An ode to the Esplanade

Jun 25, 2010

An ode to the Esplanade

The centre has proven naysayers wrong. It's time to add new venue

By Tan Hsueh Yun

AS I walked out of the Esplanade Concert Hall two Sundays ago with a friend, both of us a little high from listening to the violinist Joshua Bell and the Academy Of St Martin In The Fields, it struck me that this is a mad, mad world. We had paid $63 each for our foyer stall seats. That, if you choose carefully, will get you an appetiser at one of Singapore's high-end restaurants. But for that price, we had enjoyed two unforgettable hours of wonderful music. Wave after wave of Mozart and Beethoven came through beautifully in a gorgeous concert hall with impeccable acoustics designed by the late Russell Johnson. The elegant venue made my heart swell with pride. I have been thrilled by meals I have eaten here but none have ever made my heart swell with pride. And I have eaten many more meals than I have attended concerts. The comparison between food and art might be simplistic but I write about food and that is a handy frame of reference for me. Both satisfy in different ways. In the days after the concert, I thought about how my friends and I had come to take the Esplanade for granted. Why, we do not need to travel overseas to watch quality shows anymore. I thought, half ashamed, of my reaction when I first saw the plans for the arts centre. This was back in 1994, when I was a news reporter. The Esplanade is going to look like styrofoam takeout boxes, I thought. Who needs an Esplanade? Foreign Minister George Yeo, who once helmed Information and the Arts, said in an interview last year that the Finance Ministry had initially baulked at the $600 million price tag for the building, and had predicted it would be a 'money-losing proposition'. But what a sound investment the Esplanade has turned out to be. This is one example of a decision made by top-down planners that went against the naysayers, but which turned out to be right. Home-grown arts groups that worried the 1,600-seat concert hall and the 2,000-seat theatre would suck resources out of the arts scene, now regularly stage shows - and sometimes sell out tickets - in those same venues. That the arts centre is alive and buzzing is due to the people who run it. From the start, chief executive officer Benson Puah and his team made everybody welcome. They have brought in everything from hip-hop dance competitions and rock bands to edgy, experimental plays and stand-up comedy routines. Bay Beats, the Esplanade's indie music festival, grows bigger every year. The shows I have watched at this gem of a performing arts centre have left an indelible mark on me. In 2002, I took leave for the opening festival so I would not miss the shows I wanted to watch because of something so mundane as a news story deadline. Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis never sounded so good than at the concert hall. I remember sitting very still to keep cool during the concert by American opera singer Jessye Norman, because the air-conditioner in the hall had been turned off for the sake of her vocal chords. Although not generally given to groupie-like behaviour, I stayed back in the stuffy hall after the concert to meet her - and was tongue-tied when I did. What do you say to someone whose voice can transport you to places you never knew existed? West African singer Cesaria Evora's haunting voice still sings to me sometimes, and I recall the visual effect when she casually lit a cigarette on stage during a break from singing. The Esplanade did not disappoint after the opening festival. Canadian singer k.d. lang sang barefoot and filled the concert hall with her incredible pipes in 2005. Jazz singer Shirley Horn performed at the Esplanade that same year, a few months before her death at age 71. Dancers Akram Khan and Sylvie Guillem took my breath away with Sacred Monsters in 2007. I saw the French ballerina again recently at the Arts Festival, in Eonnagata. My friends and I agree we would happily watch her slide on and off tables - as she did with such insouciance in the production - all day long. Last year, there was Stan Lai's The Village, which made me laugh and weep and hungry for bao, which was referenced a lot in the play. I almost ran out of the theatre, trying to figure out where I would find steamed buns at 11pm - and was greeted by smiling ushers handing out warm bao. They knew we would be needing the snack after hearing about it all night long. And who can forget Dunas late last year, a dance collaboration between Moroccan-Flemish choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Spanish flamenco dancer Maria Pages. Their performance was fiery, passionate and tender all at once. I know many Singaporeans will have their own list of memorable Esplanade moments. For an eight-year-old centre, the Esplanade sure has managed to nestle its way into the hearts of arts lovers. Even in the recession year last year, the place was buzzing. Arts groups have to book its halls way ahead of time if they want to stage a production there. The original plan had called for two large performing venues and three smaller ones. Now, there is the concert hall and the theatre, as well as a recital studio and a theatre studio, which seat about 250 each. The centre is still short of the third venue. When is that medium-sized venue, part of the original promise, going to materialise? The growth in the arts scene here shows no signs of slowing down. I know because it is a Herculean task keeping up with all the productions. The list of plays to be considered for the annual Life! Theatre Awards always seems to get longer, never shorter. Given that the arts scene is continuing to grow - some 30,000 arts events were presented in Singapore in 2008 and theatre productions attracted 784,000 audience members - isn't it time for decision makers to make those plans concrete? Artists keep clamouring for more medium-sized venues. Judging by the numbers, it would seem there are enough productions to justify building such facilities to complete the Esplanade complex. Build it, and we will come. hsueh@sph.com.sg