PUCCINI'S WOMEN / Singapore Lyric Opera / Review

 

PUCCINI’S WOMEN 

Singapore Lyric Opera 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Saturday (19 October 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 October 2024 with the title "Singapore Lyric Opera gala presented beginner's guide to Puccini".

In lieu of a fully-staged opera production this year, Singapore Lyric Opera (SLO) presented a gala commemorating Italian composer Giacomo Puccini’s 100th death anniversary. No opera composer quite matches his popularity, and it must have been daunting to fit excerpts from all his twelve operas within just 100 minutes. 

“A Beginners’ Guide To Puccini” might have been the title for this concert accompanied by the SLO Orchestra under Joshua Tan. This primer was greatly assisted by narrator Mik Rossi playing the composer with wry wit and humour, complete with Italian-accented English and a suitably bushy moustache to match Puccini’s own. 

The operatic highlights were performed in chronological order, from little-known Le Villi (1884) to monumental Turandot (1924). Casting was reliant on veterans of the local opera scene, including sopranos Nancy Yuen (SLO’s artistic director) and Jessica Chen, Korean tenor Lee Jae Wook and local bass-baritone William Lim. Making her SLO debut was Australian soprano Daniela Leska. 

Puccini’s rarities were heard alongside his popular numbers, and that was no bad thing. Who would otherwise have heard Se com voi piccini io fossa (If I Were Tiny Like You) from Le Villi, or Questo amor, vergogna amor (This Love, My Shame) from Edgar (1889), sung with tenderness and feeling by Chen and Lim respectively? This presented the best opportunity for such an airing. 

The highlights became more familiar, like Lee’s entry with Donna non vidi mai (I Never Saw A Woman Like Her) from Manon Lescaut (1893). With La Boheme (1896), the concert entered into “greatest hits” territory, and SLO’s most celebrated duet of Yuen and Lee was united for O soave fanciulla (O Lovely Girl), spine-tingling in its ardour and intensity. 

Joined by Lim and Leska, the quartet accounted for Addio dolce svegliare alla mattina (Farewell, Sweet Wakings In The Morning) from Act Three, which had two couples breaking up for vastly different reasons. 

Puccini’s most popular arias, Vissi d’arte (I Lived For Art) and E lucevan le stelle (And The Stars Were Shining) from Tosca (1900) and Un bel di (One Fine Day) from Madama Butterfly (1904), were lovingly rendered by Yuen, Lee and Chen respectively. The SLO Adult Chorus (Chorusmaster: Terrence Toh) finally made its appearance in Te Deum from Tosca accompanying Lim’s villainous Baron Scarpia and the wordless Humming Chorus from Madama Butterfly. 

Space does not permit a listing of all excerpts, but the operas La fanciulla del West (Girl of the Golden West, 1910), La Rondine (The Swallow, 1917) and the trilogy of Il Trittico (1918) were all represented. Who sang the beloved O mio babbino caro (O My Beloved Father) from Gianni Schicchi? That honour went to Leska, who did not disappoint. 

From Turandot came the ubiquitous Nessun dorma (None Shall Sleep) from Lee, but the last words had to go to Puccini’s quintessential woman bar none, the vulnerable and self-sacrificial heroine Liu, with Yuen’s touching delivery of the aria Tu, che di gel sei cinta (You, Who Are Bound In Ice). Just memorable.