SONGS OF OUR FOREFATHERS III / Lirica Arts / Review

 

SONGS OF OUR FOREFATHERS III

Lirica Arts

Esplanade Recital Studio

Friday (26 September 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 30 September 2025 with the title "Chinese art songs take centre stage in Lirica Arts' adventurous series".

Besides presenting chamber opera productions, Lirica Arts led by local baritone Martin Ng also lives up to its name by promoting the cause of art songs. In the third concert of its Songs of Our Forefathers series, some 19 Chinese art songs were performed, illustrating the sheer variety within this genre.

The Chinese language provided several millennia of source material, from Han dynasty (c.200 BC to 200 AD) texts through to the present day. Although presented in Mandarin, projected surtitles in both Chinese and English were a boon.

Beginning with songs accompanied by pianist Beatrice Lin, the evening felt like a recital of German lieder. Chinese soprano Peng Ying opened with three songs, Li Yan’s The Green Jadeite Bowl (On The First Night of the New Year), Wang Long’s The Ornamented Zither and Fu Jing’s Qing Ming (Tomb Sweeping Day), based on Han verse. Despite its sober content, the last asked, “Where is the wine shop?”, suggesting the ancients also had similar urges and vices as us. The songs were Romantic in idiom although through-composed rather than strophic in form.

Peng emoted well, her voice possessing heft, later flexing coloratura acrobatics in Xu Jingxin’s Fantasia of a Moonlit Night by the Spring River, which was spectacular. She also sang a Suzhou Pingtan number, Ode to the Butterfly, with lyrics by no less than Chairman Mao Zedong.

Local tenor Shaun Lee bared his heart and vulnerability in Huang Zi’s Homesickness and Liu Xue An’s Song of the Red Bean with words from the Qing dynasty. Baritone Ng’s songs juxtaposed polar sides of love relationships, Li Yan’s The Phoenix Seeking His Mate and To a Faithless Husband, the latter being a song of farewell after a change of heart.

Song dynasty polymath poet Su Shi’s words were celebrated after the intermission. Beijing Opera artist Tian Ping was introduced in Qingzhu’s The Yangtze River Flows East alongside tenor Lee. Her highly stylised singing, with nasal overtones, brought authenticism when heard on her own.

The union of Beijing opera and Western-styled singing in Huang Zi’s Song of the Southern Country in duet with Ng was however jarring in the extreme, like oil and water. Throw in Wang Yan Tong’s jinghu (the highest pitched huqin) with its piercing sonority in Yang Nailin’s Ode to the Pear Blossom, even voices struggle to get heard.

The highlight of the evening, also the longest song, was the world premiere of local composer Chua Jon Lin’s Melody of the River Town. Sung by baritone Ng, this was a contemporary work unafraid to experiment. String piano technique, including directly plucking the strings produced an otherwordly effect, over which Ng mused about separation and homecoming. Moving from a sedate pace to agitation, heavy chords and Bartok-like ostinatos were likely to move emotions.

The two-hour concert closed with all the performers joined by host Wenxia (also a soprano) for Zhong Xingmin’s Lan Ting Xu (Orchid Pavilion Preface), based on ancient calligraphy by Wang Xizhi, and popularised by Taiwanese singer-songwriter Jay Chou. The old met the new this evening and with its hits and misses, Lirica Arts is encouraged to continue searching and discovering.

PUCCINI - A LIFE IN 7 WOMEN / Lirica Arts / Review

 

PUCCINI – A LIFE IN 7 WOMEN 

Lirica Arts 

Esplanade Recital Studio 

Friday (2 August 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 August 2024 with the title "Japanese soprano Mako Nishimoto sings with power in Lirica Arts' Puccini tribute".

Commemorating the centenary of his death, local chamber opera company Lirica Arts presented a tribute to Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini by performing highlights from eight operas spanning the years 1883 to 1924. Curated and presented by Shridar Mani, much research and detailed history was crammed into 100 illuminating minutes of music and oration. 

Puccini was deeply in love with the female voice. The roles of Cio-Cio San, Tosca, Mimi, Turandot and Liu come to mind, but the seven women in the title also included Puccini’s ambitious mother Albina and his mistress-turned-wife Elvira. All of them shaped his musical life and helped seal his reputation as Western classical opera’s most popular and perhaps greatest-ever composer. 

Given its subject, sopranos dominated the concert accompanied by splendid collaborative pianist Beatrice Lin. Korean soprano Renata Hann opened the concert with Anna’s aria Non ti scordar di me from Puccini’s first opera Le Villi (The Fairies), revealing a sweetness of tone and excellent vocal control. 

As each opera was presented chronologically, Manon Lescaut was next. Japanese soprano Mako Nishimoto, who stole the show in Singapore Lyric Opera’s 2013 production of Madama Butterfly, displayed a healthy ringing vibrato in In quelle trine morbide. Opposite her, Des Grieux’s aria Donna non vidi mai sung by tenor Shaun Lee was put to a strain at its highest notes. 

The excerpts from La Boheme came from the Third Act. Donde lieta usci was Mimi’s touching aria of separation from her lover Rodolfo, with Nishimoto at her most sympathetic. Following that was the evening’s only quartet, Addio dolce svegliare alla mattina, with the opera’s two couples (Mimi and Rodolfo, Musetta and Marcello) breaking up, but for different reasons and to tragicomic effect. 

The concert’s other male singer was baritone Martin Ng, founder-director of Lirica Arts. His imperious role in the Te Deum as villainous police chief Baron Scarpia in Tosca was convincing for its gravity and grim determination. The opera’s finest aria, Vissi d’arte, belonged to Nishimoto’s Tosca, whose powerful performance will be remembered by many present. 

And who was not waiting for her Madama Butterfly? She did not sing the familiar Un bel di vedremo but rather the opera’s heart-wrenching final minutes in Tu tu piccolo iddio, where Cio-Cio San’s act of seppuku becomes inevitable. 

Two relative rarities came in Ch’il bel sogno di doretta from La Rondine (The Sparrow) and Senza Mamma from Suor Angelica (Sister Angelica), both brilliantly helmed by Hann. Dramatic soprano roles should not overshadow those of a lyric soprano’s, and this concert succeeded by highlighting this aspect. 

Turandot was Puccini’s final opera, left uncompleted at the time of his premature demise. The vast contrasts between blood-thirsty Turandot and self-sacrificing Liu were laid bare by Nishimoto and Hann in an astonishing sequence that included In questa reggia (Turandot), Tanto amore segreto and Tu che di gel sei cinta (Liu) before closing with Liu’s Funeral. And that was where Puccini finally laid down his pen.

MADELINE GOH Violin Recital / STORIES FROM THE HEART by Voice of the Cello / Review

MADELINE GOH Violin Recital

Esplanade Recital Studio

Wednesday (4 January 2023)

 

STORIES FROM THE HEART

Voice of the Cello

School of the Arts Concert Hall

Sunday (8 January 2023)

 

This review was published in The Straits Times on 10 January 2022 with the title "Concerts showcase Singapore's wealth of string talent".

If one wondered how Singapore produces so many excellent young musicians in recent decades, the answer can be attributed to good teaching. Pioneering classical musician Goh Soon Tioe (1911-1982), violinist, conductor, pedagogue and impresario, saw to the beginning of this renaissance. His legacy lives on through his many students and awards bestowed in his memory.

Photo: Gilbert Chan

 

The tenth and latest recipient of the Goh Soon Tioe Centenary Award was 15-year-old violinist Madeline Goh Anyi, former student of violinist Min Lee, who is pursuing pre-college studies at the Salzburg Mozarteum. Her hour-long recital was a showcase of precocity balanced by maturity beyond tender years.

Photo: Gilbert Chan

 

In Mozart’s Violin Sonata in B flat major (K.378), the hallmarks of fine musicianship were displayed, including clarity of articulation, beautiful cantabile tone, excellent intonation and  attention to phrasing and nuances. There was never a moment of artifice as she and pianist Beatrice Lin sang their way through to its virtuosic close in double-quick time.  

Photo: Gilbert Chan

 

In unaccompanied music, Goh was nigh unimpeachable in two movements from J.S.Bach’s Sonata No.2 in A major, with the fugue’s complex counterpoint mastered with aplomb. Scaling fiendish heights in Paganini’s mercurial Caprice No.10 and contemporary Austrian composer Gerhard Wimberger’s Toi, Toi, Toi (2016), tricks and cliches of the trade were laid out and skilfully dissected with a surgeon’s precision.

 

There were moments to relax in Eugene Ysaye’s salon-like Mazurka (In A Distance) in gentle triple-time but all stops were pulled for Wieniawski’s showpiece Polonaise in D major,  bringing down the house. As an encore, Madeline was joined by elder sister Mathea (award recipient in 2016) in the Allegro movement from Prokofiev’s Sonata for two violins (Op.56), a show of perfect synchrony demonstrating that musical talent does run in families.

Madeline Goh receives her big cheque
from Vivien Goh,Goh Soon Tioe's daughter.

 

If one thought pianists and violinists were main foci of attention, young cellists have begun to have their say. Stories From The Heart was a fundraiser for The Business Times Budding Artist Fund presented by Voice of the Cello, a collective mentored by veteran cellist Natasha Liu. No less than 40 cellists performed in this impressive showcase.

Amelie See with Michelle Seah

 

Its first half highlighted solo works, with 10-year-old Amelie See opening in Bohemian composer David Popper’s Polonaise de Concert with a display of confidence and poise. Even younger was 8-year-old Grace Joy Chee who blew away Saint-Saëns’ showpiece Allegro Appasionato with relative ease, followed by Ji Yuanjun (10) in the finale from Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C major, possessing both lightness and fleet-fingeredness.

Grace Joy Chee

Natalie Yong

 

By way of contrast, Lucas Liow (11) bared his heart and soul in the contemplative Andante movement of Rachmaninov’s ever-popular Cello Sonata, while Natalie Yong (13) luxuriated in the cantabile opening of Paganini’s Variations on Rossini’s Moses in Egypt, and never faltered as the work got increasingly thorny by the minute. All the works were partnered by pianist Michelle Seah.

 

The concert’s second half featured cello ensemble works ranging from three to twelve cellists. Six six-year-olds delighted in Tchaikovsky’s Sugar Plum Fairy while twelve seven-to-nines had their work cut out in William Squire’s very animated Tarantella. Stealing the show were four immaculately dressed lasses in all-white outfits for Saint-Saëns’ The Swan, and a choreographed  Elgar’s Salut d’amour for three cellists accompanying three dancers befitting the gracefulness of the music. Just too cute for words.

 

Six twelve-year-olds tackled Gabriel Fauré’s Elegie, calling for sobriety and depth of expression without piano accompaniment, while Shostakovich’s Waltz No.2 closed the variety programme on a lighter note. The grand finale saw the entire ensemble of 40 cellists converge in Harold Arlen’s Over The Rainbow, with a melody that would melt even the stoutest of hearts. Singapore’s got talent, and there are no two ways about it.  

Photo: Voice of the Cello

DON'T MISS THIS CONCERT: SÉRINE DE LABAUME Vocal Recital on 22 October 2021

DON’T MISS THIS CONCERT:

SÉRINE DE LABAUME Vocal Recital 

Esplanade Recital Studio 

Friday 22 October 2021 / 7.30 pm

What kind of soprano is Sérine de Labaume?

Lyric coloratura? Dramatic coloratura? Or coloratura moving on to lyric?

Lucia? Violetta? Queen of the Night or Liù… Which role suits her the best?

After a silly electric scooter accident in Berlin where she was thrown off the scooter and landed on her chest, she couldn’t expand her ribcage anymore. Her signature high notes were gone for a little while and during that time, instead of stop singing, she ventured into a different, more lyric repertoire such as Liu, Micaela, Butterfly, la Wally… Her high notes came back soon after and since then she’s been expanding her repertoire towards lyric all the while keeping her coloratura repertoire as well.

Come join Sérine de Labaume and pianist Beatrice Lin as she interprets different operatic heroines and let us know what you think.

Programme:

DONIZETTI Regnava nel silenzio 

(Lucia di Lammermoor)

GOUNOD Ah, je veux vivre (Roméo et Juliette)

PUCCINI Signore ascolta (Turandot)

PUCCINI Tu che di gel sei cinta (Turandot)

PUCCINI Un bel di (Madama Butterfly)

MASSENET Suis-je gentille ainsi (Manon)

PUCCINI Vissi d’arte (Tosca)

VERDI E strano… Sempre libera (La Traviata)

Esplanade Recital Studio

Friday 22 October 2021, 7:30 pm 

Tickets on Peatix : https://serine1.peatix.com

NO TENORS ALLOWED / Lirica Arts / Review

NO TENORS ALLOWED

Lirica Arts

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (19 September 2021)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 September 2021 with the title "Soprano and baritone get their dues in heartfelt duets".

 

The cheeky title marking the debut of newly-formed opera society Lirica Arts plays on the fact that tenors often steal the show in operas. Not this evening, they don’t, as the 90-minute concert centred wholly on duets for soprano and baritone.

 

Tenors usually portray heroes, while deeper-voiced baritones mostly play jealous rivals, fatherly and avuncular sorts, pitiable buffoons or outright villains. The soprano-baritone duet, while less glamourous, are often more complex and multi-layered. These still pack in emotional heft as amply demonstrated by soprano Teng Xiang Ting and baritone Martin Ng. Both singers are already  veterans having helmed pivotal roles despite their relative youth, and their experience showed.

 

Opening the show was Ng singing Tonio’s disclaimer in the Prologue of Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci, advising listeners that the stage mirrors life, with lines of distinction often blurred. There was no accompanying orchestra but pianist Beatrice Lin’s contribution was so good that none was needed. Shridhar Mani, a most engaging host, filled in the intrigues between the genders.

 

A spirit of levity occupied duets from two comic operas. In Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, Ng’s Malatesta plots subterfuge by getting Teng’s Norina to impersonate a woman of virtue in Pronto Io Son! In Dunque Io Son, Tu Non Mi Inganni from Rossini’s The Barber Of Seville, Teng’s Rosina is abetted by Ng’s Barber to have a tryst. In both instances, the chicanery involved revealed an instinctual and playful chemistry between the two.

 

Teng is the more expressive and better actor, her brightly ringing voice always a pleasure to behold. She was matched by Ng’s more stoic demeanor, whose steadfastness became a pillar of strength throughout. When the ante was upped in more serious duets, dramatics were also ratcheted accordingly, especially in the evening’s lengthiest duet.

 

Pura Siccome Un’Angelo was the focal point in Act II of Verdi’s La Traviata. The consumptive demi-monde Violetta’s act of self sacrifice following her lover’s father Germont’s pleas was angst-filled yet intensely lyrical, leaving the listener chastened and saddened on her behalf.

 

Two further bleeding chunks confirmed that duets could also lead to fatal consequences. Silvio! A Quest’iora from Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci was a follow up to the concert’s prologue. The love that united Nedda and Silvio was an illicit one. Their ardent proclamations, although realistic and lovingly voiced, provided brief bliss but concealed ill fates.  

 

The over-protective relationship between father and daughter in Verdi’s Rigoletto was fleshed out in Tutte Le Feste Al Tempio...Si Vendetta!, which had some of the evening’s most moving music. Regret and rage were conflicting emotions displayed by Teng and Ng respectively, the pair oblivious to the tragedy to follow.

 

Superb singing, enhanced by Tang Xinxin’s no nonsense direction, Theresa Chan’s evocative costumes and Zennie Casann’s effective make-up, laid bare the human emotions and frailties to be found in opera. One only wished the programme’s printed libretto and transliterations, rendered almost unreadable in dim lighting, were replaced by projected surtitles instead. Nonetheless, this was a fine first splash for Singapore’s newest opera company.