More Tatted Leaves, Doll ATCs and The Die Zauberflote Opera

I couldn't stop tatting these delightful leaves, but I get creative and added flowers for a touch of colours and for more weight to the portion of the bookmark that will hang outside the book. Prefer the pink roses (pattern of Jeanne Lugert).

The doll-ATCs were in from Linda Marino! The bottom 2 were for the June's 4 Seasons Swap; the top 2 were for an earlier Fibre Swap which I never receive from my partner and Lin was such a dear to send me a set. All so bright and cheerful, and cute too, really lift my spirit everytime I look at them! Thank you, Lin!


Spent a weekend helping my girl, Joey, for her school project, embellishing this yellow fabric with the Youth Olympics Games theme. I cut the felt words for her based on her sketch, and we explore difference ways to embellish them. She matched the colours and did the sewing herself.

This was the last opera written by W.A.Mozart, just before his death, and is his most popular operatic work - The Magic Flute. I have watched it once in 2007, a 100-minute production sung in English by the New York's Metropolitan Opera, screened in Golden Village's GVmax on its 22.4 m width screen. Not quite anything like watching it live, but the big screen was a plus, and what to complain when it was only S$15 a ticket!

Although Tan Dun's The First Emperor, directed by Zhang Yimou, and with the legendary tenor, Plácido Domingo, as Emperor Qin, left a much deeper impression of the 2 screenings then, I was still pretty excited to get to watch The Magic Flute again, this time live at the theatre. Sang at the Esplanade Theatre last Saturday, in German but dialogue in English, the love story of Prince Tamino and Princess Pamina unfolded the magical fantasy world of Die Zauberflote.

This time, I can better appreciate the music, and of course, the Queen of the Night's Die Holle Racht in Act II. The silly exchanges between the lovelorn bird catcher Papageno and Papagena, singing ‘Pa-pa-pa’ for about 48 times was tickling on the rib bones. Clearly from the applauses, Tai Hsia-Chun as the Queen of the Night and Song Kee Chang as Papageno were the 2 most favourite characters in the opera. Again, we have Nancy Yuen, soprano (Singapore) in La Boheme, singing the part of Pamina!