HONESTLY!
3 OPERAS, ONE HOUR
L'arietta
10
Square, Orchard Central
Saturday (2 April 2016)
This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 April 2016 with the title "Tapestry of life revealed in mini operas".
Say hello to L'arietta, Singapore's
newest opera company. L'arietta, which means “little song” in Italian, was
formed by local tenor Reuben Lai and Japanese soprano Akiko Otao to promote the
niche genre of chamber opera. Both profess that opera is relevant to today's
cultures and mores even in its most diminutive form, far removed from the grand
spectacles of Wagner and Verdi. Its debut production showcased three such
mini-operas in a single sitting, each refreshingly different and moving in
their own way.
British composer Joseph Horovitz's The
Gentleman's Island was a dark comedy about two stuffy Englishmen stranded
on a desert island. They are initially distant because they have not been
previously introduced, but readily bond when they know of a mutual friend
Robinson. Jameson Soh's eloquent and effective stage direction had the
gentleman marooned on separate wooden blocks but joined by a physical and
metaphorical umbilical cord.
Tenor Lai and baritone Brent Allcock were
excellent in their characterisations of self-consciousness and overriding
pride. Their clear dulcet tones meant that the audience could catch their every
single word and nuance. Even when rescue arrives in the form of Robinson, they
reject him because he comes in a convict ship. The folly of death by pride is
their ultimate comeuppance.
The second opera was Singaporean Chen
Zhangyi's Window Shopping, about diametrically opposing reactions of two
women when they enter a high-end shoe shop. Mezzo-soprano Angela Hodgins' older
lady sings of regret and soured memories while soprano Otao's young waif is
ecstatic on the choice of heels available to her.
Chen's score cleverly used a ground bass,
which represented plodding footsteps people make when they go shopping, also
symbolic of the trudges in life itself. While Hodgins' part was elegiac, Otao's
was whimsical and jazzy. Ultimately both come to the realisation that life was
not about acquiring assets (such as new shoes replacing old ones) but how to
look after them.
The final opera brought back all four
singers in Samuel Barber's A Hand of Bridge. What lurks in the minds of
those who pit their wits in a game of small stakes? The scenario of failed
marriages and dysfunctional characters revealing their innermost desires and
fears were neatly encapsulated in four ariettas.
Angela longs for a hat of peacock
feathers, while Reuben lusts after an extramarital affair. Akiko frets on her
mother's frail health, and Brent craves for power and riches. Such is the
flawed fabric and tapestry of life, where each individual has to come to terms
with his or her own foibles and realities.
Accompanying this production was young pianist
Wayne Teo, who more than coped with the disparate styles and complexities
thrown at him. That the filled-to-capacity audience, with many children in
attendance, sat in quiet and rapt attention throughout was ample testimony to
the performers.
Clock watchers might like to note the
durations of each opera: 28 minutes (Horovitz) + 21 minutes (Chen) + 10 minutes
(Barber) = 59 minutes. Three operas in one hour? Mission accomplished.
