Pretensions went to the Singapore Lyric Opera's (SLO) Puccini Gala last night, despite some worries about quality. Regular visitors to P's blog might remember the uneven Turandot production she attended back in August. Still, P managed to secure relatively cheap seats in Circle 2 with a credit card discount, so felt that she could risk it.

The gala was held to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Giacomo Puccini, one of the most well-known and loved of Italy's operatic composers and the man who brought such operatic favourites as Tosca, La Boheme, Madam Butterfly and Turandot to the stage.

Despite starting at 7:30pm, the Gala was relatively short, with the usual chocolate box selection of favourites from Tosca, Manon Lescaut, La Boheme (lots of music from this), Butterfly and Turandot. The full programme can be viewed at SLO's pages here.

The SLO Opera Orchestra had obviously been gathered together from available professionals in Singapore and sounded somewhat underrehearsed. The brass in particularly were obviously having difficulty with the faster passages in the orchestral pieces (P can't remember now if it was the Intermezzo from Manon or the Witches' Dance from La Villi that made her wince). Still the orchestra managed to produce a mostly serviceable sound and obviously enjoyed themselves on the louder passages in the Le Villi Dance. Unfortunately, they took their obviously con gusto approach to music to the point that even the larger voiced singers, like Cecilia Yap and Ha Seok Be were on occasion struggling to be heard over the massed strings. Soubrette Tan Khar Gee was inaudible most of the time from where P was sitting.

Very young conductor Joshua Tan, looking like Rain's kid brother, led the orchestra with an assured beat.

Malaysian lyrico-spinto soprano Cecilia Yap delivered a nicely spun "Si, mi chiamano Mimi" and "Donde Lieta" from Boheme. Her top notes were clear and ringing and the meat of the voice solid. Her duets with Korean tenor, Ha Seok Be, revealed them as a nicely matched pair and P really enjoyed their "O Soave Fanciulla" in particular. Ha also had a nice tone to his rich tenor and carred off the tenor vehicle "Che Gelida Manina" with dispatch. He also did a very nice job with "Nessun Dorma" despite missing his top A right at the end (he faked well, so P will forgive him). He also redid the aria as an encore and did much better the second time round.

P felt that Tan Khar Gee's fluttery vibrato and small voice rather ruined two favourite arias of hers "O mio babbino caro" and "Signore Ascolta". At least Zhang Feng's baritone was able to portray a credible Gianni Schicchi and Colline.

On the whole, most of the performers were able to make P overlook the flaws and enjoy herself. She looks forward to the upcoming SLO "Tales of Hoffman" in March!

P is leaving you now with her favourite Puccini duet "O Soave Fanciulla" starring that supreme operatic duo - Pavarotti and Freni.