Malaysia tour day 4 - first show day

On tuesday we had a press conference in KL at JP Arts, where we will also be performing. Joe, Anna and I sang a few numbers (Die Provenza from moi) before posing for photos for the press and answering questions. All pretty easygoing really and it was great to meet the team at JP Arts who are putting this tour on.

Here are some pics from the photoshoot courtesy of JayaOne (on Twitter):

In Malaysia there is a fruit that stinks. The Durian. And believe me, it positively hums! 

We were given a piece of durian after the press conference, and as we cracked it open a pungent, eggy odour surrounded us. A bit like used gym socks left in a cupboard for a month. It has actually been banned on some forms of public transport and hotels in Malaysia due to the whiff.

Inside the hard spiky shell are the kidney-shaped fruit which are supposed to taste nice. They must be an acquired taste then, as Joe, Anna, Claire and I all agreed that it tasted pretty rank. One thing I can say though is that the flavour is not the same as the smell. It is a combination of sweet and savoury, like dates mixed with a stock cube and with a sticky, thick slimy texture. 

No thanks! I don't think any of us will be trying that again in a hurry.

In the evening we picked up the rest of the party, who travelled two days after us, from the airport, and then had a night-ride by bus to Penang where we are performing the two first shows. Penang is an island in the northwest of Malaysia, about 5 hours from KL by road.

We got there at 5 am. Luckily I managed a few hours of sleep on the bus, and woke to see the glorious sight of Georgetown's skyscrapers approaching at night from the very long bridge over from the mainland. 

Now, I don't want to make you folks jealous, but when I got up the next day this is the sight that greeted me from the hotel:

Not bad, I'm sure you'll agree. The hotel is on the north coast of Penang and we are here for several days...back to KL on saturday afternoon. The day was spent lounging around before we went to the Penang Performing Arts Centre for an evening rehearsal. The theatre is very nice actually. Not a traditional theatre with a proscenium arch, but a more modern performing space. 

Here is our three piece band, being led through their paces by Stephen Hose our MD: 

We got through the rehearsal despite the effects of jet lag being clearly in evidence in various members of the cast, and afterwards, although it was late, we headed to the night market next to the hotel for some wonderful (and wonderfully cheap) food and some cold lagers at midnight. 

Here is a bit of last minute music swotting going on next to the pool two hours ago, with Gemma Morsley (Flora) and Matt Duncan (Baron):

In the next post I hope to bring you some video footage of the Durian Experience of Tuesday, and some interesting facts about Malaysia. I know you can hardly wait!

Today: show number 1.....bring it on!!

Malaysia tour day 1 - Relax Day

So, after arriving to KL airport at about 10.30 last night, today is a relax day for me. The journey went without a hitch. I travelled from Gatwick at 20.20 on Saturday evening with Matthew Quirk (Germont) and his partner Peddy, Claire Egan (Violetta):

Anna Jeruc-Kopec (Violetta), Toscia (Anna's two year old daughter), seen here enjoying their iPad:

Preece Killick (Assistant director and tour manager) and Robin Bailey (Alfredo):

The show is double cast, in case you're wondering. Yepp, I'm Germont too.

The rest of the cast plus music director are travelling from Gatwick tonight, to meet us for the trip to Penang tomorrow night.

We travelled with Emirates, a most excellent airline. Friendly, good food (ish), and most important, of course, a mammoth selection of movies to watch. We all got through a few, but I think Robin and Claire took the prize with 5 movies each.

I particularly enjoyed Beasts of the Southern Wild, an amazing film about a 6 year old girl and her father in bayou territory in Southern Louisiana around the time of Hurricane Katrina. Or is it? It is timeless in a way, including elements of magical realism and a virtually post-apocalyptic feral way of life in extreme poverty but with guts, real community and soul at it's core. A film with grit and heart, and I'd love to see it again without aeroplane noise etc.

We had a three hour stop at Dubai airport to transfer and in my search for coffee (this was the about 3am for our body clocks, remember) I had to swallow my pride and drink (aaaaarrrghhhh!) Starbucks coffee. Tastes like cardboard, but kept me going for a few more hours.

We were met at the airport by Richard and Natalie from Gardner and Wife, the promoters putting on the tour here. After the 45 minutes trip from the airport to the Boulevard Hotel where we are staying, I had a beer with our party and the tour team in the bar, before, absolutely exhausted hitting the sack at about 1.30am.

Claire, Robin and Matthew had to get up at 6.30 or so to go and do a Breakfast TV interview for Malysian TV and a Radio Interview. I am rather glad I got a bit of a lie in and didn't have to do anything of any use today. The hotel breakfast was wonderful, and my room is very nice too. This sure beats Travelodge.

It's rainy season here, and it has been pretty wet and cloudy here today. I've explored the MegaMall and the Gardens Mall (a bit posher and flashier) which are here in the same complex as the Hotel. And now for the gym!!!!!

Malysia tour 2012

So, today I head off to Malaysia with the Merry Opera Company for a three week tour of La Traviata.
We will be spending several days in Penang at the start of the tour, then decamping to Kuala Lumpur for the majority of the remaining shows, with one show in Ipoh and one in Malacca as excursions.

Dim Sum and Petronius Towers here we come!

I will be updating this blog regularly on this tour, so keep your eyes peeled!

Google Translate locks horns with Lorenzo Da Ponte

Isn't Google Translate a fantastic thing?

Using it on La ci darem, the Don Giovanni & Zerlina duet this is what it churned out:

Original: "andiam andiam mio bene, a ristorar le pene..."

True (accepted) meaning: "let's go, let's go my dear to heal the pain..."

Google Translate translation: "let us go let us go my own good, to restore his penis..."



It seems that Lorenzo Da Ponte was playing with his audience here, and the double entendre will quite likely have been intentional. His humour was apparently just as vulgar and scatological as Wolfgang's. Time to revisit Cosi, Don Giovanni, and Le Nozze di Figaro to look for more?

And meanwhile, well, let's be happy that Google Translate is so incredibly insightful!

Haydn - The Seasons

So, for my latest singing adventure I sang the bass solo last night in a performance of Autumn and Winter from Haydn's Seasons in Abingdon near Oxford.

What a strange and interesting work The Seasons is. Quite unlike standard oratorio repertoire. It is a challenging sing because of the huge amount of solo singing for the soprano (Jane), tenor (Lucas) and bass (Simon). Yes, the soloists really do have these twee character names.


It is considered one of Haydn's greater works, and was for that matter, one of the last works he wrote in old age. The work is based on the long poem "The Seasons" by the englishman James Thomson, forst published in 1730.

The work does seem to engender a love/hate response in musicians when asked about it. In between rousing choruses we have recits, arias, and duets for the soloists, which vary from the sublime to the run-of-the-mill.



The music really does straddle the classical and romantic eras. There is a lot of fugal writing, canons, and counterpoint in places, pointing to Bach and Handel. But the tonal shifts are very bold too, and along with the very bold tone painting point forward into the romantic era. Beethoven's proximity can also be felt strongly, especially the Pastoral Symphony, which shares common ground in it's nature thematicism.

I especially enjoyed the Hunting aria "Behold, along the dewy grass", which is a challenging but fun sing, with wonderful tone painting and effects. The two octave descending leaps on "...from the towering heights" are amongst the most bold in any baritone/bass repertoire.

Fasten your seatbelts!!!!

Panofka - 24 Vocalizzi, Op. 81

The last couple of weeks I've revisited Panofka's 24 Vocalizzi, Op.81.
They are a series of vocalises which work on all aspects of voice production, with an emphasis on breath control and coloratura.

Panofka was regarded as one of the great 19th Century voice teachers, and he had a background as a violinist and composer too.

That much misunderstood term Bel Canto is the name of the game here, but as well as being florid, these are also very vigorous and demanding exercises. They are for intermediate to advanced students of voice only, as their technical demands will be far too great for beginners.

My experience with them, and I'm still only on the first few, is that they are like lubricant for the voice. My way of working with them is of singing each one through once on all the different vowels (only doing three or four of them on any one day). I also emphasise the dynamic markings which are essential. Any clown could sing them through fortissimo all the way through, but the effectiveness of these hangs on an absolute command of dynamic variation.

They help the voice to get the perfect balance of light and dark; smoothness and rondeur in the voice increases, and I find that they expose any flaws in vocal production mercilessly!

Highly recommended.

ENO Opera Works

So, this autumn I have embarked upon a year on English National Opera's Opera Works professional development course. At this point in my career I feel that it is a very good step for me.

I have been singing lots of roles the last few years, since coming back to London from Sweden, but they have all been with small and medium size companies. On the one hand, I now have a huge amount of experience of stage work, and have tackled many of the main roles for my fach (plus quite a few which are probably too heavy for my voice). But because the financial situation for most of these smaller companies is precarious to say the least, I have had to, especially in the last year, work myself into the ground. And this isn't good for my morale and enjoyment of what I do in the long run.

This year already, I have performed around 150 times (including events and opera restaurant evenings). This is a huge amount of singing for an operatic voice. Although if I was a musical theatre singer it would be quite normal. The issue is that opera singing is uniquely demanding and requires a focus of skill, interpretation, technique and energy quite unlike any other form of singing.

So, to get by financially I have been undertaking this huge workload. I also have found it frustrating to be "hitting a brick wall" in terms of moving up to bigger companies. I know I have what it takes, and know that with a little tweak here and there I could easily be singing for the larger companies. My vocal technique is solid and improving all the time with the help of my teacher Robert Dean. And working with larger companies means that it becomes easier to hit the right balance between work and rest. Obviously you get better pay for what you do!

So, I decided that a course like this would be ideal. It is an introduction for me to the people and productions at one of the UK's premier opera houses. It gives me access to top coaching and to workshop sessions with great acting coaches and directors. And it gives ENO a chance to get to know who I am, as I get to know more about who they are.

As it is only part-time (one long weekend per month, a monthly coaching, attendance of ENO dress rehearsals, and some other events) it gives me a chance to do some freelance jobs this year in parallel, although I am doing far less than I may have done. You have to commit to attending the whole course. And as you are investing in it it would be silly not to. It seems a great opportunity to maximise my musical and dramatic potential!