About Clair Obsur

In my 25 year-long career, my rich experience on stage has allowed me to express a broad and eclectic repertory of music from Baroque to Contemporary Music and Musical-Comedy. My academic training and my ability to speak 5 languages fluently have provided me with the cultural background needed to assimilate the stylistic form of each period of operas and songs. As a result, I’ve had the honor of being called a “Quantic Baritone” by a journalist. In fact I think of myself more of an artist than a singer – more of a researcher than a performer. I’ve been inspired by Pavarotti, Alagna and Bocelli, with whom I’ve had the great privilege of sharing the stage. These giants of the operatic world were the most open-minded singers who were not afraid to use their voices to help make classical music more popular worldwide. I have decided to follow their example by launching my first solo album with my loyal pianist Veronica Yen with whom I’ve established an ideal musical partnership.

The album will reflect highlights of my life and my cultural heritage that have profoundly changed who I am as an artist. The thematic concept of this recording is “time” – daytime on one side and nighttime on the other. It represents not only the theatrical time of 24 hours but also a cycle of life where the ephemeral is sublimated by beauty. The title “Clair Obscur ” refers to my favorite painter Caravaggio, because singing is like painting. Both are full of colors and contrasts. Like painting, singing can also extrapolate a philosophical look at the duality of our world: the distinction between good and bad or yin and yang where shadow cannot exist without light. The conception of this recording encompasses a positive unity between the cultural ideas of the Eastern and Western worlds.

Veronica’s thoughts

It’s always a great pleasure to make music with Richard, because we seem to respond to music intuitively and always perform spontaneously. I enjoy enormously creating new surprises on stage with Richard. We have been known each other since 10 years and it feels like brother and sister!

When Richard came to the idea of making a CD together, I thought of this theme: ‘Day and Night’, a collection of songs and pieces to illustrate these two contrasting moments in life. But after more discussions and performances, the idea gets deeper and more philosophical, hence, Clair Obscur.

It means, in a broader sense, a contrast. A contrast of all aspects in life: east and west, male and female, dark and bright, Yinand Yang, and it could also mean joy and sorrow.
In this album, I also have some solo pieces. As my new compositions “Scent in Spring” is about brightness, “Anna’s Waltz” is about darkness. “Scent in Spring” is to portray the joy created by the fragrance of English garden, while Anna’s Waltz is a musical presentation of Anna Karenina, the Heroin in Tolstoy’s immortal novel.

In this album, I also have included some of my favourite composers’ works: Debussy’s Clair de Lune, and Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude. And I would also love to introduce my beautiful country through music, a Taiwanese composer Hsiao Tyzen’s work “An Angel from Formosa”.

I thoroughly enjoy working with Richard, I like creating with him a variety of themes throughout our concerts.
I hope that this new album has entertained you, inspired new ideas, and some moments for inner reflection.