Commedia! by Baritone Steven Ang

 

I am please to share my latest album with you, Commedia!, a collection of arias and songs from comedic operas and musicals. 

The music was recorded during the lockdown months of March to July, and getting to make art during this tumultuous period was such a blessing to me. My performance of comedic roles and of scenes in concerts have always received positive feedback, to my gratitude, that I would like to take this opportunity to explore myself in this area. 

Please check out the album via the following streaming services:

Spotify:

https://artists.spotify.com/c/artist/1cgoGJ06IK5Zy1AfgfmWi8/profile/overview

Apple Music:

https://music.apple.com/us/artist/steven-ang/1436048024

YouTube Music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeFefM_KYio&list=OLAK5uy_nLu0Y4ei_YkGYOuzZBcV8SJBonBLpAZw8

Check out my album launch concert on 27 December, 7.30pm Singapore time! Featuring special guest Zoey Lee. It's going to be a ball! 

Steven Ang's Debut Album "Music Drama" - Out Now on iTunes and Spotify

After a very fruitful year, I would like to present my debut album Music Drama. Recorded from March to December 2017, it contains songs and arias that have played an active part in my performance repertoire, excerpts from larger musical theatrical works that explore characters and stories in music. While my technique has changed since (and has changed significantly throughout the recording period), it serves as a document to my art at a certain stage in time.

I am very fortunate to have friends join me on this project: Alvin Koh, my student Laura Maurer Stroh, Xiao Chunyuan, Lin Ziying  and pianist Winnie Tiopan, as well as William Chua, Jeremy Lee and Mike Lee for being a part of my chorus.

This album is dedicated to my late Aunt Ang Siew Keow, who sadly left us due to liver cancer last year. I would not have reached this stage of my career without her love and support for our family.

Music Drama is now available on all popular digital download and streaming platforms including iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, KKBox, CDBaby and many more. Please check it out and I hope you’ll enjoy it!

Music Drama by Steven Ang

Download on iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/sg/album/music-drama/1436048898

Stream on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/1G313en88IXD56kWSJ1cSO?si=LzN8DAPwRzWUwT0pkfEIlw

Album Crowdfunding Campaign - Night Garden by Jo Anne Sukumaran

Singaporean bassoonist Jo Anne Sukumaran needs your help to crowdfund her debut album. She is an experienced musician who has played professionally in orchestras around the world including Australia, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

Inspired by a meditation retreat at St. John's Island, Jo Anne's debut album nature-inspired programe includes pieces by Phillippe Hersant, Charles Koechlin and Manuel de Falla.

The crowdfunding campaign starts on 7 September 2018. Meanwhile, check out her website below for more information about the album and the artist.

https://www.joannesukumaran.com/the-night-garden

Paris-Based Pianist Wang Congyu's Concert in Singapore - 15 Nov 2015

France-based local pianist Wang Congyu will be staging his comeback recital at the Alliance Francaise on 15 November 2015. He will also be launching his new CD Charme at the event. Please call Neville at 9649 0524 or Abdul at 8200-0433 for tickets.

Check out http://www.congyuwang.com to find out more about Wang Congyu and his many accomplishments abroad!

Pappano's Aida - Available from Oct 2015

Warner Classics presents a brand new studio recording of Aida, conducted by Antonio Pappano with Anja Harteros, Jonas Kaufmann and Anna Netrebko's baby-daddy Erwin Schrott in the leads. As usual it takes a Greek soprano to do Italian opera well. Check out the making of video here, and more information via the link below:

http://www.warnerclassics.com/release/550718,0825646106639/antonio-pappano-verdi-aida?eml=2015October2/2766873/6225064&etsubid=83092297

Piano Spa 7 - 'Moonlight Waves'

If you are feeling tired and emotionally drained, check out this 7th release of the Piano Spa series of piano instrumental music that promises to sooth your weary soul and lift your miserable spirit. The album is available for CD purchase and for download on iTunes. Here's more information:

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Presenting the 7th Installment of Singapore's New Age Piano Spa Series

Piano Spa is an anthology of successful New Age Instrumental albums.

The Piano Spa series is a collection of original instrumental compositions that have been described by listeners as “healing”, “relaxing” and “inspiring”.Unknown to many, the Piano Spa series is probably the best-selling Instrumental series to emerge from our very own Singapore.

Diana Damrau Recording of 'Lucia di Lammermoor'

Here's what I want for Christmas! This new recording also features Joseph Calleja and Ludovic Tézier as Edgardo and Enrico.

Listen to sample clips on the Warner Music website.

Joyce Didonato's Stella di Napoli Album going for $7.98 on iTunes

Such a low cost for a new release, no harm giving it a try right?
https://itunes.apple.com/sg/album/stella-di-napoli/id905639500

Harnoncourt's 'Fidelio' - $2.50 on iTunes

I've been searching for a period instrument/period-style Fidelio for the longest time as I would like to hear it done by non-Wagnerian voices with a lighter orchestration, but can't seem to find one despite the abundance of the composer's symphonies already well-represented in HIP style. I guess to some level opera folks just are not keen to hear Beethoven's opera sung by Mozartean voices.

So I searched iTunes again today and came across this 1995 recording by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, going for only SGD2.50!!! It stars one Charlotte Margiono in the title role, a singer that as of now is still unknown to me, Peter Seiffert, Bo Skovhus and Barbara Bonney. While I usually avoid Harnoncourt's recording like the palgue (witness his Salzburg Marriage of Figaro DVD that turned a dream cast into a nightmare recording), at this price its certainly worth giving him another shot.

Oddly, there's a highlights version of this same recording that's selling for the same price of S$2.50. No wondering which version to buy then!

EMI's Celebration of the Voice

November 2013 is EMI's month for celebrating all things vocal, with new releases by Julia Lezhneva and Philippe Jaroussky in Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, a highlights CD of the Ring Cycle with Nina Stimme as Brunnhilde, and recital CDs from newcomers Marina Rebeka and Sabine Devieilhe. View trailers and find out more on their newsletter here:

http://m.news.emihosting.com/nl/jsp/m.jsp?c=e5806c291ca24c0e1c

Free Streaming: Antonio Pappano's War Requiem

Antonio Pappano's recording of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem is no available for pre-order, you can also listen to the entire album via streaming on Soundcloud. It features Anna Netrebko, Ian Bostridge and Thomas Hampson as soloists. You can listen to it here:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/oct/15/brittens-war-requiem-centenary-live-stream-pappano

Berlin Philharmonic Live at the Esplanade - DVD Release

Perhaps its because they have already filmed every concert at their regular concert hall for their digital concert subscription series that made them want to change locations for DVD releases, just to add some variety, or perhaps this is a subtle reflection of the STB's work, and kudos to them if that's the case. Either way, YAY to the Berlin Phil for expanding their prodigious recording activities to our shores.

I've already a performance via live simulcast during the Taipei stop of this same tour, so I will probably skip this DVD (not that I buy that many concert DVDs anyway), but this is certainly one that a Singaporean classical music lover would not feel out of place to have in his collection. Isn't it wonderful that Western arts groups are now acknowledging the presence of their Asian audiences in such a big way?

Its even available  in 3D on blu-ray, so that you can see those durian spikes pop out of your TV!

Placido Domingo's 'Verdi' Album

Placido Domingo: Verdi

Macbeth
01 - Perfidi! All'anglo contro me v'unite! ... Pieta, rispetto, amore

Rigoletto
02 - Pari siamo! ... Io la lingua
03 - Cortigiani, vil razza dannata

Un ballo in maschera
04 - Alzati; la tuo figlio ... Eri tu che macchiavi quell' anima

La Traviata
05 - Di Provenza il mar, il suol

Simon Boccanegra
06 - Abbasso le spade! ... Plebe! Patrizi! ... Popolo dalla feroce storia!
07 - Ecco la spade

Ernani
08 - E questo il loco
09 - Oh, de' verd'anni miei

Il Trovatore
10 - Tutto e deserto ...
11 - Il balen del suo sorriso
12 - Qual suono!...Oh ciel!....Per me, ora fatale

Don Carlo
13 - Son io, mio Carlo
14 - Per me giunto e il dì supremo
15 - Che parli tu di morte?

La forza del destino
16 - Morir! Tremenda cosa
17 - Urna fatale del mio destino
18 - E s'altra prova rinvenir potessi?


In the year of Verdi's 200th birthday celebration comes this CD of arias from the great Placido Domingo. although the 'B' word doesn't appear anywhere on the cover, what it is is a programme of the composer's greatest baritone arias.

In all appearances, for whatever anyone says about his having sung baritone a century ago as a teenager, this is decidedly a tenor singing in his lower and middle range. The colour is significantly lighter than what we are used to hear in these arias; low notes tend to thin out, while some high notes lack the resonance and high-wire thrill factor that one would expect. Even more discerning is the sense that the singer is making do with whatever voice that is left: certain lines grate with hoarseness, breaths hurriedly snatched in between syllables of a word, and he has a tendency to scoop unmusically from below the pitch. The sound can also become overtly nasal at times.

My First Peter Grimes

(Wikipedia page of the opera here if you are unfamiliar with this opera but want to know it better.)


What's cockney English for 'OMG seriously creeped out'!?! Who are the people who once criticised Benjamin Britten for being 'too melodic'? And where harmonies go are parallel seconds now the new parallel thirds?

Suffice to say, the music takes some getting used to; it really calls for quite a bit of patience for the audience's ears to adjust. But then the story starts to get really compelling, and you don't really know whether to sympathise with the increasingly deranged protagonist or side with the gossiping villagers for attempting to call him out.

Music wise, the composer is a genius at creating tension through pacing, unsettling rhythms and unrelentingly eerie harmonies. He is wonderful at composing for large forms, as can be heard from the many scenes where over a dozen vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra build up what started as a simple accompanied dialogue to a full fortissimo passage, yet so many different instrumental and vocal colours, melodies and textures can be heard clearly even at its loudest. What an embarrassment of riches!

And then there's Grime's mad scene, or rather, mad scenes! I shall not go into detail in case you want to check it out yourself, but in the right performer's hands (and Peter Langridge is just unbelievably compelling in the part), is musical declamation at its best. This opera is certainly not for casual popcorn viewing, but is worth the time and emotional investment if you are ever so keen to go along for the ride.

Now let's get back to the always reliable Joan Rivers, because I really need a laugh!

Daniel Barenboim and La Scala Take On Verdi's Requiem

Daniel Barenboim leads his La Scala chorus and orchestra in their own recording of the Verdi Requiem, hot after the heels of Pappano's groundbreaking recording in recent times, and using two of the same soloists. Maybe the saying that there are no more Verdi singers anymore these days is becoming true. But then we have Jonas Kaufmann's as the tenor soloist this time, so that should be reason for many to check it out. You can preview quite a number of clips via the YouTube Playlist below:

SSO's Debut Recording on Decca

This looks like an exciting move for our very own local orchestra: a new CD on a major international label! Nevermind that they only playing a supporting role to Qin Li-Wei (who is a contracted recording artist with Universal Music as well as a lecturer at Yong Siew Toh), what matters is that their performance, along with Maestro Lan Shui's leadership, will now be accessible to a much broader international audience of classical music lovers. So give it up for the home team! Here's more information:

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- Lan Shui is leading Singapore Symphony Orchestra to be the world class Symphony Orchestra- American Record Guide

- Experienced Germany production team travelled to Singapore Esplanade for the live recording of the album


DECCA releases the works of the famous cellist, Qin Li-Wei's third album, Dvorak - a live recording together with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and conductor, Lan Shui. The album consist of the live recording of Dvorak ‘B minor cello concerto, ‘Silent Woods’and Brahms’s ‘Academic Festival Overture’. ‘B minor Cello Concerto’ is not only one of the masterpieces of Dvorak, but is also well received by the world. This is not the first time Li-Wei has played this piece, at the age of 17, he collaborated with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, but this time, he feels that he has grown and performed this piece more confidently.

The German production team was specially invited to Singapore Esplanade to do the recording for the album, and thereafter, the album was completed in Germany. Li-Wei mentioned that it was a lot of pressure for him during the live recording as everything that was played will be recorded in the album. However, conductor Lan Shui was very understanding and they all worked together very well along with the orchestra.

Cecilia Bartoli's Puzzle

I've solved the puzzle, now its your turn!

Cecilia Bartoli's website has a new game feature to promote her new recording of Norma, also featuring Sumi Jo. Complete the image in 300 seconds and you will get to view the official trailer of the recording sessions!

http://ceciliabartolionline.com/unlock-norma/

Otherwise if playing games at the office is not your thing, you can view the official trailers here:

Part two of the trailer, featuring the duo singing Mira o Norma:

Free Music Download from EMI Classic

Screenshot

EMI Classics has launched their new website with more interactive features than before! As a special promotion you can download a free collection of eight MP3s, excerpted from classic recordings and upcoming releases. Check it out here:

http://www.emiclassics.com/welcome/77

Cecilia Bartoli's Norma CD Cover

Fresh from the Italian diva's Facebook Fanpage, also featuring the pre-eminent Korean diva Sumi Jo! Woohoo!!!

Julia Lezhneva's 'Alleluia' CD

For some reason I tend to roll my eyes when I hear of another gorgeous, young rising Eastern European opera star. But after giving Julia Lezhneva a chance, I'm more convinced that she is the real thing. After receiving so-so reviews for her debut CD of Rossini opera arias, her follow-up of motets by Mozart, Handel, Vivaldi and Porpora seem more suitable repertoire for her voice: a light sound that is striking in its purity of tone and flexibility throughout her wide vocal range. The baroque orchestra Il Giardino Armonico, famed for accompanying Cecilia Bartoli on her landmark Vivaldi Arias CD among others. Check out the trailer here:

And then, here's a bootleg live recording of her demonstrating just how agile her vocal gymnastics are: