First, Opera Siam presented Grigori Frid’s earnest monodrama “The Diary of Anne Frank” at the Bangkok Art and Culture. The opening night was so packed that extra chairs were brought in, making the aisles hard to negotiate. Sponsored by the German and Israeli Embassies, this was an intense production that moved its audience, some of them to tears.

The 1968 opera itself sounds a bit like warmed-over Shostakovich, but it is effective enough especially when interpreted by a soprano such as Kaleigh Rae Gamache, who created an endless variety of tone and characterization. This was a tour de force – a grown woman playing a fourteen year old girl without any condescension or over-simplifying – wholly believable.

The Siam Philharmonic played well – thrillingly in fact. It was difficult to believe that a mere nine players could produce such rich orchestral timbres. But, Singapore conductor Adrian Tan conducted with such gusto that the orchestra threatened to overwhelm the soprano at times. In fact, his energetic approach was best in the most nightmarish or militaristic passages.

As director and designer of the show Somtow Sucharitkul used the built-in claustrophobia of the tiny venue tellingly. He opened up the monodrama so that the characters talked about, the Frank family and their friends the Van Daans, appeared as silent roles, painted and dressed in monochrome so that the entire production resembled an animated old photograph. Movable flats are moved around to make the stage more and more of a closed trap as the story progresses. At the end, the flats are dramatically rolled off stage to reveal that the orchestra is dressed as Auschwitz inmates – a reminder that in the concentration camp, a prison orchestra used to play music in order to allay the panic of those about to be slaughtered.

This was the first opera ever staged at BACC and it shows that with the right work, the venue’s disadvantages can be turned into strengths. Particularly interesting was the fact that with minimal publicity, this work was able to draw three full houses.

After three performances of “Anne Frank”, the Siam Sinfonietta winds presented a chamber concert jointly conducted by Somtow Sucharitkul and Trisdee na Patalung – Stravinsky and Mozart. Both were strikingly idiomatic and enjoyable. The last event at the BACC was the Thai premiere of an iconic choral work, the “All-Night Vigil” by Rachmaninov, one of the crown jewels of Russian repertoire. The newly formed Calliope Chamber Choir gave a nuanced, rich performance, singing an hour’s worth of gruelling virtuoso music with elan, even though the very un-resonant acoustic of the hall worked against Rachmaninov’s cathedral effects. The audience was small, but deeply appreciative. Somtow’s latest initiative, the Calliope Choir was founded specially to introduce more of the European choir repertoire to Thailand.

From chamber music to huge spectacle – on May 11, Opera Siam presented two major concerts at the Thailand Cultural Centre. Opera Siam’s now annual “Very Big Music Festival” commemorates the “cosmic vision” of HRH Princess Galyani – and this year the theme was outer space.

Siam Philharmonic gave an inspirational account of Richard Strauss’s “Also Sprach Zarathustra” – otherwise known as the theme from “2001 – A Space Odyssey.” Strangely enough, this was the Thailand premiere of the complete thirty-minute piece, although the first two minutes have been played almost to death by every orchestra in town. This performance clearly showed that, as one of Bangkok’s three regular symphony orchestras, the maverick Siam Philharmonic is unique in its ability to unleash torrents of passion and provide a searing emotional experience. This was an extreme performance – conductor Somtow Sucharitkul stretched tempi in slow parts and whipped the allegros to a frenzy – and the orchestra, led by Hungarian violinist Vilmos Olah, followed into the abyss and through to transcendence. The SPO mustered 105 performers for the Strauss – no mean feat in itself.

After that, one barely noticed the three excerpts from John Williams’ “Star Wars” music that followed, though the audience was noisily appreciative.

Finally, on May 11, the Siam Sinfonietta, Opera Siam’s youth orchestra project, played the fiendishly difficult “The Planets” by Gustav Holst under Maestro Somtow’s baton. It was a daring bit of programming, but the young players were equal to its challenges. Siam Sinfonietta have just returned from Carnegie Hall’s Sounds of Spring Music Festival, where they won their fourth international gold award.

“Neptune”, the last piece in the “Planets” suite, featured a guest appearance by members of the Calliope Choir and also the children’s choir from the Imanuel Music School, a fascinating classical music venture originally established by Lutheran clerics in the disadvantaged area of Klong Toei. Some were as young as eight, but they handled the complex, bitonal music, all in 5/4 time, with nary a hitch.

An added bonus was the iconic “Darth Maul” music from Star Wars – the Phantom Menace. Somtow rewarded the enthusiastic audience by replaying this as the encore – at double speed!

Funded by the GSB and produced by JSL’s Mind Matters, the company behind the annual outdoor staging of “Klai Kangwon The Musical” in Hua Hin, the musical celebrates GSB’s 103rd anniversary and honours its royal founder.

Set in the reign of King Vajiravudh, it tells the story of an up-and-coming civil servant Luang Chai Phithet who also moonlights as a journalist voicing his social and political commentary under the pen name “Antonio”. His arch rival goes by the name “Anonymous” and he later finds out that she’s the young woman he was supposed to marry with the blessing of her parents. Coming in-between them is an army officer Captain Luang Thoet Bodinthon who’s loyal to the throne.

While this might sound like another melodrama, it’s actually a compelling drama set in a society in which freedom of speech was just starting to develop and democracy was being tested as part of the modernisation of Siam. Most importantly, the drama conveyed the message that we are all entitled to voice our opinions and we all must listen to and accept our differences with open minds, this at a time when we cannot say anything negative about the draft constitution.

There were also subtly hidden messages of the conflict between the Thais and Chinese, with corruption being blamed for the relationship between the former’s civil servant careers and the latter’s commercial benefits. And there was a jab at a rival bank that happens to be a patron of this venue. Perhaps that’s why the air conditioning wasn’t fully functional that evening.

However, just as the musical play was reaching its climax, the plot stopped developing and the show veered off in another direction, becoming just another presentation of King Vajiravudh’s contribution. This part looked and felt like scenes from another royalist musical drama “Si Phaendin” (“Four Reigns”). It’s as if GSB, whose slogan is “guaranteed by the government”, was afraid that the audience wouldn’t be able to see it already, indirectly yet clearly enough, in the play.

And so, while it set off as being a play the audience could enjoy, learn from, relate to our contemporary situation, and open our minds for discussion, the ending of this musical was more like a documentary stuffed with clear messages yet zipping our minds and our mouths.

Thanks in part to award-winning director Bhanbhassa Dhubthien, the audience watched a good flow of one scene into another while also witnessing a fine performance by Kornkan Sutthikoses as Luang Chai Phithet, who was much more comfortable here than he was in another period musical drama “Hom Rong”. Also memorable was Nuengthida Sophon, who was given a more mature role as Prayong than in her previous stage and TV productions and whose acting and singing was much better than that in “Rak Chap Chai”. She should however have a heart-to-heart talk with the costume designer.

Completing this love triangle but with less stage presence and more problems with his microphone was Pattarapon Tooun as Captain Luang Thoet Bodinthon. In lesser roles and yet delivering more arresting performances were Thanaporn Waekprayoon as Prayong’s mother Khunying Yuean, Chaiwat Anutrakulchai as Thep’s supervisor Phra Boriphanraksa and Sukanya Sompiboon as Thep’s mother Yok.

Standing out from the cast, but unfortunately in the wrong way, was Wasu Saengsingkaew as Chao Phraya Sena Phakdi, whose understanding of stage acting seemed to be shouting and stressing the last syllable of every sentence and whose singing made me wonder why he was once a teen music idol.

You don’t have to be a theatre scholar to know that King Vajiravudh, himself a playwright, actor, director and producer, introduced a then-new form of theatre here, namely lakhon phut, or spoken drama. The monarch wrote scores of original plays as well as translations and adaptations, including some Shakespearean plays, with a wide range of subject matter. And with the ongoing Shakespeare 400 celebration worldwide, I’m wondering if the cultural and educational merits would have been greater had GSB instead organised a festival to promote new and smaller stage productions of the king’s translations of Shakespeare by professional companies and university students.

But then again, I’m just a lifelong GSB customer whose mother buys one GSB lottery ticket as a gift on every birthday. And so, “Thiraracha The Musical”, while truly serving the celebration purpose, was just another one-off theatrical event, a one-weekend talk-of-the-town that had little effect on society and the development of contemporary Thai theatre.