Mattinata and Tantrums

Leoncavallo the perpetrator of the Mattinata upset

I think I threw a large, and fearsome tabby cat amongst some very nervous pigeons last night. I was, once again at the Shau Kei Wan church in a commercial multi storey high rise building for my evening session. I heard a very good boys class, which has as it's set piece Vorrei, by Tosti. An unusual choice for teenaged boys, but there you go! All was going swimmingly until I had the Open Soprano Solo, the last class of the day.

I am thrilled to see that all the singers in the Open classes, which is only up to 23 you understand, dress beautifully for the occasion, and take it very seriously.

The set piece was the Mattinata by Leoncavallo. It is very well known, and thus often butchered by singers not really up to the task! Well, it was a fine class, with 9 very competent singers, all looking as if they had stepped out of Vogue magazine. There were also 3 very fine singers, all of whom study at the Chinese University Music Department, and clearly have some excellent singing teachers.

One was tiny, smiley and with a light voice entirely suited to the song, and soared up to the top A's. The next was a very fine voice, big, full and she was wearing a very gracious evening dress, and sang in a sophisticated and mature style, with perhaps a teeny hint of 'I've won this before, and it is a dead cert this time'. The last of these 3 was tall, long haired and sang with joy and freedom, and not a hint of pre conception about results, thus there was a lovely freshness to her performance.

Well I was really taken by the latter, and I wrestled with myself over the first and second place for about 10 minutes. My gut feeling won, and I chose the latter singer, she exuded pleasure and happiness rather than contrived professionalism.

My second placed lady, who fully expected the glory, and thus to be put through to the final was not pleased, wept and swept out of the room like the QE11 in full sail, dress flowing and rippling with indignation.

Oops. Sometimes that sort of surety simply does not cut the mustard with me.

Ah well, we have to be loathed at some point in the 5 weeks I suppose, and I suspect I have been slightly less loathed than some of my male colleagues who get a little testosterone-ish frisson from going against the grain!

I got back to the hotel at 9.30pm, had an extra strong cup of M&S tea with Nestlé Creamer ( the milk turns to yogurt too quickly!), watched an episode of Dad's Army, and fell into a satisfied sleep.

The wicked at rest!

China and learning to bargain

Looking down from the King of the Land building

The Commercial shopping mall as big as Broadford !

Port entry and immigration to mainland China

My banana fritters neatly displayed on a bed of fresh lettuce ? ! Eaten whilst waiting for my glasses to be made

First Class to China, not a slow boat in sight!




I was so whacked after two days of 3 sessions and then one of 2 last Thursday, Friday and Saturday I could barely write my name, never mind an adjudication sheet, so I decided, when I got back to the hotel on Saturday evening that I needed to get right away from it all.
I went down to Jeffrey in the concierge area and booked myself on the trip to mainland China leaving at noon on Sunday, for about 8 hours. I knew if I did it via a 'tour' I would be driven, mollycoddled and generally not have to use my brain at all.

I slept as late as I could and then was picked up promptly by the bus and tour guide Jimmy.

We collected two other families from other hotels and in total we were only 8 people, so quiet and no crowds! I am getting punch drunk by the noise pollution and overdrive of constant high pitched Cantonese conversation wrapping around me all the day long!

We were put in the First Class section of the train to Shenzen, a brand spanking new city just over the river border between mainland and Hong Kong. At the terminus which was at the city of Lo Wu, we had, thank goodness, a 150% efficient and mother hen type of guide. I would not have wanted to negotiate the Chinese immigration and customs on my own. I was particularly scrutinised because my passport had a work visa clearly stuck onto a page inside. The shiny and glitteringly decorated uniformed border control staff wanted to know if I was a working alien in Hong Kong ?! No comments please ( although there was a small Star Trek frisson crossed my unflinching face).

No amount of my answers could be understood, so Jimmy, bless him, had to mop up the linguistic mess and tell them I was leaving HK on March 31st and it was a temporary appointment, and I was not an alien!

We were transported in a small people carrier to an amazing building with a viewing tower on the 100th floor, where even in the cloudiness we could see almost all of HK and the river border in all it's colonial glory! Then we were taken to the Imperial Museum of Art and Jade. They had some of the Terracotta Warriors on display which were amazing to behold, especially so close up. The spectacle was in the detail and the fact each face and dress is unique, which they said was much more difficult to see when there are 5000 of them!

The jade rooms were astonishing, much like the Amber Rooms at the Catherine Palace in St Petersburg, so overwhelming in the colour, beauty and skill of the craftsmen. I bought a small Moonstone. Only allowed to be sold at government outlets, and with a government stamp of authenticity, this truly gorgeous round golf ball sized stone, glows in the dark when it sits in the sun, and for millennia was the evening form of lighting at the emperor's palace.

Then we got to the shopping.

Well I am no pro at shopping, but this was unbelievable. The size of NASA, with the variety of all the shopping malls I have ever visited in the known world, and the cheekiness of a 100 cheeky teens distilled into one small salesperson, and one at every one of the 10,000 stalls and shops.

I was tugged and pulled at every store, and hailed 'Missy missy you buy from me' Missy, you want MY stuff' 'Missy Missy Missy.........' bearing in mind I was only one of thousands of shoppers, they must all lose their voices at the end of the week. Actually I don't think there ever is an end to the week.

Well the bargains were there for the taking, s I had a jolly good go at spending money, and even ventured to have a new pair of Prada (ahem) specs made, in one hour. I must say they are great and lighter and better than my own. They simply put my glasses into a machine and read the prescription. They cost @ 10 times less than at 'should have gone to S..........'

I bought toys, a bag, pottery and all manner of souvenirs and was hard pushed to spend very much. The thrill of bargaining finally infected me, and now I feel I can go to the Co op in Paradise and knock them down by 50%! I know, I will get gently arrested if I do, but hey I passed my bargaining exam with flying colours!

Tired, limp, but victorious we climbed back onto the train and was back in the hotel by 9.30pm.

The power of the Yuen, Dollar, Pound, blah.

For one day I was the richest women I know. Then brought swiftly back to the earth with the loud bump of 55 tinies singing the Lazy Sheep and the Boy, sharp at 9.30am on Monday morning. I have said it before, and I will say it again.

No rest for the wicked.

A Piper by Michael Head and the Red Whiskered Bulbul

I had a glorious morning off today before I traveled to my next venue. I lounged, surfed the Internet a bit, had the latest allowable breakfast, and generally made the most of some down time.

It seemed deceptively easy to find from my given directions, but I was glad I left enough time to get lost. The outer reaches of Hong Kong Island, although designated 'Urban', are quite alike, as with most inner city built up areas, I looked around after emerging from the MTR and visibly quaked !

What I did see however, was a pair of what I now know to be Red Whiskered Bulbuls! I heard the most vibrant and tuneful singing from the top of some small town trees. In between my panic at getting lost the moment was calmed by these pretty little birds 'fluting' around my head. Their little pointed tufts standing to attention like a rather conservative Mohican. I stopped, mid panic, and marvelled at the decibels forthcoming from such little bodies. Size does not matter !

In my extremely comprehensive adjudicator's folder I found a map and a photo of the high rise church which was my venue. Well to be honest all high rise buildings here are VERY similar. It was raining - well not like Paradise rain you understand - but enough to ensure that I would be a little damp if I walked around too much.

I opened the file and must have looked like a mad professor / ultra keen tourist who needs to have his/her notes around all the time, whilst the general public navigated around my person giving me quizzical looks of pity. I eventually found the building by 360 degree sky gazing and finding the distinctive top floor windows, blue and rounded like a moon base bay window. I used my nose and headed for it, and after a few twists and turns I found myself at the East Commercial Building, all 60 floors of it! I eventually got into the lift and here I am!

My class was the under 18 soprano solo which I had heard last week with not a huge amount of successful performances, so I was feeling a little dubious. Michael Head, Irish poem and lots of key changes. Mmmmmm....

Well I had to eat my own humble pie. It was an astonishing class, at least 5 of the singers could have been winners on another day, and I was blown away by the stylish and sophisticated performing. One young lady was magnificent, her English was superb and her tone quality equal to any I have heard anywhere. I wanted to jump up and teach her, on the spot! Of course I did nothing of the sort!

My comments were so complimentary and positive, I got the feeling that the girls were incredulous. Anyway, I awarded my 90, 89 and 88 for 1,2,&3 placings and felt I had really listened to some high quality singing.

The next class was the under 18 Alto class which had as it's set piece the miraculous Silent Noon by Vaughan Williams. The story changed, sadly, and I inwardly groaned as this most beautiful of all VW's songs was over sung, much to speedy and with little care for being in tune! I must have written ' take care with your tuning at, 'like Rosy blooms' 54 times. As there were 15 singers with 23 more to come later this evening, perhaps 54 is a small exaggeration, but who's counting! It felt like 54 tired strokes of the black roller ball!

What I really meant was - Aaagh! My poor ears!

But I am, of course, much too polite, and I just kept smiling. Stiff upper lip saves the day.

The Sailor's Song by Haydn and 12 Tenors

The YMCA Hallway

A Beautiful Sculpture at the YMCA Entrance



This is the middle of my second week and i am beginning to feel the exhaustion my colleagues who have done this before told me would happen! I fell asleep at 8pm last night with the BBC World News still playing on the TV and they were still ploughing on with the news when I awoke this morning!

I was at a YMCA Lifelong Learning Centre yesterday which was an amazing place, and I had the most wonderful Assistants who (for the first time in HK)kept plying me with lovely tea, sometimes English Breakfast and sometimes Chinese Jasmine. It was so refreshing and made such a difference to the dynamic of the day! The white porcelain cup and saucer was a beautiful swirling and curved design, and I felt as though I was in an expensive restaurant!

The Assistants, or Stewards as we call them at UK Festivals, are on the whole utterly efficient in every respect of the desk work, and a feast of information with regards to places to eat locally, and where the best shopping can be found, along with translating and helping with pronunciations of the singers names. I have to say my cantonese is non existent, but my ability to pronounce the English written names is improving by the day.

The weather has hotted up somewhat, in the last few days it has been around 26 or 27 degrees with 80% humidity. This means that most of we Westerners are dripping until we arrive at our venue and the air conditioning kicks in. My driver this evening told me that when he was a boy in school there was no air con, or even a ceiling fan until the 60's. He said that learning was very difficult, and school started at 7am and ended at lunchtime from May to November.

Nowadays all schools use a full day for the whole year, so even though they now have to work more hours, at least they do it in the comfort of a cool breeze!

I heard an amazing class of 12, 18 and under tenors who sang The Sailor's Song by Haydn. Understand that this was 1 group, in 1 venue, and I will hear another 3 groups. How many British counties could furnish an ajudicator with up to 45 young tenors!

The song is fast and furious and all about Britain's Glory at Sea! Very incongrous, and a bit colonial, but boy these chaps sang with gusto and fire! I heard 5 lads from the same school who must have an excellent teacher. It was a pure joy to adjudicate them with all the detail I would use at a music school in the West, and these singers are singing in a foreign language.

I was hard put to choose the winner, and I am under no circumstances whatsoever, allowed to tie, so that means some cruel decisions, and those decisions based on the smallest of differences.

I had a ball, and gave the young men a short masterclass on abdominal breathing! They were such fun to work with, and so appreciative of any knowledge.

What with the regular tea and the plethora of tenors, what more could I want ?! (except more sleepzzzzzzzzzz).