SYMPHONY BEYOND TIME / TARANTELLA - DANCE IN SYMPHONY / Music For People Festival Orchestra & NTU Symphony Orchestra / Review

SYMPHONY BEYOND TIME

Music For People Festival Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Wednesday (3 June 2026)

TARANTELLA – DANCE IN SYMPHONY

NTU Symphony Orchestra

SOTA Concert Hall

Friday (5 June 2026)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 8 June 2026 with the title "Music For People Festival Orchestra delivers an all-Beethoven spectacle".

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s season is officially over, but large-scale orchestral music continues unabated. Just last week, the Orchestra of the Music Makers performed Mahler’s Seventh Symphony, and this week’s blockbuster was Beethoven’s Choral Symphony, delivered by the not-for-profit Music For People Festival Orchestra led by young Sarawak-born conductor Audrey Chung.

The all-Beethoven evening opened with the Triple Concerto in C major (Op.56), with Elite Artists Trio from Taiwan as soloists, comprising violinist Qin-Yun Du, cellist Limu Ya and pianist Sherry Chen. This unusual work casts the cello in the lead, and Ya’s song-like solos held up, well-balanced by her partners with the trio functioning like a united team all through its three tuneful movements.

The orchestra supported the enterprise well, and it should be no surprise as the majority of its professional players are stalwarts of the Singapore Symphony, re:mix, re:Sound, Concordia Quartet and Red Dot Baroque. Thus, Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 in D minor (Op.125) felt like a breeze in its fairly swift 65 minutes, led from memory by Chung. There were no extremes in tempi in the first two fast movements, while the Adagio unfolded magisterially with much aural beauty.

Who was not waiting for the famous choral finale? Notwithstanding inappropriate applause in between movements, the faux pas inexcusably repeated while the Ode To Joy was well underway, this epic sing out was still a spectacle. The excellent quartet of soloists, well-known for appearances with the Singapore Lyric Opera, comprised soprano Jessica Chen, mezzo-soprano Anna Koor, tenor Lee Jae-wook and bass William Lim.

The 220-member choir (Nicholas Tham, chorusmaster), the largest assembled for such a work in recent years, created the biggest sound possible, ensuring this was a truly memorable event. Proceeds of ticket sales went to palliative care organisations and music education programmes for underprivileged communities.

On Friday, it was the turn of the students from the Nanyang Technological University Symphony Orchestra (NTUSO), directed by Chan Wei Shing, to strut their stuff. Central to the dance-themed programme were Singapore premieres of two 20th century cello concertos performed by Loke Hoe Kit, a specialist in performing unusual repertoire.

Photo: Loke Chee Meng

Frenchman Darius Milhaud’s Cello Concerto No.1 (1934) has its serious and light-hearted sides. A darkly elegiac slow movement was starkly contrasted by the opening’s nonchalant lilt, like an insouciant stroll along the Seine, and the finale’s carnival atmosphere in the form of a tarantella. The fast Italian dance in 12/8 rhythm gave the concert its title.

Virtuosity on the cello continued into Austrian composer Erich Korngold’s single-movement Cello Concerto (1946), reliving the opulence of Hollywood as it was an expansion of music from the movie Deception (1946) starring Bette Davis. Reveling in lyrical gifts and contrapuntal novelties, both soloist and orchestra provided a memorable first outing for this underrated mini-masterpiece.

The concert began with Mexican composer Arturo Marquez’s very popular Danzon No.2, generating a terrific crescendo and momentum from its quietly sedate opening pages. The main work was Bohemian composer Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No.8 in G major, which provided the young musicians with their toughest technical and musical challenges.

Listening beyond the rough edges, it was a performance of much commitment and enthusiasm. Although beginning tentatively, the ensemble grew in confidence with each phrase. With the dance and folk-inspired third and fourth movements finally clicking into motion for a spirited finish, one senses much more will be heard from this outfit in time to come.

SINGAPORE LYRIC OPERA 25TH ANNIVERSARY GALA CONCERT / Review

SINGAPORE LYRIC OPERA

25TH ANNIVERSARY GALA CONCERT

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (13 November 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 16 November 2015 with the title "A rousing celebration of opera".

For a national opera company that had humble beginnings as mere opera enthusiasts from the National University of Singapore Society, the Singapore Lyric Opera has achieved amazing results over its 25 years. The major impediment to further untold successes has been a chronic lack of funds for what is often considered as a niche artform.

Its 25^th anniversary gala concert was a fond retrospective of past repertoire, cramming excerpts from 20 operas into almost three hours. A minute's silence was observed in memory of founding chairman Leow Siak Fah, Singapore's Mr Opera - tenor-director-impresario rolled into one – who passed away in April.  

Conducted by Joshua Kangming Tan, whom the company had groomed from his student days, the Singapore Lyric Opera Orchestra played sensitive and sympathetic accompanist to the arias, duets and ensembles. The Overtures to Mozart's The Magic Flute and Johann Strauss Jr's Die Fledermaus opened each half, and it was left for the glory of the voice to take over.

There were five singers on show, led by ageless veteran soprano Nancy Yuen whose rendition of Sempre libera from Verdi's La Traviata still sends tingles down the spine for seemingly effortless coloratura and over-reaching high notes. Opposite her was the Korean Lee Jae Wook who sang the heroic tenor roles which Leow specialised in including Rodolfo (Puccini's La Boheme) and Cavaradossi (Puccini's Tosca). He also had the audience in his palm nailing Calaf's aria Nessun dorma (Puccini's Turandot) with fearless gusto.

Together, the starry couple's love duets from La Boheme and Madama Butterfly were high points of the evening. Korean baritone Song Kee Chang helmed the “fun” roles, taunting the bull in Escamillo's Toreador Song (Bizet's Carmen) and hamming Figaro perfectly for Largo al factotum (Rossini's The Barber of Seville), bringing out much cheers.

It was left for two Singaporean singers to fill in mezzo-soprano and baritone parts. Anna Koor was excellent in Faites–lui mes aveux from Gounod's Faust, while Martin Ng made a good case for Tonio's opening aria Si puo from Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci. The late Leong Yoon Pin's Bunga Mawar made the list, with the duet Can I Believe The Sentiment Of Song sung by Ng and Yuen.

The SLO Chorus, augmented by children and choirs from National & Pioneer Junior Colleges and Evokx, stood  150-strong, the biggest ever assembled for such a concert. They impressed with their enthusiasm in Les Voici (Carmen), Mascagni's Easter Hymn (Cavalleria Rusticana) and Verdi's Anvil Chorus (Il Trovatore).

The concert closed passionately with the Quartet from Verdi's Rigoletto (Yuen, Koor, Lee and Song) and the entire cast toasted the proceedings with the Brindisi (Drinking Song) from La Traviata. The latter was encored, now sung with greater volume, which ensured nothing less than a standing ovation.  

SINGAPORE LYRIC OPERA GALA CONCERT / Review

GALA CONCERT

Singapore Lyric Opera

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (22 August 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 25 August 2014 with the title "Two Asian gems unveiled".

The Singapore Lyric Opera has made it a point over the years to engage Asian singers in its major productions. Many vocal gems have been unveiled to the Singapore public as a result. Now meet two more as Sri Lankan-British soprano Kishani Jayasinghe and Filipino-American tenor Arthur Espiritu made their spectacular debuts here.

Jayasinghe, who helms the title role of Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow later in October, immediately made an impact in Hanna Glawari’s hit-song Vilja-Lied. Singing in English, her pure and radiant voice with the sweetness of nectar, easily reached the topmost spots without straining or stretching. Her cultured enunciation and immaculate articulation also served well in the coloratura favourite Gounod’s Jewel Song from Faust, now sung in the original French.

No less impressive was Espiritu, who opened with Donizetti’s Una furtiva lagrima from Elisir d’amore, revealing a passionate bleeding-heart sensibility in the mould of The Three Tenors. His clear ringing tone showcased the popular Neapolitan song Torno a Sorriento (Come Back To Sorrento), which conductor-cum-emcee Joshua Kangming Tan humorously explained as a plea for a new sewage system to be built in the Italian town. So much for the romance.

Local SLO regulars mezzosoprano Anna Koor and baritone William Lim were limited to one aria each. Koor sported a gigantic rose on her gown and flirtatiously made eyes at the audience in Bizet’s Habañera from Carmen, while Lim was his usual dependable and lyrical self in Wolfram’s Ode to the Evening Star from Wagner’s Tannhäuser.

The SLO Orchestra supported the singing sensitively and with much subtlety, never overwhelming the voices at any point. Conductor Tan also led the ensemble in two substantial overtures, from Rossini’s The Barber of Seville and Wagner’s Tannhäuser, both highlighting fine solos and cohesive ensemble playing.

The voices multiplied as the evening developed, the first duet being The Presentation of the Rose from Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. Koor’s Octavian (a famous cross-dressing role) and Jayasinghe’s Sophie blended well in this declaration of secret love between two young protagonists.

Even better was the substantial chunk of Act One in Puccini’s La Boheme when Espiritu’s Rodolfo encounters Jayasinghe’s Mimi and their hands meet. The former’s Che gelida manina (Your Tiny Hand Is Frozen) and the latter’s Si, mi chiamano Mimi (Yes, They Call Me Mimi) truly touched and hit the audience’s simpatico buttons. Spontaneous clapping and cheers followed each aria, no doubt encouraged by conductor Tan’s (right) permission to applaud ad libitum.

The magical evening closed with the Quartet from Verdi’s Rigoletto, led by Espiritu’s opening gambit Bella figlia dell’amore (Lovely Daughter of Love) as his lecherous Duke of Mantua seeks yet another amorous conquest. The four voices came as one in this rapturous outpouring that brought the house down. What could follow after this ovation? Yet another performance of the beloved Quartet beckoned. The performers really understood the meaning of the exclamation “encore!”. 

Concert photo by the kind courtesy of Sarah Grace Ng (with permission from Singapore Lyric Opera).

VERDI GALA: A BICENTENARY CELEBRATION / Singapore Lyric Opera / Review

VERDI GALA:

A BICENTENARY CELEBRATION

Singapore Lyric Opera

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (24 October 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 26 October 2013 with the title "Concert of Verdi highlights a success".

Following hot on the heels of a successful La Traviata, the Singapore Lyric Opera celebrated Giuseppe Verdi’s birth bicentenary with a two-hour long concert of operatic highlights. Given that just five of the great Italian’s operas have ever been performed in Singapore, the eleven represented this evening seemed impressive, but this was just the uppermost tip of a gigantic undiscovered iceberg.

There was a goodly mix of the familiar and the less familiar, but all the qualities that made Verdi great – lyricism, dramatics and expert settings of words - were delved upon. Conductor Darrell Ang gave a brief introduction on the legacy, and then let the music sing for itself. It was a pity that the usual brief synopses of the arias and characters were not included in the programme booklet. That would have given the audience a better understanding of the contexts of each item presented.

The quartet of two locally-based and two Australian singers was generally well cast. Of the latter, tenor Jason Wasley exuded an easy and laid-back charm in the well-known De miei bollenti spiriti (La Traviata) and Quando le sere al placido (Luisa Miller) without fully extending himself. Baritone Christopher Hillier struggled somewhat to overcome the orchestra in an aria from Attila, but exhibited both emotion and fine control in Giorgio Germont’s ballad Di provenza il mar from La Traviata. Together, both voices blended very idiomatically in the duet Solenne in quest’ora from La Forza del Destino.

Mezzo-soprano Anna Koor, usually a coquettish presence, was given pitifully small parts. She made most of the bel canto melody, however brief, in Oh, dichiuso e il firmamento (Nabucco), but the onomatopoeic and drumming beat in Rataplan (La Forza) with the chorus was underwhelming.  

That leaves soprano Jessica Chen (above, with conductor Darrell Ang), head of voice at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, who completely stole the show. Remembered for her chilling portrayal of Turandot  in 2008,  she brought a wondrous range and intensity to the recitative and aria of Ecco l’orrido campo (Un Ballo in Maschera), her perfect intonation and emotional heft carried into Pace, pace, mio Dio (La Forza). She garnered the loudest cheers, and deservedly so. And if one wondered if claques existed in Singapore, they most certainly do.

The Singapore Lyric Opera Orchestra has improved vastly over the years in terms of sensitivity and instrumental prowess, which showed in purely orchestral numbers from La Forza, I Vespri Siciliani and Aida.  The small choir of 25 women’s voices (men are a particularly rare resource here) coped well in the Witches Chorus from Macbeth.

The four solo voices came together mellifluously for the marvellous Quartet from Rigoletto and that indestructible Brindisi (Drinking Song) from La Traviata which closed the concert. Taken at an all-too-leisurely pace, that built-in encore was itself encored, the second time at a slightly more champagne-infused mood which brought on a standing ovation.

All photographs courtesy of Singapore Lyric Opera.

VERDI'S LA TRAVIATA / Singapore Lyric Opera / Review

VERDI’S LA TRAVIATA

Singapore Lyric Opera

Esplanade Theatre

Monday (9 September 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 11 September 2013 with the title "Vibrant Verdi in troubling times".

These must be troubling times for Western opera in Singapore. The Singapore Lyric Opera (SLO) is caught in a Catch-22 situation. Due to its small annual budget and limited funding, miniscule compared to the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO), it is constrained to just two major productions a year.

When it mounts operas that are less familiar or popular, such as Don Giovanni and Manon Lescaut last year, it plays to small houses and a fiscal deficit. Forced to bring in the revenue and justify its existence, it goes through an ever-perpetuating cycle of warhorses, which invariably involve these six operas – La Traviata, La Boheme, Carmen, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and The Magic Flute.

The cycle has just been completed, and is ready to begin again. Is this healthy for the cultivation of the artform and its appreciation? What happened to experimentation and breaking new ground? Does anyone remember the days when SLO took on Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Verdi’s Macbeth, Gounod’s Faust or even Leong Yoon Pin’s Bunga Mawar?

By all accounts, this year has been an ultra-conservative one, which opened with Puccini’s Madama Butterfly to make up for the adventures of 2012 and 2011 (which had a splendid Salome). And thanks to the Verdi bicentenary, La Traviata has been brought out again, in expense of first time productions of Othello, The Force of Destiny, The Masked Ball or Aida. Did anyone mention this is the year of Richard Wagner and Benjamin Britten too?

To SLO’s credit, what it accomplishes with so little money borders on miraculous, the artistic equivalent of feeding five thousand with two fish and three loaves of bread. Even if the usual suspects were rounded up for the international cast of Traviata, one could be grateful that this was no tired rerun.

A double-take was needed to ascertain that the minx in red seated on the grand piano (above) when the curtain rose was indeed soprano Nancy Yuen in the lead role of Violetta Valery. Kudos to her make-up artist and hair stylist for making her look the part of a pill-popping, alcohol-swilling and heavily botoxed demimondaine opposite Japanese tenor Kota Murakami’s youthful Alfredo (below).

Although her actual age is an industry secret, Yuen is ageless in this role, whipping off the coloratura runs of Ah, fors’e lui… Sempre libera effortlessly and with much natural flair. Her range of expressions grew exponentially, not least in the moving Second Act exchange with Korean baritone Song Kee Chang’s Germont. By the final scene complete with a real hospital bed, she had been aged irremediably but her delivery of Addio del passato and the tender duet Parigi o cara with Murakami held the greatest poignancy.

A technological Traviata, updated to the present.

Director Stephen Barlow had the setting updated to the present, with the cast toting cell-phones, iPads and headphones, and Alfredo attired in t-shirt, jeans and sneakers. There were anachronistic references to louis as currency and carriages as transport, as in the original libretto, but these were minor quirks. Even consumption was not mentioned (Violetta did not cough even once); thus “this disease” might be presumed as HIV. The sets were kept simple, except for fussy screen projections that were too literal (falling pills, playing cards and the Eiffel Tower) or plain barmy (red blood cells whenever “this disease” was mentioned).

The supporting cast was strong, including Lemuel dela Cruz (Gastone), Anna Koor (Flora), Tan Sin Sim (Annina) and Brent Allcock (Douphol), and the SLO Chorus augmented by Filipino singers injected their scenes with vitality and realism. The SLO Orchestra conducted by SSO Associate Conductor Joshua Kangming Tan accompanied with great sensitivity and responsiveness, and has become the pride of the musical theatre scene.

A real hospital bed dominated the final scene.

This production could easily have been felled by over-predictability, but familiarity was not translated into the run of the mill. That is the pride of the SLO. Now someone high up in the National Arts Council needs to have a heart-to-heart talk with opera practitioners about the future of opera in Singapore and possibility of increased funding. SLO can become as big as the SSO, but all it needs is that extra push and lots more cash. 

All photographs by courtesy of Singapore Lyric Opera.

PUCCINI'S MADAMA BUTTERFLY / Singapore Lyric Opera / Review

PUCCINI’S MADAMA BUTTERFLY

Singapore Lyric Opera

Esplanade Theatre

Friday (1 February 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 February 2013 with the title "Butterfly soars to new heights".

The Singapore Lyric Opera was on course to have staged four consecutive operas new to its repertoire for the first time, but it turned its back on the double bill of Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi, and settled on the familiar favourite Madama Butterfly instead. It was a stroke of pragmatism and expediency, which transformed looming box-office disaster to full houses.

This was its third production of the best-loved tear-jerker, and the first without veteran soprano Nancy Yuen in the titular role. She had been spotted in the audience looking very relaxed, as her younger Japanese colleague Mako Nishimoto stole the show. It would seem that the part of Cio-Cio-San was tailor-made for her, the tragic Oriental who gave only love but reaped misfortune.

Nishimoto sang as she lived her character, fraught with tenderness, passion, anxieties and terminal despair. Her voice was sweetness itself, but was capable of tumultuous shifts as her mood traversed many shades of darkness. In the Second Act, her aria Un bel di (One Fine Day) was pure radiance captured in a bottle, and when girlish anticipation turned into the cold realisation of her partner’s treachery, these were etched on her face and ultimately her singing.

Butterfly’s tragedy was born from a clash of cultures and expectations. This was mirrored in Spanish tenor Israel Lozano’s Pinkerton, whose oblivious and callous posture was apparent from the outset. She was, after all, a plaything even if the shared chemistry in the First Act love duet seemed like the real thing. The fact that Lozano garnered not a few boos at the end was testament to his believability.

       

The supporting cast was excellent in all respects. Anna Koor (the brow-beaten Suzuki), John Antoniou (the sympathetic Consul Sharpless) and Lemuel dela Cruz (the slimy marriage broker Goro) added to the characterisation and interest of the story. The chorus scenes were lively and colourful, with director Andrew Sinclair’s attention to the minutiae of details being particularly delightful.

Did anyone notice Butterfly’s cousin (a bit part sung by young soprano Su Yiwen) and how jealous she got at the wedding ceremony? Even more significant is the non-singing role played by Andrei Rasmussen, as Butterfly’s son Sorrow (above), who acted most naturally and responded to her every gesture as an innocent and loving 3-year-old would.

The set design by Christopher Chua was kept deliberately simple, with sliding doors playing a pivotal part in separating public scenes from what is kept private. Deborah Png’s concept of lighting was stunning in its effectiveness; fiery red for the Bonze’s menacing intrusion (above) and the phases of a full moon for the musical entr’acte into the final scene.

This was one production where the SLO Orchestra conducted by Joshua Kangming Tan sounded close to faultless. When the orchestral playing complements the singing to the point that it becomes a seamless part of the action by not bringing undue attention to itself, it has done its job well. This may well be SLO’s finest production yet.

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly plays for two more shows, on Monday and Tuesday evenings. Be sure to catch it.

Photographs courtesy of Singapore Lyric Opera.

THE ALPHABET SERIES: C IS FOR CHILDREN CANTILLATING / The Sing Song Club / Review

THE ALPHABET SERIES:

C IS FOR CHILDREN CANTILLATING

The Sing Song Club

The Living Room @ The Arts House

Saturday 19 January 2013

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 January 2013 with the title "C is for charming chants".

The Sing Song Club’s ambitious 26-part Alphabet Series of art song recitals has reached the letter C. Its 90-minute recital of 20^th century song cycles inspired by the subject of childhood and extreme youth was attended by just 21 people, but that did not dampen the spirits of the performers on a dank, rainy evening. 

The group’s leader, the youthful tenor Adrian Poon, had the honour of singing two song cycles. The first was Francis Poulenc’s Quatre Chansons pour Enfants, where he negotiated its tricky and rapidly articulated French with relative ease. The playful, ironic spirit of the personalities who inhabited these songs were well characterised, lyricism and wit being the hallmark of the French composer whose 50^th death anniversary was being commemorated this year. 

The extremely versatile Richard Rodney Bennett, who died just a few weeks ago, was also remembered with his Songs Before Sleep. These six very diverse shorts, contemporary and occasionally jazz-inflected, also found a sympathetic interpreter in Poon. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, began with the same words as the familiar version, but took on the style of a Broadway musical number.

Benjamin Britten, born exactly one century ago, had a lifelong affinity for children. His five songs in A Charm of Lullabies gave mezzo-soprano Anna Koor and pianist Shane Thio a share of dissonant moments, the melodic line often at odds with the thorny piano writing. No fault of the performers, such was Britten’s sense of aesthetics which juxtaposed A Charm with its strident declamations “Quiet! Sleep!” that would wake the dead, with the truly soothing The Nurse’s Song, which Koor delivered as well as a mother could.  

The only familiar song cycle was Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children), sung by the veteran baritone William Lim. Here is a voice that has matured over the years, such that the reflections on mortality rang out with a world-weary yet burnished poignancy that sounded heartfelt and sincere. Through the tempest of In diesem Wetter (In This Weather), Lim easily overcame the onslaught from the keyboard accompaniment.

Lim closed the evening with Singaporean Zechariah Goh Toh Chai’s Where Are You, My Little Ones?, a lament composed on the aftermath of the 2004 Asian tsunami tragedy. The words “Did you call my name? Did you say goodbye?”, spoken rather than sung, hung on like a pall through the song’s clear and unequivocal message. It was a sober and contemplative end to a concert that should have been attended by far more music-lovers.

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