Festival Highlights
16 & 17 Jan 2013, Wed & Thu
M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2013
Going on the Way to Get Lost by GOTANNDADAN Japan
"[On Shiro Maeda's play Suteru Tabi] … Clever, engaging, and intriguing. It is surreal, but written with economy; nothing is extraneous, even in the most dream-like sequences.‖—The British Theatre Guide, on Suteru Tabi, presented at KUNSTENFESTIVALDESARTS.
Michiru Suzuki is 30, and struggling: with Tokyo, with her parents, her sister, her ex- and current boyfriend, and her unborn child. One day, unsure about where she is going in her disorientated life, she turns to her unborn sister, seeking consultation for things she is as yet unable to define.
Written and directed by award-winning Japanese playwright, screenwriter and novelist Shiro Maeda, Going on the Way to Get Lost is a thought-provoking and engaging play woven around these characters, as they find themselves in situations both real and conceived, exploring contemporary Tokyo and its society. At turns surreal, irreverent, and darkly comic, Maeda explores that contemporary malaise: being 'lost' in the metropolis.
Co-produced by Festival Tokyo 2010
Brought to you by The Necessary Stage in collaboration with Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay as
part of the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2013
18 & 19 Jan 2013, Fri & Sat
M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2013
the holycoaster s(HIT) circus by PENG! Palast | Machol Shalem Dance House Switzerland | Germany | Israel
Asian Premiere
"Beyond political correctness, [PENG! Palast] juggles with nasty clichés where laughter gets stuck in your throat time and again, since there is of course a lot of truth in those caricatures. Are these, in fact, one‘s own prejudices which are confirmed by this gang of loonies? At the end of this cabaret it feels like after a cleansing thunderstorm. And everybody got wet in the process."—Berner Zeitung
"... Peng! Palast are the base-jumpers of the freelance theatre-scene and they are moving hand over hand along a rope over the abyss of bad taste without safety nets whatsoever."—Bund
the holycoaster s(hit) circus is a shrewd mockumentary about the encounter of German and Swiss actors with Israeli dancers, as well as their cherished intentions towards one another. As they attempt to approach one another with tolerance and starry-eyed idealism, their personal and private prejudices are exposed.
Uncensored, politically incorrect, and yet honest, the holycoaster s(HIT) circus is a blend of Borat and Eskimo Limon, whilst presenting our stilted understanding of age-old problems that remain unresolved. Come join us on this wild ride of questioning of yourself, your taste, your tolerance, your perception, your wife, your god, and your own borders. May we present to you: Sexy Religious MultiMedia-Entertainment with Dance & Music.
19 Jan 2013, Sat
M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2013
Double-bill: Fluid Piano | Piano + Laptop Live by Kyo Ichinose | Teruyuki Nobuchika Japan
Fluid Piano
"... a stylistically wide-ranging portrait of the Japanese composer's talents."—Textura, on Kyo
Ichinose's album Earthrise 2064
"Breathy piano shivers and sweet, elusive murmurs which hover at the edge of perception." — The
Wire, on Kyo Ichinose's album Lontano
Fluid Piano is a spin-off project of Kyo Ichinose's next work, focusing on one of the world's most popular instruments – the piano – as the main instrument. Kyo's performance will be an exploration of the boundary between composition and improvisation, which are often considered mutually exclusive. By improvising extemporarily on both conventional and non-conventional scores through playing with the rules of melodies and rhythm, visuals and text, he hopes to create a sense of sonic ―wonder‖ for the audience through this combination of structure and amorphous play.
Piano + Laptop Live
A renowned composer of scores for many cinematic and TV drama series in Japan, Teruyuki Nobuchika presents his premiere live performance in Singapore, featuring selections from his solo albums as well as well-loved repertoire from soundtrack compositions. While Nobuchika is most known for his compositions for TV drama series including Vacation (Kyuka) (2007), Yankee Kun to Megane Chan (2010), School!! (2011), Natsu no Koi wa Nijiiro ni Kagayaku (2010), Buzzer Beat (2009), and CHANGE (2008), his personal albums reveal a more experimental side to his music.
His debut album morceau's folktronica sampling and field recordings transports listeners to gentle, breezy summer nightscapes in the park, while his sophomore album sonorité utilises the piano and laptop to create beautifully evocative ambient songs, described by Textura magazine as "miniature soundtracks to scenes of wide-ranging emotional character."
With reviews stating him as a peer to pianists such as Goldmund, Johann Johannsson, and Hauschka, Nobuchika's performance at the Fringe is bound to bring audiences through an emotional, evocative sonic journey.
22 & 23 Jan 2013, Tue & Wed
M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2013
Xtra Large by Compagnie Irène K. Belgium
Asian Premiere
"The three dancers are transformed into bibendum without ever falling into the ridiculous. Instead,
these huge bodies hit with their grace, their lightness."—Le Soir
"A choreography resolutely contemporary, unexpected and interesting."—La Libre Belgique
"Irene K Company excels in creating some politically incorrect moments of surprising ballet... that
combine beauty, emotion, true desires, sexuality or non-idealized erotic disorder."—Jury of the Youth
Audience Theatre Contest – Huy, Belgium
In their XL – or even XXL – bodies, three teenagers live their emotions to their fullest, simply because for them, everything inside and outside is extreme and extremely funny.
These characters monopolise our attention. Their bodies are in states of mutation, their sexuality on alert. Everything is in upheaval: their awkwardness make them acutely aware of the "me" that lies buried within their bodies and under many coats, gradually shed through the scenes. Their recklessness is their strength, but also their deepest weakness. Emotions burst forth to the fore – from tenderness to anger, from fresh youthful feelings to hot-blooded intensity.
These teenagers want to reinvent the world and to disseminate new fruits within it... Let‘s do it with apples! A symbolic fruit that we can taste, admire, destroy, give and exchange. One with which we play, dance, smile at and weep over. An innocuous fruit has thus transformed into an excuse to play, to revolt, to seduce and to transform.
Taking inspiration from the work of Fernando Botero, choreographer Irène Kalbusch explores the notions of personal reflection, the quest for oneself as well as our sensual and sensorial awakenings through a remarkable work replete with humour, burlesque and drama.
24 & 25 Jan 2013, Thu & Fri
M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2013
Déproduction by Association Sam-Hester | Perrine Valli France | Switzerland
Asian Premiere
"[Déproduction] generates a constant ebb and flow between experiences, cultures and different
temporalities, subtly leading the spectator to reflect on the condition of contemporary dance
creation."—Les inrockuptibles
"Using a little to express a lot and revealing great flexibility (both of mind and body) Déproduction is
minimal in appearance only: the horizon of thought that opens out to the spectator is vast and the
pleasure that it procures immense."—Mouvement.net
Déproduction evolved following choreographer Perrine Valli's Villa Médicis Hors les murs research residency, supported by CulturesFrance in Tokyo from September to December 2009. Through two engaging solo pieces, Déproduction raises the question of how culture influences the construction of
identity.
The first performance, interpreted by Kazuma Glen Motomura, is an account of dance exchanges between the choreographer and his dancer during this period. It explores the dancer‘s profession and the political context in which he works, as well as a Japanese man‘s position in this specific artistic context.
The second performance interpreted by Airi Suzuki, recounts the story of an imaginary couple, Marc and Yukiko, where the themes of marriage, seduction, love experience and sexual life explore and question the issue of cultural imprinting on the development of female identity.
24–27 Jan 2013, Thu–Sun
M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2013
Best Of by The Necessary Stage Singapore
Fringe Highlight/ World Premiere
Award-winning actress Siti Khalijah Zainal takes centre stage in this brand new one-woman show specially created for her by Alvin Tan and Haresh Sharma.
Best Of looks at issues of the day through collective stories and personal reflection.
"We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is
devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us.
When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies."—Martin Luther King Jr.
26 & 27 Jan 2013, Sat & Sun
M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2013
《道德》Tao Te by Ferenc Fehér Hungary
Festival Highlight/ Asian Premiere
".. an endless duel between the two dancers, who seem as if they were living in symbiosis, as if they would not even exist without a partner/adversary. Their struggles are, on the one hand, playfully stylized, as if they were merely the figures of a computer game or of a marionette theatre, and other times, as if they would appear as the heroes of an absurd comedy, or rather, a strange burlesque."— Kultura (Culture Hungary)
《道德》 Tao Te borrows its title from Tao Te Ching – The Path of Virtue, the famous work of the legendary Chinese sage Lao-Tzu. Tao refers to the path, the way, the universal law, and Te to virtue – the power through which Tao manifests itself. The task is to maintain harmony, and this philosophy is explored and expounded through Ferenc Fehér's duet for male dancers.
The tension between our search for a virtuous and meaningful life as well as the subsequent failure of this quest is palpable in Fehér's choreography. We are presented with an intense physical dance between two men with different characters and attitudes. Are they friends, brothers or strangers?
Their personalities evolve through a series of situations, conflicts, inner struggles and failures. They change and develop, just as the path changes as you go on your way. Can they find the desired harmony in the end?
Collaborations
18 & 19 Jan 2013, Fri & Sat
Oh! Bangau (The Egret) by Era Dance Theatre
featuring dancers from Azpirasi, Artis Seni Budaya Fuchun CC, Era Dance Theatre, Kirana Seni – Majlis Pusat, Perkumpulan Seni, Sri Warisan Som Said Performing Arts and Sriwana Singapore
The song Oh! Bangau tells us that our every action has an impact on the environment and our lives. For the Malay community, we have grown from a simple life in a fishing village to the cosmopolitan Singapore we know today. The challenges faced and successes achieved have made us who we are. Presented through dance and silat (Malay martial arts), this production depicts our struggles of national identity from the early days of fishing village to globalisation.
This is the first collaboration of this scale between the seven leading Malay dance groups in Singapore. Organised by the newly formed Singapore Malay Dance Committee, an initiative of the National Arts Council, this exciting dance presentation is led by respected choreographer and Artistic Director of Era Dance Theatre, Mr Osman Abdul Hamid.
26 Jan 2013, Sat
OMMProm 2013 “All-American” with the Orchestra of the Music Makers
Singapore
Chan Tze Law, conductor
Clarence Lee, piano
Edward Tan, violin
GEORGE GERSHWIN Girl Crazy Overture
GEORGE GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue (Pianist: Clarence Lee)
PHILIP GLASS Symphony No. 4 ―Heroes‖: IV. Sons of a Silent Age
JOHN WILLIAMS Star Wars: Main Title
ALAN MENKEN Enchanted Suite
SAMUEL BARBER Violin Concerto: II. Andante (Violinist: Edward Tan)
AARON COPLAND Symphony No. 3: IV. Molto deliberato – Allegro risoluto
Tune in to the sounds of OMM’s All-American playlist featuring a selection of works tinged with pop, jazz and rock 'n' roll. Beginning with billboard hits of yore (including I Got Rhythm and Embraceable You) in Gershwin‘s Girl Crazy Overture and followed by the famously familiar Rhapsody in Blue, echoes of David Bowie‘s Sons of a Silent Age are then heard in Philip Glass‘ Heroes Symphony.
Magnificent melodies abound: film lovers will be titillated with tunes from Star Wars and Disney‘s Enchanted, and Edward Tan will perform lines of heartrending pathos from Barber‘s Violin Concerto. The evening will draw to a close with the fanfares of Copland‘s Third Symphony, a grand and glorious evocation of the vast American plains.
Clarence Lee is the 2nd Prize winner of the 2011 National Piano and Violin Competition Artist Category, and is known for his blend of ‗‖brawn with sensitivity‖ and a touch with "moments of true poetry" and Edward Tan makes his return after his electrifying 2011 performance of Korngold‘s Violin Concerto.
30 Jan 2013, Wed
Silken Expressions 《琴丝悠扬》by Zhou Ruo Yu & Ma Huan from Singapore Chinese Orchestra
SCO‘s musicians Zhou Ruo Yu and Ma Huan will stage a unique strings concert featuring the erhu and yangqin. This concert will feature a selection of pieces including Liu Tian Hua‘s erhu composition Melody on One String, Tan Dun‘s Poem in Two Parts which depicts a celebration of a good hunt, as well as Xiang Zu Hua‘s Night Escape of Lin Chong, a musical tribute to the hero of Mount Liang.
Ongoing Programmes and Series
7 Jan 2013, Mon
Esplanade Presents Coffee Morning & Afternoon Tea
Crooner Delights with Hillary Francis
Singapore
Start the New Year with local crooner Hillary Francis and his band as he sings the songs of Andy Williams, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and many more swoon-worthy artists.
Workshops and explorations
6 Jan 2013, Sun
Esplanade Presents Bitesize: Demystifying Western Opera
By Singapore Lyric Opera
Singapore
Join us for a light-hearted and candid session as we strip away the artifices and mystique behind Opera and introduce you to this great art form. This talk condenses over 400 years of Western Opera into an overview of the major periods of Western Opera from Baroque, Classical, Romantic to 20th Century opera.
Participants will gain more understanding about opera as an art-form historically and aesthetically, and how the themes explored are relevant to modern life. Each section will focus on one or two of the most famous
composers of that period such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Giacomo Puccini, and provide participants with greater insights about the different variety of operas, as well as their musical and dramatic qualities.
There will be live music performed by Shane Thio, sopranos Su Yi Wen, Ying Yue and baritone Martin Ng as well.
This is an informative talk for opera-lovers of all ages.
Free Programmes
13 Jan 2012, Sun
Esplanade Presents Beautiful Sunday
Cartoon Fantasies By Sparkswinds
Enter the magical world of animation with Sparkswinds as they perform music from your favorite cartoons. Relive your childhood memories and enjoy music from classics such as Beauty and the Beast, The Incredibles, Tangled as well as popular Japanese anime like Howl's Moving Castle and Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. Come join us for an afternoon of fun and nostalgia!
Sparkswinds was first registered as Yuhua Alumni Band Association (YABA) in 2000. It was initiated by a growing number of alumni from Yuhua Secondary School Concert Band who were keen to continue to do good music under the conductor Ms Chan Peck Suan.
In 2003, the YABA was renamed Sparkswinds which was chosen because the executive committee then thought that the combination of the three groups of alumni from Yuhua Secondary School Concert Band, River Valley High School Concert Band and Pioneer Junior College Symphonic Band would spark off a new exciting era for the association.
The orchestra has held many concerts since and is now made up of over 80 members, consisting of mostly students from the universities, polytechnics, ITEs, other institutes, as well as working adults from various professions.
Esplanade Presents: At the Concourse
Enjoy a wide array of free indoor performances every evening at the Esplanade Concourse! Featuring a variety of music genres including classical, jazz, rock, pop, traditional ethnic, fusion and alternative, there‘s something for everyone. Make your way to the Concourse, located between the Concert Hall and the Theatre.
January: New BeginningsPage
The year begins with a doorway to new beginnings, new partnerships and renewed commitments. Enjoy music performances from a fresh lineup of singer-songwriters, solo vocalists and independent groups of musicians that underline the wave of positivity that is to come in the coming year. For more information please visit
www.esplanade.com
Performance times:
Mon–Fri: 7.15pm & 8.15pm
Sat, Sun & Public Holidays: 5.15pm, 6.15pm & 7.15pm
Esplanade Presents: On the Waterfront
Come enjoy free performances under the stars every Friday, Saturday and Sunday (including public holidays) on the Esplanade Waterfront!
Performance times:
Fridays, Saturdays and Eve of Public Holidays: 7.30 pm, 8.45 pm & 10 pm Sundays: 7.30 pm & 8.45 pm
Visual Arts
THEME : Added Perception
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes— Marcel Proust.
The visual arts theme for this first quarter of 2013 is Added Perception.
Held in conjunction with Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts and Mosaic Music Festival, the quarter‘s exhibitions aspire to raise consciousness and ―renew‖ the perception of our visitors through the art they encounter around the centre.
Perception is our sensory experience of the world around us and it determines how we experience life. Sometimes, our perception becomes reality. As we step into a new year, let us rediscover the places and things around us with new eyes. Sometimes, we need only look at a something from a different point of view and that can totally change our experiences in life and its myriad of events.
10 Jan–31 Mar 2013
Wind on My Wings By Teo Huey Ling
Singapore
The work attempts to simulate energy of wholeness created by the paper birds that flock in a pattern of a vortex.
In nature, birds flock together in coherent motion to benefit as a group. These collaborative plays by a collective rule of consensus decision-making are a form of collective intelligence. The pattern of a vortex represents a metaphor of wholeness. The spiraling motion creates a chaotic turbulence yet transforming itself into a singular oneness where the action of spiraling continues in a never ending cycle.
Graduating with high distinction in ceramics and drawing from the National Art School, Sydney, Australia in 2006, Teo Huey Ling‘s works involved disparate materials from rice paper, felt making, porcelain ceramics to contemporary drawings. Her works embrace laborious and meticulous processes because she believes in the spirit and sensibility of working with hands.
11 Jan–24 Feb 2013
《剑 气》Breath of a Blade by Tay Bak Chiang
Singapore
剑 气 refers to ―the energy of the sword‖. In wuxia (swordplay genre) novels, martial arts exponents are portrayed to be creating energy known as jiàn qì when they wield their swords.
Intrigued with the fictitious wuxia world, Tay playfully combined his love for wuxia novels and ink paintings. Through the ink medium and recent experiments, he was able to get closer to and feel the lofty, soul-stirring spirit found in the wuxia world.
These new series of ink paintings by Tay is driven by the endless possibilities in Chinese ink painting and his willingness to seek out new subject matters, techniques and most importantly, infusing a new spirit into his works.
10 Jan–24 Feb 2013
Chinese in the Small Towns of Southeast Asia (2010– )
《小城故事》by Zhuang Wubin
Singapore
"The histories of the rural Chinese communities in Southeast Asia have yet to be written, and this may affect the legitimacy of their presence," writes political scientist Mary Somers Heidhues.
In the villages surrounding Kampot town, South Cambodia, Teochew farmers harvest durians to sell in Phnom Penh, using part of their earnings to fund Sok Eng School (树英公校) so that the younger generation can continue to study Mandarin in the countryside. On the other hand, the Mekong Delta in South Vietnam feels like a fluid zone where the Chinese continue to arrive and leave, much like their predecessors who arrived there in the second half of the 17th century. Nevertheless, even in areas such as these, change is taking place. Only a generation ago, the Cina Benteng (Chinese of the Fort) of Tangerang, West Java, lived off the rice fields that they owned. Today, as these areas get developed for commercial and residential purposes by Chinese developers from Jakarta, the Cina Benteng will soon be displaced, making it impossible for them to retain their traditions.
Chinese in the Small Towns of Southeast Asia is an ongoing project that attempts to visualize the stories and cultures of these Chinese communities through photography. "Small towns" in this instance refer to places that are no longer considered the primary cities of the region, including those in the countryside. Photographs featured in this exhibition were taken around Southeast Asia, in Kampot, the Mekong Delta and Tangerang.
