SLO ADULT CHORUS IN CONCERT / Singapore Lyric Opera / Review

SLO ADULT CHORUS IN CONCERT

Singapore Lyric Opera Chorus

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday (14 May 2023)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 May 2023 with the title "SLO Chorus concert offers mixed bag of operatic treats".

 

One underrated aspect of opera performance is the role of the chorus. Much of the atmosphere and spirit of an opera production is missing if the chorus is absent. Serving to comment on onstage happenings and to stir up audience engagement, what would Bizet’s Carmen, Verdi’s Aida or Puccini’s Turandot be without the chorus?

 

The Singapore Lyric Opera Chorus has had a storied history since the company’s earliest days, and is still peopled by talented amateur singers, whose love for music (and acting) surpasses all other considerations. Led by conductor Terrence Toh and accompanied by pianist Dale Huang, the 30-strong SLO Adult Chorus performed excerpts from three operas featured in its 2022-2023 seasons.

Photo: Lee Zhi Yu

 

Its members sauntered in with an air of informality. Waving at the audience, one knew this was not going to be too serious an affair. Champagne was uncorked with choruses from Johann Strauss The Younger’s popular operetta Die Fledermaus, including Ein Souper Heut Uns Winkt (A Supper Beckons Us Today) and Im Feuerstrom Der Reben (In The Firestorm From The Vines), which were delightful. Bruderlein Und Schwesterlein (Little Brothers And Sisters) and the intoxicating finale, O Fledermaus, were included later, and it would have been nicer had the chorus sung these from memory.

Photo: Lee Zhi Yu

 

The audience also had a foretaste of Pietro Mascagni’s verismo opera Cavalleria Rusticana, set for November, with Gli Aranci Ollezano (The Scent Of Oranges) and A Casa, A Casa (Let Us Go Homewards), a carefree evocation of peasant life during Easter. Despite its relatively small size, the chorus projected well, and captured much of the music’s spirit.      

 

Opportunities were afforded to no less than 19 singers in a series of arias, duets and ensembles, distending the concert to about 140 minutes. The solos were wildly variable, from bathroom singers to those more than competent, but from these, one exceptional voice stood out.

Photo: Lee Zhi Yu

 

However, one wondered what possessed a soprano to attempt Puccini’s Nessun Dorma (Turandot), which usually taxes the best of tenors. Another bravely scaled the heights of Bellini’s Casta Diva (Norma), wobbled perilously and blotted fond memories of Diana Damrau’s fine account just a week before.      

 

Some singers were born to act. Zoey Li’s account of Purcell’s When I Am Laid In Earth (Dido And Aeneas) was so believable one knew she was going to hang herself, while bass Hugo Van Bever’s over-the-top role in Rossini’s La Calumnia (The Barber Of Seville) was pure theatrical buffo.

 

Tenor Dennis Lin in Jules Massenet’s Pourquoi Me Reveiller (Werther) was the portrait of angst and vulnerability. Stealing the show by a country mile, however, was Fumiko Ogasawara in Bizet’s Micaela’s Air (Carmen), with singing and acting that were exemplary on both counts. She could easily walk into the main casts of any of company’s productions.

 

Closing the show was the rousing Bell Chorus from Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci, also scheduled for November. As a showcase and campaign to recruit new members, the revitalised SLO Chorus could not have done a better job.

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.  

RUSSELL WATSON La Voce / Review

RUSSELL WATSON La Voce
Esplanade Concert Hall
Saturday (29 January 2010)

This review was published by The Straits Times

on 31 January 2011 with the title

"Russell Watson's syrupy love-in"

Let’s make one thing clear: Russell Watson, marketed as “The Voice”, is no opera singer. An opera singer learns, internalises and sings full roles, such as Don Jose, Cavaradossi and Calaf, acts and interacts with fellow singers, and projects his voice naturally in a hall without the help of amplification.

Having said that, people come to a Russell Watson gig not to hear a sermon, nor be enlightened, but to be entertained. On that count, his Singapore debut was a massive success. The likeability factor, boosted by good looks, working class background and his recovery from brain tumours, was high, despite being a professed Manchester United fan (who are by and large an annoying, smug and self-congratulatory lot).

The programme was typical of crossover fare - operatic arias and hymns sitting comfortably alongside popular songs and numbers from musicals and movies. His voice heavily amplified until the ears ached, Watson sounded comfortable in standards like O Sole Mio, Franck’s Panis Angelicus and Schubert’s Ave Maria, emoting much in the easy way that Pavarotti and company used to do.

He chatted to the audience casually in between songs, even dedicating to his late grandmother the Intermezzo from Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, sung to the words of Ave Maria in Italian. Doesn’t everything sound better and more romantic in Italian, a language with many vowels? This was applied brilliantly to Io che non vivo (You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me) and Parla piu piano (Speak Softly Love). “Amore” definitely beats “lurve”.

Watson also got his listeners involved, shaking hands as they chanted the echoes of Volare and clapping along to Denza’s Funiculi Funicula. The charmer also substituted the words of I Left My Heart In San Francisco to that of Sunny Singapore, much to the audience’s delight. This love-in just got even more syrupy as the evening continued, one to send any diabetic into ketoacidotic coma.

Time and space was afforded for the appropriately named young local Melodie Tan, whose slender soprano voice, well-honed for Broadway musicals, joined Watson in David Foster’s The Prayer. She then gingerly brought out O mio babbino caro (Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi), clearly a work in progress.

The evening was accompanied by the Singapore Lyric Opera Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by the highly animated Robert Emery, which filled in with movie music by John Williams and Ennio Morricone amongst others.

Puccini’s Nessun dorma (Turandot) closed the evening, and three encores including Leoncavallo’s La Mattinata and Elvis sent the sold-out hall into a standing frenzy. To say one and all enjoyed themselves, including this crotchety old soul, would be understatement itself. If only one could get the heaving throng into Singapore Lyric Opera productions to witness some real opera.

RUSSELL WATSON La Voce was presented by Esplanade Theatres on the Bay.

JOY / Singapore Lyric Opera Children's Choir / Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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