BUTTERFLY'S DREAM / The Opera Pot / Review

 

BUTTERFLY’S DREAM 

The Opera Pot 

Black Box @ 

Stamford Arts Centre 

Sunday (28 April 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 30 April 2024 with the title "The Opera Pot takes flight with adaptation of Madama Butterfly."

Given the sad state of government funding for grand opera in Singapore, big opulent spectacles have been hard to come by. Even the national flagship Singapore Lyric Opera has had to scale down its major productions. 

One sole consolation for opera lovers is the increased activity of little opera companies, the latest newcomer being The Opera Pot, part of The Creative Sync arts company. Its maiden voyage was Butterfly’s Dream, a chamber-sized retelling of Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly through stage and cinema. 

Directed by Mah Su-Yin, the opera’s original two-and-a-half hours involving ten soloists, chorus and orchestra was readapted for just four singers accompanied by piano. Its modern setting is 1950s Nagasaki, during the post-war American occupation of Japan, when a teenaged geisha is married off to an American naval officer. Short-lived passion gives way to long-term fateful consequences. 

Running for 90 minutes without intermission, the clever selection of key moments of musical theatre pared away the luxuries but retained critical factors that made for good story-telling. Its compactness enhanced rather than detracted from the drama. This production was, however, a creative coup in other respects. 

Chief of these was the singing in Italian, with soprano Wendy Woon helming the titular character Cio-Cio San, whose pitiful plight of love lost and duty abandoned was totally identifiable. Her passionate hit aria Un bel di left one wondering if her unshaken faith was a case of misplaced innocence or pure delusion, or both. 

Opposite her was Malaysian tenor Alan Lau as the feckless Lieutenant Pinkerton, whose smarminess was immediately apparent by trodding on tatami without first taking off his shoes. Their love duet together, Viene La Sera / Vogliatemi Bene, was the stuff for raising goosebumps. Unlike most Pinkertons, his final regret was palpable, evoking sympathy rather than contempt. 

Photo: Ken Ang

The other singers were Australian baritone Greg McCreanor as a confident but cautious Consul Sharpless and Japanese mezzo-soprano Chieko Trevatt as kimono-wearing maid-servant Suzuki, the latter being the best of four actors on stage. Although she had a few lines to sing, her non-verbal cues more than encompassed the unfolding tragedy. 

The absence of an orchestra was rendered moot by Vincent Chen Wei Jie’s musical direction on piano, who was a towering presence in support. The simple yet effective set comprised a central low table, ikebana set and clock backed by six screens. The narrative from the viewpoint of Suzuki was aided by mostly black-and-white film projections which were visually stunning. 

The death of Butterfly.

Excellent lighting design by Debbie Tan Zi-Yang aided the noir setting pursued in the direction, which was unobtrusive but easily taken for granted. Butterfly’s final act of seppuku (no stabbing but a violent flick of a fan) was represented by the stage symbolically bathed in blood red hues. 

Judging by this success of a debut, one cannot wait for what The Opera Pot cooks up next.

Photographs from OPERA MIXER: THE ITALIAN EDITION

If you love music for the voice, but are not too familiar about opera and its finer points, then Opera Mixer is right for you. Presented by Opera Viva, Opera Mixer aims to demystify the mystique and intrigue about opera by presenting arias, duets and ensembles in a fun and unstuffy manner. Melissa Chan, the evening's mezzo-soprano (also a Board Member of Opera Viva) set the tone by inviting the audience to relax and imagine attending a party on Venice's Grand Canal. Over drinks, crackers and cheese, the evening of Italian operatic highlights unfolded with lots of melodrama and very good singing.

This evening's programme was drawn exclusively from Italian opera, with a healthy dose from the bel canto tradition - Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini. There was just one Puccini aria, some Verdi and the occasional rarity, mostly because one did not expect such demanding numbers to be performed in Singapore! 

All four singers, soprano Wendy Woon, mezzo Melissa Chan, tenor Leslie Tay and baritone Alvin Tan were not only excellent in their delivery but also very conversant in sharing their passion for singing with the audience. They mused about their roles, revealing details and finer points about being an opera singer - their ups and downs - and also provided helpful synopses about each opera. It all came across as informal, informative and mostly enjoyable fun. In these days when the arts play second fiddle to entertainment and sports, such an injection of life is not only necessary but vital.

The evening opened with soprano Wendy Woon
singing Un bel di from Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

Baritone Alvin Tan sang some Handel and
Verdi's Di Provenza il mare (La Traviata)

Tenor Leslie Tay spoke about castrati and
offered more Handel and the gem that is
Una furtiva lagrima from Donizetti's L'elisir d'Amore.

Mezzo Melissa Chan explained and demonstrated
the "trouser role" by portraying Romeo in
Bellini's I Montecchi e I Capuleti.

Parigi o cara from Verdi's La Traviata.

Many expressions of Melissa Chan
in Bellini and Rossini (Non piu mesta from La Cenerentola)

A duet from Bellini's I Montecchi e I Capuleti.

Bromance time in a duet from
Verdi's Don Carlo.

Wendy Woon sensitively plays the ill-fated
Anna Bolena from Donizetti's opera.

The grand finale was the famous Quartet
from Verdi's Rigoletto.

All four singers take their bow and stand with
their "orchestra" pianist Benjamin Lim (extreme left).

PIANO CONCERTO FESTIVAL / ADDO Chamber Orchestra / Review

PIANO CONCERTO FESTIVAL

ADDO Chamber Orchestra

School of the Arts Concert Hall

Sunday (16 August 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 18 August 2015 with the title "Momentous, but not without hiccups".

The Piano Concerto Festival, a project of The Performing Arts Company, is now into its second year, supported by the newly-formed ADDO Chamber Orchestra conducted by Clarence Tan. This annual event provides a platform for young Singaporean pianists, a godsend as opportunities to perform with an orchestra are very rare. Its first concert showcased contrasting piano concertos by Mozart and Prokofiev.

But first, an unusual prelude took the form of Mozart's concert aria Ch'io Mi Scordi Di Te? (You Ask That I Forget You?) K.505, sung by coloratura soprano Wendy Woon. Her emotive account, filled with pathos, was well supported by the orchestra, then came the substantial obbligato piano part from Leslie Theseira.

It is said that Mozart's piano concertos were inextricably linked to his operas, and here was a curious hybrid as if to prove the point. Theseira's pretty contribution was both ornamental as well as a foil for the singer, and at certain passages he blended as one with the orchestra. It was an excellent palate-cleanser for the proper concertos to come.

Mozart's Piano Concerto No.24 in C minor (K.491) was performed by Choon Hong Xiang, an irregular reading because of rawness of ensemble coupled with the pianist's diffidence. The opening tutti was marred by poor intonation from the woodwinds but it got better. Choon seemed overawed by the occasion, and despite neat and accurate fingerwork, his playing seldom projected beyond the orchestra's domain.

He came into his own in the 1^st movement cadenza, which he had composed himself, a lost art revived with some ear-catching ideas. Only the second of two minor key piano concertos by Mozart, the work was to evoke high drama and tragedy. This almost came when Hong completely missed his entry cue in the finale, only joining in a few bars later. Fortunately, he and the ensemble kept their wits, and concluded the Theme and Variations movement together without further mishap.

Altogether more confident was Nicholas Ho who tackled Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto with fearless aplomb. Now studying in Indiana with American pianists Edward Auer and Andre Watts, he has matured far beyond the impetuous youth who was previously described in these pages as having an “obsession with speed and volume” and a “surfeit of feral instincts”.

All he did now was to play the notes Prokofiev had written, and the effect was electrifying. The free-wheeling 1^st movement breezed through fairly easily, but the 2^nd movement's Theme and Variations saw a brief desynchronisation between pianist and orchestra. A full second's rupture occurred in the rambunctious finale, but that was no fault of his. Shrugging off the blip, both parties grappled with the music's high octane content to finish on an intoxicating high. 

Always eventful and at times harrowing, the Piano Concerto Festival moves to Victoria Concert Hall on 3 September to survey the first two piano concertos of Tchaikovsky.

The Piano Concerto Festival was presented by The Performing Arts Company in celebration of Singapore's 50 years of independence.