Entertainment
Busy Penang
Seeing,
listening
|
Entertainment
Busy Penang Seeing,
listening |
| Beethoven's 9th Symphony JUST BEFORE Christmas, the Penang State Symphony and Chorus, conducted by Jascha Y. Shimano, played Beethoven's Symphony No 9 to an invited audience at the Dewan Sri Pinang. The performance was sponsored by Texchem, which is not astonishing seeing that Beethoven's 9th is the most popular symphny in Japan. The soloists were Kayo Takemura, soprano, Khoo Huii Lay, alto, Armando Chin Yong, tenor, and Cha Seng Tiang, baritone. Coaching by Dr Martin Ennis, Chairman of Music at Cambridge University's Faculty of Music, produced some inspired singing by PESSOC's Chorus. What spoilt the evening was that wretched Dewan hall which reduced the strings of the seven double bases to the one single voice, struggling to be heard. Lucky A chance conversation led us to a concert by students of Trinity Guildhall and we were very pleasantly surprised by the skills of the award winners. Hobart Lim Zi Ying's playing of Prokofiev's Sonata No 3 in A Min Op 28 revealed him to be a superbly confident pianist with promise of a great future. We were also fortunate to listen to the guest artiste, Khoo Hui Lay, this country's leading soprano, who gave us a touching Schumann's 'Widnung'. Chung Ling High School Wind Orchestra What a change has come over school bands the last 30 years! It was palpable in the stunning performance of the Chung Ling High School Wind Orchestra in the constantly changing moods of Franz von Syppe's 'Poet and Peasant Overture'. The boys did not let down maestro Woon Wen Kin who conducted. Astonishingly, a woodwind ensemble daringly played Gabrieli's Canzoni prima 'La Spiritata"; a saxophone quartet gave a good account of Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D; a percussion ensemble Tom O'Connor's 'Winding River'; a brass quintet Koji Kondo's "Super Mario Bros Theme". Chung Ling High school is taking music seriously. Soprano Serene Yoon sang 'Song of the Yangtze River' and 'Highlands of Tibet'. The programme included Ketelbey's 'In a Persian Market', Rodgers & Hammerstein's 'Sound of Music', Manfried Schneider's 'Prelude for Band', Shostakovich's 'Festive Overture'. The concert also introduced us to Woon Wen Kin's arrangement of Malay Folk songs. |
| Mama’s
wedding Only about 22 people were at Greenhall for 'Mama’s Wedding".! Was it that rather ungenerous review by Ng Yi-Sheng that kept the crowd away? The handful of lucky ones who were there were entertained to a bit of fun and witnessed some fine acting by Carina Jennie Hales and Candice Simone De Rozario, the two daughters who discuss Mama's forthcoming second wedding on the phone. The play was written by Mark Beau De Silva and directed by Samantha Scott-Blackhal. Elizabeth Tan Wen-Ling was Betty, daughter Number Three. If Mark Beau De Silva rewrites the play he should put more substance into the rather weak image of Mama that the conversations shaped for us, so that the reluctance of the second daughter to come for the wedding and her sudden decision to come after all because, deep down, she loves Mama will be the more convincing. The lighting designer was Albert Wileo. The sound designer, Philip Tan. Presented by The Actors Studio and Action Theatre. A week or two later, we were presented with another play by the same Mark Beau De Silva who, with Faridah Merican, acted the protagonists. It was a full house. But we have to say that it was a sorry affair, the one hour conversation between mother and son mainly centred on her voyeuristic cross-examination of the son to probe and extract with painful detail the "other world" of his homosexual world, its sexuality, and its methodology, which exchanges teetered on the edge of smut. In a word, it was bereft of wit. It even descended into an unconvincing and meaningless prancing of the mother on the stool with her eyes shut. Mak Yong USM presented Raja Besar Senyanya, a Mak Yong dance theatre. The story of Anak Raja Gondang, of the princess who gave birth to a snail which, after her banishment from the palace, turned into a prince went down well with the audience and was received with generous applause for the comical turns. Mak Yong was mentioned for the first time in 1878 by Frank Swettenham who happened to come across itinerant performers, possibly in Pahang. Walter William Skeat and Jean Cuisinier touched upon it in brief in 1900 and 1936 respectively.One Peter Florist witnessed a performance in 1613 at the palace of the Raja Perempuan Patani. On 25 November 2006 this traditional theatre was declared by UNESCO in 2005 as an item of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. It is banned in Kelantan. According to Dr Ghulam-Sarwar Yusouf, Mak Yong is a dance-theatre form incorporating the elements of ritual, stylized dance and acting, vocal and instrumental music, story, song, formal as well as improvised spoken text, performed principally in the state of Kelantan. To day the genre is performed in three basic styles: (a) as non-ritual theatre for entertainment per se, (b) as ritual theatre associated with healing and done in combination with the shamanistic main puteri, and (c) as urban commercial theatre. The Mak Yong orchestra is made up of a three-stringed spiked fiddle (rebab), a pair of double-headed barrel drums(gendang) and a pair of hanging knobbed gongs(tetawak) while the genre's musical repertoire consists of approximately thirty pieces, most of them accompanied by singing and dancing. No stage-properties and few simple hand-properties are used. |
| In Mak Yong, the male
lead role (Pak Yong) is conventionally played by
female performers. In addition there are the following roles: the
female lead (Mak Yong); a pair of clowns (peran), a pair of female
attendants (inang) as well as a wide range of lesser roles including
those of gods and spirits, orges or giants, palace functionaries and
animals. The mak yong repertoire consists of a dozen or so stories, still existing in the oral tradition, dealing with the adventures of gods or mythical kings. The principal, and earliest story in the mak yong repertoire, entitled Dewa Muda, has tremendous spiritual significance. Mak Yong performances last between about 9.00 p.m and midnight, and a story is generally completed in several nights. The USM show was directed by Fatimah Abdullah. Mek Mulung Mek Mulung, a folk theatre akin to Mak Yong, was presented at the Sunday Market, Penang Street. Mek Mulung is about Putera Malim Bongsu, who disguises himself as a fisherman and falls in love with Puteri Siti Jagerlan. However, the princess’ father forces her to marry a rich merchant, Malim Panjang. On her wedding day, she turns into a monkey and vanishes into the jungle. Her father appeals to the villagers to search for his beloved daughter and promises to marry her off to the person who breaks the spell cast on her. It is Putera Malim Bongu who rescues her. According to 'DanceMalaysia' Mek Mulung is exclusively found in Kedah, and incorporates the elements of Mak Yong, Menora and Hadrah. It probably appeared in the late 18 th century. The basic dance movements are limited, abbreviated and crude compared to those of Mak Yong of Kelantan. In their execution, no effort is made to coordinate the movements of the individual dancer. Apart from Mek Mulung the King, characters include other players, a fortune teller and dancers. They are all male performers and are normally related to each other. The musical instruments played are the semborong, gong, serunai and cerek. Unlike Mak Yong Kelantan which incorporates movements of the torso, head, hands and fingers, Mek Mulung movements mainly focus on the arms, especially the to and fro, and up and down swinging movements. However, it employs similar circular floor pattern, as in Mak Yong. 'Kakiseni' writes that Mek Mulung comes from a district called Wang Tepus in Jitra, Kedah. It is a combination of a ‘non-representational acting’, dance, music and songs, which creates dramatic effects to the theatre. The actors use the Kedah dialect and they are accompanied with musicians who simultaneously act as background singers. It starts with the bertabuh song, followed by an opening dance called sembah guru and the chorus. Priscilla Ballet It was good news that Priscilla Ballet and the generous young dancers from the Planet Dance Sydney raised RM210,000 for charity in one night of dance. We learn that the Australians worked at various jobs to fund their trip to Penang. Their Can-Can dancers |
| particularly
impressed. Prem Joshua Prem Joshua and his friends brought us their 'Indian Fusion Easy Listening Music' at a charity concert for the cancer society. The performance at an Open University theatre was unfortunately marred by the loudspeakers assailing us with super decibels as if we were an open air crowd of 10,000. It was certainly an unsatisfactory evening being deprived of the enjoyment of easy listening to this group of outstanding musicians. Goguryo Art Orchestra Another charity concert followed at the Dewan Sri, another night of ear bashing. If the The Korean Goguryo Art Orchestra had hoped to introduce Korean music to us their efforts were foiled by the loudspeakers. What was lamentable was the failure to explain the signifance of the seemingly interminable banging on drums and cymbals, the meaning of the songs and the dances. And why that name for the orchestra? We were left in the dark. Competitors and visitors The Penang Music Society's first prize went to tenor Li Pei Qin, whose singing of lament of the broken hearted lad in Cilea's 'E la solita storia del pastore' was convincingly tender and touching. The 34th All-Malaysia singing compeition, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the society, was judged by a panel maade up of Zhou Yang Ping, Khoo Hui Lay, Liu Guo Yaw, Xie Yi Yan and Xu Chuan Yong. We had another visit from that cheerful and enthusiastic group of lawyers, chemists and other professionals whose brass band, known as the Waseda Brass Band, won over Penang on their first visit last year. They seem to have developed a liking for Penang. The annual jazz festival brought musicians as usual to jazz fans at the Bayview Hotel.# |
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| _____________________ The Penang File Issue 63 |