Is anyone else here sick to death of listening to shopping mall Christmas carols? Who the hell actually can enjoy the December sales more when there's a chorus of five-year-olds singing "I Saw Mommy ****ing Santa Claus" on the PA system? I sure as hell can't. Holiday culture just keeps getting bastardised and commercialised down to the lowest common denominator, so that Christmas itself has become one almighty festival of tasteless, candy-coloured kitsch.
Well, not completely. This week, the Singapore Lyric Opera is putting up Simple Gifts, a bonanza of classical music that marks the Yuletide with a dose of sophistication. Audiences will be treated to pieces such as John Rutter's rousing setting of The Magnificat, as well as Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols - which incidentally, was written by the composer while on a World War Two ship journey with his boyfriend Peter Pears. Also expect a few obligatory popular carols, plus an elbow-jostling audience sing-along.
(Yes, these are Christian songs, but they're beautiful and in no way preachy. Not to worry: there will be no impromptu solo by NMP Thio Li-Ann singing "enshrine 377A" in Church Latin.)
Simple Gifts will be performed by renowned soprano Nancy Yuen (who was a kick-ass Cho-Cho-San in Madame Butterfly), backed by the Singapore Lyric Opera Chorus, the Amadeus Choral Society, a 110-strong combined schools choir drawn from the Anglo-Chinese Junior College Choir and Yishun Junior College Chorale, and the Singapore Lyric Opera Children's Choir.
Any further comments in this area would probably devolve into choirboy jokes, so let's redirect our attention to an interview with the conductor for the first half of the show, the rather handsome (but straight) Joshua Tan Kang Ming. Besides conducting, Joshua leads a string quartet with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, does music education outreach and deejays on Mediacorp Radio's Symphony 92.4 FM.
æ: Age, Sex, Location?
Joshua: 31, Male, New York City.
æ: Tell us about how you became involved in the classical music world.
Joshua: My father had forced me to learn the violin when I was six. I hated it initially but grew to love it when I was around 14. I only listened to non-classical music then but on my way out for violin lessons, l chanced upon a tape that my father left on the table and I thought I'd just listen to it since I was getting bored with what was in my walkman. I was amazed by the beauty of the music and from that day I decided I wanted to be a musician.
I managed to get the SSO/MOE scholarship which enabled me to pursue my dreams and I studied violin and conducting at the Eastman School of Music. I got involved with the SLO when they engaged me for a concert in Dec 2005 after they found out I was invited to conduct the SSO. I suppose they liked what they heard so I was engaged to do several more concerts with them.
æ: And now you're at the Juilliard School. What's it like?
Joshua: Juilliard is a rather surreal experience since you are always bumping into somebody famous everyday. It's like walking into a live Madame Tussaud's for classical musicians. There's a lot of history. However that also creates a lot of expectations and there is immense pressure to do well.
æ: Besides the violin, what instruments do you play? Which one's your favourite, and which is the sexiest?
Joshua: I play a little piano but only because it was a requirement in school. It's tough to choose a favourite since I'm pretty promiscuous when it comes to instruments - it really depends on those mood swings that so affect us musicians. But the sexiest has got to be the cello. Not only for its sonorous and velvety tone, but to play it you place it physically between your legs.
æ: How do you feel about Simple Gifts? What makes you passionate about the project?
Joshua: I'm very passionate about this project because the music is excellent. Plus I'm very excited at the prospect of working with so many different groups to put it together. Of course a conductor's job is to try to provide a unifying musical thread or idea so the musicians can perform as a single entity and not 150 individuals with their own unique way of interpretation. That in itself is a huge challenge but I think I am an adrenaline whore and I live for that.
æ: Why do you think a Fridae reader, might be interested in Simple Gifts?
Joshua: It doesn't matter if you are straight, gay, bi or into inanimate objects. Every single living human being is always enraptured by beauty. Music is the most beautiful manmade object. On the basis of that, I think everybody should be interested in it since there is some excellent music in this concert.
æ: What's your favourite and least favourite things about Christmas?
Joshua: It's a time of celebration due to my faith, although I'm not terribly religious. My least favourite part is after a night out on Christmas. It's impossible to find a taxi!
Simple Gifts: Christmas with the Singapore Lyric Opera will be performed at the Esplanade Concert Hall at 7.30pm on Dec 20 and 21, 2007. Tickets are available at $58, $48, $38, $28 & $18 from Sistic.com. More details at http://www.singaporeopera.com.sg.
Printable Version
RSS Feed: 
