Monday 26 November 2012

Malaysia tour day 8 - KL Monsoon

I'm sitting here in my hotel room looking out at the most colossal downpour and thunderstorm.
Quite something, and on an intensity we never see in Britain. Half of the Merry Opera peeps went off on a sightseeing walk to Chinatown. Right now, I'm quite glad I didn't.

This snap is of the storm brewing:


My first show, on thursday in Penang, went very smoothly. Considering we haven't performed this since July I was happy with it.

On saturday morning, before the bus trip back to KL, it was time for....drum-roll.....jet-skiing. I'd never done this before, but I have to say, it was an absolute blast. Those things can certainly move, and the adrenaline kick is equivalent to at least 5 Lavazza espressos.

We did nearly lose Stephen Hose, our musical director, who got ultra-exuberant and went off around a distant headland to explore the coast. When we took the jet-skis back to the beach he was nowhere to be seen, and they had to send one of the hire companies employees off to find him. For a second we feared the worst...that he had made a mad escape dash for Indonesia and we would end up doing the rest of the tour without an MD and pianist, but in the end he came trailing back into view.

Georgetown, Penang is an interesting town, and on friday afternoon I got the chance to explore it. Well, at least the historical quarters, which is a World Heritage Site due to the amount of colonial architecture on display. The whole place has a faded colonial glory about it, and mixed with the eclecticism of typical asian city life, with hindu, buddhist and taoist temples, plus islamic mosques all rubbing shoulders, it is an absorbing place to visit if you look in the right places i.e. beyond the ubiquitous shoreline high rise office and condo blocks.

One of my favourite pastimes when in asia is photographing shrines in temples, so here's a few taoist examples coming at ya. As you can see, there is no single, large figure of a teacher or deity on taoist shrines, but there are scripture blocks/strips and smaller gods:






These taoist shrines have a remarkable, primal feel to them, being quite dark and with heavy, earthy incense filling the air. I like them immensely!

Back in KL on saturday evening we settled in a the Boulevard Hotel again, and, although we have everything we need here and the hotel is a cut above, we probably all felt that a few more days of beach life wouldn't have gone amiss. Oh well! We are here to work after all.

The first show was yesterday afternoon, and played to a nearly full house. As usual I had my camera on stage for the last scene of Act 1 in the club, "Lovely lady...", and snapped merrily whilst falling around in a drunken stupor. You never know quite what you are going to get with these dangerous opera singers:


Tomorrow, my KL debut as Germont. "Hello Kuala Lumpuuuuuuuuur!!!!!"

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