The second annual Sun Festival in Singapore opened with a gala concert on Saturday. The festival dedicates itself to “music, visual arts, film, literature, wine, cuisine and wellness” and is a branch of the Tuscan Sun Festival situated in Cortona, Italy, and its sister event, the Festival del Sole in Napa Valley, California.

It had looked a good idea to focus on the international flavour of the festival by starting with a glitzy gala headed by the Hollywood actor and director Robert Redford, appearing as the narrator in Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. When Redford pulled out at less than a week’s notice, the festival organisers were fortunate to secure a replacement Oscar-winner in the Australian Geoffrey Rush. He may be no John Gielgud, Alec Guinness or Peter Ustinov (each of whom took on the role of Prokofiev’s narrator), but Rush proved mellow and delightful, even if he was relying rather obviously on the conductor’s cues.