“I NEED POWER WHEN I STAND TO BE ABLE TO HIT THE NOTES AND I DON’T FEEL STABLE ENOUGH ON STILETTOS. THIS IS WHY I DON’T PERFORM IN SHORT GOWNS; THESE SHOES WILL SHOW!”
Happily settled into a more relaxed pace of life in Singapore and with plans to take her singing career regional, Japanese mezzo soprano Seia Lee is set to soar, says KAREN TEE
as an accomplished mezzo soprano, Seia Lee is accustomed to holding an audience’s rapt attention when she is on stage. After all, she has performed in some of the world’s top concert halls including Suntory Hall in Tokyo and Cadogan Hall in London, and collaborated with distinguished musicians such as saxophonist Kenny G.
Even when off duty, the slim 1.72-m-tall opera singer turns more than a few heads with her regal bearing and understated elegance. As she steps into the swanky Timothy Oulton-designed members’ club 1880 for this morning’s interview — no diva theatrics here either, she shows up punctually — other guests in the lounge look up to see who’s here. With a crystal clear complexion, doe eyes and long flowing tresses, Lee has a quiet but undeniable presence.
She is casually dressed in a classic combo of Breton striped top and denim jeans that’s artfully accessorised with a stunning malachite green crocodile Birkin. It shows how she effortlessly blends her two lives as a hands-on mother to a four-year-old son and a glamorous jet-setting opera singer.
In Singapore, Lee happily confides, she more frequently plays the role of mother than singer. “I really love Singapore,” declares Lee, who has embraced local culinary delights with gusto and lets us in on her soft spot for laksa, Chinese rice dumplings and kaya toast.
“My life in Tokyo is too hectic as the city has a way of making people very busy. But here, I am so much more relaxed and I can afford to spend time watching my son grow up.”
Lee and her husband Taizo Son, a serial entrepreneur and founder of venture capital firm Mistletoe, relocated to Singapore from Japan in late 2016. While Son has spoken about his plans to invest US$100 million in Southeast Asia over the next five years, the couple also saw this move as an opportunity to finally find some work-life balance after 18 years of marriage.
These days, she starts her mornings by sending the toddler to nursery and often spends afternoons with him at the beach right outside their Sentosa Cove residence.
Not surprisingly, some of her favourite spots in Singapore, from Como Cuisine in Dempsey to Capella Singapore’s Auriga Spa, are some of the island’s most inspiring spots to disconnect from the madding world.
And while she and her husband were an “independent couple” in Tokyo, she noticed that Singapore’s family-oriented culture has had an effect on him too. “In Japan, he’s busy all day till after dinner, but here people make it a point to have family dinners on weekdays, so even if he wanted to go out, there would be no one to go out with him,” she says with a laugh.
A more relaxed pace of life nonetheless, she has no intention of putting her career on hold. Just last year, Lee, who has been singing professionally for 12 years, flew to London to perform at the Global Gift Gala with pianist Tokio Myers in support of non-profit organisation Global Gift Foundation. This was followed by a performance at the 14th Dubai International Film Festival, where she shared the stage with actress-singer Vanessa Williams and actor Adrien Brody. She also sang operatic favourites from Bizet’s Carmen at the String A Legacy concert with violinist Min Lee, held at the Esplanade Concert Hall in aid of The Business Times Budding Artists Fund.
Singapore, says Lee, is a good base for her to introduce classical and opera music to the region. “Japan has a very vibrant classical music scene with many world-class singers and musicians coming for performances. In comparison, it is a lot quieter in Singapore,” she observes. “One of the reasons I’m here is because I want to expand my career to countries including Malaysia, India and China. Being here gives me more exposure to the rest of Asia.”
Of course, she is well aware that concert-goers of the Instagram generation have a notoriously short attention span and won’t necessarily have the patience to sit through lengthy arias, most of which are sung in a foreign language.
“I can understand how the audience would feel if they don’t know a song, which might take 40 minutes to sing; and they don’t even know when it is appropriate to clap or when the song is finished,” says Lee, who matriculated at the Royal Academy of Music in London. “So I try to find songs of which they might have heard a phrase, perhaps from a movie or tv commercial. That way, when they hear something familiar, they may be more interested in paying closer attention to the rest of it.”
Also included in her repertoire are jazz and bossa nova standards including Moon River, Besame Mucho and La Vie En Rose to lighten up the atmosphere. “Usually, half of the songs will be serious opera such as pieces by Verdi and Puccini and the other half will be more casual fare. My
audience is young, typically in their twenties and thirties and this is often their first classical concert, so I want to open the door to enjoying this genre of music,” she says.
Her performances aren’t just an aural treat for music lovers but a visual feast for the fashion-inclined too. Lee makes it a point to make about five couture outfit changes during her concerts. Her envy-inducing wardrobe of gowns includes confections by Oscar de la Renta, Zuhair Murad and Jenny Packham. She recently discovered Lebanese-born designer Mikael Derderian’s label Mikael D at Pois and owns a few of his pieces. In Japan, her jewellery sponsor Graff also provides her with bling for all her outfits, to dial up the dazzle by more than a few additional megawatts.
But she is no blind slave to fashion. She whips out a pair of platform wedges by Rene Caovilla from a travel-sized suitcase containing supplies she has brought along for the shoot, telling us these are her performance shoes. Other performers may suffer through spindly stilettos because they look nicer, but Lee says wedges are the only style of shoes she will wear. She explains, “I need power when I stand to be able to hit the notes, and I don’t feel stable enough on stilettos. This is why I cannot wear short gowns because these shoes will show!”
Although she has been singing since she was a young child under the tutelage of her mother (a respected opera singer in Japan), Lee very nearly did not end up following in her footsteps. Call it an act of teenage rebellion. “I started playing the piano and studying music when I was two or three but because my mother was really strict with my practice, I began to dislike it. So when I was about 13, I told my mum this life is not for me and quit,” recalls Lee. Her mother was understandably disappointed but let her have her way and said no more about it.
Still, over the years, the music never really quit on Lee. She often heard parts of a tune or familiar chords drifting out of the studio where her mother taught other students and realised she already knew all of them. One day, she was studying with a friend who began humming O Mio Babbino Caro by Puccini and realised she could no longer ignore her calling to sing. So, in her mid-twenties, she took up lessons again to become a professional singer.
In 2016, Lee celebrated her 10th anniversary as a singer with her first solo concert in Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. A year later, she returned to the venue for another performance, this time with a very special guest singer — her 83-year-old mother.
Her face softens as she recalls this profound moment, explaining that it is rare to have a mother-daughter operatic performance as the mother typically would have lost her voice by the time the daughter’s matures. They sang a traditional Korean tune in a nod to her family’s Korean heritage and Schubert’s Lullaby, which holds special significance for her. “My mother sang Lullaby to me when I was a child and now I sing it for my son,” she says.
Although her son is now the same age as her when she began music lessons, she is in no hurry to get him started on a musical career. Lee shares of her wait-and-see approach: “He loves singing and dancing but, just like me, he doesn’t like discipline.”
Instead, she would rather use these carefree childhood days to travel the globe with the family. Says Lee, “He’s still very young so we can do homeschooling and travel with him.” Besides returning to Tokyo every two months, Lee jetsets to catch each of her favourite destinations during the best times of the year. In winter, she prefers Singapore for the cool and rainy weather and the family usually heads to Hawaii in March and April. In spring and autumn, she visits Kyoto for the beautiful scenery and often spends summer in southern Italy.
It is an idyllic, privileged existence and Lee is aware she has drawn a good lot in life. On the cards are plans to start a philanthropic foundation with her husband, but that will happen when their son is older and she has more time to oversee her charity work.
In the meantime, she performs at charitable events and is also known to be a gracious guest at fundraisers. “The social scene in Singapore is fun as people here are fashionable and unique. In Japan, people like to look nice and refined but here they have more individual taste,” she observes.
However, the fashion is just a side note to the more serious task of raising much-needed funds, she emphasises. “I try to bid at the auctions during the galas because I know it can be very hard to get attention for them,” she says. “You can’t buy expensive gowns to attend galas but not give money to charity. If you have to, choose charity.”
“You can’t buy expensive gowns to attend galas but not give money to charity. If you have to, choose charity”