IMPOSSIBLE THINGS / Wayfarer Sinfonietta / Review

IMPOSSIBLE THINGS

Wayfarer Sinfonietta

Esplanade Annexe Studio

Thursday (11 May 2023)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 13 May 2023 with the title "Wayfarer Sinfonietta plays contemporary fare with flair."

 

Established in 2021, Wayfarer Sinfonietta is a professional chamber group that specialises in performing contemporary music and accompanying singers, led by prize-winning young conductor Lien Boon Hua, who is also the director of Yong Siew Toh Conservatory’s new music ensemble OpusNovus. Its latest concert for string ensemble was as uncompromisingly edgy as it was original, putting a marker on future programmes to come.

Photo: Moonrise Studio

 

Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Illumine (2016) exploited all possibilities of string playing, opening the evening with literally a chill. Its skilful use of tremolos, harmonics, slides and explosive pizzicatos generated an unnerving atmosphere. Although one of calm and stasis, it however radiated a strange warmth. The sonorities generated in the blackbox theatre was not unlike the sun casting rays on a frigid Arctic landscape.   

Photo: Moonrise Studio

 

What followed was far more tonal, with American composer Nico Muhly’s three-part song cycle Impossible Things (2009), a setting of six poems by Egypt-born Greek poet Constantine Cavafy (or C.P.Cavafy), translated into English and scored for voice, solo violin and strings. Tenor David Charles Tay was the protagonist, opening with I Believe In The Hereafter. This and each of the subsequent verses translocated the listener to some distinct time and place.

 

His clear diction was complemented by Chan Yoong-Han’s virtuosic violin, serving as partner in commentary as well as conflicting voice. The final part, dated at precisely 27 June 1906,  2 p.m., could not have more diverse subjects, the brutal execution of a teenager followed by the eponymous Impossible Things. Accompanied by repetitious patterns favoured by minimalists, the words “The loveliest music is the one that cannot be played... the best life is the one that cannot be lived.” had a ringing resonance.

Photo: Moonrise Studio

 

After Tay trooped offstage, Chan continued without a break into Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s Nocturne (1994) for solo violin with its grinding dissonances and fiendishly tricky passages. This was a brief return to the desolate and wintry climes that opened the concert, before massed strings erupted into perhaps the programme’s only remotely familiar work, American minimalist John Adams’ Shaker Loops (1978).

If there were any preconceptions that this ensemble was merely a pick-up group of free-lancers, this performance shattered all such illusions. A work demanding such immense precision and incisiveness, playing at neck-breaking pace, could only be accomplished by the best in the land. Scanning faces and names of the players, one found Singapore Symphony Orchestra musicians and competition award-winners among them, and why not?

Look who's playing?
Ng Pei-Sian, Joelle Hsu,
Olivia Chuang & Wang Dandan (from L)
Photo: Moonrise Studio

 

What minimalism looks like,
a view of violinist Chikako Sasaki's score.

The challenge of playing difficult music and surmounting all kinds of odds are what sets true professionals apart. There was a visceral thrill in witnessing the incessant buzz, rapidly shifting rhythms and tonalities of the opening movement Shaking And Trembling. The  middle movements were an epiphany of control and restrain, with no less attention paid to finer details. Closing with more dynamism in A Final Shaking and a surprisingly quiet final bar, the 70-minute-long concert was greeted by nothing less than tumultuous applause.

IN DULCI JUBILO by Red Dot Baroque / CHRISTMAS WITH ROS by Resonance of Singapore / Review

IN DULCI JUBILO

Red Dot Baroque

Chamber @ The Arts House

Saturday (17 December 2022)

 

CHRISTMAS WITH ROS

Resonance of Singapore

Esplanade Recital Studio

Tuesday (20 December 2022)

 

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 December 2022 with the title "Charming chorals for Christmas".

It takes an Ebenezer Scrooge to begrudge the idea of Christmas concerts, events with light festive music where both musicians and audience may be excused for letting down their collective hair to enjoy the moment. There are other occasions for serious reflection during times of pestilence and war, but such concerts make people forget their troubles, albeit for a while.

Photo: Yong Junyi

 

Red Dot Baroque is Singapore’s premier outfit for performing chamber music on period instruments. Its Christmas concert was totally refreshing by programming fare mostly unfamiliar to local audiences. Some people might, however, know the Coventry Carol which opened as a processional, sung by soprano Teng Xiang Ting accompanied by host Rachel Ho on recorder.

 

The ensemble of nine players and two singers then performed a sequence of short suites representing Christmas traditions in different European countries. The sequence started with Italy, Germany and France before closing with England. Which group could have offered Dietrich Buxtehude’s Trio Sonata in G major, performed on two violins (by Brenda Koh and Placida Ho), viola da gamba (Mervyn Lee), theorbo (Christopher Clarke) and organ (Gerald Lim), with such missionary zeal? Or Michel Corrette’s Sinfonia No.1, which brought together French carols as light entertainment?

Photo: Yong Junyi

 

If there were a single work to sum up the evening’s sublime quality, that would be Heinrich Schutz’s Hodie Christus Natus Es (Today Christ Is Born) where the beauty of two voices, Teng and tenor David Charles Tay’s, became intertwined as one, accompanied by just the organ. The titular In Dulci Jubilo by Michael Praetorius received an equally lovely reading, while Tay’s leading of the audience singalong in Wassail, Wassail, All Over The Town got the audience enthusiastically involved.

 

Resonance of Singapore (ROS), led by award-winning choral conductor Toh Ban Sheng, is an a cappella choir formed entirely of professional singers. Its Christmas concert was an equally sparkling affair, opening with the famous Shaker hymn Simple Gifts, in a medley arranged by Toh and Bob Chilcott (once of the King’s Singers). Its eight singers filled the suitably reverberant Esplanade Recital Studio with a cathedral of rich sonority totally befitting the group’s name.

 

John Rutter’s saccharine What Sweeter Music? saw guest countertenor Chan Wei En and pianist Matthew Mak join in the festivities. Chan, fresh out of last weekend’s Die Fledermaus, also delighted in Mozart’s most famous motet Exsultate, Jubilate, revelling in its familiar rounds of Alleluias.

 

In common with Red Dot Baroque’s concert was In Dulci Jubilo, now sounding fuller with more voices involved in R.L.Pearsall’s arrangement. Just as beautiful was Gustav Holst’s In The Bleak Midwinter which sounded anything but bleak with soprano Susanna Pua’s solo contribution. The longest and most serious work was Francis Poulenc’s Quatre Motets pour le temps de Noel (Four Christmas Motets), sung in Latin, rendered sensitively and reverentially.

 

Eleven-year-old Riyan Ballesteros-Pattanayak, a ROS young artist, was given the spotlight in the gorgeous carol Adolphe Adam’s O Holy Night. Discreetly accompanied by soprano Pua and pianist Mak, he sang with a purity of tone and no little confidence.

 

The latter segment of the concert showcased popular seasonal favourites such as The Christmas Song (popularised by Mel Torme), Leontovich’s Carol of the Bells (based on a Ukrainian hymn) and a most animated version of The Twelve Days Of Christmas possible, sung with a panoply of slick actions. The general singalong, with no less than five carols, was surprisingly rousing given the usual reticence of local audiences. Perhaps they had been sufficiently roused by ROS to go one better.  

ROS photographs by courtesy of 

Resonance of Singapore

BENJAMIN BRITTEN'S THE TURN OF THE SCREW / New Opera Singapore / Review

BENJAMIN BRITTEN'S

THE TURN OF THE SCREW

New Opera Singapore

Victoria Theatre

Sunday (2 August 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 August 2015 with the title "New Opera Singapore turns in milestone performance".

For New Opera Singapore's fourth full-length production, the 4-year-old company took on its greatest challenge thus far, the Singapore premiere of Benjamin Britten's 1954 opera The Turn Of The Screw. This is a setting with words by Myfanwy Piper of Henry James' 1898 ghost story of the same title. While this might seem too progressive for Singaporeans' conservative tastes more accustomed to Puccini and Verdi, not to mention box office poison, the chamber opera was ideal for a young and forward-looking company hoping to make its mark.

Only eight singing parts and thirteen instrumentalists were required, and these were expertly marshalled by conductor Chan Wei Shing through its two performances. Britten's music utilised twelve-tone technique and the theme and variations form, which were so sophisticatedly employed as to be almost imperceptible. While the audience will not remember its tunes à la Boheme, it was clearly moved by the singing and acting.

Australian director Stefanos Rassios ensured that each part came across transparently in this gothic-styled suspense-mystery, and sets were kept minimal, with black and white with shades of grey being the only colours on stage. This dichotomy was to differentiate between the forces of innocence and evil (and a certain muddying of the two), that do battle through the course of the opera.

The intriguing story revolves around the care of two orphans, Miles and Flora, by a young governess who encounters the spirits of former caregivers who may be corrupting (or have corrupted) the children. The tension that builds up through its seemingly simple plot gets ratcheted to a fatal end, where “the ceremony of innocence is drowned” (a quote from W.B.Yeats), one in which paedophilia, demon-possession and psychosis could not be ruled out. In short, this was another R-rating that eluded the censors.

The young singers, most already veterans of the New Opera Singapore stable, were well-casted. Qualified lawyer turned soprano Teng Xiang Ting, now studying voice in Manchester, portrayed the conflicted governess with sympathy, one where wide-eyed optimism gets irreversibly transformed into obsession. Opposite her, David Charles Tay sang the spirit of dead valet Peter Quint, whose bright tenor voice and outward charm belied a deeper malevolence.

Sopranos Ashley Chua and Moira Loh sang Miles and Flora respectively, with the former being particularly convincing in conveying boyishness. Supporting well also were sopranos Yujin Kim and Rebecca Li as the ghost of Miss Jessel and housekeeper Mrs Grose. The other singing parts were was provided by tenors Leslie Tay (Driver) and Shaun Lee, whose brief Prologue set the tone for the opera.

An opera with no low vocal roles? That was the peculiar charm of this opera, which had a fairy-like feel to it at the beginning but later grew progressively dark and sinister. Further layers of textures were provided by the vivid orchestral sound, which boasted virtuoso roles from harpist Katryna Tan and pianist Thomas Ang, already well-known as soloists. This coming together of rising local vocal talents, instrumentalists and excellent production values provided for a performance that was far greater than the sum of its parts. 

Like Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which in 1997 represented a high point in the Singapore Lyric Opera's portfolio, Britten's The Turn Of The Screw by New Opera Singapore represents another milestone for opera in Singapore. Can one hope for more edgy productions to come?

Production photographs by courtesy of New Opera Singapore.

DIE FLEDERMAUS / New Opera Singapore / Review

DIE FLEDERMAUS

New Opera Singapore

Victoria Theatre

Sunday (27 July 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 July 2014 with the title "Patricia Mok helps demystify opera".

Die Fledermaus is the title of Johann Strauss the Younger’s most popular operetta, one that has been translated to many languages and performed the world over. New Opera Singapore’s production was acted and sung completely in English, the practice of using the vernacular being widely accepted universally. Thus only a pedant would object to the non-use of the original German, or carp at the title not being the far less poetic The Bat.

Fledermaus in whatever language has to be a sparkling and good-humoured affair, and New Opera Singapore under its Korean-born founder Jeong Ae Ree delivered in heaps and some more. In its favoured tradition of updating the classics, the setting was modern-day yuppie Singapore, with Adele as a Pinoy domestic and numerous references to Korean and Japanese pop culture, all the rage here these days. The ice was immediately broken and the comedy flowed unabated.

The casting with New Opera regulars was excellent. Rosalinde was sung by two home-grown sopranos Teng Xiang Ting and Rebecca Li on separate evenings. Li was her usual feisty self but touched with a vulnerability that made her endearing. Opposite her, David Charles Tay as hubby Eisenstein (both above) gave a totally believable portrayal of smug duplicity, which made it all the more satisfying when hoisted on his own petard.

Young SOTA student Moira Loh’s Adele stole the show with her Leticia Bongnino accent and had two big arias to impress with, including the famous Laughing Song. Even tenor Shaun Lee’s hopelessly in love Alfred, spouting lines from various tenor arias, had much to recommend.

Three Korean singers were invited to helm main cast roles: booming bass-baritone Park Jun Hyeok as the aggrieved Falke, David Daehan Lee as prison governor Frank and alto Son Jung A in the trousers (cross-dressing) role as an implausibly Japanese Orlovsky. Their spoken and sung English was just more than adequate, and surtitles were a great help here.

The set design by Shin Ji-Won and Brian Leong was simple yet effective, but did the party at Club Fledermaus have to look like something out of Patpong rather than Gangnam or Mohamed Sultan? Kim Sook Young’s stage direction was breezily communicative, providing lots of laughs from the audience. The sequence of Eisenstein and Frank impersonating Japanese patrons by desperately reciting Japanese brand names and clichés was a scream.

The orchestra conducted by Chan Wei Shing supported the fast-moving action well, and the small chorus complete with a quartet of pole-dancers gave the Second Act an unusually sleazy feel. The practice of inserting arias and ballets during this segment was passed over for the non-credited appearance of Channel 8 television comedian Patricia Mok as a very sober Barbara, taking the place of non-singing and usually inebriated prison attendant Frosch.

Filling the gap between the Second and Third Acts, her soliloquy in a combination of Singlish and Mandarin was a tour de force of stand-up comedy, casting snooks on singers, actors, musicians and essentially the entire entertainment industry. Mok’s appearance summed up the production’s ethos, which is to demystify the air of elitism surrounding opera and making the genre approachable. New Opera Singapore has succeeded again, with good singing and acting, and not a dull minute in between.

All photos with the kind permission of New Opera Singapore.