By Mark Huang
July 15, 2004

Sitting through the evening of The Lasallian Musical Odyssey, the first feeling that hits me is: La Salle has definitely come a long, long way to reach where it is musically now. My point of reference was the mid 1980s, some twenty years ago.

Starting off the evening, was the La Salle Chinese Orchestra (there was no such thing in my days), and I was very pleasantly surprised by its good standard. Then came the choirs. Having Choirs (Treble and Senior) was an achievement in itself, compared to the <forced-labor> choirs of my days. The boys performed reasonably, but were a bit stiff. Their control and their reaching the high notes were a bit shaky. Nevertheless, I hope the boys keep up it up and continue to polish their work. It is a long way from the top interschool teams (like one of our honorable rivals). Anyway, the main thing is the boys are trying hard, improving, and they enjoy the music they are making.

There was also the LS Primary School Senior Choir with their own Chinese Orchestra, who again did well with several English and Chinese numbers: Webber <Music of the Night> from <The Phantom> (with some very challenging high notes), John Denvor's popular <Perhaps Love> and a Chinese tune. Very encouraging to have some sixty P5 and P6 boys, who will soon make their way into supporting LSC choirs and the orchestras.

The College Wind Band performed two pieces, one of them The Phantom Menace from the movie Star Wars, with a lot of control and character. A poorly controlled brass instrument can quickly ruin things, but there were few errors audible, if any. There were about 50 students in that band alone, spread pretty evenly between F1 and F4 classes which is a very good sign for the future of the Band.

The String Orchestra took on Vivaldi's Four Seasons (abridged) - a seemingly simple collection of pieces, but again I felt the boys did tremendously well in handling the moods, and the frequent crescendos and descendos.

The final instrumental / choral piece was the <Amigos Para Siempre> [Friends for Life] by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with probably some 200 boys performing on stage. How I wish I could be 20 years younger and be able to take part in that historic performance!

Besides credit to the boys, kudos are due to all the teachers and guest conductors. It was clear that a phenomenal amount of work has gone in to preparing these performances.

Returning from the intermission, the MCs referred the musical Godspell - the highlight of the evening. (Well, everything felt like a new highlight to me!)

The musical was based on the Gospel of Matthew. The musical is a collection of Jesus' episodes with his disciples and the people of his time, including the parables he told (eg the Samaritan-s Journey), the lessons he taught (the Good and Bad Seeds), his being betrayed by Judas, his nailing on the cross etc.

Although there was no firm story line along the musical, the stories, singing and dancing from Jesus [Sandro Bassetto <our Interschool A grade 400m gold medalist>] with a dozen or so other key performers [including four young ladies from St Mary's Canossian College as Mary Madeline etc] and another 25-30 supporting actors/dancers (F1-3 boys), made the musical a most delightful experience.

The musical was informal, very appropriate for a playful group of young Lasallians, and I felt the actors were very much enjoying the play as much as we were. The performance sometimes felt chatty and effortless, but the work that went in was surely the opposite.

I loved many of the pieces performed, but especially the duet by two SMCC ladies [By My Side] and the "Bless the Lord!" sung by a Lasallian with an extremely beautiful voice (almost professional) - sorry I do not know the name of that student. As Jesus, Sandro of course covered a big share of the singing, many of which were very well performed, with some of his own touches and interpretations. I also loved the choir that was standing from the loft supporting the singing in harmony, and the teacher (?) conductor did a good job leading the boys there.

If anyone would like to hear a sample of the music, one can access the link to Amazon.com or search for [Godspell 1971 Original Off-Off-Broadway Cast] in www.amazon.com and click into the first result.

And of course, no Lasallian gathering is complete without our beloved School Song. It was touching time to sing our great school hymn indeed. The boys on stage loved every moment of the night, and so did all of us seated in the auditorium.

My heartiest congratulations to the students, teachers, and the music conductors and tutors, who made the evening a truly unforgettable one.

It was very warming to be entertained by Lasallians -- not as sportsmen, but as musicians and artists, a facet of refined gentlemen.

Long live La Salle!
Mark Huang (Class of 1985)

PS: one last sharing if I may, I hope the school can train the boys in pronuncing words like [the] (not der), their (not dare), them (not dum).