Date achieved:
Sunday 11th June 2017
Where?
Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, Singapore
Why is this experience on the Challenge List?
Two of my grandmothers have spoken about when they were younger and got all dressed up, went into the city and got to go to watch an orchestra performance. They always spoke about with such fondness and as something they remember dearly from their childhoods. The way that they spoke about this experience made it clear that it was something that should be experienced.
Description:
In June 2017, I was going to Singapore with my grandmother for a holiday, before we left for the holiday I was looking at places to go in Singapore and one place that I found was the Esplanade, its a grand beautiful theatre centre. When I looked up some information online there was tours of the hall that cost money otherwise there was an opportunity to go and watch an orchestra performance live.
So on the day we arrived and were seated in the Esplanade Concert Hall, which is boasted as the Esplanade’s crown jewel due to its state of the art acoustics. Sitting there and looking around its clear to see why, it is such a magnificent concert hall.
The orchestra group performing on the day was a group of children that are aged between five to sixteen years. When the show started they all came in professionally and it seemed like they all had been doing it for years. When the music started it was like I was transfixed with the story that the music was telling me. They played music from musicals and films but I would have to say that my favourite would have been hearing ‘Peter and the Wolf’. I had never heard this before and it was so clear you could follow it along as the story unfolded. It was beautiful and I loved every moment of it!
When it finished everyone clapped so hard all the children had performed so expertly and both myself and my grandmother were glad that we got to witness this orchestra performance.
Would I do it again?
Definitely, I loved every moment of it! The whole performance was so moving and I still think about ‘Peter and the Wolf’ and how the music can be so clearly defining in telling a story it was like magic.
Highlight:
Listening to ‘Peter and the wolf’ which is a musical composition by Sergei Prokofiev and getting to hear it for the first time, it was amazing if you haven’t hear it before I would recommend it, listen here on Spotify.
Also talking to my grandmother about ‘Peter and the Wolf’ she explained that the first orchestra peformance that she ever saw was also ‘Peter and the Wolf’, which is something we now both have in common and makes it very special to both of us.
Cost:
At the Esplanade they hold free monthly Sunday concerts so we got to watch it for free and they have plenty of other free shows to watch available.
Although an orchestra performance would usually cost a fair amount, its worth doing a bit of research into the event.
Further information:
The Esplanade always has plenty of shows to watch and is definitely worth checking out if you go to Singapore.