Mozart's Coronation Mass

to celebrate the birthday of HM King Mahavajiralongkorn 6th Opera Siam International Choir Festival

MOZART’s

CORONATION MASS in C Major, KV317

July 26, 2017 at 8 pm

Thailand Cultural Centre (Main Hall)

ทรงพระเจริ ญ เนื่องในโอกาสมหามงคลเฉลิมพระชนมพรรษา

สมเด็จพระเจาอยูหัวมหาวชราลงกรณ บดินทรเทพยวรางกูร ๒๘ กรกฎาคม ๒๕๖๐ ดวยเกลาดวยกระหมอม ขาพระพุทธเจาคณะนักแสดง และคณะผูจัดการแสดง เทศกาลขับรองประสานเสยงนานาชาติ ๒๕๖๐

PROGRAM Overture to “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg”, WWV 96 Richard Wagner Deserted City from “Suriyothai” Somtow Sucharitkul Plunge Chamber Choir from Lithuania The Miraculous Mandarin, suite for orchestra, Sz. 73a Béla Bartók intermission Love Songs by HM the King Rama IX (Love in Spring/ Alexandra/ I Never Dream/ Falling Rain) HM the King Bhumibol Aduyadej arranged by Somtow Sucharitkul

Mass in C major “Coronation”, KV 317 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

CONDUCTOR

SOMTOW SUCHARITKUL “The most well-known expatriate Thai in the world” — International Herald Tribune Once referred to by the International Herald Tribuneas “the most well-known expatriate Thai in the world,” Somtow Sucharitkul is no longer an expatriate, since he has returned to Thailand after five decades of wandering the world. He is best known as an award-winning novelist and a composer of operas.

Born in Bangkok, Somtow grew up in Europe and was educated at Eton and Cambridge. His first career was in music and in the 1970s he acquired a reputation as a revolutionary composer, the first to combine Thai and Western instruments in radical new sonorities. Conditions in the arts in the region at the time proved so traumatic for the young composer that he suffered

a major burnout, emigrated to the United States, and reinvented himself as a novelist.

His earliest novels were in the science fiction field but he soon began to cross into other genres.

In his 1984 novel Vampire Junction, he injected a new literary inventiveness into the horror genre, in the words of Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, “skillfully combining the styles of Stephen King, William Burroughs, and the author of the Revelation to John.” Vampire Junction was voted one of the forty all-time greatest horror books by the Horror Writers’ Association, joining established classics like Frankenstein and Dracula.

In the 1990s Somtow became increasingly identified as a uniquely Asian writer with novels such as the semi-autobiographical Jasmine Nights. He won the World Fantasy Award, the highest accolade given in the world of fantastic literature, for his novella The Bird Catcher. His fifty-three books have sold about two million copies world-wide.

After becoming a Buddhist monk for a period in 2001, Somtow decided to refocus his attention on the country of his birth, founding Bangkok’s first international opera company and returning to music, where he again reinvented himself, this time as a neo-Asian neo-Romantic composer. The Norwegian government commissioned his song cycle Songs Before Dawn for the 100th Anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize, and he composed at the request of the government of Thailand his Requiem: In Memoriam 9/11 which was dedicated to the victims of the 9/11 tragedy.

According to London’s Opera magazine, “in

just five years, Somtow has made Bangkok into the operatic hub of Southeast Asia.” His operas on Thai themes, Madana, Mae Naak, Ayodhya, and The Silent Prince have been well received by international critics. His most recent operas, the Japanese inspired Dan no Ura and the fantasy opera The Snow Dragon, have gained him acceptance as “one of the most intriguing of contemporary opera composers” (Auditorium Magazine). He has recently embarked on a ten-opera cycle, Dasjati The Ten Lives of the Buddha - which when completed will be the classical music work with the largest time span and scope in history.

He is increasingly in demand as a conductor specializing in opera and in the late-romantic composers like Mahler. His repertoire runs the entire gamut from Monteverdi to Wagner. His work has been especially lauded for its stylistic authenticity and its lyricism. The orchestra he founded in Bangkok, the Siam Philharmonic, mounted the first complete Mahler cycle in the region.

Somtow’s current project, the Siam Sinfonietta, is a youth orchestra he founded five years ago, using a new educational method he pioneered and which is now among the most acclaimed youth orchestras world-wide, receiving standing ovations in Carnegie Hall, The Konzerthaus in Berlin, Disney Hall, the Musikverein in Vienna, and many other venues around the world.

He is the first recipient of Thailand’s “Distinguished Silpathorn” award, given for an artist who has made and continues to make a major impact on the region’s culture, from Thailand’s Ministry of Culture.

TRISDEE NA PATALUNG

Thai conductor Trisdee na Patalung has worked extensively at the Netherlands Opera Studio as conductor and resident coach. He was music director of a staged performance of Händel’s oratorio Belshazzar directed by Harry Kupfer, Monteverdi’s Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers at the Concertgebouw and Monteverdi’s Orfeo directed by Pierre Audi at the Amsterdam Schouwburg. He conducted the Rossini Opera Festival’s 2009 production of Il viaggio a Reims in Pesaro, Italy, and the Dutch National Touring Opera’s (Nationale Reisopera) 2010 production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola.

“Discovered” by Somtow Sucharitkul at the age of 15 and engaged as resident repetiteur and assistant conductor of Opera Siam at 16, Trisdee had his operatic conducting debut in Opera Siam’s Die Zauberflöte at 20, immediately followed

by Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice at the Steyr Music Festival in Austria.

Since then he has conducted such orchestras as the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano, Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento, Orchestra Sinfonica G. Rossini, and Het Gelders Orkest. He is currently the Siam Philharmonic Orchestra’s resident conductor.

Of Trisdee’s conducting of Die Zauberflöte, UK’s OPERA magazine said, “If the word ‘genius’ still has any meaning in this age of rampant hyperbole, Trisdee is truly a living example.”

PROGRAMME NOTES Overture to “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg”, WWV 96 Richard Wagner One man’s opium-assisted nap on a summer afternoon in 1797 -- and its consequences -- provided a most memorable and picturesque bellwether for the impending century’s most pervasive aesthetic movement. Samuel Taylor Coleridge awakened and, likely in turns groggy and ecstatic, set his immortal poem “Kubla Khan” to paper. With this partial, fleeting account of his midsummer afternoon’s dream, the poet introduced to the annals of Romantic legend and imagination the mythic locale Xanadu. Coleridge’s vaporous Utopia endured even into the twentieth century as a metaphoric paradise revisited in contexts ranging from the foreboding personal reserve of tycoon Charles Foster Kane (Citizen Kane, 1941) to a gaudily neon-lit, roller rink/nightclub (Xanadu, 1980). Indeed, the motifs of “Kubla Khan” and its creation--dreams, mythology and mythic places, and imagination itself -- are recurrent throughout all of Romantic thought, in music as in literature and the visual arts. They find par-

ticular significance in the works of Richard Wagner, whose operatic catalogue clearly suggests a preoccupation with such sources of creative impulse. Even in the case of the composer’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1867), which was inspired by actual personages and events, the spirit of its genesis echoes the fantastic circumstances and scenario that bore “Kubla Khan.” Of the origin of the Prelude, Wagner himself wrote: “As from the balcony of my flat, in a sunset of great splendor, I gazed upon the magnificent spectacle of ‘golden’ Mayence, with the majestic Rhine flooding its outskirts in a glory of light, the Prelude to my Meistersinger again suddenly made its presence closely and distinctly felt in my soul. Once before I had seen it rise before me out of a lake of sorrow, like some distant mirage. I wrote down the Prelude exactly as it appears today in the score, containing the clear outlines of the leading themes of the whole drama.”

The nobility of character that Wagner ascribes to Meistersinger’s dramatis personae is suggested at the outset of the Prelude, which opens with a heraldic theme in which the prominence of the brass fore-

shadows its prevalent use throughout.

The treatment (including later development) of this theme and those that follow demonstrate the masterful handling of orchestral balance, color, and virtuosity that have come to be identified as hallmarks of Wagner’s compositional style. Particular beats are set into relief by the whizzing upward sweep of unison strings, while the winds are exploited individually for particular timbral characteristics and en masse for sheer volume and incisiveness of attack. The largely chordal and sonorous nature of Wagner’s treatment is interspersed with more overtly contrapuntal episodes, effecting a gradual buildup of force that reaffirms the initial grandeur and sense of purpose as the Prelude segues into the opera’s dramatic action.

Deserted City from “Suriyothai” Somtow Sucharitkul This is the story of a famous Thai Queen who rode a war-elephant into battle and sacrificed her life to save her husband.

This is an era in history when the Kingdom of Ayuthaya was a world metropolis, a truly cosmopolitan city and, as contemporary

visitors pointed out, “larger than London and cleaner than Paris.” There was a great deal of cultural give and take during this period and because of this, the music of Suriyothai creates a fusion between traditional Asian music and 16th Century French music, all through the lens of the twenty-first century.

The Deserted City … empty of its inhabitants because of the impending battle, the city is beautiful and sad in the dawn.

The queen dances a solo shown by beautiful violin solo.

The Miraculous Mandarin, suite for orchestra, Sz. 73a Béla Bartók Bartók composed the complete Miraculous Mandarin ballet in 1918 - 1919, orchestrated it in 1923, and called the first six sections as a suite in 1927. Ernö Dohnányi conducted this suite in Budapest on October 15, 1928. Incorporating both a grim modernist outlook and the folk influences that would come to the fore later in Bartók’s is scored for large orchestra including triple winds, four percussionists, celesta, and piano. Designated a pantomime, it is of an unusual length for a stage presentation -- a long single act. But longer would have diluted both the visceral music and enthralling eroticism. Consider

the plot: Three ruffians hire brothel space and a girl, who stands in the window as bait; those who venture inside are robbed. The first to enter is an old, shabbily dressed cavalier; he is ejected when they discover him penniless. An impoverished young man is likewise thrown out. Then an apparition appears. In the score we read that “the Mandarin enters and remains motionless in the doorway; the girl flees terrified to the far part of the room. Urged by the [hidden] ruffians, she overcomes repugnance and begins to dance hesitantly, then faster. The Mandarin looks at her with a fixed, impassive stare. But when she sinks down to embrace him, he begins to tremble in feverish excitement. She shudders at his embrace and tries to tear herself from him. Briefly free, she runs but is stalked and finally caught. They struggle. The ruffians leap out....”

Here the suite ends (merely a section of the whole ballet, it is not a true suite).

But the ballet proceeds: “The ruffians seize the Mandarin and strip him of his jewelry and money. They drag him to a bed and try to smother him with pillows and blankets. Then they stab him three times with a rusty sword. He staggers, but still tries to embrace the girl. They drag him to the center of the room and hang him from an overhead lamp-hook; it falls, and in the

darkness the Mandarin’s body begins to glow with a greenish light. At last the girl realizes what will save them. She embraces the Mandarin. His longing now stilled, his wounds begin to bleed, he weakens, and dies after a short struggle.”

Bartók said, during a 1929 interview in London, that “people had [only] read the plot and decided it was objectionable. [The piece was not performed in Hungary until 1946.] From beginning to end the speed is almost breathless, and the effect accordingly is quite different from what had been imagined. The Mandarin is very much like an eastern fairy tale and contains nothing to which objection can be taken.” (It wasn’t reported whether his nose then grew six inches.)

A vertiginous first section depicts the city’s streets and the girl’s instructions.

Each of her “decoy games” (so called in the score) is lured inside with clarinet arpeggios and ejected clamorously. A lewd trombone glissando characterizes the old man; a solo oboe the young man. The clarinet’s third lure is more shrill, accompanied by a long orchestral tremor, interrupted by trombones, that ends in a shriek when the Mandarin stands in the doorway. After a sudden hush, he begins a slow waltz that accelerates until the orchestra shudders convulsively at his embrace of the girl.

She frees herself to whooping, pound-

ing chords. A scurrying, Middle Eastern subject in the low strings gets hotly pursued by violins -- a fugue of scarifying intensity, twice interrupted when the Mandarin stumbles before he finally clutches the girl. This signals the ruffians’ attack, and the crashing, crushing end of the concert suite.

Love Songs by HM the King Rama IX (Love in Spring/ Alexandra/ I Never Dream/ Falling Rain) HM the King Bhumibol Aduyadej arranged by Somtow Sucharitkul We’re playing some new symphonic arrangements of melodies composed by the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej. These are tunes that are very familiar to people living in Thailand — we hear them in shopping malls and elevators and restaurants as well as in concerts played on every conceivable instrument — and now that His Majesty’s is no longer with us we’re trying to expand his legacy by popularizing symphonic arrangements of his tunes.

Love in Spring - HM King No. 19 music, composed in 1954.His Majesty asked His Royal Highness Prince Chakkapan Pensiri for English lyric. Then he gave this song played out first in Annual event for the UK Alumni Association under the Royal

Patronage at the dance stage at Lumpini Park on Saturday February 6, 1954. Later his majesty asked Madam Som-roj sawaddi-kun Na Ayudhya for composition of Thai lyric

Alexandra - This welcome song was written and performed in honor of H.R.H. Princess Alexandra of Kent on the occasion of her 1959 visit to Thailand. The Thai lyrics written later to the sweet tune by Thanpuying Maniratana Bunnag under the title of “Phaendin Khong Rao” (“Our Motherland”) were marked by patriotic fervor and pride for the motherland.

I Never Dream - Whenever “I Never Dream” is played, the air vibrates with the sound of soft waltz music. His Majesty wrote the song in Switzerland in 1954, with the English lyrics written by H.H. Prince Chakrabandh Pensiri and the Thai lyrics by Thanpuying Somroj Swasdikul Na Ayudhya. It was performed at the annual party of the American Alumni Association under Royal Patronage at the Saranrom Garden Club on Saturday, 23 January 1954.

Falling Rain - The third number in the royal repertoire and the second release after “Love at Sundown,” “Falling Rain” was composed in May 1946 before the King’s accession to the throne. A waltz with a

graceful rhythm, it was given its first public performance on 2 June 1946 at the Ambara Villa dance hall and has since been one of the most popular royal tunes. The lyrics in Thai and English were written by H.H. Prince Chakrabandh Pensiri and by Prof. Thanphuying Nopakhun Thongyai Na Ayudhya respectively. “Falling Rain” was performed by the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria at the Concert Hall in Vienna on 3 October 1964 and was heard nationwide on the Austrian national radio network.

Mass in C major “Coronation”, KV 317 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart I. Kyrie II. Gloria III. Credo IV. Sanctus V. Benedictus VI. Agnus Dei Of the sacred works that Mozart composed in Salzburg none is as well known or as popular as the Mass in C K. 317. In 1779 Mozart returned from his disastrous trip to Paris and, partly out of material necessity and also to please his father, he took up a position in the Archbishop’s service in Salzburg. He was to “unbegrudgingly and with great diligence discharge his duties

both in the cathedral and at court and in the chapel house, and as occasion presents, to provide the court and church with new compositions of his own creation”. At the first opportunity Mozart fulfilled this demand, composing the mass for the Easter Day service on 4th April 1779.

The musical style of the piece corresponds to the hybrid form that was preferred by the Archbishop: its use of wind instruments suggests a “Solemn Mass”, and its length suggests a “Short Mass”.

Mozart himself described his task in a letter: “Our church music is very different to that of Italy, all the more so since a mass with all its movements, even for the most solemn occasions when the sovereign himself reads the mass [e.g. Easter Day], must not last more than 3 quarters of an hour.

One needs a special training for this kind type of composition, and it must also be a mass with all instruments - war trumpets, tympani etc.” It therefore had be a grand ceremonial setting, but the mass also needed to have a compact structure. Mozart therefore omits formal closing fugues for the Gloria and Credo, the Credo with its problematic, vast text is in a tight rondo form, and the Dona nobis pacem recalls the music of the Kyrie.

Even as early as the 19th Century the mass was already popularly referred to as the “Coronation Mass”. The nickname grew

out of the misguided belief that Mozart had written the mass for Salzburg’s annual celebration of the anniversary of the crowning of the Shrine of the Virgin. The more likely explanation is that it was one of the works that was performed during the coronation festivities in Prague, either as early as August 1791 for Leopold II, or certainly for Leopold’s successor Francis I in August 1792. (There is a set of parts dating from 1792, and the same parts were probably used the year before.) It seems that Mozart must have seen the chance to be represented at the coronation festivities in 1791, not only with La clemenza di Tito, but also with a mass composition: he wrote from Prague requesting that the parts for his old Mass in C be sent to him there. He was held in very high regard in Prague: The Marriage of Figaro had been a smash hit there, and they had commissioned Don Giovanni. It seems likely therefore that the city would have taken on the mass as its own, and the nickname would have grown from there.

Certainly the music itself is celebratory in nature, and would have fitted a coronation or Easter Day service perfectly. The soloists are continually employed either as a quartet, in pairs or in solo lines that contrast with the larger forces of the choir.

The most stunning examples are the central hushed section of the Credo, and later

when the Hosanna section of the Benedictus is well under way, the quartet begins the piece again, seemingly in the wrong place! Perhaps the most obvious reason for the mass’s popularity in Prague in 1791/2 was the uncanny similarity between the soprano solo Agnus Dei and the Countess’s aria Dove sono from Figaro which had been so successful there in the 1780’s.

SOLOISTS

STACEY TAPPAN, Coloratura Soprano Stacey Tappan continues to distinguish herself as a world-class musical artist. In stellar reviews for her “witty and sexy” Adele in Die Fledermaus with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, she was praised for the production’s “most polished singing... her coloratura bright and well-focused.” In 2008 she made her French debut with Opéra de Lille as Gilda in Rigoletto, which she reprised with the Opéra de Dijon in 2010.

Other recent engagements include Adina in L’elisir d’amore and Despina in Così fan tutte with the Jacksonville Symphony, Woglinde and the Woodbird in the Ring Cycle with Los Angeles Opera, and a return to Lyric Opera of Chicago for multiple roles in Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten, covering Cleopatra in Handel’s Giulio Cesare and the title role in Lulu, and singing the role of Nannetta in Verdi’s Falstaff.

Heralded for her “breakthrough performance” as Bella in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of Sir Michael Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage, Ms. Tappan also has appeared with the Lyric Opera as the Woodbird and Woglinde in Wagner’s Ring Cycle, the Charmeuse in Thaïs, First Esquire in Parsifal and Papagena in the student matinees of Die Zauberflöte. While with the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, she “turned heads throughout operatic America” and “emerged as a real star” as Isis in the world premiere of Michael John LaChiusa’s Lovers and Friends: Chautauqua Variations.

Equally outstanding on the concert stage, Tappan’s recent performances include Beethoven’s Christ on the Mount of Olives with the Springfield Symphony in Massachus-

setts, and Carmina Burana with Colorado Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony and Springfield Symphony, which she has also sung with Wichita Symphony and Elgin Symphony. She has been a featured soloist in Mahler’s Second Symphony with the DuPage Symphony Orchestra. Chicago concert highlights include “Bernstein on Broadway” with the Grant Park Festival Orchestra, Hugh Wood’s Scenes from Comus with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, three performances of the Stars of Lyric Opera concerts in Chicago’s Millennium Park, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel with the DuPage Symphony Orchestra, and Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream at Ravinia Festival. She portrayed Cunegonde in Candide at the Chicago Cultural Center, later returning in Rossini’s Il signor Bruschino and Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, winning critical acclaim as “the vocal showstopper.”

With Bangkok Opera, she portrayed Pamina in Die Zauberflöte after singing the title role in Madana, the first grand opera by a Thai composer. She is featured on the best-selling Thai recording of the Mahajanaka Symphony, a work honoring the King of Thailand.

AREEYA ROTJANADIT, Soprano

Areeya Rotjanadit (Lookpla) She’s studying at Conservatory of Music, Rangsit University with Kittinant Chinsamran. When she was in the 7th grade and continued to persue her dream of being a professional singer at The College of Dramatic Arts. She competed in many singing contests, including the “Thailand’s got talent” and the “KPN Award” where she was among the finalists. Areeya is now 21 years old. She is a member of Young Soloist Program Opera Siam and had a role in a number of operas and recently, she has joined to Siam Sinfonietta V-tour in Europe and Abu Dhabi with “Song to the moon (Dvorak)” and King Bhumibol Adulyadej song “Sai-fon” Conducted by Somtow Sucharitkul and Trisdee na Patalung. And recently, she has joined in The Silent Prince Europe tour 2016.

POTPRECHA CHOLVIJARN, Countertenor

Jak (Potprecha) Cholvijarn sang in Nicholson Choir at Cheam School, Winchester College Chapel Choir, and Bristol Cathedral Choir as a choral scholar. He attended Eton College Choral Course, masterclasses by Michael Chance, and took lessons with Charles Brett and Patrick Van Goethem.

Based in Bangkok, Thailand, Jak performed as a soloist for Opera Siam (Bangkok Opera), Siam Philharmonic, and Siam Sinfonietta on many occasions, notably, in Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Dixit Dominus, Massenet’s Thaïs (Myrtale), Rossini’s Petite Messe Sollenelle, Haydn’s Harmoniemesse, Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, Mozart’s Zauberflöte (dritte Dame) and Cavalli’s La Calisto (Endimione). Achan Somtow Sucharitkul cast him as the Buddha in three episodes of his Ten Lives of the Buddha (Das Jati) music drama cycle: The Silent Prince (opera), Bhuridat: The Dragon Lord (ballet-opera) and Sama: The Faithful Son (opera-ballet); and created the roles of Lord Atsumori in Dan No Ura (opera), and European Singer in Suriyothai (ballet-opera) for him. He went on the European tour of The Silent Prince performing the opera in Bayreuth (Das Zentrum), Germany; Prague (Palác Akropolis) and Brno (Divadlo na Orlí), Czech Republic.

With Grand Opera (Thailand), he sang in concerts and events organized by British, Swiss, Austrian and Spanish embassies in Bangkok, for example, Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee celebration in Bangkok, Austrian National Day Celebrations in Bangkok, Spanish Song and Zarzuela Concert, Swiss Art Song Concert, and Mozart, Schubert and Strauss Concert. Colin Kirkpatrick, a British composer, wrote a song cycle for him. Titled ‘Kyoto Dreams’ and based on English translations of medieval Japanese poems, it received its premiere at Ben’s Theatre, Pattaya.

Jak also performed for Bangkok International Community Orchestra and Combined Choir (Handel’s Messiah), Bangkok Music Society (Chapentier’s Missa Assumpta est Maria) and in fund raising events for many charitable foundations including Zonta International, Kidney Foundation, English-Speaking Union, NightLight International, Kritanusorn Foundation and Foundation for the Blind.

In addition to singing, Jak served as a jury in the 8th International Choir Competition Grand Prix in Pattaya. He is currently taught

by Stefan Sanchez and Deborah York.

PUNTWITT ASAWADEJMETAKUL, Countertenor

Puntwitt Asawadejmetakul, Countertenor, was awarded a scholarship to participate in Michael Chance’s 2015 Masterclass in Siena where he also had a chance to worked with Daniel Taylor, Ian Partridge Lynne Dawson and Paul Beier. He graduated his bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from the Conservatory of Music, Rangsit University (full scholarship) where he studied with Kittinant Chinsamran. He started his pop vocal training at the age of 9 with Wasan Kedkeaw at Yamaha school of music. Later on, he continued his classical vocal training with Salith Dechsangworn at College of Music Mahidol University (campus for general public).

He was an Alto soloist for Bach’s Manificat in D with Chulalongkorn University Chamber Orchestra and Concert choir, Handel’s Messiah with Bangkok Combine Choir, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Siam Phil-

harmonic Orchestra. He was invited to join Asain Youth Choir for One (AYCO) in 2014.

Puntwitt is a member of the Young Soloist Program by Opera Siam where he took on the role of Pane from Cavalli’s La Calisto and premiere the roles of Page to Lord Yoshitsune from Sucharitkul’s Dan no Ura and Mendicant’s son / Grand vizier from Bhuridat and Dukulaka from Suwana Sama of Sucharitkul’s DASJATI opera cycle.

CHAIPORN PUANGMALEE, Tenor

Chaiporn Phuangmalee, tenor, has excelled in music from an early age. Beginning as a pianist, he was an active performer in his youth, and received an award for his performance of songs by His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Mr. Phuangmalee began singing in the pop style before training classically with Pitchaya Kemasingki. He graduated from Mahidol university with First-Class honors in 2016 and in the same year he got accepted at faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Chulalongkorn University to do his Master degree. He has participated in many master classes with Prof. Franz Lukasofky and Prof.

Isvan Bonyhadi from Vienna and also with Prof. Mario Antonio Diaz from Mozarteum university of Salzburg.

His operatic engagement included performances with Opera Siam, Grand Opera Thailand and NUNi Production. He is now a

member of Opera Siam Young Soloist Program and Siam Orpheus Chamber Choir, he performs regularly in Bangkok and throughout the nation.

YOTSAWAN MEETHONGKUM, Baritone

Young Baritone, Yotsawan Meethongkum is featured in large scale concerts and opera productions nationally and internationally.

As a member of Opera Siam, Yotsawan held lead roles in major opera including Sylvano in La Calisto, and second Priest in Mozart’s the Magic Flute. He held roles in the World Premier of Somtow Sucharitkul’s opera seasons which include Lord Michinobu in Dan no Ura, Subhag in Bhuridat, Father of Dukulaka, and Head Huntsman in The Faithful Son. Yotsawan’s debut as a soloist took place in 2014 with Rangsit University Symphony Orchestra as the winner of the Conservatory’s Concerto Competition. Following, Yotsawan was featured as a baritone soloist for Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 with the Bangkok Charity Orchestra and Siam Philharmonic Orchestra.

Yotsawan is currently a student of Frost School of Music, University of Miami where he pursues a Bachelor degree in vocal performance under the guidance of Dr. Frank Ragsdale. Most recently, in March 2017, Yotsawan was one of a few undergraduate candidates to be selected for a full role in conservatory’s annual opera production. He held the role of The Mad house’s Keeper in Stravinsky’s the Rake’s progress.

DAMIAN WHITELEY, Bass

After studying piano & violin from an early age, Australian bass Damian Whiteley gained a degree in music & languages at the University of Sydney, later studying at Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester & on the young artist programme (IOS) at Opernhaus Zürich.

As a member of l’Académie Européenne de Musique, participation in Peter Brook’s production of Don Giovanni conducted by Claudio Abbado/Daniel Harding at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence & subsequent world tour.

Damian has performed regularly with William Christie & Les Arts Florissants: notably at Teatro Real Madrid (Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea), and the Opera Comique in Paris (Deborah Warner’s production of Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas), both productions on DVD. Appearances with Pinchgut Opera as Caronte/Plutone in Monteverdi’s Orfeo and Ismenor in Rameau’s Dardanus. Highlights include the title role in Salieri’s Falstaff, Gazzaniga’s Don Giovanni, Paisiello’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Phanuel in Massenet’s Herodiade, Rossini’s La Gazza Ladra at the Wildbad Rossini Festspiel and a Mozart pasticcio, Musica Speranza at the Salzburg Landestheater.

Damian was engaged at Opernhaus Zürich as repetiteur at the IOS and works

regularly as coach to several internationally renowned singers. He made his debut as conductor in Rossini’s La Pietra del Paragone for the IOS at Opernhaus Zürich in 2004.

Recently he appeared as Bartolo in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro with Lyric Opera Dublin, Grande Inquisitore in Verdi’s Don Carlo in Valladolid, a recording of Lindpainter’s Il Vespro Siciliano at Wildbad, the world premiere of Somtow’s Dan No Ura and Sarastro in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte for Opera Siam in Bangkok as well as leading roles in Burridhat & Suwana Sama in the monumental DasJati cycle, covered the role of Osmin in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail for Garsington Opera in the UK, Schubert’s Sakuntala with Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, and with Richard Bonynge for the Centenary Gala of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in Haydn’s Orfeo ed Euridice. He has recorded a solo CD Bass Instinct with Aria-Award-winning pianist Tamara-Anna Cislowska and toured Australia, New Zealand, Germany, & Switzerland (including at the Siam Society in Bangkok) in mozart & ME, a one-man show

by Melvyn Morrow, based on the life of Mozart’s librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte.

CHORUS PLUNGE CHAMBER CHOIR Plungė culture center chamber choir was founded in the year 1986. The singers are music teachers, workers of culture and music fans devoting their leisure time to the choir art. The repertoire of the choir includes ecclesiastical and universal music of different epochs and styles. The concert programmes present a different classical and modern music spectrum as well as entertaining pieces. The choir participated in the choir festivals of the Northern-Baltic countries in Latvia (1995), Sweden (1997), Norway (2000) and Lithuania (2002). In the year 2002 the choir visited Germany and held its concerts in Menden and Berlin. In 2004 it participated in the international festival “Musikchordance” in Tarare (France). In 2007 choir was awarded two golden diplomas in the international choir competition “In canto sul Garda”, Italy. In 2010 choir took part in the “Certamen Internacional de Habaneras y Polifonia” in Torevieja, Spain. The repertoire of the choir includes A.Vivaldi “Gloria”, C.Saint-Saens “Christmas Oratorio”, Ch.Gounod “Messe solennele” etc.

SIAM ORPHEUS CHOIR & CALLIOPE CHAMBER CHOIR

THE SIAM ORPHEUS CHOIR was founded in 2001 and has at times, over the years, been Bangkok’s premier choral group, performing as the Bangkok Opera’s resident chorus in challenging new works and classics like Turandot and Aida. It has also been a pioneering ensemble in concert music, performing the Southeast Asian premieres of works like Tippet’s A Child of Our Time as well as the great classics such as Mozart’s C Minor Mass and the Brahms’ Requiem.

In the last few years, in addition to performing in operas and musicals and giving a large variety of concerts, the choir has also hosted several major events and festivals involving hundreds of members of choruses from many countries. In 2012, they helped premiere Somtow’s Requiem for the Mother of Songs, the largest classical concert ever held in Thailand, which was seen by thousands of people both live and through webcast. In 2013, the large work they performed was Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand, and Mahler’s Sym-

phony No. 2 in 2015.

The Orpheus Choir has a number of spinoff ensembles such as the Calliope Chamber Choir, Musica Ficta early music group, and other groups.

CALLIOPE CHAMBER CHOIR is a special, limited and invitational small choir, exists to explore the traditional European choral repertoire which is not being done in Bangkok right now. This ranges from Mediaeval to Contemporary Music.

Music Director Somtow Sucharitkul SOPRANO Areeya Rotjanadit Arisa Tunteam Barbara Zion Chantal Gopinath Ema Naito Jobla Schmann Lullalit Supatravanij Minnie Mintra Pichpiran Supatravanij

Sah Chowijarn Thalassa Tapia-Ruano Ferrand ALTO Jak Cholvijarn Janneke Bomhoff Bos Janpen Thanakitgosate Pow Supatravanij Thunyapa Thanasung Narisorn Limsitthikul TENOR Christian Ham Nicholas Malukul Na Ayudhaya Pattranoon Rodprasit Teody Avellaneda Theerasit Saelim Vorakit Maximus BASS Chayut Makarasut Dennis Saunders Panupop Sisoom Richard Burbury Tanist Saenwichai

BANGKOK JAPANESE CHORUS

Music Director Daisuke Iwabuchi Soprano Hiroe Nagata Hiromi Miyagawa Miho Miura Tadami Ichida Yasuna Arakawa Alto Akiko Yamada Chikako Iguchi Miho Fukutome Minako Okamoto Bass Junichi Takahashi Masanori Yoshida Osamu Mizuno Shuichi Ito

“Bangkok Japanese Chorus� is a cultural activity circle possesed by Japanese Association in Thailand. We hold annual concert every year around Sukhumvit area.

Rehearsal: Every Saturday afternoon at City Resort Sukhumvit 39 Annex Contact: Miho Fukutome email: mipomipof@gmail.com

BANGKOK MUSIC SOCIETY

Soprano Christy Humphry Frances McGenn Patsy Hung Sasithorn Wongsiriwatana Alto Naoko Tsujita Rasamee Norabarn Storm Walker Ting Charoensook Tenor Audwin Thomas Yap Giovanni Lamberti

The Bangkok Music Society supports the performance and appreciation of music in Thailand, and its choir provides the primary activities of the BMS. The BMS choir aims to present two to four performances each season. Membership is open to singers of all levels and abilities, with a mix of Thai and non-Thai members. The emphasis is on enthusiasm for, and commitment to, the enjoyment of singing.

Rehearsals: Wednesday evening from 6:45-9:15 pm during season (usually from mid August to early June) at Fortune Town, near Rama IX MRT station www.bangkokmusicsociety.com www.facebook.com/bangkokmusicsociety

ORCHESTRA SIAM SINFONIETTA

Siam Sinfonietta is a youth orchestra founded in 2010 by Thai/American composer Somtow Sucharitkul, Thai conductor Trisdee na Patalung, and the Bangkok Opera Foundation. It was created in order to provide intensive training for young Thai musicians intending to have a serious career in classical music. The orchestra operates out of the offices of the Bangkok Opera Foundation.

The orchestra came into existence at the first "Bach to the Future: Science through Music" camp and immediately embarked on a series of concerts in Bangkok,

particularly concerts for young audiences and concerts that serve to introduce classical music to new audiences. It has toured extensively in Thailand and in its second year plans more international touring as well. Some high-profile events the Siam Sinfonietta has participated in include the "Together We Can" concert to raise awareness of the governor of Bangkok's initiative for reconciliation after the 2010 unrest in downtown Bangkok,and the "Introducing the Symphony" series at Bangkok's Art and Culture Center, populist concert-lectures about music.

The orchestra holds annual auditions and has an entry age of 12, with the cutoff for membership set at 25. A number of its members are also members of fullfledged professional orchestras such as the Siam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra. It has twice performed in conjunction with the Siam Philharmonic Orchestra: in the Thailand premiere of Mahler's Third Symphony, and at a gala concert in front of Central World in , Bangkok, the site of the 2010 troubles, as part of an event to promote "Healing through Harmony."

The Sinfonietta receives its funding largely from government grants and private and corporate sponsorship.

On July 8, 2012, the two-year-old orchestra won first place at the Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival in the symphony orchestra category. The next year, the orchestra toured in California and performed at the Young Euro Fest in Berlin, Germany; this was followed in 2014 by performances in Carnegie Hall and another trip to Berlin, Prague and Abu Dhabi under the auspices of the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In August 2015 the orchestra performed at the Festival junger KĂźnstler in Bayreuth and at the Thai Festival in Bad Homburg, Germany.

1st VIOLIN Chot Buasuwan Napat Nanasombat Kornchanok Treevittayanuruk Niratsa Usomboon Warot Ratanaphund Setthawut Milton Sun Synsukpermpoon Yiju Hong Pitchakorn Napapornpipat 2nd VIOLIN Pittayah Pruksacholavit Kulisara Sangchan Anat Assoratgoon Chanon Meesangnil Puri Boonprud Petchusa Kuwattanasiri Suchanuch Ungsvanonda Piyaphat Russamitinakornk VIOLA Atjayut Sangkasem Thachapol Namwong Tapanatt Kiatpaibulkit Tanutt Tanavoravongsa Vichantra Kamrai

CELLO Wishwin Sureeratanakorn Nontaphat Chuenwarin Samatchar Pourkarua Siraprapa Jeeradechatham Chaimongkol Wiriyasatjaporn Chayanit Siriroj

Suttiluk Puangsuwan Thanabodee Maneenai

TIMPANI Koonniti Bojarus

BASSOON Aphichat Dechasophon Jirayu Srimuang Kotchapak Boonviparut

BASS Prawwanitsita Neesanant Ittidej Boonlerluk Sureeporn Feesantia Pattarapong Suksawad Patsakorn Intarasombat

FRENCH HORN Tharit Korthammarit Khanin Phruekpiti Klisakorn Ninsurat Yuttapol Kangwansurakrai Tanupol Chomsamut

PERCUSSION Vorawit Saeweewanlop Kornvit Anoontakaroon Kanthita Komolphan Nithit Rujikajorndej

FLUTE Siriphan Mongpho Yada Lorwittayalertnapa Praewa Chumsilpsiri

TRUMPET Piyawat Poolsri Supawanchai Pakrykij Natthawat Sae-jiw

OBOE Yoshio Khunwathanaphakdee Thanit Kaewrak Kijjarin Pongkapanakrai

TROMBONE Thanawat Lekviriyakul Wittawat Pankaew Thanisorn Puengchai

CLARINET Supak Wittayanukulluk

TUBA Kasitdej Vuddhananda

PIANO, ORGAN & CELESTA Vorarat Wattanasombat Nawaporn Ruangthap HARP Carlos Roberto Pena Montoya

PRODUCTION TEAM Artistic Director Somtow Sucharitkul Production Manager Nath Khamnark Orchestra Manager Pongsathorn Surapab Jittinant Klinnumhom, assistant Chorus Coordinator Miho Fukutome Orchestra Librarian Chaimongkol Wiriyasatjaporn Account, Finance & General Administrator Ratana Roipornkasemsuk Personal Assistant to Mr. Somtow Sucharitkul Natthawat Sae-jiw Tapanatt Kiatpaibulkit Production Assistant Watsiri Sukkarin Siriwat Chantawaro Graphic Designer Chaimongkol Wiriyasatjaporn

OPERA SIAM INTERNATIONAL • BANGKOK OPERA FOUNDATION

34 Trinity Complex Building, Soi Pipat 2, Silom road, Silom sub-district, Bangrak district, Bangkok, 10500, Thailand.

Tel. +66 2 231 5273 • Fax. +66 2 231 5280 • www.operasiam.com

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