pianomania: A VISIT TO JOHOR BAHRU'S ZARITH SOPHIA OPERA HOUSE

A VISIT TO JOHOR BAHRU’S

ZARITH SOPHIA OPERA HOUSE

Whoever thought there is spanking new opera house / concert hall just across the Causeway in Johor Bahru? Just before all of us were caught napping during the Covid pandemic, the not-exactly-new concert venue sprung up in January 2020, when the world was coming to grips and closing shop to handle the viral scourge.

The entry portal did not look
too promising but do walk some more.

Observe the opera house's close proximity
to the SG-JB Causeway.

I had a chance on Sunday (23 July 2023) to visit this sparkling gem built by mainland Chinese developers right on the edge of the water, just several stones' throw from the Causeway, and was not disappointed. The driveway approach appeared inauspicious and retail areas around the hall are still mostly unoccupied, thus the initial impression was one of a ghost town. However as one heads closer to the shoreline, the glass and steel of the opera house soon reveals itself. Its angular architecture reminds one of a multi-faceted jewel standing out from the concrete that is emerging on the water’s edge.

This is not a big hall, one just seating 600 at its full capacity, but the complex gives the feeling of a vast sprawl, especially with highrise apartments behind (much still vacant) and the Straits of Johore and Woodlands in front. Rumour has it that a new MRT project connecting Singapore and Johor Bahru (an underwater link?) would arrive sometime in the distant future, and this would totally transform this area to become JB’s answer to the Esplanade.

A view of the environs, where the projected
MRT station might be located.
Note also the JB-Singapore water pipeline
and the famous Johor sultanate palace.

Arts events have begun with the pandemic settling and overseas travel resumed. Visiting Chinese cultural groups have performed, and more recently from March this year, there have been piano recitals by Henri Sigfridsson, Kotaro Fukuma and Armen Babakhanian. On this occasion, I was attending the final evening of the three-day Maestoso International Music Festival (a review of the concert will follow). One hopes that this will also kickstart a vibrant arts scene in Singapore’s rapidly gentrified hinterland of Johor Bahru, and Zarith Sofiah Opera House will not become a white elephant.