Bangkok: music, ballet, culture.

Bangkok attracts the finest musicians and singers to perform.

Mar 4, 2007

For long seen only as a capital of sleaze, Bangkok is now a capital of the finest that art can offer, whether it be in music concerts, ballet, opera, or art exhibitions.

A look down the What's On pages of The Bangkok Post gives some idea of what is available for a music,theatre and art lover in Bangkok. And what's more, entrance prices are reasonable, usually ranging from $9 - $44 for a concert or ballet performance.

Recently the Moscow Chamber Orchestra uinder the baton of Constantine Orbelian gave a magnificent concert in the Thailand Cultural Centre, Opera Studio Netherland staged Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia at the Chalern Krung Royal Theatre, and every Sunday the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra performs in Lumpini Park in the Concerts in the Park series. On March 13th the renowned American Soprano Renee Fleming will give her first-ever Bangkok recital at the Thailand Cultural Centre while a guitar recital of classical music, a festival of piano and harp, and The Italian Chamber Orchestra are just three others listed for this month.

For lovers of Japanese theatre ithere is a performance of a traditional Noh and Kyogen theatre, and a screening of films by Hayao Miyazak. At the opposite end of the scale there is Classical and Broadway presented by the Bangkok Music Society.

Exhibitions of ethnic art, furniture and design, local artists and visiting artists are held all over the city. A quick look down the Events section throws up exhibitions of Bronze sculptures, Modern Art, Acrylic paintings, Royal photographs, early photographs of Thailand, graphic design from Japan, French figurative art, a Belgian exhibition of brushstroke paintings, and many, many more.

My recent trips to Bangkok were to hear performances of Wagner, Rossini and a concert of Schubert songs. So next time when people say "Bangkok? Isn't that where ....." Tell them, please, that it's a city of culture which offers the best of the classical world, alongside that of the modern.