Saved By The Bell
When in London some years back, one of my favourite stops during the day would be Covent Garden, and not the Opera House mind, but just the market piazza where buskers, usually music students, are literally out to earn a buck or two.
On a single afternoon itself, I caught two "performances", one by a soprano in training (who admitted that her teacher would flip if what she was doing got around) whose strong bright vocals were well served by the reverberating acoustics of the atrium and the other was a string quartet whose own interpretations of classical works were a delight to behold by the infectious energy.
Pity then, that back in Singapore, we do not have the luxury of such quality street performers, with the motley crew limited to Music-Minus-One karaoke (turn the volume control down!) or living statues (let's see if they flinch when you molest them!) or uniquely Singapore (uncle, auntie, tissue paper $1!).
So it is when passing buskers on the streets, I have always entertained the fantasy of either some yet-to-be-discovered and on-the-brink-of-overnight-stardom musician or some big-name superstar playing to the masses soliciting for loose change, and to think that it has actually happened, albeit a staged experiment.
And to think that it was almost a year ago and I only just got to hear about it! Oh, to have been a fly on the wall...
On a single afternoon itself, I caught two "performances", one by a soprano in training (who admitted that her teacher would flip if what she was doing got around) whose strong bright vocals were well served by the reverberating acoustics of the atrium and the other was a string quartet whose own interpretations of classical works were a delight to behold by the infectious energy.
Pity then, that back in Singapore, we do not have the luxury of such quality street performers, with the motley crew limited to Music-Minus-One karaoke (turn the volume control down!) or living statues (let's see if they flinch when you molest them!) or uniquely Singapore (uncle, auntie, tissue paper $1!).
So it is when passing buskers on the streets, I have always entertained the fantasy of either some yet-to-be-discovered and on-the-brink-of-overnight-stardom musician or some big-name superstar playing to the masses soliciting for loose change, and to think that it has actually happened, albeit a staged experiment.
And to think that it was almost a year ago and I only just got to hear about it! Oh, to have been a fly on the wall...