Play! A Video Game Symphony
Well, just got back from the esplanade. Play was so cool! I think it’s the most i’ve enjoyed in a performance. A lot of firsts for this one. First time performing with a symphonic orchestra, first time doing a show with multiple shows, first time with an ang moh conductor, first time seeing (and hearing) the pipe organ at VCH and esplanade being used. Pretty fun. Back to the beginning…funny how the week’s just coming to an end. Time really flies when you’re having fun. I wanna do it again!!
Rehersals for Play were sundays for choir, cos we were singing with vocal consort again. Man, those rehersals were tiring. The songs were all so draining. Cos they go so HIGH and sounded weird.
Tuesday had the first rehersal with the orchestra at VCH. Singapore Festival Orchestra. No idea what that is or who makes it up. But there we go, SFO. The SFO conductor was a strange character. For one, I have no idea what’s his name. So first arriving at VCH and seeing him, me thinks, this can’t be arnie roth cos this guy looks too chinese to be arnie roth. And, this conductor is way to nice for his own good. Ok, maybe he can’t hear us from where we were – he was on stage with the orchestra while choir was off stage in the audience seats. And then, he conducts at strange tempos too. Our “ha ha ha to” was killing under his direction.
Anyway, Wednesday, first rehersal at esplanade. And saw arnie roth in person. I tell you, talk about one cool elderly ang moh dude. Arnie roth looks old enough to be a grandfather and is half balding. BUT he has a ponytail! (I think it’s called a mullet) anyway, how cool is that??! this gray haired, slightly pot bellied dude, obviously past middle age, sporting a ponytail! I like him already. This rehersal was miles better than the VCH one. Arnie roth knows the score well enough so he does it properly (like duh, he’s the one who’s been doing all the Play concerts all over the world). He said the choir was doing alright but the orchestra were not following him properly. On reflection, I think it’s gotta be hard on the orchestra who probably is used to the other weird guy conducting. Suddenly switch to arnie roth who’s obviously doing it differently… nelson’s main comment to us was to follow arnie roth’s tempo and not get influenced by the orchestra.
Next day full dress rehersal. We’re getting better. The orchestra seems to be getting it a little, but can hear arnie roth counting out loud for them, even singing some of their rhythms at times. Nelson says he was getting desperate and instructs the choir not to add to his stress. Haha! Anyway… oh ya, there were screens up also that showed footage of the games sometimes during the pieces. Choir was so distracted, kept looking up to see the videos. 
and arnie roth! (you can tell, he made quite an impression) the guy dressed in long tail coats and wore a white waistcoat and little bow tie. Looked like he stepped out of a victorian novel or something.
Friday. First show! We’re all feeling strangely at ease, like it isn’t really performance night. Anyway, not much I think… the orchestra was trying their best to follow. Could see them really looking at the conductor. The pipe organ…damn. I’m sure the poor gal is doing her darn best already. But it was so out of tempo. Not disastrous lah, but bad enough. Think she’s stress cos she’s got solos and during the solos, the camera is on her like all the time. I think choir didn’t do too well either. We consistently came in late for some entries (Oblivion was forever horribly out). But we pulled through. Something interesting, the piece Daytona USA was done by the composer, Takenobu Mitsuyoshi (I just call him mr daytona). Anyway, we haven’t seen him before, he didn’t show during rehersal. Anyway, he came out with a sonic the hedgehog soft toy, sat at the piano and began caterwauling till kingdom come. Lol!!! it was THAT out of tune. I think it was too high for him. He didn’t warm up or something. And there was me thinking, oh my god, what the hell is he supposed to be singing??! but the audience was very entertained by him and he threw the sonic toy out to the audience in the end. He’s an interesting character. Arnie roth was supposed to cue choir to stand or sit. But sometimes he forgot. And sometimes he was indicating the trumpets or something to stand and we thought he meant us and we stood instead. So that was quite screwy and a bit embarrassing at times. One thing about arnie roth, he likes to get his musicians to stand and let the audience applaud them. Also, he will smile when we do it right and give the thumbs up signal and clap for the musicians, even during the show. Very nice conductor to work with. Yup, I think that’s the highlights for friday.
Saturday. Two shows today. Gonna be fun! Came in to the rehersal studio and…uh oh! Nelson is not smiling. Bad sign. Brace ourselves for scolding. But…it was alright. We knew where we sucked. And nelson made us go through over and over and over the entry for Oblivion. The matinee show rocked! Musically, i’ll say that it was the best of the three. But the audience sucked. The place was not full. Heard that it was sistic’s fault. That they held back tickets then released at last minute. Anyway, it was not full house at all. And I think…after lunch sleepy effect or something, the audience was very very passive. Mr daytona sang a different song. Something about sky high and blue skies. Whatever. He was in tune. And he threw out another sonic. Nelson was very happy with us after the show, said we could go ahead and do frivolous things (like eating) before the next show.
Saturday night show. It started out promising. Last show, let’s make it rock! But… it wasn’t as good as the afternoon one. Something was wrong with the trumpets. Someone sounded really really off. And someone (to me) sounded sharp. And the orchestra was lagging quite badly. I see arnie roth’s baton go down and a millisecond later then the orchestra respond with the entry. Organ was WAY off too. I’m thinking, oh my god! I mean, come on, last show people, let’s get it together. Choir wasn’t too good either. I think it was cos we didn’t do warm up. Could hear my voice cracking in Dancing Mad. On the other hand, the audience was really really really great. They were enthusiastic and energised, responsive and just great. Mr daytona worked the crowd real great today. He always begins with this yell: “Hello singapore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” the guys speculate that that’s his warm up. Anyway, he sang the Daytona song again and he nailed it this time (heard him practicing during the dinner break). Anyway, audience was really hyper.
Second half was much better than the first. The trumpeter managed to fix his problem, choir was more or less warmed up. We nailed the entries and all that. *woot* anyways, energy level was high in choir and orchestra. Could really hear the percussionist whacking it. Heard the drummer commenting that he almost lost his sticks during the first half. They almost flew. The audience gave standing ovation!!! the only one of the three to do that. aw. Did One Winged Angel again for encore piece. Woah! Never felt such intensity in that piece. Pity it didn’t have video footage. It would have been the best. All really hyper after the show was over. All backstage cheering and just having fun that it’s over and we rocked.
So anyway, that was Play! Loved it. Wish could do it again. Yeah, I know, doing it three times already, still not enough. It’s just so fun! Haha!
Ok, that’s all. It’s now 11.50pm. Time for bed.
Mood: Hyper
Listening to: Castlevania Suite playing in my head
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