SSO's Concerts For Children: Carnival of the Animals

It was quite by chance that we ended up attending the Carnival of the Animals concert at the Esplanade last week.

I have been bringing the kids regularly to Babies' Proms, and I hadn't thought of trying SSO's Concerts for Children yet. But when Noey's music teacher offered the class some tickets to Carnival of the Animals, I knew I had to bring the kids to the show as it is one of the their favourite pieces of music. I had bought the SSO-produced CD of the piece after Babies' Proms last year and it is one of their regular requests. That's not surprising I guess since it is a fun piece and animals are something they can relate to! I was looking forward to hearing it performed live and excited to see how it would be presented to kids.

It was our first time attending the Concerts for Children series and I was glad to see that like Babies' Proms, there were activities to entertain the kids outside the concert hall. They entertained themselves taking funny pics with the various animal standees they found.

For this concert, the SSO shared the stage with L'Arsenal a Musique, a pair of performers who brought the imagery of animals to live with the use of small and large marionettes, and plenty of physical comedy and theatre. The kids were highly entertained and kept laughing throughout the performance as Octave and Mandoline got up to their various antics. They enjoyed it as the lions, kangaroos, donkeys, underwater creatures and the like were brought to life in turn on stage to the beautiful music of Camille Saint-Saëns, ably performed by the SSO. Being someone who plays some piano (I hesitate to call myself a pianist due to my lack of skill), I gawked openly at the skill of the two pianists that day as their fingers flew over the keys, particularly in the movement of the Wild Asses. In harmony and sometimes not quite, as the piece dictated. As for Noey, while he found many of the movements funny, his favourite was The Swan. Beautiful and graceful, it's not surprising it's the most famous movement of the piece. Both kids were also excited to hear the Aquarium movement, which they associate with the SEA Aquarium as it is played on repeat there in front of the largest tank.

All three of us enjoyed the concert tremendously. My only complaint was that some of the movements were not played in their entirety as they sought to incorporate the music with the stage action.

After the performance, the kids were chuffed to meet the performers (the perks of watching the later show!), tho alas, our photo was a little blown out.

It was definitely a good experience and I'm now looking to see which of the SSO Concerts for Children I can bring the kids to next year! The Story of Barbar, The Little Elephant in March next year looks interesting! Let's see if our schedule permits.