwin Thumboo’s Bunga Mawar of 1997.

1961: Nora Ibrahim meets
Steven Lee in Malaya Hall, London

There are similarities between the two operas, chiefly a Romeo And Juliet-like love story involving members of families from different stations. While both protagonists of Bunga Mawar were Chinese, Fences sets up further barriers between Steven Lee and Nora Ibrahim, namely race, religion and nationality. Could true love overcome bigotry, chauvinism and politics?

The music by John Sharpley, a Texan who has lived in Singapore for half his life, was gratifyingly tonal. He did not quote or write Asian melodies, but neither could he completely escape from influences by Copland, Bernstein and Britten, which permeated his lyrical outpourings. The orchestration was sumptuous, sparing no details when he tried to simulate an Asian aesthete – scoring erhu, yangqin and dizi for Lee family scenes, with marimba and assorted percussion in the corresponding Malay episodes. 

The final duet at Tanjong Pagar Station:
A hotel is not a home,
so where do we go from here? 

The singers were expertly cast, veteran tenor David Quah and newcomer soprano Akiko Otao clicked surprisingly well. Their acting and body language were totally believable, supported by short but angst-ridden arias What is this Stink called Home? and What Coming Home Means respectively, loaded with powerfully charged words. Behind them, Nomer Son and Satsuki Nagatome (as the Ibrahims), Rueben Lai and Anna Ivanenko (the Lees) were convincing in the portrayals of paternal intransigence and maternal sympathy. 

The Geylang Serai riots:
Steven gets battered and bruised.

The well-honed chorus played a larger role than expected, its appearance inevitably fanning the flames of the heated sentiments of the moment. Where but in the context of this opera can the inflammatory phrases “kurang hajar” (debased person) or “Crush Lee Kuan Yew!” escape the censor’s scissors? The appearance of the first PM, clad in all white, also had the revisionist about it. His broadcast speech of 9 August 1965 was not clothed in regretful tears, but one of indignation and defiance.

9 August 1965: Singapore is booted out;
LKY standing tall,
is defiant rather than tearful.

Malay vs Chinese.
Islam vs Buddhism.
Malaysia vs Singapore.
Never the twain shall meet.

Chandran Lingam’s direction was clear-headed and effective. The two stages on which the sung dialogues of the families took place were representative of the gulfs which people and their societies impose on themselves. Never the twain shall meet; these were the metaphorical fences erected (hence the opera’s title) and stoutly defended to the death.

The sextet of confrontation.

The one major regret of this production was the lack of surtitles. With the orchestra superbly directed by Darrell Ang placed just in front of the stage, the sung English of the amplified singers was often rendered indecipherable and sometimes drowned out. A printed libretto was provided on the second evening, but the small print and dim lighting nullified the thoughtful gesture.

Steven and Nora plan a
new life together... in Australia!

Despite the technical difficulties encountered, Fences, a lesson on conflict, confrontation and ultimately compromise, is something societies that genuinely seek tolerance and forbearance can learn from. Musically and artistically, it represents a significant advance on the earlier efforts of Bunga Mawar. Let us hopefully not wait another 15 years for the next major Singaporean opera.

Akiko Otao as Nora and
David Quah as Steven.

Darrell Ang, John Sharpley and
Robert Yeo get their accolades. 

A Few Words With ROBERT YEO, Librettist of Singapore opera FENCES

The second opera to come out of Singapore,  FENCES by JOHN SHARPLEY and ROBERT YEO, will be unveiled this weekend with two performances at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, produced by OPERA VIVA SINGAPORE and conducted by DARRELL ANG. This marks a watershed moment in Singapore musical history, which is little or no history in the conception and creation of original opera. The story is a familiar one, star-crossed lovers separated by race, religion and in the context of 1965 Singapore and Malaysia, nationality. Will love overcome bigotry and politics? Unlike Romeo and Juliet, we have been promised a happy ending, but everything in between is fair game.

A SHORT INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT YEO

Librettist of the Singapore opera FENCES

Produced by OPERA VIVA SINGAPORE

18 and 19 August 2012,

Lee Foundation Theatre, 

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts

7.30 pm

The story of Fences of the Heart, to use the original name of the opera, came from Singapore’s “Mr Opera” Leow Siak Fah who was himself born in Malaysia and had become a Singaporean. How did you get involved as the librettist of Fences?

It was in 2004 that Siak Fah got me and composer John Sharpley together to ask if we could write an opera. He gave us the idea, the story of Steven Lee and Nora Ibrahim, and asked if we were comfortable with it and we both said “Yes”.  Next, I asked John which came first, the libretto or the music, and he said the former. That answer sealed it, and I started to think about the story and the necessary research.

Like everybody (old enough) remembers the exact day, the exact moment they learnt that President Kennedy had been assassinated in 1963, could you remember exactly what you were doing on 9 August 1965, and how you felt at that time?

On 9 August 1965, two colleagues and I, three Chinese schoolteachers from St Andrew's Secondary School had driven up to Kuala Lumpur in the morning en route to the east coast of Malaya for a holiday. We spent the night in the federal capital and the next morning, we went to visit a friend of mine who managed a bookshop within sight of Pudu Prison. I bantered with him about KL-Singapore relationship which had become fractious, and then he asked, anxiously, “You mean you don't know?” Then he pulled out a copy of the New Straits Times, and the front page headline read, “Singapore is Out.” That was the moment we know that Singapore had separated from Malaysia. All three of us returned home, aborting our planned vacation.

The story of Fences has to do with differences (racial, cultural, socio-economic), separation (physical, emotional, real or imagined), reconciliation and rationalisation. How did you craft your libretto to encompass all these complex and highly contentious issues?

I think my experience writing poems and plays helped a great deal. Though the story, with its Romeo and Juliet parallel appeared clichéd, it sounded real to me. Anyway, I had always wanted to write about the years when Singapore was part of Malaysia and here was an opportunity to write about very traumatic events which suddenly created a new nation. So, in addition to being “caught” in the turmoil, which provided the raw experience, I researched by listening to operas, reading libretti, books and articles.  Among the operas I watched  were Bizet’s Carmen and Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw.  One book, in particular, was very useful - A Moment Of Anguish by Albert Lau.

I figured, in a foolhardy way, that as I have written poems and plays, I could try my hand at writing a libretto. I was emboldened by two examples. First, I had worked on writing the text for a musical with Joe Peters (yet to be staged), and second, one of my favourite poets, W.H Auden, had written libretti and worked with composers like Benjamin Britten. 

In writing Fences, I want to be poetic and concrete. There will be no pop sentiments and abstractions like, “I cannot live without you.” Instead, I loaded my lines with concrete images and tough emotion. When Nora, the Malay heroine from Kuala Lumpur first meets Steven, the Chinese boy from Singapore, she teases him with the line, “You have waiting in your eyes,” where an abstraction like waiting is qualified by the specific reference to Steven's eyes. When Steven condemns race as divisive, he sings, “What is this stench called race?” The choruses are equally uncompromising, for example the first Malaya chorus has these lines,

   We must deal with this Singapore problem

   The island south that's like a footsore.

   We can't have it infect our body

   If it turns red outside our door.

I must add that my collaboration with John has been very process-oriented. We talked all the time he was composing, both making many revisions, as we went along over four years of writing. And we did it harmoniously.

Were the characters in the opera modelled after personalities you knew or could identify with? How did you make them come across sympathetic rather than the usual cardboard stereotypes that operas all too frequently portray?

No, they are not modelled after people I know. As a secular person, a believer in multiculturalism, these values inherent in the beliefs would inevitably find their ways into my words. If I made the fathers in Fences villains, I was, in a sense following Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, in which the patriarchs Capulet and Montague are dominant. The mothers are not heard and so I decided to give them voice, sympathetic to the lovers.

The moral of the story: Love Conquers All. Is life that straight-forward or black and white for you?

Love conquers all is never straightforward. After the conquest, it may remain lovely—or loveless. But that is another story.

A Few Words With JOHN SHARPLEY, Composer of the opera FENCES

A SHORT INTERVIEW 

WITH DR JOHN SHARPLEY, 

Composer of 

Singapore's latest opera 

FENCES

produced by 

Opera Viva Singapore

18 and 19 August 2012

Lee Foundation Theatre, 

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts

7.30 pm

Could you remember what you were doing on 9 August 1965?

I was 9 years old then and likely on a family summer holiday in the Texas Hill Country. I can imagine myself filled with fantasy exploring some forest or river, discovering my own sense of freedom.

As all of us will already know, Fences will only be the second opera written in the grand scale in Singapore after Leong Yoon Pin’s Bunga Mawar of 1997. That’s quite a responsibility. How did you get about deciding on the musical idiom you will work with for the opera?

For me, musical idiom is a very individualised concern. It must be sincere and hence, original! Having lived, studied, worked and travelled in Singapore and Southeast Asia for the past 27 years, I believe that there are many local musical and cultural influences that are fully instinctive to me. I trusted my instinct to guide me through the composing of Fences.

Even though every new composition of mine brings a new blossoming there is a continuity in my musical language or style. This is what I would call the composer’s “voice”. Consequently the musical idiom for Fences is both steeped in my musical past and mingled with the stimulating challenges from the libretto to Fences.

The music to Fences is what I would call extended tonality / modality. I believe that a musical idiom for opera should be rich, multi-layered and dramatic. It must be able to convey emotions, anticipation and surprise.

Will this be a Singaporean opera or an American opera about Singapore?

This is a tricky question. To begin with I do not think of myself as an American composer. Rather, I am a composer born in America. Singapore has been my home for about one half of my life. I feel more Singaporean than American! I have also lived in France and Australia. Likewise, Fences is an opera from Singapore. Of course the story is unique to Singapore and Malaysia. Even with the Southeast Asian influences, the music is unique to me. I do not try to be anything else but myself. Does all this make Fences a Singaporean opera? I leave you the reader to decide for yourself.

You have always had a special and highly lyrical way with words set to music. How did you respond to Robert Yeo’s libretto? Was it one very amenable to musical settings? How close did you work with him to make words into musical sense?

All the music to Fences is my response to Robert’s spacious and rich libretto. Robert and I worked closely together over many years with constant dialogue. This was a wonderful process and a true collaboration. I am honoured to have worked on Fences with Robert. 

I remembered the reading of scenes from Fences with piano accompaniment held in 2006 at the University Cultural Centre which was very interesting and held great promise for the opera’s production. How has the music and development of the opera transformed since then?

The story, music and libretto have altered considerably since the reading in 2006. There have been subsequent performances and reading of excerpts, workshops and periods of revisions. Essentially, Robert and I have endeavored to distill the story into a taut dramatic line. Such is far from easy to accomplish. In fact, operas often continue to be revised well after their premieres.

Eight years is a rather long gestation for Fences. There must have been many struggles, ups and downs in its coming to being. Would you like to relate some of these to us?

Of course there are ups and downs! How could this be opera otherwise! In fact, I am always reminded that opera is both drama on stage and off stage.

To be truthful, I have come to the sad conclusion that Singapore is not yet ready for serious opera. Perhaps it is in the general mindset of organisers, practitioners and audiences that performing art should simply be entertaining, not cathartic and thought-provoking. This, I believe, has been the root of my greatest struggle - to exist in an artistic community that is not particularly conducive towards and producing of the highest levels of artistic exigence, expertise, support, understanding and with a generosity of spirit. Please know that there are a few who do truly possess these qualities but they are a very small minority (who also struggle). Maybe one day but not today! I will not give up!

How would you like your audience to approach, respond to and remember Fences?

My hope is that Fences be a dramatic and emotional journey culminating in a cathartic experience. There is at the heart of Fences a soulfulness. I pray that such will be conveyed and perceived and that serious opera may take a deeper root in Singapore.

OPERA VIVA GALA DINNER 2012

Singapore's second opera company, Opera Viva Limited, held its Gala Dinner on Friday (15 June 2012) at the Tanglin Club to raise funds for its biggest project to date, the World Premiere of Singapore's second opera, Fences by John Sharpley (composer) and Robert Yeo (librettist). The opera has had a prolonged gestation of almost eight years, and was inspired by Singapore's biggest opera fanatic Leow Siak Fah. There have been performances  of various arias and scenes to date, but its premiere on 18 and 19 August at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts marks the fruition of a labour of love. The story is a very topical one, that dwells in the rocky and tumultuous of cross-cultural relationships, set in 1960s Singapore and Malaysia. Then, Singapore had courted Malaysia to be part of the Federation only to be ejected, culminating with a famously televised vale of tears on 9 August 1965. This opera, the producers promised, has a happier ending.

Here are some photos of luminaries who were at the dinner, which predictably had a 1960s theme.    

Leow Siak Fah (right) with the "Legend of the Waves", long-time radio DJ and television host of the 1960s and 70s, Larry Lai, whose famous soothing voice made a comeback this evening.

Juliana Lim and Maurine Tsakok (with feather boa).

Librettist Robert Yeo, Dr Ling Ai Ee (Mrs Leow) and Leow Siak Fah.

Singapore's First Lady of Opera, Nancy Yuen (La Yuen) with her husband Toh Weng Cheong, Chairman of Singapore Lyric Opera. Fences is one opera Nancy won't be singing in.

Performers for the evening, tenor Peter Ong and Stephanie Van Driesen.

Soprano Akiko Otai will sing the lead role of Nora in Fences. Her husband, Eric Rubio accompanied her on the piano this evening, On the right is celebrated Filipino tenor Lemuel dela Cruz. 

DJ Larry Lai rolls back the good old days, while Professor Maurine Tsakok is caught in the act in Chubby Checker's Let's Twist Again..

These lava lamps were bought by the evening's guests, with all proceeds going to Opera Viva.

John Sharpley's KANNAGI, The Story of the Jewelled Anklet / Review

KANNAGI, THE STORY 

OF THE JEWELLED ANKLET
A joint-production by OperaViva Ltd.
& Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society
Sri Mariammam Temple
Sunday (25 October 2009, 7.30 pm)

The epic Singapore-centred opera Fences by John Sharpley and Robert Yeo is still under wraps, but opera lovers had a good view of a smaller production (of an epic story nonetheless) in Kannagi, The Story of The Jewelled Anklet – a chamber opera in 6 scenes - based on the Indian legend of Silappadikaram by Prince Illango Adigal.

To cut the story short: Kannagi, whose unfaithful husband Kovalan is unjustly executed for theft after selling off one of her jewelled anklets, reaps a harvest of death and destruction on the city of Madurai. Her subsequent deification unites all the facets of womanhood, restoring peace and balance in the universe.

The setting for this World Premiere was unique; the Wedding Hall of Sri Mariammam Temple with its elaborately decorated bridal platform, clothed with a proscenium of veils, and overlooking the temple courtyard was both apt and atmospheric. The carefully arranged petals on the stage, symbolising the broken band or anklet added an authentic touch.

The cast was small, comprising soprano Amanda Colliver (Kannagi), Kathak dancer Anjum Bharti (in a non-singing role as temptress Madhavi) and John Sharpley (pianist). The Overture – The Burning of Madurai – performed on the piano provided a stirring and dramatic opening, as well as the recurrent theme of destruction. The musical idiom was typical Sharpley – original music in his accessible tonal style, using Asian / Oriental scales without quoting actual ethnic melodies. Sharpley’s evocative playing in the Interludes separated each of the scenes in this hour-long melodrama.

The cast of Kannagi (from L):

Bharti, Colliver, Sharpley and Robert Yeo

Colliver delivered a one-woman tour de force in her performance, alternating between keen storyteller, the protagonist Kannagi (In the Flush of First Love), her antithesis Madhavi (What are my Arts for if not to Snare?), and the devastating force of Kali. Her arias also included aspects of coloratura and Sprechstimme, in short the full gamut of vocal and narrative devices. That injection of much-needed variation was necessary, in the absence of a truly memorable melody, excepting the final apotheosis. Here one would have appreciated the presence of a male voice in solo or duet, either Kovalan or the King of Madurai, even in a cameo role. Colliver’s task was also greatly aided by Bharti’s seductive movements, which made this diminutive and totally graceful dancer stand like a Colossus on stage.

Restored, Returned, Regained provided for a big bang of an ending, with all cosmic forces in alignment. Here a taped female chorus (in effect Colliver’s voice overdubbed many times) with piano and glockenspiel accompaniment and Colliver herself delivered the refrain of Shantih, Shantih, Shantih. As petals rained from the heavens, this was the one big moment that rang in the ears long after the opera had ended.

Kannagi is a truly worthy effort, one befitting the complementary and alternative role that OperaViva (headed by ultimate operaphile Leow Siak Fah) plays in the small Singapore opera scene. The long-awaited Fences should be a spectacle to behold.

Lots of lovely decorative touches

distinguished this production of Kannagi.