Three Concerts
My young friend finally decided to replace my desktop entirely and update the main software; and I am still waiting for the final touches. Meanwhile, I am struggling to live with the transition, losing some files and data in between.
I left off in my last blog saying that we had gone to two concerts. By now, we had gone to three, plus some seminars and meetings and many other dinner gatherings. Lest I might forget, Iet me recall some of what happened.
Laura Fygi is 70 and from Holland. On 26 October, which was Sunday, she held a concert at the Tsuen Wan Town Hall Auditorium with a band of fine musicians and billed it as “JITN – Laura Fygi & The Legacy Band” as part of the Jazz in The Neighbourhood series, featuring a local singer Eugene Pao and musicians of the Band. Su had listened to her songs when she was young – I haven’t or couldn’t register – and had paid good money for e-tickets well in advance. We arrived early to an almost full hall which the singer later declared as full house; and ran into two Rotarian friends. She was energetic and sang some popular numbers in a few European languages. The musicians on the Legacy Band were very good too. Laura Fygi managed the ambiance and atmosphere rather well and got the audience to participate in a few numbers – not bad. There were a short intermission of 15 or 20 minutes and the entire concert finished well before 10 pm. Apparently, she had been in Shanghai before she came to do this one performance. She also told us that during the pandemic, when nobody could go anywhere, she put together materials – mainly her photos and pictures – and produced a book, which we later found out to be an A4 size hard cover production filled with glossy pages, for a marked price of $900 a copy. She also brought with her some CDs, but they were mostly sold out by the time we got to the sales desk and Su bought what she could find, which we listened to after we returned home.
The next evening, which was Monday 27 October, we went to Cultural Centre for the Hymnos Concert which was part of a Festival running from 25.10 to 16.11, in Hong Kong and Vietnam. This charity was set up some years back – possibly five years – amongst the Catholic community in Hong Kong with many organizers from the local Rotarians. We had been invited to concerts regularly. As usual, we went early for photo sessions and fellowship, and the performances always featured young children and local chois. The emcee was the son of an old friend – now deceased – who is a talented musician and pianist. It was a rather enjoyable evening, and as usual included the choral part of Messiah as the finale. We were allocated very good seats, and we greeted many friends from both the local Catholic and Rotary communities.
The third concert was sort of unusual. It was organized for an 89-year-old British pop singer known as Engelbert Humperdinck who had been described as “one of the finest middle-of-the-road balladeers around”. As a start, I picked up this one-off concert from an advert on SCMP a week or so before the date – which was Sunday, 9 November – and which was to be held in Macau at Broadway Hotel. Without too much encouragement, Su booked tickets and a night in the same hotel. I had first heard his “Release Me” since 1967 when I was an undergrad and his “Last Waltz” always brought back ancient memories. Su had acquired at least three of his LPs on vinyl since we had revived this ancient art.
Anyway, the concert was to start at 5 pm and to last 90 minutes. Once again, we arrived at the hotel early, checked-in and surveyed the venue. We even had hard copies of our tickets printed for good measures. We then took an hour catnap before walking to the hall leisurelily. Su had posted some afterthoughts on her blog, and I won’t repeat them here. Suffice it to add that the hall was about half-filled at best and rather slowly, but with mostly aged personages, quite a few with walking sticks or assisted by young people and a few in wheelchairs. Su and I kept our eyes open for familiar faces but couldn’t recognize anyone throughout. Su had bought the second most expensive seat, but we were more than satisfied with what we had been allocated, which we considered to be at vantage positions. On our left were seated an 86-year-old lady accompanied by her 50-year-old daughter, both in rather elegant attire. The mother had watched Humperdinck perform 50 years before in Las Vegas, which was why they were here. They lived in Hong Kong and would return immediately after the concert.
Was it good time spent and value for money? Definitely. We knew most of the songs and he sang it the way we had heard them on our vinyl at home. The concert started about 15 to 20 minutes late, but he sang for a full 90 minutes with no intermission, and he put in his all throughout, showing full appreciation for his audience and their responses and applause.
One great spin-off from the Humperdinck concert was that we learnt how to get to Macau by land transport, faster and cheaper. Thus, from Mei Foo, we took the Tuen-Ma line to Kwai Fong MTR from where we switched to the A30 bus, for which I paid $9.9, for the HZM Bridge Shuttle Bus Station, paid $33 and arrived in Macau Port in about 40 minutes. We then went through Immigration and Customs and were in Macau for the free Galaxy shuttle. At Galaxy, we grabbed a taxi to go to our lunch venue, had lunch, before boarding another taxi for Broadway Hotel, all hassle-free. It was great saving in time and money. It looks like we would not need to take the ferry or turbo jet to Macau in future.
I was about to dwell on the other meetings, but I fear that it would make the blog too long. I would stop here. Talk to you later.
