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.

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.

UNREQUITED LOVE / Singapore Lyric Opera Gala Concert 2017 / Review

GALA CONCERT 2017:

UNREQUITED LOVE

Singapore Lyric Opera

Esplanade Concert Hall

Thursday (23 November 2017)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 November 2017 with the title "Brave, bold, brilliant".

This year's annual gala concert by the Singapore Lyric Opera provided a glimpse of the future of opera in Singapore. None of the usual SLO suspects featured in this evening of operatic highlights, instead the company boldly rolled out a cast of mostly debutants. Winners of the SLO-Asean Vocal Competition 2016 and SLO-Leow Siak Fah Artists Training Programme Rising Stars accounted for seven new voices among nine singers.

The repertoire choice also had a fresh ring about it, with not a single note of Puccini to be heard. Two very demanding Handel arias opened the evening, with the Competition's 1st prize winner mezzo-soprano Samantha Chong Ying Zing (from Malaysia) doing the honours in Dopo notte from Ariodante.

She had certainly earned that accolade, with a performance of clarity and depth of feeling. In Parto, ma tu ben mio from Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito, she upped the ante, and was not upstaged by the SLO Orchestra's excellent clarinettist Vincent Goh whose obbligato part was just as delicious.

Arguably more spectacular was the 2^nd prize winner soprano Pham Khanh Ngoc (Vietnam) who made light work of Handel's Tornami a vagheggiar from Alcina, and displayed gravity-defying coloratura abilities in Rossini's Bel raggio lusinghier from Semiramide. That last aria was, to these ears and eyes, the loftiest of many high points in the evening.

Singaporean baritone Alvin Tan, who garnered 3^rd prize, was very impressive too, warming up Korngold's Mein sehnen mein Wahnen (Die Tote Stadt) with a rich and burnished tonal colour. This suggests he will have many roles to fulfill in the near future.

The company's artist training programme named in memory of founding chairman Leow Siak Fah which mentors locally-based singers has also borne fruit. Five singers, sopranos Zhang Jie (China) and Cherie Tse (Singapore), mezzo-sopranos Chieko Sato (Japan) and Zerlina Tan (Singapore) and tenor Leslie Tay (Singapore) were involved in ensemble roles from Bizet's Carmen (Act 3) and Mozart's Cosi fan tutte (Act 1).   

The SLO Chorus and Children's Choir livened up the proceedings with choruses from Carmen (Les voici), Cosi fan tutte (Bella vita militar) and Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel (Evening Prayer). It must be said the children did well in the last chorus, despite singing well past their bedtime. The orchestra conducted by Jason Lai (above) played an excellent supporting role throughout, and had the bubbly Overture to Mozart's The Marriage Of Figaro all to itself.  

As a sneak preview to next year's production of Verdi's Aida, two favourite arias were trotted out by two more experienced singers making cameo appearances. Tenor Kee Loi Seng portrayed the heroic Radames in Celeste Aida while soprano Jessica Chen was spine-tingling in Ritorna vincitor.

The evening closed memorably with Gloria al l'Egitto (the Triumphal March) with choir and orchestra. There was no Brindisi (Drinking Song from La Traviata) as encore this time around, but it was stirring all the same.  

A NIGHT OF CABARET / NAFA Vocal Studies / Review

A NIGHT OF CABARET

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts 

Vocal Studies

Lee Foundation Theatre

Thursday (10 March 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 March 2016 with the title "Risque cabaret display".

Cabaret songs form a very specific genre of artsongs, with origins in 1880s Paris at the legendary Le Chat Noir (The Black Cat) nightclub of Montmartre. Its clientele included artists, intellectuals and bohemians, and the music spawned was a sophisticated variety of comedy and satire, with double entendres and social commentary as essentials in the mix.

This 80-minute concert by the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts' Vocal Studies Department headed by Jessica Chen was an entertaining and educational survey, presenting 18 songs by 17 singers and 8 pianists. Two co-hosts provided context and commentary via corny jokes while visuals and song translations were projected on a screen above.

The journey began in France with two songs by Erik Satie, Je Te Veux (I Want You) sung sentimentally by tenor Kevin Lee, a waltz-song followed by the frivolities of La Diva De L'Empire which had soprano Tan Hui Yen hamming up the part. Theatricality and wit played a large part in the success of cabaret songs, and there were hits and misses along the way.

Soprano Angela Cortez coped with very high registers needed for Francis Poulenc's Violon and was more successful than Liu Gelin in the well-known Les Chemins De L'Amour (The Pathways Of Love), which proved elusive for her studied demeanour and lack of abandon.   

Arnold Schoenberg wrote eight Brettl-Lieder for Ernst von Wolzogen's Berlin-based cabaret theatre Überbrettl, five of which were sung here. Take away the suggestive and saucy German lyrics, and one gets some of the atonalist's most melodious music. Cortez fared better in Galathea (which shockingly had paedophilic lines), and two cross-dressing sopranos Cherie Tse and Sim Weiyang quite convincingly accounted for Gigerlette and Der Genügsame Liebhaber (The Contented Suitor). They were, after all, singing from a gentleman's viewpoint.

Tenor Kee Chun Kiat recounted the “boom boom boom” palpitations of an insatiable lover in Aria from Dem Spiegel Von Arcadien (The Mirror Of Arcadia), while mezzo-soprano Chong Lee Khim had more than she could handle in Einfaltiges Lieder (Simple Song), a misnomer if any.

Benjamin Britten's Tell Me The Truth About Love and Calypso were settings to words by W.H.Auden. The former yielded one of  evening's best performances from soprano Siti Hasia bte Abdul Hakeem, who had a most natural way with words and movements to match. The lightning speed at which soprano Gladys Seow tackled the latter was simply breathless.

The least satisfying segment of the show came in songs by American Dominick Argento, revealing the singers' lack of sympathy for the idiom, unintelligible English pronunciation, lack of confidence and experience or both.

Leaving best for last, William Bolcom's very difficult songs more or less met their match in three male singers. Baritone David Tao had a suitably smarmy way with Black Max, the personification of vice and prostitution. Tenor Reginald Jalleh had the audience in his hands with play of the word Amor, while tenor Daniel Yap brought down the house with George, a tribute to a most amicable murdered transvestite. Really, who needs to watch R-rated movies when more fun could be had in cabaret songs? 

For the record, the pianists who performed were: Nicholas Loh, Song Yuexuan, Chang Xiaoting, Soh Wei Qi, Chen Yue, Vincent Chen, Liu Qingqing and Li Qianhui,

SG50 CONCERT / Hua Xing Choir Society / Review

SG50 CONCERT

Hua Xing Choir Society

Wang Ya-Hui (Conductor)

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (31 July 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 August 2015 with the title "Treats from Taiwan".

Tis the season to be patriotic, and SG50 tribute concerts have come thick and fast, all leading to the great climax of the 50^th National Day on 9 August. This concert organised under the auspices of Hua Xing Choir Society and Boon Lay Choir however had a difference: the leaders and soloists were of Taiwanese extraction or lineage, all of whom have significantly contributed to the music scene of Singapore. 

The four participating choirs, which also included the Sing Sheng Choir and Ngee Ann Polytechnic Voices Club, were trained by Taiwan-born singer and vocal teacher Lin Liying. The concert conducted by Wang Ya-Hui opened with the Taiwanese song Yu Ye Hua, sung in the Minnan dialect and Phoon Yew Tien's colourful arrangement of the very popular Ye Lai Xiang (Evening Primrose). The young and mature voices blended pleasingly in this mostly unison number.

The orchestral segment was supported by the young musicians of  Kids'Philharmonic, which gave a stirring account of the Furiant from Dvorak's Czech Suite, and then ably supported pianist Albert Lin in Mendelssohn's Rondo Brillant Op.29 by not being distracted by all the virtuosic note-spinning. Both conductor Wang and pianist Lin are Singaporeans whose parents came from Taiwan.

The only concession to pop songs was offered by the Ngee Ann Polytechnic Voices Club, which sang choral versions of Alan Menken's Go The Distance from the Disney animated movie Hercules and Grammy Winner Adele's Skyfall from the James Bond movie of the same title. The youths were led by young conductor Umar Sirhan and accompanied by pianist Noella Lim.

The artsong, operetta and opera selections by Taiwanese tenor Fernando Wang and soprano Jessica Chen were most warmly received. Accompanied by pianist Aloysius Foong, both sang artsongs by Singaporean composer Lee Yuk Chuan and Leong Yoon Pin to begin, warming up for the treats that followed. Wang's hitting the nine high Cs in Donizetti's Ah! Mes Amies (from Daughter Of The Regiment) was remniscent of Pavarotti's heroics, while Chen emoted ever so ardently in Lehar's Meine Lippen, Sie Kussen So Heiss (Giuditta). Both did the waltz together in Lippen Schweigen (The Merry Widow), also by Lehar.

The Kids'Philharmonic played for the whole second half beginning with Phoon Yew Tien's arrangement of a popular Taiwanese song and the rousing Prelude from Bizet's Carmen, which came off with aplomb. Accompanying singers in opera arias was a lot trickier, especially in Puccini's Signore Ascolta (Turandot) with its short pauses, sung beautifully by soprano Lin Liying. To complete the popular trio of Turandot arias, soprano Chen polished off In Questa Reggia with steely and ice-cold resolve, while tenor Wang's effort with Nessun Dorma brought down the house.

With the serious part over, all the choirs congregated to sing the familiar Jiangsu folksong Molihua, which also happens to appear in Turandot. Two senior citizens then joined the throng as amplified soloists for Wong Kah Chun's glitzy arrangement of the Dick Lee's Home, now sung in Mandarin. Finally as an encore, all the soloists returned for a communal clap-along to the infectious tune of the Taiwanese song Maidens Of Alishan. 

If there were a dollar saved for every time Home is being heard this month, the problem of poverty would be instantly eradicated.