{"id":27246,"date":"2007-03-21T14:56:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-21T14:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/?p=27246"},"modified":"2024-07-04T13:49:50","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T05:49:50","slug":"the-60-second-plug-klpacs-the-magic-flute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/articles\/2007\/03\/the-60-second-plug-klpacs-the-magic-flute\/","title":{"rendered":"The 60 Second Plug: KLPac’s “The Magic Flute”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Shamelessly\nblow your trumpet, and tell us about yourself.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I studied at the Trinity College of Music, in London.\nWhile at college, I fell in love with everything to do with vocal\naccompaniment. I love the voice, you see; the mix of vocal repertoire, music\nand words are, to me, the perfect marriage. I have worked with many singers,\nsince.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After college, I stayed in London for many years,\nworking and travelling around Europe. I came back to Malaysia in 1997, and got\nto know of all the local classical singers. I set up my own little performing\narts group, Artists Platform, in 2003. I’ve been arranging many concerts,\nsince.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did\nyou get involved in The Magic Flute<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got to know Faridah Merican, Joe Hasham and Marge\nChew while working on a YTL project at KLPac, back in 2005. They were impressed\nwith what I did in the concert, and thought of me as the ideal candidate for\nthis project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Magic Flute<\/em><\/strong>, one of the most well-loved pieces in\nMozart’s body of work, is a Singspiel opera in two acts. We know that the KLPac\niteration is doing it in a concert style. What more can you tell us about the\nperformance?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, we are performing the work as a concert, so that\nmeans there will be no acting, costumes or set. A narrator will guide the\naudience through the whole story, with the ensemble singing arias. On top of\nthat, we will be projecting simple animations to visually enhance the whole\nstory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us a\nbit about The Magic Flute<\/em>‘s story.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basically, it’s all about good versus evil, light\nversus darkness: the Queen of the Night, an evil power, has accused Sarastro, a\nwise priest, of kidnapping her daughter Pamina. She persuades a prince, Tamino,\nto help rescue Pamina from Sarastro’s temple. When Tamino learns the truth —\nafter several trials — the Queen is defeated and vanishes from the surface of\nthe earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\nexactly do you do, as Music Director?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basically, I have to decide on the music: what to\nretain and what to discard from Mozart’s original score. The music has to fit\ninto the narrator’s script. In this particular production, I took the liberty\nof cutting out most of the recitative and ensemble elements, but retained the\nsolo arias and a few ensembles that feature the Three Ladies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the music is set, I start working with the\nsingers, coaching and making their rendition of the music convincing. At the\nsame time, I have to keep an eye on the orchestra, but for The Magic Flute<\/em> I left most of the rehearsals to Brian Tan, the\nconductor and founder of the KLPac Sinfonietta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is it\nlike, working with The Magic Flute<\/em>\ngang? Anyone driving you mad?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was fun, right from the very first day of rehearsals. I love working with singers, especially young and energetic ones. I think I<\/em> was the one driving people mad, asking my singers to sing the same phrase, over and over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nperformance features talented vocal performers like Peter Ong, Tan Sin Sim,\nIrma Lailatul Munira and Janet Lee. Tell us about some of the cast members’\neccentricities.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are just a normal bunch of people, really. But as\nsoon as they open their mouths and sing, they become different people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s\nyour view on the classical music scene in Malaysia?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are still in our infancy, at this stage. There is\nso much space for musicians working here to grow and be creative. It’s quite\nexciting, really …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s\nyour dream project, and who would be on your dream production team?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I consider every project of mine to be my dream\nproject, and every team that I work with my dream team. I put my heart and soul\ninto every single project that comes my way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us a\nfunny story from a previous performance.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will have to be something that happened to me, in\nStockholm. I bought a pair of brand new leather shoes for a concert. While\nwalking out from the wing to make my bow to the audience I slipped, half-way. I\ndid a split on the concert platform!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I quickly picked myself up, sat at the piano, and\nplayed like nothing had happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are\nyou up to, next?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will be going to ChengDu next, to work on a\nproduction of Tosca<\/em>. At the same\ntime, I’ll be working on this year’s Artists Platform Song Recital Series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hear\nyou’re organising a series of European Art Song Recitals around the country,\nthis year. Tell us more?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, my next big project is to focus on the art song,\na neglected genre here. It’s a rather challenging project for everyone, at this\nstage — for both the performer, as well as the audience. I’m hoping to bring\nthis art form to a wider audience in Malaysia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s irony to you?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A singer who is blessed with the voice of an angel, but who cannot read a single music note. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First Published: 21.03.2007 on Kakiseni <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shamelessly blow your trumpet, and tell us about yourself. I studied at the Trinity College of Music, in London. While at college, I fell in love with everything to do with vocal accompaniment. I love the voice, you see; the mix of vocal repertoire, music and words are, to me, the perfect marriage. I have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,3558,3537],"tags":[3637,268,3170,3172,493,3638,3167,40,1029,3169],"language":[7523],"writer":[7614],"class_list":["post-27246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-interview","category-music-2","tag-artists-platform","tag-classical","tag-irma-lailatul-munira","tag-janet-lee","tag-klpac","tag-klpac-sinfonietta","tag-mozart","tag-music","tag-peter-ong","tag-tan-sin-sim","language-english","writer-juliet-jacobs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27246"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39080,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27246\/revisions\/39080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27246"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=27246"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/writer?post=27246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}