But no matter, the focus was on enjoying some light opera classics, a selection of the best and most digestible pieces – sort of like a box of assorted gourmet chocolates (of which the poster certainly reminded one).

It was interesting to note that while one of my friends (whose art appreciation was matured in the incubator that is London) was quite horrified at the quality of the production, the bro and I thought that it was a fairly brave attempt.

In the end, we all agreed that in Singapore’s relatively inhospitable opera scene, to even continue to put on show after show is a commendable effort. Sure, it would be farcical to pretend that we are or can be world-class (perhaps in a couple of decades – if the culture), but the efforts have been admirable.

Having said that however, there was one particularly excruciating sequence in the show, when the mezzo was doing her rendition of the Habenera from Carmen, one of the most viscerally sensual arias in all of opera. She was wearing what looked like a duchesse satin wedding gown, complete with silver embriodery, and a huge red flower in her hair. Every time the chorus came around, she would inexpertly open the fan with both hands and attempt to look seductive by coyly playing peek-a-boo with said fan. And it might have worked too, except that at the end of the chorus, she would bring her arm (and the fan) down and close the fan with a loud thwack against her thigh.

At one point, she was keeping time by whacking the prop against her gown.

We watched wide-eyed, and slid farther down our cushy padded seats.

I was reading an article in the newspapers last Saturday (“More Teens getting Aids, other sex diseases”, The Straits Times, 23 September 2006), and was saddened by news that not only has the number of teens here with sexually transmitted infections more than doubled in the last four years, the number of teen HIV infections has also increased drastically.

In the article, which for some reason I could not find reproduced online, there was mention that the eight teens who tested HIV positive in the last three years were all gay. I remember my first reaction upon reading the article was ambivalence about them announcing that all the infections occurred in gay male teens, simply because:

a) I just KNOW that many (straight) teens will be given a false sense of security, and
b) it puts an unfair spotlight on the gay community and ignores the fact that this disease will eventually spread to the teenage heterosexual community and transmission will probably skyrocket when it does, if statistics in older demographics are anything to go by.

It’s reminiscent of how when AIDS became first known, it was labelled a gay disease.

The other interesting thing that arose out of this report was that, in my quest to find an online version of article I read, I managed to find only a truncated one produced by wire agency AFP and picked up by news agencies all over the world, including our very own TODAY and Yahoo! News UK.

There was one line in that version that isn’t found in the ST article and I quote it here:

“Officials have expressed alarm over the growth of HIV infections but the government has rejected widespread promotion of condom use and instead partly blamed the problem on the gay community.”

What does that say about Singapore and how the rest of the world views this city-state?