A couple of weeks ago, JR asked me out on a hot date to the MPO. It was my first time watching a live orchestra, what more with funnyman Carl Davis as the conductor. Our MPO hall was indeed world class, all the instruments sounded crisp and clear without the need for microphones. For me it was a grand experience, especially when they performed the excerpt from The Nutcracker…which was simply beautiful except for the choir. The Soka Gakkai children’s choir performed for some Christmas carols (which I thought was so ironic), and they didn’t impress me one bit. It was a feeling like drinking the best coffee in the world with salt. The choir wasn’t smooth, stressing the words when they shouldn’t have, wrong pronunciations and more. Oh well, Carl Davis seemed to think they are fantastic.
But nonetheless everything else was beautiful. I wished though, that we can have something like the Sydney Opera House with the MPO, seasonal world class stage acts. I’m sure Malaysians would more than welcome it.
Read JR’s take on the night here.