BAROQUE OPERATIC HIGHLIGHTS / A GRAND TOUR FOR WINDS / Singapore Lyric Opera & re:Sound / Review

BAROQUE OPERATIC DELIGHTS

Singapore Lyric Opera

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (15 January 2021)

 

A GRAND TOUR FOR WINDS

re:Sound

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (16 January 2021)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 20 January 2021 with the title "Young performers shine in two classical concerts". 

As the Covid circuit breaker is gradually lifted, local arts groups have been gearing up for live performances. One might not have guessed that last weekend, Victoria Concert Hall was filled with the sound of music for two consecutive evenings for the first time in months.

 

What a pleasure it was to witness live vocal music again, with the Singapore Lyric Opera (SLO) in a rare foray into baroque repertoire. Arias from five of Georg Friderick Handel’s operas and one oratorio (with no Messiah within earshot) were thrillingly delivered by two exciting young voices, soprano Joyce Lee Tung and baritone Alvin Tan.

 

Familiar favourites included Lascia Ch’io Pianga (from Rinaldo) and Ombra Mai Fu (the ubiquitous Largo, Xerxes), slow numbers with both singers exhibiting fine tonal control, varied colours and emotive qualities. There were also ample opportunities for outright virtuosity, such as in Tornami A Vagheggiar (Alcina) and Da Tempeste Il Legno Infranto (Giulio Cesare), with coloratura flourishes and stratospheric leaps from Lee, or Tan’s vehemence and rage displayed in Piangi Pur (Tolomeo).

 

Together in the celebratory duet Caro! Bella! Piu Amabile Belta (Giulio Cesare), the duo still managed to find sparks of chemistry despite the social distance of five metres between them. The 13-member SLO Chamber Orchestra conducted by Joshua Kangming Tan provided keen and responsive accompaniment, besides striking out on their own in the Overture To Alcina and the bustling Arrival Of The Queen Of Sheba from Solomon.

 

Not to be outdone, chamber collective re:Sound offered an evening of wind music from five of its woodwind and brass members. The quintet formed by Goh Tiong Eng (flute), Tay Kai Tze (oboe), Ralph Emmanuel Lim (clarinet), Chester Kang (bassoon) and Alexander Oon (French horn) generated an outsized sonority that easily filled the upper reaches of the hall.

 

The programme, while not so familiar to general audiences, comprised wind ensemble staples that was both varied and eclectic. After opening cheerfully with Jacques Ibert’s Three Short Pieces, Franz Danzi’s Wind Quintet in D minor provided some sobriety but still raised smiles for the articulate artistry involved.

 

Two players became soloists themselves, joined by members of re:Sound’s elite string group, the Concordia Quartet. The first movements of Mozart’s Oboe Quartet and Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet contrasted chirpy light-heartedness with autumnal nostalgia. In the latter, Lim’s mellow and long-breathed clarinet part, backed by violinists Edward Tan and Kim Kyu Ri, violist Matthias Oestringer and cellist Theophilus Tan proved the high point of the evening.

 

The concert concluded with a rare outing for Carl Nielsen’s quirky Wind Quintet. Its three movements combined spiky themes, piquant harmonies and folk influences that both surprised and delighted. The playing was alert to the music’s unusual twists and and turns, even if the finale’s Theme and Variations came across as somewhat disjointed. Nonetheless, these were two evenings well spent with some of Singapore’s finest young musicians.   

DONIZETTI'S L'ELISIR D'AMORE / Singapore Lyric Opera / Review

DONIZETTI'S L'ELISIR D'AMORE

Singapore Lyric Opera

Esplanade Theatre

Friday (19 May 2017)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 May 2017 with the title "Sparkling comic opera charms".

It was a bold move by the Singapore Lyric Opera (SLO) to mount a production outside of the usual canon of Verdi and Puccini operas. Although Gaetano Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore (The Elixir of Love) is not altogether unfamiliar (it was last produced here by New Opera Singapore in 2012), opening night of the Italian bel canto classic was unfortunately greeted by a house with many empty seats.

However, this new production directed by veteran Tom Hawkes was a light and sparkling affair true to the spirit of the comic opera. Its plot was simple. Village simpleton Nemorino (sung by Malaysian tenor Kee Loi Seng, reprising the same role in 2012) is enamoured of the confident and well-heeled Adina (Australian soprano Elena Xanthoudakis), and he thinks the elixir peddled by the smarmy quack Dulcamara (Singaporean baritone Martin Ng) will work wonders.

The contemporary setting at a seaside resort resembling Miami's South Beach was a nice touch with Justin Hill's atmospheric set, populated by the incessant vivacity of the SLO Chorus and Children's  Choir in Moe Kassim's pleasing costumes. It all made for a very satisfying background for the farce to unfold. 

A large part may be how a woman of Adina's stature comes to choose between suitors like the hangdog Nemorino and vainglorious military man Belcore (Korean baritone Song Kee Chang). But true love does these things to people, and Xanthoudakis' Adina was both a sympathatic and vulnerable portrayal.

The chemistry between her and the always-cowed Nemorino was somewhat uneasy even at the opera's happy end. Kee had his moments, not least in the hit aria Una furtiva lagrima, which rang bright and clear. He was also the centre of comedy when besieged by all the women after downing a second bottle of bordeaux. He thinks the elixir has worked, but the truth is: they all know of his unexpected coming to wealth and have begun texting with their handphones. 

Coming close to stealing the whole show was Ng's Dulcamara, whose mountebank manners and outrageous swagger (accompanied by a bevy of blonde nurses no less) made him one of the most pleasant “villains” around.

Also significant was a role of mezzo-soprano Jade Tan as the knowing Giannetta, a not so innocent high society girl, in a memorable SLO debut. Just to complete the cast, the matinee on Sunday would feature a younger main nucleus with Teo Kai Xin (as Adina), Jonathan Charles Tay (Nemorino) and Alvin Tan (Belcore).  

The SLO Orchestra conducted by Joshua Kangming Tan was generally excellent from the opening Prelude and all through the ensemble work, sensitive enough not to overwhelm the singers. Repetiteur Aloysius Foong ably provided piano accompaniment, while Yap Zi Qi's bassoon and Eilidh McRae's harp did the honours for Nemorino's hit aria. 

Despite decreased annual funding, the SLO still puts on a good show albeit once a year. Can one hope for next year's ambitious offering of Verdi's Aida to be no less of a hit?

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.  

LEONCAVALLO'S I PAGLIACCI & PUCCINI'S GIANNI SCHICCHI / Singapore Lyric Opera / Review

LEONCAVALLO'S PAGLIACCI &

PUCCINI'S GIANNI SCHICCHI

Singapore Lyric Opera

Esplanade Theatre

Friday (11 September 2015)

This review was published by The Straits Times on 14 September 2015 with the title "Delightful tales of a jealous clown and a witty rogue".

There is a popular title in operatic parlance known as Cav-Pag, which refers to the double bill of verismo operas, the tandem of Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggiero Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci. Singapore Lyric Opera's latest recent double bill dropped the Cav component, opting instead for Puccini's single-act comic opera Gianni Schicchi, part of his trilogy known as Il Trittico.

This switch made for a lighter and less depressing evening, where not every lead character gets killed. Director Tom Hawkes cleverly linked the two operas with the common setting of a disused Italian theatre in the post-Second World War period for Pagliacci and then moving backwards in time for Schicchi.

It was a quite seamless transition which worked well because of an excellent cast which had some members singing in both operas. Central to these was Korean tenor Lee Jae Wook, a SLO regular, who gave a gripping portrayal of the homicidally jealous clown Canio in Pagliacci, and then helming the smaller role of young suitor Rinuccio in Schicchi.

Opposite him was Japanese soprano Sachiko Ito who was a sympathetic and free-spirited Nedda (Canio's actress wife), who gets offed by the opera's end, and then reappearing as the conniving Nella in Schicchi. The tightly cast Pagliacci also featured Singaporean baritones William Lim and Martin Ng, who acquitted themselves well as the vengeful hunchback Tonio and Nedda's ill-fated lover Silvio.

Schicchi was dominated by British baritone Adrian Clarke (above) in the title role, a worldly-wise rogue who cons a fussy Florentine family of its inheritance with a classic bait-and-switch. A combination of wit and smarminess made him likeable, gaining the audience to his side with every twist and turn in his scheming.

The SLO Chorus and Children's Chorus were well-trained for the crowd scenes of Pagliacci, adding much colour to the production. The SLO Orchestra conducted by Joshua Kangming Tan supported the music well. It was a revelation to hear both opera's “hit single” arias, often heard in isolation at opera galas, within their original contexts.

Canio's highly anguished Vesti La Giubba, sung as the lead clown dons his make-up and attire, was arresting in Lee's scene-stealing account. Similarly, Lauretta's O Mio Babbino Caro (O My Beloved Father) in Schicchi, sung as a daughter pleads for her father's intervention in the matters of love was beautifully delivered by young New Zealander soprano Marlena Devoe (below).

The set design by Christopher Chua with draped columns and pillars was simple and effective, as were Moe Kassim's costumes even though the GI uniforms in Pagliacci's looked like those of boy scouts. Despite SLO's constrained budget limitations, which allows the company only one major production a year, it offered very good value for its efforts.

That has been a given through the years. However judging from the smallish audience spread through three evenings, notwithstanding General Election weekend, is this a bad omen for the future of opera performance in Singapore?

All photographs by courtesy of Singapore Lyric Opera.

OMM GOES TO THE MOVIES 2 / Orchestra of the Music Makers / Review

OMM GOES TO THE MOVIES 2

Orchestra of the Music Makers

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (9 January 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 January 2015 with the title "Starry sound trek of movies".

The Orchestra of the Music Makers' second concert of music from the movies was a hit,  just as the first was four years ago. Returning after a successful concert with OMM of Gustav Holst's The Planets last year was Singapore Symphony Orchestra Associate Conductor Joshua Kangming Tan, who remains a charismatic presence on the podium.

The first piece on the programme was however not directed by him, but Concertmaster Edward Tan whose appearance triggered off the planned cacophony that was Edgard Varese's Tuning Up. Here was a serious spoof of what an orchestra does before a concert proper – random snatches of sound, brass warming up, repeated iterations of the A note and even quotes of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. Originally composed for the movie Carnegie Hall, it was eventually dropped for something less riotous.

Thus began a nearly 3-hour trek through the starry sound world of celluloid fantasy, almost as long as some of the movies themselves. John Williams is an ubiquitous presence with his music from Star Wars, which rings fresh after all these years. In addition to the familiar Main Title, Luke and Leia highlighted some excellent solos from French horn and oboe, and the furious Duel of the Fates ushered in the full-throated voices of the Vocal Associates Festival Chorus trained by Khor Ai Ming.

The 40-strong Children's Choir graced the Christmassy pages of Home Alone, where Williams' music weaved a different kind of spell, one  of festive cheer and heartwarming antics. It was soon back to the battlefields in Howard Shore's Fellowship of the Ring, where humans and hobbits fought off the orcs, with the pristine voice of boy soprano Mikey Robinson illuminating the way. The heroics of David Arnold's Independance Day provided yet another opportunity of musical flag-waving, as humans (led by Americans, who else?) triumph over invading extra-terrestrials.

The second half gave a nod to Britain's three most iconic characters of popular culture. Titters broke out in the audience as the choir sang out Ecce Homo (Qui Est Faba), Latin for Behold The Man (Who Is A Bean), Howard Goodall's signature theme for Rowan Atkinson's Mr Bean.  Then Monty Norman's James Bond Theme, complete with electric guitar, trumpets and trombones, blared out without apology, contrasted with the more suspenseful vibes, Edward Tan's violin and ticking heart-beat in Arnold's Sherlock Suite.

The rest of the concert centred on music from animated movies, which have now become the most important source of great melodies today. Joe Hisaishi's My Neighbour Totoro enjoys cult status in Japan, while John Powell's How To Train Your Dragon can be as moving as the best Wagner. Disney classics will take credit for being leaders in song-writing, not least with hits from Robert and Kristen Lopez's Frozen and Hans Zimmer and Elton John's The Lion King, which had the choir swaying along to the infectious beat.

The vociferous applause from the full-house yielded three encores, including a whistle-along as the orchestra hammered out Kenneth Alford's Colonel Bogey March from The Bridge Over The River Kwai.  OMM's next concert on 7 March covers jazz and Jeremy Monteiro. Be sure not to miss it. 

Photographs by the kind permission of OMM.

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).

THE PLANETS / Orchestra of the Music Makers / Review

THE PLANETS

Orchestra of the Music Makers

Esplanade Concert Hall

Wednesday (13 August 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 15 August 2014 with the title "Planets that are out of this world".

One thing is for certain: the Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM) just loves doing big concerts. Its latest outing, guest-conducted by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s Associate conductor Joshua Kangming Tan, had not just an orchestral blockbuster, but a full-length concerto and choral work for good measure.

The concert began with Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, joined by 100 voices from the Vocal Associates Festival Chorus and Children’s Chorus singing in Hebrew. The sheer exuberance of the percussion almost drowned out the singers in the jazzy and syncopated first psalm (Make a Joyful Noise), but it got better in the second psalm (The Lord is My Shepherd) when boy soprano Samuel Yuen’s silky voice rang out pure and true. The final psalm (Lord, Lord), with its contrite message, was a salving balm for the spirit.

The orchestra then played sensitive partner to SSO first violinist Chan Yoong Han in Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D minor. How the ensemble responded to the fiery and virtuosic solo part was a measure of how its young players have matured with each concert. The slow second movement gave the woodwinds moments to shine, and the quartet of French horns were a paradigm of perfect control and restraint.

Even in the rambunctious finale, the very steady yet exhilarating pace maintained by the orchestra allowed Chan’s flight of fancy to soar unabated to its brilliant conclusion. His encore, a movement from Ysaye’s Fifth Sonata, was an ethereal portrayal of a nascent morn.

Gustav Holst’s The Planets, the popular seven-movement suite on celestial bodies and mythology, occupied the second half. It may be said that his orchestration influenced several generations of film composers, especially in the sci-fi genre. Given OMM’s love and sympathy for celluloid music, this suited the players to a tee,

The vehemence and violence of Mars, The Bringer of War was trenchantly realised, and the debt to which the Star Wars franchise owes it becomes immediately apparent. Excellent solos from horn principal Alan Kartik, concertmaster Edward Tan and principal cellist James Ng distinguished Venus, The Bringer of Peace with its tender entreaties.

Mercury, The Winged Messenger was blest with much lightness and fluidity, while Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity, the hit tune of the seven, was given a grandstanding quality that was wholly appropriate. Unusually cogent was the orchestra’s traversal of Saturn, The Bringer of Old Age, which doddered so convincingly on creaky legs that its rejuvenation at the end became a true revelation.

The manic march of Uranus, The Magician soon dissipated, with the wordless women’s voices diffusing ever so insidiously into Neptune, The Mystic that it brought a chill down the spine. Credit goes to chorus director Khor Ai Ming for so finely honing their invisible act, which flickered ever so gently until they drifted out of orbit.

Loud and prolonged applause led conductor Tan to poll the audience as to their choice of encore: Mars or Jupiter. Jupiter won handsomely and by its glorious end, almost three hours had elapsed as if within an instant. That is relativity for you. 

Photographs by the kind permission of the Orchestra of the Music Makers.

MOZART'S COSI FAN TUTTE / Singapore Lyric Opera / Review

MOZART’S COSI FAN TUTTE

Singapore Lyric Opera

Esplanade Theatre

Friday (28 February 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 March 2014 with the title "Comedic plot and witty lines make for a likeable Cosi offering."

With Cosi Fan Tutte, the Singapore Lyric Opera has completed the trilogy of great operas Mozart composed with the Italian librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. The first two were The Marriage Of Figaro and Don Giovanni, premiered in 1786 and 1787, which are more popular than the 1790 offering. Although Cosi does not have the show-stopping arias and melodies of its predecessors, the comedic plot and witty lines make it lighter-going and instantly likeable.

Even its misogynist premise and social commentary, shocking at the time, still resonate amid the liberal mores of the 21^st century. Ferrando and Guglielmo subject their fiancees, Dorabella and Fiordiligi, to a test of fidelity by way of a farcical experiment. They pretend to go to war, but return in disguise to woo each other’s amore, while watching the results unravel.    

Veteran British director Tom Hawkes chose early 20^th century Southeast Asia as its setting, with a Somerset Maugham-like atmosphere in a quasi-Raffles hotel designed by Christopher Chua. A combo of local and Western period costumes by Moe Kasim added to the exoticism of the production that was wholly appropriate.

The main cast members, just six in total, complemented each other well. Tenor Raffaele d’Ascanio’s Ferrando was nursing a bad throat, which was raspy and strained on the evening, but one would not fault his chemistry with baritone Park Byeong-in’s Guglielmo, Du Qin’s Dorabella and Rachelle Gerodias’s Fiordiligi. The trio Soave sia il vento (Act I) and duet Il core vi dono (Act II) were memorable for the singers’ sensitivity and the rapport developed between their characters.

Bass David Hibbard’s Don Alfonso playing the cynical devil’s advocate for the men and Yee Ee-Ping’s Despina, fanning the flames of passion for the confused women, were excellent in their roles. In addition, Yee’s caricatured portrayals of a traditional Chinese physician and bewigged lawyer were totally hilarious.

The Singapore Lyric Opera Orchestra, conducted by Joshua Kangming Tan, was not always immaculate but assiduously kept up with the onstage action. The small chorus, also serving as extras, had small parts and added to the visual interest on a whole.

People accustomed to television sitcoms, in which everything is wrapped up within the half-hour, might baulk at Cosi’s simple tale which ran for the best part of three hours. Even in poetic Italian, some sections did drag a little, but one needs to look beyond the unfolding narrative and savour the opera’s various nuances, which were plentiful and entertaining­­.

As the misunderstandings and women’s red faces cleared up in the final scene, when common sense is lauded above all in the trials and tribulations of life, director Hawkes did leave some elbow room for dissent. Those who caught Guglielmo and Dorabella’s body language as the final curtain fell might agree that not everybody gets to live happily ever after.

SCANDINAVIAN SOIRÉE / Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra / Review

SCANDINAVIAN SOIRÉE

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra

Conservatory Concert Hall

Friday (21 February 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 24 February 2014 with the title "Sublime pleasure with fireworks".

It is always a pleasure to see young orchestras tackle blockbusters of the repertoire, like the Conservatory Orchestra in Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben in recent years. However young musicians also need to learn doing the less glamourous work, such as accompanying soloists and playing short pieces. All this is part and parcel of a holistic education for an orchestral and ensemble player.

This concert with a Scandinavian slant began with two concertante works featuring two winners of the conservatory’s concerto competitions. First was bassoonist Liang Geng in Swedish composer Franz Berwald’s Concert Piece, a virtuoso work in the early Romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber’s showpieces.

The soloist’s range was immediately put to the test in the opening bars, having to make leaps to both extremes of the instrument’s reach. Stunts of adroitness aside, Liang’s brought out a warm and full sound from the gentle giant of woodwinds, in a physically taxing piece which also had passages of true lyricism. A pleasant surprise was in the centre, where a series of variations on the popular song Home, Sweet Home held sway. 

Loud cheers also greeted second soloist Shi Xiaoxuan who made Saint-Saens’s popular Third Violin Concerto very much her own. Having won 1^st Prize in the Artist Category of the 2013 National Violin Competition, here was a joyous rerun. Her lush and often gorgeous tone on the 1729 Montagnana was a joy to behold, especially in the lilting Andantino slow movement, where interplay with the orchestra was both intimate and subtle.   

When it came to unleashing the fireworks, there was no let-up in her delivery. This was tempered by an acute awareness of an inner pulse, adjusting ever so sensitively to the ebb and flow of the music’s dynamics. Such an instinctual approach is what makes a true musician.

The concert’s second half was devoted to all 8 short movements from both Peer Gynt Suites by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. Guest conductor Joshua Kangming Tan, Associate Conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, had the orchestra perform the incidental music in the running sequence of Henrik Ibsen’s melodrama.

Chronologically this made a whole lot of sense, and the players were more than up to the task. There was plenty of drama in The Hall of the Mountain King, where the split-second timing was close to perfect. The muted string sonority in The Death of Aase was homogeneous and evoked much poignancy. The familiar Morning Mood, depicting sunrise over the Sahara Desert, could have been a shade more ethereal.

The Arabian Dance, more like a Nordic wedding dance with piccolos, and Anitra’s Dance leapt to life, and the best was reserved for the final number, Solvieg’s Song. The strings again were a singular pleasure in the main melody, and how that gently glided into a lilting lullaby. It is a rare concert that ends on a quiet note, but only one word can describe the feeling: sublime.

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.