THE ALPHABET SERIES: R IS FOR ROSES / Sing Song Club / Review

R IS FOR ROSES

Sing Song Club

Living Room at The Arts House

Sunday (27 September 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 September 2015 with the title "Coming up roses".

One of the best kept secrets in Singapore's musical scene has to be concerts by the Sing Song Club, the nation's premier exponent of the art song. Its annual Lieder Festival and Alphabet Series of song recitals deserve to be better attended, given the labour of love devoted to the curatorship of art songs and the actual performances.

Hundreds of origami and knitted roses greeted an audience of about 30 persons attending its latest recital in the Alphabet Series, an hour-long programme on the subject of roses. Limited to only songs in English, there was still an encyclopaedic dimension to the twenty on offer, sung by tenor Adrian Poon and soprano Rebecca Li, accompanied on piano by the ubiquitous Shane Thio.  

The art of writing songs is an elusive one, as setting the right words to the right kind of music determines whether a song is memorable or not. A lyrical quality is essential for a vocal artist to realise a song's full potential, for it to make the “popular” list. All the songs, whether by English or American composer, had been a hit sometime or another.

Benjamin Britten's unusual harmonisations add something tangible to Sweeter Than Roses by baroque composer Henry Purcell and the Irish song The Last Rose Of Summer. These make the listener more keenly receptive to the actual melodies and words. Edward MacDowell's To A Wild Rose is better known in its original piano setting, but the added words flesh out the raw emotions within otherwise not revealed.

Tenor Poon has a fresh and youthful vitality, a natural ring to his voice that does not need to over-exert in order to communicate. The swing to be found in Joe Burke's Rambling Rose, the haunting melancholy of Marc Blitzstein's The Rose Song and Christopher Irvin's rapturous A Wedding Among Roses were well-suited to his crooner's temperament.

Soprano Li is more of a stage diva, judging by her regular operatic roles, who can carry songs to shattering climaxes. She comfortably hit the lofty reaches of Haydn Wood's well-known showpiece Roses Of Picardy, oozed sentimentality in Roger Quilter's A Last Year's Rose and hammed like a Broadway showgirl for James Hanley's Second Hand Rose.

There were unfortunately no duets for the two singers, but a thematic approach that linked the songs lent much coherence to the breezy hour that passed quickly. Roses in gardens, roses in the wild, roses of love, transient and sickly roses, girls named Rose and mankind's love of roses were sub-themes within this absorbing whole. Pianist Thio was reliable as always, supporting the vocalists to the hilt.

Three more recitals beckon from 16 to 18 October at The Arts House, in a Lieder Festival dedicated wholly to songs by Singaporean composers, in celebration of the nation's 50 years. The rarity factor ensures that this is a must-attend event. You read it here first!

All photographs by the kind permission of The Sing Song Club.

DICHTERLIEBE & HERMIT SONGS / New Opera Singapore / Review

DICHTERLIEBE & HERMIT SONGS

New Opera Singapore

The Chamber @ The Arts House

Tuesday (25 November 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 November 2014 with the title "Promising lieder from young group".

Lieder and art song have a very small following among local audiences, so miniscule that attendances are often discouraging to performers and presenters, who can never hope to recoup costs of mounting recitals. Nevertheless, groups like The Sing Song Club and New Opera Singapore persevere, if only to give its singers the chance to perform this repertoire, and hope that some people do listen.

Only 32 souls were present to witness this recital of two song cycles performed by ten young singers of New Opera Singapore, six of whom were making their debuts. Despite being young, they acquitted themselves well in this serious art form, even suggesting that some would go on to have real singing careers.

The audience was asked the rhetorical question, “What is love?”, a prelude to Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe (Poet’s Love). With words in German by Heinrich Heine, its 16 songs were shared by four men, beginning with tenor Isaac Ho (above) in the opening Im wunderschönen Monat Mai (In The Marvellous Month Of May). The debutant impressed in this and three other songs with his clear, ringing tone and ardent demeanour, providing the ideal setting for the season to fall in love.

Tenor Shaun Lee, a lawyer by training, has advanced his craft in leaps and bounds over the months, registering fine performances in four songs, including The Rose, The Lily, The Dove, the Sun and Ich grolle nicht (I Complain Not), with the kind of passion and projection that will fill concert halls. American tenor Sam Garcia, a university exchange student, exhibited a wide range of emotions, not least earnestness in Wenn ich in deine Augen seh (When I Gaze Into Your Eyes) and playful humour in Ein jungling liebt ein Mädchen (A Lad Loves A Girl).

Baritone Lim Jing Jie, presently serving national service, used his deep, gravelly voice to good effect in Im Rhein (In the Rhine) and Am leuchtenden sommermorgen (On a Gleaming Summer Morn), another artist who has matured with time. Pianist Lim Yan was more than mere accompanist, and as the final song Die Alten Bösen Lieder (The Old and Evil Songs) proved, his part extended long after tenor Garcia had sung his last note.

Six women shared duties in Three Songs Op.45 and Hermit Songs by American Samuel Barber, songs of a spiritual and other-worldly nature which provided a different kind of challenge. Subtlety was a virtue which soprano Laura Lim possessed, but she could do with greater heft and characterisation in the Op.45 songs written for the great German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

The five other sopranos had Leontyne Price’s act to emulate in the ten Hermit Songs, based on an ancient Irish writings. Rachel Ong (above) shook off nerves to deliver At St.Patrick’s Purgatory and St Ita’s Vision with good control in high registers, not an easy task. Rachel Lim displayed crystal clear diction in Church Bell at Night and the jazzy The Monk and his Cat. Moira Loh, already a veteran of many productions, was at her expressive best in The Heavenly Banquet and the brief but enigmatic Promiscuity.

Gwen Chua who sang The Crucifixion will build on confidence with time, but her passion in Sea Snatch was never in doubt. Finally Rebecca Li, the team’s most experienced singer, brought the cycle to an ecstatic but reflective close in The Praises of God and The Desire for Hermitage. Translations and surtitles for all the songs were screened, a good aid for audience appreciation, and all ten singers donned Asian ethnic costumes, which made it a feast for the eyes as well. 

Photographs by the kind permission 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.

PROJECT LAKSA / Song Ziliang and Friends / Review

PROJECT LAKSA

Song Ziliang and Friends

The Living Room @ The Arts House

Friday (12 July 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 15 July 2013 with the title "More local flavour needed".

When it comes to food, Singaporeans need not be persuaded twice. This would explain how two evenings of the chamber concert Project Laksa at The Arts House were sold out and a matinee had to be added. Audiences had been promised a sumptuous musical programme, topped with a sampling of Prima Taste’s trademarked laksa, Singapore style.

The main dish was the World Premiere of Singaporean composer Chen Zhangyi’s Laksa Cantata, a local spin-off from J.S.Bach’s Coffee Cantata, with a witty and rather endearing libretto by Jack Lin. It is a 20-minute long mini-opera with two arias, two duets and spoken recitatives, accompanied by violin, clarinet and piano. The premise was about two soon-to-be-weds squabbling over whether laksa should be served at their wedding dinner.

Soprano Rebecca Li was the feisty and sharp-tongued Leah, antagonist of dreamy and self-indulgent Stephen, sung by Symphony 92.4 deejay Kiat Goh, whose craving is a steaming bowl of laksa. Chen chose a completely Western idiom for this setting, such that Leah’s Scorned Woman Aria sounded like a Bernsteinesque showpiece, full of syncopations and twists which Li negotiated with much ease.

For Stephen’s Laksa Aria, the inspiration was Benjamin Britten in his more melodious moments, and Goh nailed the words with gusto. And there were titters when he sang, “The flawless complexion of the white bee hoon, wavering in a sea of coconut cream, the tau pok and hae only makes me swoon.”  Together, their duet Agree To Disagree, had another harmonious serving of colloquialisms.

“Some say no harm, like the laksa of Katong. Others have no qualm, but they serve no sotong,” goes another line. With the threat of ma-in-law coming over to stay, the couple settle their differences (no laksa for a day), closing peaceably with a blissful duet that opens, “A new bowl is a new day”.

This enjoyable exercise would have been a greater coup had Chen had mustered a Peranakan or local idiom to spice up the work. Perhaps a detailed study of dondang sayang and related musical traditions, and the liberal use of baba and nyonya patois might yield a more authentic second version of the cantata in the near future.

As mastermind of this project, pianist Song Ziliang also helmed the balance of the 80-minute concert which included cross-cultural and cross-generational explorations in music. The eclectic programme was a bit of a rojak, opening with two piano solos from China, the impressionistic Autumn Moon On Calm Lake and percussive drum-dominated dance Celebrating Our New Life.

Clarinettist Colin Tan and pianist Christine Octaviani then added a klezmer number Sholem-Alekhem, Rov Feidman! by Hungarian Jew Bela Kovacs, which sounded like a dance out of Fiddler On The Roof. Music from two modernist composers who chose to go retro, Russian Alfred Schnittke and Frenchman Darius Milhaud, completed the programme.

Schnittke, better known as a polystylist, took the path of Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne for his Suite In The Old Style for violin and piano, by rehashing baroque dance forms. Violinist Wu Bingling and Song were harmonious throughout, with the occasional dissonance to remind listeners of the century we are living in. They were joined by Tan in Milhaud’s Suite for clarinet trio which looked at old French folkdances and pastorals before closing with a Brazilian twist.

This is Song’s encouraging debut at curating a varied cross-genre programme, one that juxtaposed music and gastronomy. However it is not new, as composer Robert Casteels had done it before. What other mouth-watering prospects does Song and his team have in store, a char kway teow concerto perhaps?  

  

Enough of the music, its time to indulge in Prima Taste's laksa! 

OPERA COMIQUE: AT THE AIRPORT / New Opera Singapore / Review

OPERA COMIQUE AT THE AIRPORT

New Opera Singapore

The Chamber @ The Arts House

Saturday (9 March 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 11 March 2013 with the title "The comedy of arias".

The Opera Comique series by New Opera Singapore is becoming a bit like those Carry On low budget comedies of the Sixties and Seventies, featuring a cast of familiar faces in variations on the theme of farcical plots, double entendres and more than a few good laughs.

Each of these opera capers features popular arias and duets strung together by some flimsy plotline. On this evening, the setting was the airport in Bali, where flirtations, misunderstandings and love matches take place between passengers, cabin crew, ground staff and Duty Free personnel. It was all very silly but the quality of singing was most encouraging.

The sopranos had a field day. Few might have expected the ease and level of projection afforded by Isyana Sarasvati (above) in Je veux vivre (Juliette’s Waltz Song) from Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette. She was scintillating and simply brilliant. Closely matching her were Bethea How, 3^rd Prize winner in the Llangollen Eisteddfod last year, in Arditi’s swirling Parla Walzer, which brought on the loudest cheers.

Rebecca Li’s Mein Herr Marquis (Laughing Song) from Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus was infectious, as were her tittering giggles, while Moira Loh (below) had the audience in stitches in Mozart’s Batti batti, o bel Masetto (Don Giovanni), as she went on to batter her love interest. After this, there may be a new meaning to “Could you batti batti me?”

Of the male singers, baritone Jeremy Koh impressed most in Mozart’s Donne le mie fatte (Cosi Fan Tutte) with his clear ringing tone. Tenor Yap Joo How’s Questa o quella (Verdi’s Rigoletto) was convincing in his libertine aspirations, while Shaun Lee and Lim Jingjie were more than earnest in their efforts. Pianist Albert Lin, attired as an ICA immigration official, was unobtrusive while providing premium accompanying support.

It would seem that most the young singers trained by Korean soprano Jeong Ae Ree, founder of New Opera Singapore, were bleeding heart tenors or coloratura sopranos. Where were the altos or basses among the eight singers featured?

Thus this programme was skewed heavily towards soprano and tenor arias, which besides being slightly unbalanced and also on the short side. By the end of the hour, the conflicts had ceased and all on stage was kissing and making up to Lehar’s Lippen Schweigen from The Merry Widow.   

This cavil aside, it was all in good fun. With time and as the cast of New Opera Singapore matures, we might have local singing versions of Sid James, Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor someday.

2ND SINGAPORE LIEDER FESTIVAL / Review

2^ND SINGAPORE LIEDER FESTIVAL

The Sing Song Club

The Living Room @ The Arts House

Friday (7 September 2012)

A slightly edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 10 September 2012 with the title "Splendid singers for festival".

Those who have been closely following these pages would have noticed a resurgence of vocal events in recent years, in the form of operas and performance of art songs. The latter, in particular, has been in large part through the efforts of the Sing Song Club, a collective of singers and pianist Shane Thio, responsible for founding the annual Singapore Lieder Festival and Alphabet Series of recitals.

This year’s Lieder Festival ran for just two evenings, a reduction from last year’s ambitious six nights of Schubert and Schumann song cycles. The German art song was again the focus, now broadened to include Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Wolf, Strauss and the Second Viennese School. Disappointingly not more than 30 people turned up to witness the first evening’s hour-long concert by four very different but splendid singers.

A pleasing symmetry was offered by the sets of Hugo Wolf songs that opened and closed the recital, a case of thoughtful programming. Soprano Rebecca Li ran the full gamut of emotions - of love gained and loved – in Die Spröde and Die Bekehrte, a pair of contrasting pastoral reflections. A more poignant rendition of Das Verlassene Magdlein (The Forsaken Maiden) would have been hard to find from this petite but deceptively powerful presence, who sang completely from memory.

The Verona-based bass-baritone Martin Ng lent an animated and highly dramatic edge to five Brahms songs, his big burnished voice filled the breadth and depth of the human experience within. In the hymn-like Erinnerung (Reminiscences), there was reassuring warmth which turned dark and smouldering for O wusst Ich doch den weg zuruck (O That I Knew The Way Back).    

There was some familiarity to the four Richard Strauss songs of Op.27, a wedding gift to his wife, sung by veteran baritone William Lim. His booming voice was one tempered with fine control; sombre in Ruhe, Mein Seele (Rest, My Soul), passionate in Cacilie, equally rapturous in Heimliche Aufforderung (Secret Invitation) and finally sensitive in Morgen! (Tomorrow). The exquisite piano parts found an equal in master collaborator Shane Thio.  

Malaysian tenor Peter Ong closed accounts with Wolf’s two Pelegrina lieder and the prayer-like Gebet, impressing with his enormous range and depth of feeling. The final number Abschied (Farewell) was no Mahlerian tear-jerker between departing lovers but a final riposte by adversaries, with an uproarious send-up to the Viennese waltz. Both singer and pianist hammed it up for an upbeat and spirited close.

Next year’s Lieder Festival goes French, with the complete chansons of Francis Poulenc. A curious and receptive audience is urgently invited!

THE ALPHABET SERIES: B IS FOR GARDEN / The Sing Song Club / Review

Alphabet Series: B is for Garden

The Sing Song Club

The Arts House

Saturday (19 May 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 May 2012 with the title "Blooming thrills".

The Sing Song Club has firmly nailed its colours to the mast. Its raison d’etre is to further the appreciation for art songs by presenting as wide a variety of songs as possible in its well-planned recitals. B is for Garden is the second such programme in its ambitious 26-part Alphabet Series. Its small audience was treated to a delightful hour and a half of 28 songs in five different languages.

Rebecca Li and Adrian Poon sang all of the solo songs, ably accompanied by pianist Shane Thio.

Lest one accuses its leader tenor Adrian Poon of being unable to spell properly, this ingenious garden-theme programme was inspired by blossoms, blooms, birds and bees, just to name but one bug. The beloved British bard of lyrical beauty Roger Quilter was represented by no less than seven songs; his melodies breathed a freshness and vitality that was hard to dislike. There were four duets, opening with Blossom Time and The Starlings, where Poon and soprano Rebecca Li were respectively paired with alto Ng Sheh Feng to delicious effect.

The German lieder were reserved for Li, whose bright-eyed and youthful ardour in Mahler’s Fruhlingsmorgen (Spring Morning) and Ablösung in Sommer (Change in Summer), and Hugo Wolf’s Die Gärtner (The Gardener) and Schumann’s Die Lotosblume (Lotus Blooms) were matched by excellent and idiomatic pronunciation. Her sung French, for contributions by Emmanuel Chabrier and Reynaldo Hahn, was no less vivid.

Rebecca hams it up for Adrian in William Penn's The Honeysuckle and the Bee.

Poon, who weighed in with 16 songs, was the most versatile, equally at home with Canteloube, Rorem, Britten, Ireland. Guastavino and Marx. He was also entrusted with three of four songs by local composers, including two World Premieres. Benjamin Lim’s My Lady’s Finger, set to texts garnered from the leisure and gardening pages of The Sunday Times, insinuated with several Freudian double entendres which Poon delivered with zest.

Alto Ng Sheh Feng (right) lent a supporting role for a number of duets.

In Wong Chee Yean’s To Daffodils, a deliberately darker hued approach was taken, well supported by pianist Shane Thio’s rich chord-laden accompaniment. For Zechariah Goh Toh Chai’s Flower, the seamless melody in C minor was intoned in Hainanese! Kelly Tang’s The Daffodils, with Wordsworth’s words sung by both ladies, ambled from the English pastoral tradition into a flight of fancy with a quote from Ravel’s Bolero thrown into the mix.

When the audience and singers are enjoying themselves, the evening breezed through effortlessly. The missionary zeal of The Sing Song Club deserves a wider audience. Its next concert E for English Excursion takes place at the same venue on 7 July. Be sure to come.

All the performers take a bow.

Origami blossoms. birds and butterflies sprinkled all round The Living Room lent a nice touch.

LOST TO THE WORLD / The Sing Song Club / Review

LOST TO THE WORLD
The Sing Song Club
The Arts House
Tuesday (20 December 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 December 2011 with the title "Sing Song Club in fine voice".

From the organisers of the First Singapore Lieder Festival in August and September came one final recital of art songs by Gustav Mahler and Franz Liszt, whose anniversaries are being observed this year. The Sing Song Club is Singapore’s version of Britain’s renowned The Songmaker’s Almanac, with pianist Shane Thio being the local Graham Johnson, that indefatigable instigator of the most ambitious singing projects.

Although the following for art song is small here, its practitioners are a young and determined lot who will become our top singers of tomorrow. Baritone Daniel Fong (above), a student at London’s Royal Academy, exuded a warm and expressive tone for the five Mahler songs on texts by Friedrich Rückert. Rich, sonorous and unafraid to project himself, his views on subjects like love, solitude and abandonment sung in clearly enounced German were palpable, even believable.

Ich bin der Welt abhanden (I Am Lost To The World), which lent the title to this concert, was treated with a world-wearied gravity that belied its apparent wistfulness. In Um Mitternacht (At Midnight), the shift from minor to major mode came like a shaft of life-affirming sunlight that washed away all gloom.

Tenor Brendan-Keefe Au (above) was less confident, and had a false start in Rheinlegendchen (Rhine Legend), but possessed a youthfulness that suited his set of Knaben Wunderhorn (Youth’s Magic Horn) songs well. These whimsical and often ironic songs of German folklore and country life found a sympathetic soul. Amid the militaristic undertones of Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen (Where the Beautiful Trumpets Blow), melancholy gave way to the expectancy of love.

For sheer tonal beauty, it was hard to beat soprano Rebecca Li (above), whose petite frame also packed a poignant punch. Such purity and innocence were distilled in two rarely heard Mahler songs and a further three by Liszt. Often overshadowed by his florid piano works, Liszt’s Freudvoll und leidvoll (Joyful and Sorrowful), Es muss ein wunderbares sein (It Must Be A Wonderful Thing) and S’il est un charmant gazon (If There is a Lovely Grassy Plot) basked in a radiant glow that can only be described as sublime.

This recital shows our young vocalists to be far more than enthusiastic bathroom singers. Further events by The Sing Song Club in March and May of next year are to be watched out for with keen anticipation.