Celine Dion’s One Heart

At $200 a seat only the truly privileged few from hereabouts would be able to treat themselves to Celine Dion’s A New Day show currently running in Las Vegas. Budgeted at a staggering $100 million, the theatrical spectacle is said to be the first of its kind ever mounted for a pop music star. Inspired by the famous Cirque du Soleil, the show features 139 speakers, 55 dancers, eight musicians and a video screen so huge it almost surrounds the audience. Not only that, the theater, a 4000 seater arena aptly called the Colosseum, (that is a combination of colossus and coliseum) was built especially for the Canadian diva to the tune of $95 million and it will house Celine’s show for three years.

So there is still plenty of time for us to dream of one day being able to be shocked and awed watching Celine perform My Heart Will Go On from Titanic live as a giant moon moves across the stage in Las Vegas. While indulging in such wishful thinking though one cannot also help but be shocked and awed at the great heights to which Celine Dion has ascended after her relatively quiet years as a girl with a nice sweet voice in her native Quebec. She is a big star. Las Vegas big nowadays, which is not really as impressive as moving a discriminating audience with one’s music in a smaller showplane where the slightest sound comes vastly amplified. But big nevertheless.

Bigness is not the only thing that Celine, has to offer these days. Change is also on her agenda and it is nice to see her taking huge risks with her music after enjoying a sure-fire formula that has already sold over 150 million albums. Her latest, One Heart, marks a total turnabout from all her earlier releases. This is an edgier, sexier Celine who has junked the power ballads of some years ago to rock harder than ever. Forget David Foster. Forget Meatloaf. Celine instead channels the departed rock idol Roy Orbison of Pretty Woman fame by making Drove All Night the album’s opening cut and first single release. Not only that, the song is also the new promo jingle of carmaking Chrysler.

I cannot help but wonder how much Chrysler paid Celine for the use of the song. But no matter, she is worth every cent. Just as she threw her whole self into the production of A New Day in Vegas, Drove All Night and the other contents of One Heart show an artist who goes all out to create something new and very exciting for her followers. Made up almost entirely of new materials, the rocking collection has boundless energy oozing from every cut, the most commercial melodies and Celine’s incredible vocals.

Aside from Drove All Night, I particularly like the title track One Heart with its happy lilt and Stand by Your Side. The R&B tinged lullabye Forget Me Not is also the kind you play in your head while thinking of pretty things. The other songs in the album are Love is All We Need, Faith, In His Touch, Naked, the remake entry Sorry for Love (2003) Version, Have You Ever Been in Love, Reveal, Coulda Woulda Shoulda, a soaring ballad in the Celine tradition I Know What Love Is and Je t’aime Encore. Treat yourself to this one.

Incidentally, To Love You More, the song that has been dominating the local airlanes these days and which gave 14-year-old Sarah Geronimo, the Grand Prize at the Star for a Night finals early in March, is actually a Celine Dion song from 1997.

Cayabyab’s music courses

Make this a truly productive summer for your kids. Who knows, one of those little ones who can bawl her guts out while wearing your patience down might one day grow up to be another Celine or a Star for a Night champion like Sarah. Send them to Ryan Cayabyab’s Music Studio, which has now opened its doors to children as young as three years old.

Maestro Ryan and his team of highly-qualified pedagogues now offer the following courses for children: The Suzuki method piano lessons; Individual and Specialized voiced lessons; the Children’s instrumental ensemble; Children’s chorus class; Female chorus class; and Vocal performance workshop in Musical Theater. There are also courses for adults, even vocal theraphy sessions for professional singers who suffer from chronic hoarseness, loss of voice, difficulty in speech and change of vocal quality.

The Ryan Cayabyab Music Studio is located at the Sunvar Plaza on Arnaiz Avenue in Makati City. Call telephone numbers 843-2874; 844-3330; or 0917-909-6484 for inquiries.