The Mad Scene in Concert

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Somehow it never occurred to me to blog about this concert on The Mad Scene: my compulsory year 3 recital (yeah its been that long!), especially when the source of inspiration for design is obvious. If you happen to be in Taipei this coming Thursday 8 December 2011, do drop by and check out The Mad Scene - in Concert. I'm a nervous wreck right now trying to squeeze in last minute practices, tying up logistical loose ends and coping with the erratic weather here. More details can be found on the Facebook Invite.

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WISH ME LUCK!!!

SLO Annual Concert in Pictures

The Singapore Lyric Opera's recent 2011 Annual Concert has concluded with star-studded performances by Nancy Yuen, Song Kee-Chang and Lee Jae-Wook. Here are some pictures of the night's proceedings:

Katherine Jenkins on Time Out Singapore

There are some jobs that you do for the pleasure that it brings for a job well done, and there are jobs that you take on in order to pay the bills, hence this month's Time Out Classical feature on Katherine Jenkins. I see it as a way of stratching my capabilities by stepping out of my comfort zone. Check it out here.

Vodka Kimchi

One can always count on Sumi Jo for a fun interview and she delivers even in this one minute plus clip, conducted in English, Korean and Italian, where she gushes about how Dimitri Hvorostovsky would be the perfect colleague except for one tiny thing:

Berlin Philharmonic Live Broadcast in Taipei

This is something that I attended recently and am posting about it here in hopes that it'll inspire the powers-that-be back home to do something similar.

Because I had such a thrill on 18 November watching a free live relay of the Berlin Philharmonic's performance of Mahler's 9th at the National Concert Hall at the Taipei Arena (an indoor stadium for sports and rock concert extravaganzas). The concert was also relayed to stadiums in Xinzhu, Taichung and Hualian, as well as on the Berlin Philharmonic's Digital Concert Hall.

Free tickets were given out at the National Concert Hall's MRT station at 9am on 11 November, a week before. Queues started building up from 8am. Here are pics of the crowd queuing up for Berlin Phil simulcast tickets:

The Taipei Arena was so crowded on that day that traffic police had to be called in to usher passersby from the surrounding roads (it was the same location where I had triumphed in Aida only a few weeks ago). Two hosts entertained the live crowd of almost 10,000 audiences as well as viewers watching online. This concert is the first time an overseas Berlin Phil concert was broadcasted on their website. Needless to say, government officials didn't waste this opportunity to showcase their wares and web listeners were shown trailers about Taiwanese tourism and business opportunities.

Watching the concert on a giant LCD screen with so many people, it feels as though I'm watching a movie in a cinema except that its actually a live classical event that only a supposedly niche audience cares about. Also watching Sir Rattle and a bunch of Ang Mohs walk onstage, It seemed eerily familiar to viewing concert DVDs at home, where the film typically starts by showing footage of the concert hall or opera house, except that the concert hall being shown at the moment isn't in some exotic locale like Berlin, Lucerne or New York, but in the very heart of Taipei just a few MRT stations away from where we are (I even saw a classmate sitting on the front row with his mom!)

After the concert, the roads from the National Concert Hall to Taipei Arena were cleared to drive Sir Rattle and company to the Arena ASAP. They were met with cheers and an ovation worthy of rock stars. Crowds from the other three cities also joined in the cheering through web relays. The orchestra and Sir Rattle were so touched that they promised to come back again in the near future.

Afterwards, vendors set up makeshift, pasar malam-like stalls outside the stadium selling Taiwanese editions of Berlin Phil DVDs.

So yeah, it was a triumph all round;  the Berlin Phil had yet another successful night performing a single concert to almost 20,000 live audiences, we audiences got to watch the whole thing for free (except for those who actually attended the live event), DVD sellers got a good bonus and advertisers got their money's worth. The free programmes given out even had a log-in password for us to try out the digital concert hall ourselves! Imagine all this fuss about classical music! 

Melvin Tan's Winter Words

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Tenor Melvin Tan puts his BMus Hons (RAM) MA Hons (Edin.) LRAM to good use once again in his upcoming recital Winter Words on 18 December 2011. Here's a description of what the show is about:

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WINTER SONGS: An Art Song Tribute to 3 Great English Tenors

Local Operatic and classical Tenor, Melvin Tan returns to the Esplanade Recital studio on 18th December 2011 at 5:30pm with a sublime and rarely heard program of winter-themed song with a sprinkling of popular Chistmas songs and carols. Fresh from his success in 2011, in all 3 major productions of the Singapore Lyric Opera, ‘Winter Songs’ is a more intimate portrait of Melvin as an artist. With 2 Singapore-premiere song cycles, one performed with a 10–piece professional string ensemble, ‘Winter Songs’ promises to be a reflective yet invigorating paean to Winter and Christmas.

Come celebrate a Classical Christmas.

“Seldom has a more intelligent and coherent art song programme been drawn, and delivered with zest and panache… his expansive yet supple voice filled the hall, ringing with a bright bell-like lustre” –Chang Tou Liang, Straits Times, August 2010

“Tan was the star of the evening…a naturally gifted tenor with a gloriously rich and musical voice that instantly captivated and enthralled” – Nicole Lisle, Oxford Times, UK, July 2008.

Britten Winter Words Op.52
Finzi Dies Natalis (for Tenor and String Ensemble)
Songs by Hoiby, Lauridsen, Howells, and other popular seasonal encores.

Melvin Tan Tenor
Shane Thio Piano
Beatrice Lin Piano
With String Ensemble

Winter Songs is a heartfelt tribute to 3 renowned English tenors: Philip Langridge, Robert Tear and Antony Rolfe Johnson who have sadly passed away in the last year, all of whom had contributed significantly (whether directly through teaching and mentoring or by inspiration) to Melvin’s singing and career.

Britten’s nostalgic song-cycle about experience, Winter Words, set to poems by Thomas Hardy was a hallmark song cycle for all 3 tenors. A handpicked selection of seasonal songs and carols, some from Britten’s Folksong arrangements along with other winter-themed art songs conjure up the magic of a white Christmas.

Finzi’s cantata Dies Natalis, on the wonder of the birth of the Christ child, completes the programme along with some seasonal popular encores to encompass the spirit of winter and the season.

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Check out the Events Page for more information. Also do look out for a feature of Melvin in December's issue of Time Out Singapore magazine.


P.S. guess who's slated to sing Don Ottavio in SLO's February Don Giovanni?

Drumming to the Classics

Only the Japanese could think of something like this: a Taiku drumming game set to music of a heavily-accented Beethoven's 9th. I think this is the right way to get my teenage cousin who spends all his time on such music games to take an interest in classical music. Let's hope it'll arrive at a Singaporean arcade soon!