Showing 1 - 10 of 10
Bringing classical music to the masses
Life, Michael Proudfoot, Published on 09/04/2024
» In last year's award-winning film Tár, Cate Blanchett is an orchestral conductor at the peak of her fame, celebrated worldwide and powerful within the industry. But a scandal brings her downfall, and a final scene shows her exiled to a (non-specified) Southeast Asian country, recording video game background music with a local orchestra.
A spectacular tour
Life, Michael Proudfoot, Published on 31/05/2023
» The Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra made a triumphant return to Thailand last week after their whistle-stop tour of Europe, with three concerts in three cities in different countries, all in five days.
What is love?
Life, Michael Proudfoot, Published on 08/11/2022
» Thai composer Somtow Sucharitkul's opera Helena Citronova had its European premiere in Hof, Germany, late last month, and it was a stunning success.
Wagner, Thai-style
Life, Michael Proudfoot, Published on 25/08/2016
» It was bold of Somtow Sucharitkul to take Opera Siam to Bayreuth in Germany, the spiritual home of Wagnerians, to perform the first opera of a cycle of operas that challenges Richard Wagner's monumental Ring cycle, performed every year in Bayreuth, as the world's longest opera cycle. Sucharitkul's The Silent Prince is the first of the 10 operas of his Dasjati cycle telling the "Ten Lives Of The Buddha", familiar stories in Buddhist culture. Somtow has already composed five of the operas, and hopes to have all 10 finished by 2020, ready for a complete cycle in a sort of Bangkok Bayreuth Festival.
From Star Wars to The Burmese March
Life, Michael Proudfoot, Published on 07/01/2016
» Where is the closest place in Thailand to Vienna? The answer may have been last Monday, back in 2015, at the packed Thailand Cultural Centre, where the Siam Sinfonietta presented their fourth annual New Year's Concert to an enthusiastic audience.
History, operatically
Life, Michael Proudfoot, Published on 24/02/2015
» Somtow Sucharitkul realised what his next opera production should be when he was speaking with one of his students.
The Snow Dragon opera a deeply moving triumph
Life, Michael Proudfoot, Published on 26/03/2015
» Somtow Sucharitkul's latest opera, The Snow Dragon, received its world premiere in the US earlier this month to unanimous critical acclaim.
Mozart with a Thai twist
Life, Michael Proudfoot, Published on 06/01/2015
» Christmas Day at the Thailand Cultural Centre saw the opening night of Opera Siam's wonderful new production of Mozart's The Magic Flute, conducted by the young Thai impresario Trisdee Na Patalung and directed by Somtow Sucharitkul (there were two further performances, one sponsored by the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority).
Somtow's new opera a resounding triumph
Life, Michael Proudfoot, Published on 19/08/2014
» The world premiere of Somtow Sucharitkul's Dan No Ura staged at the Thailand Cultural Centre on Aug 11 was the Thai composer's greatest operatic triumph to date. The opera deals with the Japanese sea battle of 1185, the final conflict in a war which effectively ended the power of the Taira samurai clan, close relatives of the imperial family of the time. They were defeated by the Genji, led by Minamoto no Yoshitsune, whose half-brother became the first Shogun, and power was effectively transferred to the Shoguns.
Siam Sinfonietta wins German hearts
Life, Michael Proudfoot, Published on 08/08/2013
» The Siam Sinfonietta, Bangkok's orchestra of musicians aged from 11 to 25 years old, won an international youth music festival in Vienna last year and another in Los Angeles earlier this year. They returned last weekend from a hugely successful German tour having won once again _ this time, the hearts of their German audiences. In each of their concerts, at historic venues in Berlin, Munich and Dresden, they received standing ovations and seemingly never-ending applause.