If music be the food of love, then play on.
If singing be the meat in food, then Acappuccino please let me be a vegetarian.
I attended the first public performance of Acappuccino, a four year old local acapella group a few nights back.
It started out very very badly. It ended very very badly either.
Featuring 7 members, I think the group needs more public performances. Perhaps it was the bright spotlights, or the proximity of the audience to the singers (it was held at Esplanade's Recital Studio), I could clearly see the shock and nervousness written blatantly on one of the performer's face.
As part of their proceeds went to Japan Relief, their repertoire included numerous international songs. That said, it would only take but a few minutes to recite the names of the pieces a few time backstage. While I understand that foreign names such as Japanese might be a bit tricky in pronouncing, it isn't really very professional to read off the score, stumble over it the first time, and then recite it twice. For a moment, I wondered if they only received the score that very same day.
The second half was no better. There were times where the music seemed to pick up, and I thought that they were getting good. In fact, their Lion King song was quite palatable.
Despite that, and a rather uplifting piece when they were seated down on high chairs, the performance was a let-down. One of their singers was flat throughout her solos, and the they might consider either hiring an emcee or improving their hosting skills.
When you're performing in front of an audience, cracking internal jokes, or stopping after eight bars, just to re-tune with each other, isn't ethical.
I can only hope that they improve for their next performance. Even if part of your proceeds are for the relief efforts in Japan, and you have an array of pieces arranged by international composers, you still need heaps of work, and perhaps start by singing together on the same tempo.
