DIE
FLEDERMAUS
New Opera
Singapore
Victoria
Theatre
Sunday (27 July 2014)
This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 July 2014 with the title "Patricia Mok helps demystify opera".
Die Fledermaus is the title of Johann Strauss the
Younger’s most popular operetta, one that has been translated to many languages
and performed the world over. New Opera Singapore’s production was acted and
sung completely in English, the practice of using the vernacular being widely
accepted universally. Thus only a pedant would object to the non-use of the
original German, or carp at the title not being the far less poetic The Bat.
Fledermaus in whatever language has to be a
sparkling and good-humoured affair, and New Opera Singapore under its
Korean-born founder Jeong Ae Ree delivered in heaps and some more. In its
favoured tradition of updating the classics, the setting was modern-day yuppie
Singapore, with Adele as a Pinoy domestic and numerous references to Korean and
Japanese pop culture, all the rage here these days. The ice was immediately
broken and the comedy flowed unabated.
The
casting with New Opera regulars was excellent. Rosalinde was sung by two
home-grown sopranos Teng Xiang Ting and Rebecca Li on separate evenings. Li was
her usual feisty self but touched with a vulnerability that made her endearing.
Opposite her, David Charles Tay as hubby Eisenstein (both above) gave a totally believable
portrayal of smug duplicity, which made it all the more satisfying when hoisted
on his own petard.
Young
SOTA student Moira Loh’s Adele stole the show with her Leticia Bongnino accent
and had two big arias to impress with, including the famous Laughing Song. Even tenor Shaun Lee’s
hopelessly in love Alfred, spouting lines from various tenor arias, had much to
recommend.
Three
Korean singers were invited to helm main cast roles: booming bass-baritone Park
Jun Hyeok as the aggrieved Falke, David Daehan Lee as prison governor Frank and
alto Son Jung A in the trousers (cross-dressing) role as an implausibly
Japanese Orlovsky. Their spoken and sung English was just more than adequate,
and surtitles were a great help here.
The
set design by Shin Ji-Won and Brian Leong was simple yet effective, but did the
party at Club Fledermaus have to look like something out of Patpong rather than
Gangnam or Mohamed Sultan? Kim Sook Young’s stage direction was breezily
communicative, providing lots of laughs from the audience. The sequence of
Eisenstein and Frank impersonating Japanese patrons by desperately reciting
Japanese brand names and clichés was a scream.
The
orchestra conducted by Chan Wei Shing supported the fast-moving action well,
and the small chorus complete with a quartet of pole-dancers gave the Second
Act an unusually sleazy feel. The practice of inserting arias and ballets
during this segment was passed over for the non-credited appearance of Channel
8 television comedian Patricia Mok as a very sober Barbara, taking the place of
non-singing and usually inebriated prison attendant Frosch.
Filling
the gap between the Second and Third Acts, her soliloquy in a combination of
Singlish and Mandarin was a tour de force
of stand-up comedy, casting snooks on singers, actors, musicians and
essentially the entire entertainment industry. Mok’s appearance summed up the
production’s ethos, which is to demystify the air of elitism surrounding opera
and making the genre approachable. New Opera Singapore has succeeded again,
with good singing and acting, and not a dull minute in between.
All photos with the kind permission of New Opera Singapore.
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