From September to December 2020, we were happy to welcome our interns, Alex Yap, Kelvin Tan, Koay Wan Ern, Logan Chai and Low Chyh Leng to the KLCO family. During their time in their internship, they were tasked to compose an original opera as their final project. Even with the CMCO implemented halfway through their internship, they managed to compose their opera and even present a workshop performance of Kiyoko in KLCO Studio.

In 2020, OperaKUL was to come back bigger and better than before! What was once a week-end long event, was to be a festival spanning months across 2020. Unfortunately, due to the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic, many of the events had to be pushed forward to 2021. However, we were fortunate enough to present events during the second half of 2020 with the theme: “OperaKUL-er than ever!”. Together with the #SaveMYOpera campaign that ran during the Movement Control Order (MCO), Here were the events under our OperaKUL 2020.

The story goes that it was written for the company at the suburban Theater auf der Wieden run by Mozart’s friend Emanuel Schikaneder, who wrote the libretto and played one of the key characters, Papageno. For the unfamiliar, the fairy tale centres on a prince, Tamino, who, while lost in a foreign land, sees a picture of Pamina, the daughter of the Queen of the Night, and falls in love at first sight. The queen tasks him with saving Pamina from the high priest Sarastro whom she paints as powerful and evil, and off Tamino goes, joined by bird-catcher Papageno. But all is not as it seems, as the hero discovers upon encountering Sarastro, and later, Pamina.

An opera in three acts by the legendary Italian and composer Giuseppe Verdi with libretto in Italian by Francesco Maria Piave, premiered in Venice at La Fenice opera house on March 6, 1853. Based upon the 1852 play by Alexandre Dumas fils (La Dame aux camélias), the opera marked a large step forward for Verdi in his quest to express dramatic ideas in music. La traviata means “the fallen woman” or “the one who goes astray” and refers to the main character, Violetta Valéry, a beloved Parisian courtesan who suffers from a life-threatening illness.

Hansel and Gretel is in 3 acts and is sung in English with Chinese surtitles . The opera tells the story of two mischievous children who were punished by their Mother and whilst picking berries in the forest encounters the Witch who turns children into gingerbread and devours them. Catch the opera to know the fate of the siblings!

Madama Butterfly is in 3 acts and is sung in Italian with English and Chinese surtitles . The opera is set in Nagasaki, Japan, year 1904. A US Naval officer, B. F. Pinkerton marries a 15-year old Japanese wife, Cio Cio San out of convenience and left her to return to America. Three years later, Cio Cio San is still waiting for Pinkerton to return. The American consul, Sharpless brought news that Pinkerton is returning to Japan but can't bear to tell her that he is returning with his American wife. Cio Cio San was overjoyed with the news and revealed that she has given birth to a child after Pinkerton left. A story of love and heartbreak. A Puccini master piece.