VERDI'S MACBETH / Lirica Arts / Review

 

VERDI’S MACBETH

Lirica Arts

Victoria Theatre

Friday (27 March 2026)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 30 March 2026 with the title "Bold staging of Verdi's Macbeth by rising opera company Lirica Arts".

Lirica Arts, a local opera company formed just four years ago, has produced its second fully-staged opera since its very encouraging debut with Gioachino Rossini’s L’Inganno Felice in 2022. Giuseppe Verdi’s first Shakespearean opera Macbeth, which premiered in 1847 and revised in 1865, was a very brave and ambitious choice, but one the opera scene here really needs having had multiple La Traviatas, La Bohemes and Carmens.

The two Martins:
Martin Ng's Macbeth with
and Martin Ohu's Banco

Verdi’s Macbeth has exactly the same plot as Shakespeare’s play, with the same sequence of events but the added dimensions of music and being sung in Italian. It was first presented by Singapore Lyric Opera in 2001 conducted by Lim Yau, and 25 years later, this production with The Philharmonic Orchestra was led by his son Lin Juan.

Zhang Jie's Lady Macbeth
commands King Duncan to be killed.

With familiar characters and a story easy to follow, it was left for stage director Tang Xinxin to pique the imagination of the audience. Her task was considerably aided by baritone Martin Ng (artistic director of Lirica Arts) in the titular role, and soprano Zhang Jie as his infamous spouse. Ng’s transformation from humble Thane of Glamis to blood-thirsty King of Scotland was the stuff of tragedies, where self-doubt gradually turned into fatal ambition with all nuances in between.

Good as Ng was in his chest-beating stentorian arias, it was Zhang’s Lady Macbeth who delivered the tour de force. Her blood curdling La Luce Langue (The Light Fades) and sleep-walking aria Una Macchia E Qui Tuttora (Out, Damned Spot!) were solo high points, with deserved accolades from the audience.

Their respective deaths were strangely low key. She in her blood red gown just walked into the shadows, while he was unceremoniously dispatched by excellent tenor Jonathan Charles Tay’s MacDuff. Supporting them were South Korean bass Martin Ohu as the short-lived Banco (Banquo) and tenor Jonathan MacPherson as Malcolm, the new king.

Banco's ghost returns to haunt Macbeth.

The 18-strong Lirica Arts Festival Chorus (Chorus master Terrence Toh) was very effective in the crowd scenes, singing the famous chorus of exiles Patria Oppressa! (Oppressed Homeland!) and scenes involving the Witches (which had nine members rather than just three). Significant in community outreach was the inclusion of three students from Art:DIS (Arts & Disability Singapore) among the refugees.

The Birnam Wood marches forward
to confront Macbeth.
Photo: Pianomaniac

Set and lighting design by Dorothy Png was particularly evocative with the dark hues employed in scenes involving supernatural elements. The Lion Rampant to represent Scottish monarchy was historically accurate and smart use of AI-generated backdrops helped cost-savings without looking cheap. Costume design by Hayden Ng, subdued for the oppressed and bolder shades for main characters, contributed to generating the right atmosphere.

The two Jonathans:
Jonathan Charles Tay's Macduff
declares Jonathan MacPherson's Malcolm king.

The 2001 production of Macbeth may have been more opulent owing to a bigger budget, but Lirica Arts must be credited for even attempting this at the time when arts funding for classical opera is comparatively conservative. Lirica Arts is now ready to join the esteemed ranks of the more established Singapore Lyric Opera and New Opera Singapore.

There are two further shows on Saturday evening at 7.30 pm and Sunday afternoon at 4 pm.

Photo: Pianomaniac

Photo: Pianomaniac

All professional photography 

by Chris P.Lim

The review as published 

in The Straits Times:

Bold staging of Verdi’s Macbeth by rising opera company Lirica Arts | The Straits Times

WAGNER'S DAS RHEINGOLD / Orchestra of the Music Makers / Review

WAGNER’S DAS RHEINGOLD

Orchestra of the Music Makers

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (8 July 2023)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 11 July 2023 with the title "OMM pulls of triumphant semi-staging of Das Rheingold".

 

 

Singapore received its second dose of German composer Richard Wagner’s monumental operatic tetralogy The Ring Of The Nibelung (or Ring cycle) with the Orchestra of the Music Makers’ (OMM) semi-staged production of Das Rheingold (The Rhinegold, originally premiered in 1869). This first part, euphemistically referred to as a Prelude or Preliminary Evening, of the 15-hour-long cycle was itself a whopping two-and-a-half hours of melodrama. This Singapore premiere, conducted by Joshua Tan with stage direction by Tang Xinxin, was an unqualified triumph.

 

Its sordid tale of greed, lust, fatal curses, murder and mayhem, perpetrated by Nordic gods and mythical beings with disgustingly human traits, was played by an international cast of thirteen singers with orchestral support that spared neither effort nor attention to detail. The 110-strong orchestra placed centrestage (and not cooped up in a pit) revealed Wagner’s music in its full glory, including the use of sonorous Wagner tubas and the fabled six harps near its conclusion. All this made for a treat for the senses.

The Rhinemaidens foolishly
reveal the Rhinegold to Alberich.

 

From primal depths of the Rhine, waves of the E flat major triad – a representation of Nature herself – built up its first drama. It was appropriate that this production opened with voices of Singaporean singers, sopranos Teng Xiang Ting and Victoria Songwei Li starring as two of three Rhinemaidens. Joined by Anna Harvey, who also sang the Earth goddess Erda, they were the embodiment of innocence, ignorance and loss.

The Rhinegold becomes Alberich's obsession,
having foresworn love.

 

The opera’s principal antagonist was evil dwarf Alberich, imperiously portrayed by Joachim Goltz, who foreswore love for the ultimate power grab of gold. Instead of physical ingots or bars, the Rhinegold was unusually personified in the form of gold-painted soprano Felicia Teo (in a wordless role), an object of obsession, possession and lust. This poetic transformation made for seamless and fluid staging, as opposed to the static stacked plastic crates used in the final scene, reflecting the prize’s true worth of misery and death.  

The gods and mythical beings confer
with Wotan, and all is not well. 

 

The flawed gods themselves were also trenchantly played, Greer Grimsley as the duplicitous Wotan and Caitlin Hulcup, his long-suffering wife Fricka, both dressed in opulent finery. The costumes for the others were workaday clothes, including the giants Fasolt and Fafner (basses Yorck Felix Speer and Lukasz Konieczny) labouring with hard hats and soiled boots after their construction of fortress Valhalla.

And so to Nibelheim...

... where Wotan and hold Alberich captive.

 

Perhaps most remarkable was god of fire Loge’s knowing and freewheeling persona, with Tuomas Katajala donning the most exuberant outfit while balancing mostly on roller-skates. Goddess of youth Freia (Anita Watson) as the giants’ ransom, her brothers Froh and Donner (Florian Thomas and Michael Lam) and the brow-beaten elf Mime (Adrian Dwyer) completed a fine ensemble that had no obvious weak links.

Fafner and Fasolt can still see Freia
through all those stacks of gold.
What is missing is the Ring!

 

While the drama was gripping, liberally laced with cynical humour, sumptuous musical moments abounded. The opera’s mystical opening Prelude, the striking smithy anvils of subterranean Nibelheim and the gods’ faux-triumphant entry into Valhalla in D flat major (literally a deflation from the earlier E flat major), all rendered with a brash confidence bordering on vehemence.

 

Alberich does not want to be parted
from the Rhinegold but he has no choice.

The real star of this outing had to be Richard Wagner (1813-1883) himself. A visionary genius but thoroughly unpleasant human being (narcissist, megalomaniac and anti-Semite were but a few descriptions), he envisioned his creations to be gesamtkunstwerk, the complete and ultimate fusion of the fine arts. He composed the music, scripted the German texts, directed every scene down to the last detail, and even built his own opera house in Bayreuth to boot, tasks which would have daunted the gods themselves.

Erda intervenes and warns Wotan
and all of the Ring's curse.

And so the gods enter into
a doomed Valhalla.

 

Ultimate credit goes to OMM and its founder Chan Tze Law for realising this Wagnerian dream by following up on its pre-pandemic success of Die Walkure (The Valkyrie, 2020) with this equally impressive coup. Can one expect for the next opera of the cycle, Siegfried, sometime in the near future?

AN OPERA CONCERT NOT TO BE MISSED: WAGNER'S DAS RHEINGOLD BY ORCHESTRA OF THE MUSIC MAKERS

An operatic concert not to be missed!

Following the absolute artistic triumph that was Wagner's Die Walkure, presented by Singapore's Orchestra of the Music Makers in January 2020, the logical next big step is the first opera of The Ring of the Nibelung, Das Rheingold. Conducted by Joshua Tan with stage direction by Tang Xinxin, this semi-staged production with an international cast of singers promises to be another spectacular feast for the senses.

Unsure of the story? Here is a clever video by OMM to demystify the myths of the opera, one so brief and concise that even the operatic neophyte may understand. Wagner without tears indeed.

The Orchestra of the Music Makers presents:

Wagner's Das Rheingold

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday, 8 July 2023, 7.30 pm

Get your tickets at SISTIC:

Wagner's Das Rheingold (sistic.com.sg)

JOHANN STRAUSS JR'S DIE FLEDERMAUS / Singapore Lyric Opera / Review

JOHANN STRAUSS JR’S

DIE FLEDERMAUS

Singapore Lyric Opera

Esplanade Theatre

Saturday 17 December 2022

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 December 2022 with the title "Soprano Joyce Lee Tung steals show in Singapore Lyric Opera's Die Fledermaus". 

 

This is the season for uncorking champagne bottles and what could be more appropriate than another airing of Johann Strauss the Younger’s evergreen and bubbly-induced operetta Die Fledermaus? Singapore Lyric Opera’s most recent crack at this hoary old chestnut had much to recommend, reminding one and all why we love the festive season plus a few good jokes or two.

 

Directed by Tang Xinxin and accompanied by the SLO Orchestra conducted by Joshua Tan, an ebullient Overture presenting all the memorable melodies got the show off to a good start. The operetta’s comedic plot was one of mischievous vengeance and the usual farce of mistaken identity, culminating in a New Year’s Eve ball at Prince Orlofsky’s.

 

All three members of the Eisenstein’s dysfunctional household contrive to attend the high society event with assumed foreign identities, and the deceptions with predictable misunderstandings inevitably take place. Tenor Jonathan Charles Tay’s Eisenstein and soprano Shimona Rose’s Rosalinde were splendid antagonistic twin pillars of the action, their repartee effected under disguise being a very funny aspect of the story.

Eisenstein becomes Marquis de Renard while
Rosalinde becomes the Hungarian countess
at Orlofsky's ball.

 

They were, however, upstaged by soprano Joyce Lee Tung stealing the show as their housemaid Adele, who has aspirations as an actress. Adele’s Laughing Song (Mein Herr Marquis) in the second act acted like the pivot around which all action was built. She nailed the role with striking aplomb.  

Adele becomes transformed
into a budding actress at Orlofsky's ball.

 

The threesome was well supported by baritone Martin Ng (as Falke, who hatched the plot of revenge against Eisenstein), tenor Kee Loi Seng (Alfred, Rosalinde’s hopeful paramour), baritone William Lim (Frank, conniving prison governor) and tenor Leslie Tay (Blind, hapless attorney), the last who could not resist cross-dressing again, this time as a very unvoluptuous Wonder Woman. Ironically, the usual cross-dressing role of Prince Orlofsky, usually by a mezzo-soprano, was instead sung pretty convincingly by countertenor Chan Wei En.

 

While the First Act, set at the Eisenstein’s domicile, dragged somewhat, everything came to life in the glittering Second Act, with cast, SLO Chorus and dancers at full tilt. Here the operetta’s dizzy heart flowed unabated without contrived and time-consuming setpieces. The blazing Unter Donner und Blitzen (Under Thunder and Lightning) Polka was danced to animated choreography by Andy Benjamin Cai.

 

Leading into the Third Act saw the non-singing role of inebriated prison attendant Frosch portrayed by Alaric Tay (of The Noose fame). Ten minutes of stand-up comedy was just about right, with references to past inmates being incarcerated for refusing to wear face-masks, and the ongoing football World Cup, particularly the Messi state the gaol was in.

 

The deliberately uncredited set design was simple and effective, incorporating Wiener Werkstatte (Vienna Workshop) elements into light fixtures and furniture – a nice touch. Overall, this was both a stylish and enjoyable production which reflects the typically excellent yet underrated work undertaken by Singapore’s premier opera company, which labours under a chronic lack of capital. May the coming year ahead see a continuation of similar high standards. 

All photographs by courtesy of 

Singapore Lyric Opera.

ROSSINI'S L'INGANNO FELICE / Lirica Arts / Review

ROSSINI’S L’INGANNO FELICE

Lirica Arts

Lee Foundation Theatre

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts

Saturday (5 March 2022)

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 9 March 2022 with the title "Italian opera sparkles in classical Chinese setting".

 

It is not a well-known fact that only one of Gioachino Rossini’s 39 operas, The Barber Of Seville, had received performances in Singapore. That all changed when the great Italian composer’s L’Inganno Felice (The Blissful Deception) got its Singapore premiere, a debut outing for newly-formed opera company Lirica Arts.

 

This 1812 single-act opera was once very popular but later neglected because of its origins as a farsa (or farce), a semi-serious piece that fell between the cracks of comic opera and grand opera. Running at around eighty minutes and involving a small cast of five singers, it was not taken seriously by major opera companies. It is, however, well-suited as a pandemic opera with transmission risks minimised by the chamber forces employed.  

 

Its plot is relatively simple and almost farcical. Isabella (soprano Joyce Lee Tung) is an abandoned wife wrongly accused of infidelity, framed by the villainous Ormondo (baritone William Lim) whose advances she had earlier spurned. Her husband Duke Bertrando (tenor Jonathan Charles Tay) thinks she is dead but having been rescued by Tarabotto (baritone David Tao), she now assumes the role of Tarabotto’s niece. The opera’s action kicks off when Isabella and Bertrando get reunited by chance.

 

The 20-year-old Rossini’s music provided an early example of the bel canto style, characterised by sumptuous melodic lines dressed with florid ornamentations. In that respect, Lee was an ideal exponent. Her vocal capabilities, established from the opening aria on her lamentable fate, was matched by more than credible acting.

 

Her highly sympathetic role also stood shoulder to shoulder with four male characters. Tay’s bright and wide-eyed demeanour contrasted well with Tao’s more buffo (comedic) character, both a foil for stage veteran Lim’s menacing malevolence and reluctant henchman Batone (baritone Martin Ng). There were simply no weak links among the five singers.

 

Director Tang Xinxin’s had moved the setting of the opera from Italy to ancient China, with Dorothy Png’s simple yet effective set and lighting design evoking a garden villa in Suzhou. There was a brief scene where shadows of the reunited lovers were projected, making for a classically Chinese picture-perfect silhouette.

 

Isabella was the only character donning full Chinese opera make-up, contrasted with the men’s partial face paint, indicating her to be the most fleshed-out character of all. The silk brocades also made a stunning impact, with a possible nod to current global events. It could not be total coincidence that the good guys (and victims) were dressed in combinations of blue and yellow, while the baddies in black had red trimmings.      

 

Accompanying music was provided by the Wayfarer Sinfonietta conducted by Lien Boon Hua, opening with a typically witty overture and sensitively partnering the singers throughout. Despite some foursquare musical sequences, the generally upbeat tone of the proceedings was a hit with the full-house and no longer socially-distanced audience. Their chorus of approval deemed Lirica Arts’ maiden production to be a roaring success.