Monday, September 28, 2015

Dream Academy's Crazy Christmas 2015 - 10 to 19 Dec



Dream Academy presents their annual Crazy Christmas revue, poking fun at recent events including SG50 celebrations, elections and the haze. The company will also be celebrating their own 15 year anniversary. Acts performing include the Dim Sum Dollies, Pam Oei, Broadway Beng, Petrina Kow, Karen Tan Michaela Therese, George Chan, Robin Goh, a capella group Vocaluptuous and drag legend Kumar. They will also be joined by a choir specially formed by kids from Nanyang
Primary School and seniors from the Henderson Senior Activity Centre. Check out the Events Page for more information!


Friday, September 25, 2015

'Sleeping Beauty on Ice' at MBS (till 27 Sep 2015)


Russia's Imperial Ice Stars presented their touring production of Sleeping Beauty on Ice. I found a most stunning production with the most graceful cast of skaters/dancers. In addition to top-notch routines set to Tchaikovsky's sweeping music, this production went beyond the expected ballet performance on skates to include fiery pyrotechnics and aerial acrobatics with dancers swung from wires or grabbing on pieces of cloth. At one point the dancer playing Princess Aurora (Olga Sharutenko) even traded in her skates for a pair of pointe shoes and danced the entire scene on her tippy-toes - ON ICE! Playing the maniacal villians, Alexandr Kazakov and Maria Mukhortova stole the show with their campy theatrics, as did Yahor Maistrou in his energetic routines as the butler Carabosse. A superbly energetic encore closed the show.

Tickets are available at SISTIC, do catch it before its run finishes on 27 September!



Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Interview with Chanticleer (SG Concert on 4 Oct 2015)


The San Francisco-based, Grammy Award-winning all-male choral group Chanticleer returns to Singapore as part of their 2015/16 tour. This is the first season that is curated by their new artistic director Fred William Scott, and will also see them perform in Hong Kong, Taipei, Shanghai and Macau. The Mad Scene speaks to Kory Reid, Chanticleer's Assistant Music Director and countertenor with the ensemble, to find out what we can look forward to on 4 October:


Monday, September 21, 2015

Victoria Chorale's 'In Song '15' - 27 Sep 2015 (Sun)


Victoria Chorale will be staging their annual In Song concert series on 27th September at Victoria Concert Hall. They will be performing a diverse range of music including arrangements of American folk songs such as Deep River (Philip Lawson) and Shenandoah (Donald Cashmore), contemporary settings of hymns - O Salutaris Hostia (Ēriks Ešenvalds) and O Lux Beata Trinitas (Kerry Andrew) among many other numbers.

Tickets are priced at S$20.
Group discount at S$18, available with minimum order of 10 tickets.

Please contact tickets@vc.org.sg for tickets.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Wild Rice's 'The Emperor's New Clothes' - 20 Nov to 12 Dec


Here's more information about Wild Rice's annual year-end pantomine, this time presenting their localised spin on The Emperor's New Clothes running from 20 November to 12 December:


Wild Rice returns this November for a local spin on Hans Christian Anderson's classic tale, The Emperor's New Clothes.

Directed by Pam Oei and written by Joel Tan, the Emperor would be celebrating the most extravagant National Dress Parade to celebrate his 50th anniversary of his reign. His narcissism has left him to neglect his citizens unless they complimented his appearance. Two troublesome tailors decide to teach him a lesson in light of his conceit.

This musical will see the likes of Lim Kay-Siu as the Emperor, with musicians, Benjamin Kheng of the Sam Willows and Singapore Idol alumni Sezairi Sezali, who will play the role of the mischievous tailors, and will be accompanied by the talented Siti Khalijah Zainal- all of whom will be playing musical instruments live on stage.

Catch Wild Rice's final production for their imagiNATION season, as we close this year with a light-hearted musical in light of our nation's 50th birthday.

Cast : 
Lim Kay-Siu as Emperor
Audrey Luo as Empress
Benjamin Kheng as Tailor
Sezairi as Tailor
Andrew Lua as Grassroots Leader
Benjamin Wong as Grassroots Leader
Siti Khalijah Zainal as Grassroots Leader
with
Benjamin Chow
Andrew Mark Ong
Candice de Rosario
Seong Hui-Xuan
& The FIRST STAGE! Kids

Venue : Drama Centre Theatre


Find out how to get tickets at the Events Page!

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Dick Lee's Beauty World - 13 Nov to 12 Dec 2015


Dick Lee's landmark musical Beauty World returns to the stage from 14 November to 12 December this year. It will star TV actresses Jeanette Aw and Janice Koh in their first ever stage musical. Check out the Events Page to find out more!





Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Interview: SLO Young Divas Sachika Ito and Marlena Devoe



We have a chat with the two new leading ladies of the Singapore Lyric Opera's upcoming double bill of Pagliacci and Gianni Schicchi. Young, beautiful and talented, Japanese Sachika Ito and New Zealander Marlena Devoe look set to sparkle on the stage of our Esplanade Theatre when the production runs next week (10 to 12 Sep, Thursday to Saturday). Here's their respective introductions, followed by what we talked about:


Sachika Ito
Nedda / Nella (soprano)

Sachika Ito graduated in opera singing and chamber music with a certificate of honour. She won the 3rd prize in the Competition for Young Singers of Foggia and the 2nd prize at the Concorso G.Poggi in Piacenza, the Certaman New Voices Ciudad de Sevilla.

She has performed with soprano Maria Laura Groppi in Conservatiorio Nicolini in Piacenza since 2004. Her notable main roles include Oscar in Un ballo in maschera, Norina in Donizetti's Don Pasquale, Elvira in Rossini’s L'Italiana, Frasquita in Bizet's Carmen, Lauretta in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Serpina in Paisiello’s La Serva Padrona, Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata, Rosina in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Sofia in Rossini’s Bruschino Signor, Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Musetta in Puccini’s La Boheme, Adina in Donizetti's Elisir d’amore and Countess of Folleville in Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims. Sachika has recently started singing modern and contemporary music with various composers.

The Mad Scene: Tell us, in your own words, which character in this doublebill production are you playing, and what does she do in the opera?

Sachika Ito: I’m playing Nedda in Pagliacci and Nella in Gianni Schicchi. Nedda is a traveling actress, wife of Canio (Pagliacci) but is in love with Silvio, a farmer from the village where they will perform at. She decides to leave her husband and her career for a new life with Silvio, but her desire is not realized because Canio discovers their secret.

Nella is the wife of Gherardo, mother of Gherardino. She is concerned about her inheritance from of her recently deceased uncle Buoso Donati, just like all her other relatives. They ask Gianni Schicchi (a trickster) for help in rewritting the will of Buoso.