Figaro

Goodness, this apek cello uncle is bloody awesome... reminds me why I love the cello so much in the first place. Total versatility. Some people may think that it's pretty easy, just get together a few cellos and voila! there you have it. But as a cellist myself, i see it through different eyes. Perhaps it's the sight of a middle-aged man coming up with rhythms and tunes that are so... youthful. Maybe it's the ease in which he slides around the highest registers of the strings that makes me envious and at the same time, proud. Or perhaps it's the mere idea of anyone creating 37 separate parts for one sole instrument, and single-handedly recording and putting everything together in sync. As they say, the sum's greater than the individual parts.

(Blogger's crapping up my blog. Please ignore the previous scrambled post - the resilient wag's resisting all my earnest attempts to delete it, but there it remains, indefinitely. Might have something to do with YouTube or my completely inability to do any sophisticated html. or CSS coding. whatever. Anyways please follow the link if you want:)

A Cello Rondo


Just came back from watching the English translation of Mozart's Le Nozze de Figaro @ the Lowry with Shyan, Roy, CheeMun and Colby. Another first! This time at the opera, and I have to say it was pretty darn cool. Most, if not all of the singers from Opera North were stellar, the relatively small orchestra perfectly complementing and never drowing out the singing. Even though I still prefer the vocal sounds produced in Italian, this English version was interesting in that I could understand far more of the repartee and humour than if it was in Italian without subtitles.


I wish I'd have listened to recordings of Figaro more, so I wouldn't have felt so lost in the actual performance. I wish I had read up more on the intricasies of Mozart's crystalline music so I could've recognised more than just the famous tunes. I wish I (and the audience) had the benefit of the lyrics and dialogue (perhaps across the top of the stage?) so we could've laughed more at the ingrained humour in Mozart's opera buffa.

Anyhow, there were some sublime moments during the opera, when soaring voices and instruments merged, transcending unfamiliarity and literary understanding to create pure music.