Wednesday, September 27, 2006

why love when it hurts?

so the line that stood out for me while watching a high-budget, emotion-driven, leisurely-paced production which many many have watched, especially this 3rd staging. i missed it the last time, and i guess the 1st time it was premeired i was too young to appreciate musicals.

well Forbidden City: Portrait of an Empress tells the tale of the evil woman that we learn about in history texts also known as Ci2Xi3 Tai4Hou4 (empress dowager). but it is refreshing to learn about her story (which ST reported it was not historically accurate) that was i-have-to-admit one-sided because it painted her in a very sympathetic light.

i'm trying to be objective here. not that i'm an expert but she may have done horrible things too. but at the end of the day, she's a woman, trying to survive in a man's world and she has done things no woman had ever dreamt of during her days. and for that i salute her. for her amazing fighting spirit and never-say-die (and making sure she doesn't die in the hands of corrupted officials). it is controversial. which makes it a good story to explore. the pace was just right. i don't mind it being 2.5 hours if it means the pace was not rushed.

let's start with the disappointments. the synthesizer/clavinova etc., as i was told, replaced many crucial instruments like the strings and winds. only the chinese instruments were live, like the erhu and the dizi. idiots. we were conned. not that we could tell the difference but if we peered into the orchestral pit and find the dismal number of instruments wouldn't you feel as indignant as i did? anyway even if we didn't see, the suspiciously small number of musicians credited in the program booklet would have given them away.

one more tiny grouse that i had was that the singing wasn't perfect. yes i am a perfectionist. kit's high range is not very high and she struggled with high notes especially when she was tired at the end of the 1st act. could tell she was literally forcing herself to reach the note. and one of the solo guys, i can't remember which prince it was, the key was too low for him. he struggled to get the lowest notes out and he was scraping his low register so the words turned out muffled.

but other than that the singing was brilliant when it fit their voice range. there was emotion and enuciation was good. the company could have done a little better in terms of together-ness but i guess it's hard when you can hardly see your conductor if you're at the back of the stage or trying to dance and move to the correct place and sing all at the same time.

the good points. props was very well designed and props change was executed using men. haha. no remote-controlled props. the concepts were understandable to me. yay. and i took a greater notice to the lights heh. it was very very nice!! the pattern-ed lights like the gobos we used for my production were very pretty too. they had a lot more colours and shades and a whole lot more lights. the follow spots were on all the time and the following was much smoother than the one at SRT. sound design was ok. not much, more of the music direction. dick lee is good!! he and the other writers and lyricist did a wonderful job gelling the musical together even though the plot span several decades and so many things happened. thematic material was reused throughout the musical, probably to create a sense of cohesion for the plot, even when events were different, lyrics were tweaked to fit the plot. music director is sydney tan, who did music for the film Singapore Dreaming. think he's good too.

anyway something that struck me about the plot, other than the fact that every evil person always has his/her saving grace, is how the media can shape opinions of many many many people and the huge impact it can have on society and politics. ok as if we don't know that already. but again it is explored in this musical, as the media had been the ones who were fuelling the people of china about how evil the empress was and how she killed her own son and thrown women down wells. hence everyone hates her and she is desperate for someone to know and understand her real story and how whatever the media has fabricated were all nothing but lies.

which is very strange because i just had a 2 hour conversation with sam last night about the power of the media. the coincidence is uncanny.

ok if you haven't watched the musical go catch it before it leaves our shores. really.

***

so wsc appreciation dinner/investiture was yesterday. it was good. ahhhh many new experiences, many PR things to do and say, i predict i'll be sick of PR stuff very soon.

grey's anatomy season 3 has started. fyi.

went to the biennale again with sam. this time to the other 2 ticket-ed venues cityhall and tanglin camp. ohmygoodness some works are really really good. some are scary-good, some are freaky-good, some are scratch-head-good, some are just-obviously-good, some are fun-good. i had my head in a fish tank. hurhur. my favourite exhibit of tanglin camp, really my head was in a fishtank and sam took pictures. and i was so sad that the magnet thing wasn't working so i couldn't try. and another exhibit was not complete! comprain to the biennale people. i need to go back to cityhall again cos i didn't finish everything cos they close at 6pm. @#$%^&. and sam and i waited for close to 3 hours for the raining tree at asian civillisations museum to rain but it really didn't. and just now he went and it rained 3 times in one hour! @#$%^&

anyone would like to go to the biennale with me? it's $5 for single entry to 4 venues. which is only $1.25 per venue!

did i mention clay's new CD is out? and it's really good? and i haven't listened to anything else for a week already except his CD and those 14 songs? heh. i love love songs. and i love clay. hence i love love the album. sam don't get jealous. aiyah like you would.

ok super long entry. once i type i can't stop. i'm so happy i finished studying one lecture of 309. i have 3 lectures, 3 tutorials and 2 lab reports left in my to-do list for sch work this hols.

strength strength strength.

so...

why love when it hurts?
why love when it ends?
- excerpt from Forbidden City: Portrait of an Empress

This girl posted at 1:11 AM