A hit and a miss at SIFA’s opening weekend

MEPAAN

The Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) 2022 opened last Friday (May 20) with an enchanting, dream-like concert helmed by festival director Natalie Hennedige. Set in a cavernous hall of the disused Pasir Panjang Power Station, it featured the Singapore Chinese Orchestra in collaboration with Tuyang Initiative, a Sarawak-based creative agency working to preserve and promote Borneo indigenous heritage.

Mepaan means “always” in the language of the Kayan people. The orchestra, led by maestro Yeh Tsung, performed original compositions that seamlessly incorporated traditional Dayak instruments and vocals. These were further complemented by sounds captured from the natural environment, as well as film footage and photos of Borneo. Together, they created moments of transcendental beauty, sadness and foreboding.  

There are many ways for such an alchemy to go wrong. But in this case, it didn’t. The music was in full flower, moving across five compositions that ranged from majestic melodies that celebrated the beauty of nature, to propulsive suspense-filled music that underscored the urgent need to preserve the environment for the future.

Two Dayak performers, Mathew Ngau Jau and Adrian Jo Milang, sang songs and poems in a Dayak language few in the audience understood. But the words mattered less than the melodies. Together with the sape, pipa and ruan, they evoked the authentic cries of the forest. 

Set designer Wong Chee Wai created an undulating orchestral stage that looked like a rice terrace on which the musicians performed. Lighting by Andy Lim gorgeously reflected the changing moods of the music. And the heady multimedia work by Brian Gothong Tan, coupled with the photography of Sean Lee and film by Harry Frederick Diglin, transported the audience deep into Borneo culture and the wilderness.

CEREMONIAL ENACTMENTS By MAX.TAN, Nadi Singapura and Bhaskar’s Art Academy

A major disappointment of SIFA so far is Ceremonial Enactments. When parts of the show were performed for VIPs and the media back in February, the audience was dazzled by the psychedelic mélange of traditional arts and avant-garde inspirations. In its full-length form, however, it was long, indulgent and repetitive. 

Comprising three separate acts helmed by three artists, it lacked an overarching vision to tie the disparate elements together. Each act became dangerously monotonous and meandering, as the artists tried to cram far too much into their respective segments.

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The show began with fashion designer Max Tan paying tribute to his seamstress mother, who inspired his own journey into fashion. Tan, famous for his chic, deconstructed creations, sent a contingent of fashion models down a hanamichi runway extending out of the Esplanade Theatre. 

Certain touches worked, like the snipping of a red sash connecting the dresses of three models, an obvious symbol of the umbilical cord. But the segment was essentially a fashion show that lacked sufficient performative elements to link it to the other segments.

Next up was a piece by percussion virtuoso Riduan Zalani. A musical recreation of the customs and traditions of Malay weddings, there was genuine bonhomie and spontaneity among the versatile performers. But the segment ran for too long, with superfluous comic and poetry segments dragging down the beauty of the music. Riduan is an astonishing musician, but he is neither a director nor dramaturg; the piece needed more focus and clarity.

Finally, there was Santha Baskhar’s dance piece, the final choreography of the late bharatanatyam master who died in February. This was perhaps the strongest of the three segments, but even this could do with some trimming. Nine dancers represented the nine heavenly bodies of the Navagraha in orbit. But the first half of the dance was curiously repetitive and constrained, before the dancers fanned out and made full use of the stage and its extension.

Ceremonial Enactments was filled by problems that could have been solved if one clear directorial vision took precedence over three separate ones. 

The Singapore International Festival of Arts continues till 5 Jun 2022. Visit sifa.sg