AMORE! / Singapore Lyric Opera

This is really very early in the year for a concert by the Singapore Lyric Opera (SLO). Singapore's oldest opera company brought out its A list of singers for this recital of opera's most popular bleeding chunks - arias, duets and ensembles. At its helm was Artistic Director soprano Nancy Yuen, flanked by Spanish tenor Israel Lozano (undoubtedly SLO's best Pinkerton), relative newcomer Taiwanese mezzo Jo-Pei Weng and veteran Korean baritone Song Kee Chang. The orchestra was provided by pianist Boris Kraljevic.

Amore! was the title of the concert, but it was Nancy who clarified that most of the concert was not just about love, but friendship. Friendzone! would not have been a catchy or marketable title so Amore, it was. In nearly 100 minutes without intermission, the audience was treated to some of opera's best and most beloved highlights. Here are the photos from a most enjoyable early evening.

The concert opens with a familiar duet:
the Flower Duet from Delibes' Lakme
from Nancy Yuen and Jo-Pei Weng.

Why do we think of British Airways
whenever this duet is sung?

It's the men's turn:
Israel Lozano and Song Kee Chang
in the duet Au fond du temple saint
from Bizet's The Pearl Fishers.

Un voce poco fa from
Rossini's The Barber of Seville.

Rosina & Figaro's duet Dunque io son
from The Barber of Seville.

Mimi's aria Si, mi chiamano Mimi
from Puccini's La Boheme.
A Nancy Yuen speciality.

O soave fanciulla
from Act One of La Boheme.

Act 3 ensemble Addio dolce svegliare
from La Boheme

Aria Per me giunto... Io morrow
from Verdi's Don Carlo

Mira o Norma from Bellini's Norma

La donna e mobile
from Verdi's Rigoletto

Rigoletto & Gilda's duet
Eil sol dell'anima la vita e amore 

The Quartet Bella figlia dell'amore
from Verdi's Rigoletto

The final ensemble Im feuerstrom
from Strauss' Die Fledermaus

Agustin Lara's Granada

Salvatore Cardillo's Core n'grato (Ungrateful Heart)

Denza's Funiculi Funicula

Di Capua's O Sole Mio

Encore time: Brindisi (Drinking Song)
from Verdi's La Traviata.

Bravissimi! Take a bow!

AN EVENING OF OPERA HIGHLIGHTS NOT TO MISS: AMORE! BY SINGAPORE LYRIC OPERA

 

Love opera and its most passionate moments? Enjoy favourite arias, duets and ensembles in Amore! with Singapore Lyric Opera’s A-list of soloists including artistic director soprano Nancy Yuen, Spanish tenor Israel Lozano, Taiwanese mezzo-soprano Jo-Pei Weng and Korean baritone Song Kee Chang. They will be partnered by Boris Kraljevic on the piano.

Highlights from these operas (sung in original languages):

DELIBES Lakme

BIZET The Pearl Fishers

ROSSINI The Barber of Seville

PUCCINI La Boheme

VERDI Don Carlo

BELLINI Norma

VERDI Rigoletto

J.STRAUSS Die Fledermaus

Popular songs including Granada, Core ‘ngrato, Funiculi Funicula and O Sole Mio.

AMORE!

Singapore Lyric Opera

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday, 25 January 2026 at 5 pm

Get your tickets here:

Amore! – Celebrating Opera’s Passionate Moments | SingaporeLyricOpera

Nancy Yuen & Israel Lozano

LOVE AND PASSION / Singapore Lyric Opera / Review

LOVE & PASSION

Singapore Lyric Opera

Esplanade Recital Studio

Monday (20 January 2020)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 January 2020 with the title "Excellent solos, outstanding duets and ensemble pieces".

Is there any opera that is not about love and passion? Thus the title of Singapore Lyric Opera’s (SLO) latest concert seemed as superfluous as it gets. Nevertheless, one got the idea with this lovely programme of arias, duets and trios from nine operas sung in Italian and French.

SLO has recently worked with young prize-winning singers and scholarship holders, but this evening was reserved for veterans and stalwarts of the company to strut their stuff. But where were the many singing students in various institutions, conspicuous for their absence in a sparsely filled hall? Surely they could learn something or two from the likes of soprano Nancy Yuen, tenor Israel Lozano, baritone Song Kee Chang and accompanying pianist Boris Kraljevic.

It was the Spaniard Lozano, former Placido Domingo protégé, who opened the show with Questa o quella from Verdi’s Rigoletto. In this lusty aria from opera’s most infamous womaniser, the Duke of Mantua, Lozano sounded and looked the part with impressive flourishes in high registers. His other arias were from Verdi’s La Traviata and Massenet’s Werther. The latter was the unforgettable Pourquoi me reveiller, where unrequited love in spring could only lead to suicide.  

Not overshadowed was the Korean Song, whose rich and mellow tone was well suited for a bel canto aria from Bellini’s I Puritani. His portrayal of the older Germont in Di Provenza il mar (from La Traviata) also tugged on the heartstrings, as did Nimico della patria from Umberto Giordano’s Andrea Chénier. While not exactly love songs, these were however tinged with longing and regret.

Yuen, also SLO’s Artistic Director, regrettably sang only one aria. However nobody can scale the heights of Vissi d’arte from Puccini’s Tosca as effortlessly as she does in her signature role. With the absence of programme notes or printed libretti, she and Lozano introduced their numbers with brief but helpful explanations.

Good as the solos were, the duets and ensemble pieces stole the show as all three singers exhibited excellent chemistry with their blended voices. Yuen and Lozano emoted in Signor ne principe (Rigoletto) and the poignant Parigi o cara (La Traviata), which was a tearjerker.  Lozano and Song relived two of opera’s greatest bromances in In un coupe (Puccini’s La Boheme) and the familiar Au fond du temple saint from Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers. And how the room shook.

Yuen and Song accounted for a duet in La Boheme and the most unexpected treat in Te souvient-il du lumineux voyage from Massenet’s Thaïs. This is none other than a glorious reprise of the famous Meditation, with the violin’s unforgettable melody replaced with soaring voices.

The highly enjoyable concert closed with a Three Tenors-styled medley of four Neapolitan songs: O Sole Mio, Non Ti Scordar di me, Torna a Surriento and Funiculi Funicula. Two encores in Santa Lucia and Leoncavallo’s La Mattinata brought down the house and raised a standing ovation.  

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.  

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.