After a successful Grand Night of Opera last year, the artistic committee unanimously agreed that we should put up another concert with amazing opera scenes in the same venue. We were more motivated when 18th BOH Cameronian Arts Awards organized by Kakiseni awarded KLCO as the winner for Best Vocal Performance by a Group in the music category for our performance of Verdi’s Brindisi (The Drinking Song) by both KLCO Principal Artistes and KL City Opera Chorus.
Opera Gala Spectacular, as the name suggests, clearly denotes how spectacular operas can be - compelling story, dramatic music, beautiful singing and more. In this concert, the audiences got to enjoy rare gems (opera scenes) never performed before in Malaysia, and a glimpse of our future operas such as L’elisir d’amore, La Bohéme, and Don Giovanni.
We are delighted to work with conductor, Lien Boon Hua as he leads the KL City Opera Orchestra with the support from concert master, Lim Jae Sern to bring to life this year’s challenging and ambitious program.
Whilst we are featuring returning principal artistes in the lineup of performers this round such as award-winning soprano and KLCO Vocal Director Cecilia Yap, Tenor Tan Chee Shen, and Bass-Baritone Chi Hoe Mak, we are delighted to feature other talents from our roster of artistes such as Evelyn Toh, Ho Chi Mei, Tan Sin Sim, Lim Yee Fen, Heo Yueh Ren, James Long, Wilson Loh and Joseph Ng in this year’s gala performance.
Putting up a show like this requires a lot of preparation and we would like to take this opportunity to thank the cast (principal singers, chorus, orchestra), artistic committee, production team, crew (backstage and front-of-house) and volunteers including our past interns for their hard work and commitment.
To our patron, the Embassy of Italy in Kuala Lumpur, and our Opera Circle member Mrs Ng Tsiok Lee, thank you for your support. We are also grateful to all the donors who sponsored tickets for Dignity Foundation for the children to celebrate opera with us.
