Orchestra of the Music Makers resumes ambitious Ring cycle staging with Das Rheingold
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The Orchestra of the Music Makers Singapore is composed of both professional and non-professional musicians.
PHOTO: YONG JUNYI
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SINGAPORE – Recall the iconic soundtracks of blockbuster hits such as Star Wars, The Lord Of The Rings and those from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
These sweeping orchestral compositions and multi-part stories can be said to be partly inspired by a 19th-century epic opera.
Audiences here will have the rare opportunity to hear the original epic on July 8. The Orchestra of the Music Makers Singapore (OMM) will be playing Das Rheingold, the first of German composer Richard Wagner’s classic four-part opera cycle, at the Esplanade’s Concert Hall.
The semi-staged production will feature American bass-baritone Greer Grimsley as Wotan, Scandinavian tenor Tuomas Katajala as Loge, German baritone Joachim Goltz as Alberich as well as home-grown sopranos Teng Xiang Ting and Victoria Songwei Li as Woglinde and Wellgunde, the Rhine Maidens.
The $450,000 production features 13 opera singers, stage effects and a 120-member orchestra. This is a much-delayed follow-up to the OMM’s ambitious plan to stage the entire Ring Cycle, which began in January 2020 with The Valkyrie – the second part of the cycle – before the Covid-19 pandemic shut down venues.
A January 2020 performance of Die Walkure, which is part of the Ring Cycle, put on by the Orchestra of the Music Makers Singapore.
PHOTO: YONG JUNYI
Producer Christopher Cheong, 34, a full-time lawyer who heads OMM’s artistic development team, said: “It was timely for us to continue this epic production which had been in the works since 2018. We wanted to show that Singapore’s arts economy is still alive despite the pandemic.”
The OMM’s commitment is all the more admirable considering it is a volunteer orchestra composed of both professional and non-professional musicians.
OMM board chairman Lee Guan Wei, 35, a civil servant, said that OMM aims to “demystify” classical music.
“We are pitching it such that anyone, regardless of musical background, can appreciate the beauty and story behind the opera,” he added.
Mr Cheong said of OMM’s staging: “There is a conscious effort to translate Wagner’s stage directions into modern day with computer-generated imagery and directions.”
Wagner’s operas, sometimes perceived as hard going even for opera fans, are a hard sell.
But Mr Michael Huang, 21, associate producer of Das Rheingold and a student at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at the National University of Singapore, pointed out that the sprawling narratives, based loosely on German heroic legends about gods and warriors, are ground-breaking storytelling.
“Most people don’t realise how influential the Wagner Cycle is in influencing 21st-century pop culture such as The Lord Of The Rings and Game Of Thrones.
“One could argue that this influenced modern movie productions today, such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has stories spanning a few movies.”
Mr Cheong said this delayed production showcases how far OMM has come through the pandemic.
“Working through the challenges during Covid-19 has brought us to a much stronger place than if the pandemic did not happen. We are much stronger organisationally.”
Book it/Das Rheingold
Where: Esplanade Concert Hall, 1 Esplanade Drive
When: July 8, 7.30pm
Admission: For those aged six and above. Tickets from $18 are available at Sistic (call 6348-5555 or go to www.sistic.com.sg
Info: www.orchestra.sg/das-rheingold
