MOST HEAVENLY MUSIC OF THE SPHERES / 6th Singapore Lieder Festival / Review

MOST HEAVENLY MUSIC OF THE SPHERES!

6^th Singapore Lieder Festival

The Sing Song Club

The Arts House

Friday (28 October 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 31 October 2016 with the title "Shakespeare in songs".

Perhaps no figure in literary history has had the same impact of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) on the English language, with his plays, sonnets and poems. On the 400^th anniversary of his death, the Sing Song Club has devoted the entire 6^th edition of the Singapore Lieder Festival to song settings of Shakespeare's verses.

The second of four evenings was a programme of 20 songs drawn from his comedies and problem plays. Thirteen plays were represented, sung with spirit and verve by five local singers accompanied by pianist Shane Thio.

Sing Song Club co-founder tenor Adrian Poon alone sang in ten songs. His mellow, natural and unforced voice was ideally suited for songs with flowing lyrical lines, such as Martin Shaw's I Know A Bank (from A Midsummer Night's Dream) and Patrick Doyle's Sigh No More, Ladies (Much Ado About Nothing).

Yet when it came to varying styles, such as two settings of Fancy (The Merchant Of Venice), he was fully attuned to each idiom and their nuances. Benjamin Britten's Fancie was more rhythmic, emphasising bell-like staccato phrases, while Francis Poulenc's Fancy was serene and less animated, yet delivered with equal vividness.

If there were one song that was alone worth the price of entry, that would be the newly-commissioned Come Away, Death (Twelfth Night) by Zechariah Goh Toh Chai which received its World Premiere. Also the longest song, its predominant mood was bleakly placid, but giving way to an atmosphere of soothing calm, with Poon's sympathetic entreaties finding an uncanny resonance with quiet drones on the piano. 

Soprano Cherylene Liew's exquisitely poised voice accounted for Hugo Wolf's Lied Des Transferierten Zettel (A Midsummer Night's Dream, sung in German), Ernest Chausson's Chanson D'Amour (Measure For Measure, French) and Haydn's She Never Told Her Love (Twelfth Night, English), which provided further contrasts.

Baritone Daniel Fong was given the honour of opening the recital, where a nice boomy glow to his voice graced Glen Roven's I To The World (Comedy Of Errors) and Schubert's Was Ist Sylvia? (Two Gentlemen Of Verona). The latter was another song with two different settings presented, and Eric Coates' more lyrical Who Is Sylvia? (sung by Poon) resembled a popular song.

In between the songs, there were a couple of amateur readings of Shakespeare, including favourite lines of Poon and Thio which lent a more personal touch to the proceedings. Thio's best loved quote from Henry V turned out to be one of the Bard's wittiest (and cruelest) insults.

The songs for multiple voices included Frederick Keel's You Spotted Snakes (A Midsummer Night's Dream) with soprano Yap Shin Min and mezzo-soprano Ng Sheh Feng, Liza Lehmann's How Sweet The Moonlight (The Merchant Of Venice) and George Shearing's Fie On Sinful Fantasy (Merry Wives Of Windsor). Bob Chilcott's Come Unto These Yellow Sands (The Tempest) closed the delightful evening with three women's voices in the brightest of spirits.    

MOTHER, DAUGHTER, WIFE & LOVER / Singapore Lyric Opera Gala Concert / Review

MOTHER, DAUGHTER, WIFE & LOVER

Singapore Lyric Opera Gala Concert

Friday (23 November 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 26 November 2012 with the title "Sheer opulence in synergy of women's voices".

The Singapore Lyric Opera’s annual gala concert was a tribute to women in opera, showcasing a wide spectrum of their glorious characters and roles. Cue an established diva, a rising talent and a vampish pastor’s wife, all the ingredients for an enjoyable musical evening were there for the taking.

Young soprano Cherylene Liew, better known as the SLO Children’s Choir conductor, opened accounts with Puccini’s popular O mio babbino caro (Gianni Schicchi) with a svelte, seamless beauty. A daughter’s love for her father, earnest and true, later transformed into the seductive charm of water sprite Rusalka, in Dvorak’s Song to the Moon. She may not have the biggest of voices, but it was the heart and soul to her renderings that mattered most.

Veteran soprano Nancy Yuen commanded the stage like no other, running the full cache that included rapt pianissimos for Mozart’s Ach ich Fühl (The Magic Flute), longing in vain in Puccini’s Un bel di (Madama Butterfly), and unleashing dizzying coloratura turns that sparkled in the waltz-song Je ve vivre from Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet. Whether singing under the voice or hitting highest registers, La Yuen (the moniker christened by Singapore’s only opera blog The Mad Scene) has always been convincing.

The third singer was mezzo-soprano Anna Koor, whose maturing voice over the years has made her much in demand, was not overawed in this company. Although Verdi’s Stride la vampa (Il Trovatore) could have done with greater vehemence and sense of vengefulness, her creamy, dreamy tone in Saint-Saens’s Mon coeur s’ouvre a ta voix (Samson et Dalila) was judged to perfection. In the Caribbean rhythms of Bernstein’s What a Movie (Trouble in Tahiti), her jazzy nuances were all but drowned out by the exuberant orchestral accompaniment.

The synergy that transpired when two or more voices came together showed how well the three singers blended. The bel canto lines of Bellini’s Mira o Norma (Norma) simply delighted as both Yuen and Koor brought the first half to a heady close. The tandem of Yuen and Liew for Mozart’s Sull’Aria (The Marriage of Figaro) came across with mellowness and heart-felt sincerity. When all three joined briefly in the Final Trio of Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, the result was sheer opulence and pleasure.

The Singapore Lyric Opera Orchestra conducted by Joshua Kangming Tan has become more than just a pit orchestra. The brass was in rampant form for the Triumphal March from Verdi’s Aida while the strings impressed throughout, with ensemble tautly knit in intermezzos from Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and Madama Butterfly. Only the Prelude to Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde sounded under-rehearsed.

Someday the SLO might just conceive a concert for just tenors, baritones and basses, but women’s voices – a love affair for many an opera composer - will always be missed.

MOZART'S DON GIOVANNI / Singapore Lyric Opera / Review

MOZART’S DON GIOVANNI
Singapore Lyric Opera
Esplanade Theatre
Saturday (25 February 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 February 2012 with the title "Don of a new age".

Considering that Don Giovanni is widely regarded as Mozart’s greatest opera, it comes as some surprise that the Singapore Lyric Opera had waited some 20 years to stage it. This may be due to the fact that there had been two previous productions in Singapore during the late 1980s and mid-1990s by groups from Britain and Hungary. This, the first featuring all Asian voices, however has much to recommend.

First, veteran director Tom Hawkes does not tamper with the story or setting as a tragicomedy and morality tale, instead allowing the relationships between the characters to be clearly defined. The two lead baritones, Song Kee Chang’s Don Giovanni and Huang Rong Hai’s Leporello, shared a marvellous chemistry together as master and serf (above). Huang’s comical mix of hero-worship and contempt for the Don was well characterised, as was Song’s nonchalant and callous way with women.

The excellent supporting cast was completely Singaporean, now achievable because a critical mass of experienced and young local opera singers exists today. Rising to the fore was soprano Cherylene Liew’s sympathetic portrayal of purity and goodness in the role of Zerlina (above). Her two arias Batti batti, Vedrai carino and the famous duet La ci darem la mano with the Don call to notice an impressive new talent.

But why was tenor Melvin Tan’s believable Don Ottavio denied his few minutes in the limelight of Il mio tesoro? Its excision to keep the show under three hours (the final curtain came down one minute before eleven) seemed cruel. He and relative veterans Nancy Yuen (Donna Anna), Yee Ee Ping (Donna Elvira), William Lim (The Commendatore), Martin Ng (Masetto) and the dependable SLO Orchestra conducted by Joshua Kangming Tan provided a firm bedrock to the proceedings.

Unlike the two previous productions which barely had sets to speak of, Christopher Chua’s backdrops were effective and simple, with an emphasis on stone that seemed to pre-empt the arrival of the stone guest for the final dinner scene. The Don’s fire and brimstone comeuppance, a rare scene with three low male voices (below) and an opportunity for special stage effects, however seemed a tad underwhelming.

With the unrepentant philanderer safely dispatched to Hades, the final sextet was a joyous denouement but was the descending image of a crucified Jesus Christ’s head appropriate? Surely this sent mixed signals about sin, recalcitrance and eternal damnation. Or had the Don made yet another one of his audacious escapes?

This production of Don Giovanni plays at Esplanade Theatre 8 pm this evening (Monday 27 February) and runs till tomorrow (Tuesday 28 February).

JOY / Singapore Lyric Opera Children's Choir / Review

JOY
Singapore Lyric Opera Choruses
Esplanade Concert Hall
Friday (10 December 2010)

It is no secret that children’s choirs attract the biggest audiences, more so during the Yuletide season. The Singapore Lyric Opera (SLO) has leveraged on this to make its annual Christmas choral concert a popular family affair. Conducted by Khor Ai Ming and Cherylene Liew, the SLO Children’s Choir put on yet another heartrending show, ably supported by its older peers the SLO Youth and Opera Choirs.

The 2-hour long fare began with a processional, as the children smartly dressed in street clothes singing the ancient hymn O Come, Emmanuel as they trooped centrestage. The two opposing groups produced an even unison in their separate chants, and harmonised well for the chorus.

Individual members had moments to shine in solo parts. Trebles Harry Mills and Matthew Bailey were paradigms of clarity and innocence in Cesar Franck’s Panis Angelicus. There was even a barking and yelping canine semi-chorus for The 12 Dogs Of Christmas, a cheeky play on the popular song, with “five golden retrievers” and a “schnauzer with a goatee”.

In Pie Jesu from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem, the solo voice was replaced by grouped singers without losing its poignancy. As a conglomerate, the choir crafted a big expansive sound for Adolphe Adam’s O Holy Night. The older singers remained for John Rutter’s The Lord Bless And Keep You and All Things Bright And Beautiful, the latter with a short cameo from veteran operatic baritone William Lim.

The second half had a more rhythmic feel. The Virgin Mary Had A Baby Boy was given a calypso twist while The Little Drummer Boy took on a bolero beat, aided by the very steady piano accompanist Bertrand Lee. Flautist Sin Jin How joined in Pavane For A Silent Night, which speeded and cheered up Ravel’s sedate classic.

Just to illustrate the variety of songs sung, Mykola Leontovich’s Carol Of The Bells rejoiced in the frisson of tintinnabulation, John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Happy Xmas subtly sounded an anti-war protest and David Meece’s We Are The Reason proselytised on an openly evangelical platform.

Tama Goh’s drums and Tony Makarome’s bass ensured a funky end with a jazzed up and soul-infused Hallelujah Chorus. There was a half-hearted attempt at an audience sing-along and clap-along, but it mattered little. That unmistakable seasonal spirit of cheer had already arrived.

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year / Singapore Lyric Opera Choruses / Review

IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR
Singapore Lyric Opera Choruses
Esplanade Concert Hall
Saturday (12 December 2009)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 14 December 2009.

You know its Yuletide season when children’s and youth choirs come out in full force. The Singapore Lyric Opera (SLO) has three such choruses, numbering just over a hundred, and what a treat they served in a packed Esplanade Concert Hall.

Andy Williams’ eponymous classic It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year opened the proceedings, showcasing even unison singing and simple harmonies. A staggering 29 other songs followed, varied and totally apt for the festivities. The arrangements of Pachelbel’s Canon in D and Bach’s Jesu, Joy Of Man’s Desiring had famous melodies but unfamiliar words. No worries as these came through well despite some hesitant accompaniment from organist Evelyn Lim.

Far more confident was pianist Pang Siu Yuin and harpist Jana Ang Friesova, whose jobs made the listener concentrate on the singers themselves. The solos were lovely in their innocence and vocal projection, such as little Ong Jean Wei in Howard Blake’s Walking In The Air from The Snowman, and the threesome that lit up John Rutter’s For The Beauty Of The Earth.

Most credit should go to conductor Khor Ai Ming (left) whose exactitude ensured that the polyphony, echo effects and syncopations were spot on in three excerpts from Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony Of Carols. She was ably assisted by Cherylene Liew, whose cherry red gown matched the radiance of her solo in Adolphe Adam’s O Holy Night. The young adults of the SLO Chorus joyfully sang the Bell Chorus from Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci, but was plagued by a perennial issue – shortage of male voices. May their Christmas wish of more tenors and basses come true.

The second half was slightly lighter, with pop and gospel elements coming into the fore. There was a stir of recognition in the American Idol audition favourite You Raise Me Up, the old-time hymn Let There Be Peace On Earth and You’ll Never Walk Alone from Carousel. Two numbers from Whoopi Goldberg’s Sister Act (left) drew spontaneous clapping and foot-tapping from the audience.

There was the usual audience sing-along for the medley Seasons Greetings and Rutter’s All Things Bright And Beautiful. If these combined voices did not usher in a feeling of warmth and fuzziness, one might as well be named Ebenezer Scrooge.

Singapore Lyric Opera Children's Choir: THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC / Review

THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC
Singapore Lyric Opera Children’s Choir
Khor Ai Ming & Cherylene Liew, Conductors
Lim Yan, Piano
Esplanade Recital Studio
Saturday (8 August 2009)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 10 August 2009.

This reviewer confesses that a children’s concert would have fallen off the radar if not for having a seven-year-old in tow. Writing as a parent of a somewhat artistic kid, there can be no greater joy than witnessing children sharing their talents, musical or otherwise, even if the standards are not up to scratch.

Thankfully, the Singapore Lyric Opera Children’s Chorus is totally capable of holding its own. Comprising mostly girls (there were only five boys), the 46-strong ensemble entertained with a 90-minute-long potpourri of songs from around the world.

Whether in original score or arrangements, the short works had grateful unison passages, which were carried with much clarity and largely in pitch. The simple harmonisations, as in John Leavitt’s Cantate!, the traditional Irish air Danny Boy and Australian Waltzing Matilda, were also handled by the choir with much ease.

Opportunities for solo and small ensemble singing arose, and were reciprocated with confidence. The trio of boys in The Yellow Rose of Texas, the sextet in a choreographed Honey Bun from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific and the 18-member sub-chorus in Zoltan Kodaly’s Evening Song had their moments under the spotlight.

Asian songs dominated the second half of the evening, beginning with Bengawan Solo and Lenggang Kangkong / Rasa Sayang in Zechariah Goh Toh Chai’s deft transcription. Four harpists provided accompaniment to Dick Lee’s Bunga Sayang (from Kampong Amber), which made for quite a sight.

The diminutive Tan Rong Ting lovingly sang the solo for the Jiangsu folksong Mo Li Hua, which could have done with added amplification, although none was needed for the rousing Japanese marching song Utae Ban Ban. Had the chorus memorised the lyrics for the Abba medley of Mamma Mia!, Thank You For The Music, Dancing Queen and I Have A Dream, and gone for groovy moves, it would have been perfect.

A healthy dose of poignancy tinged the encores, with the late-lamented Michael Jackson’s We Are The World and the National Day Parade favourite, Dick Lee’s Home. Veteran conductor Paul Abisheganaden once had a dream, that Singapore would become a singing nation. These small steps, made by young people like the SLO Children’s Choir, are surely taking us there.