Talent drain, Phantom furor, Cris Botti for Christmas

The Christmas season is off to a dizzying start with foreign acts joining in the local scene despite charges of unfair competition from disgruntled Filipino artists. The holiday season being one of the few playdates local producers, actors, singers, instrumentalists, staff and crew can source for decent earnings, it is understandable why they wouldn’t be happy with the situation.

Joy Virata, despite association with Repertory Philippines, pioneering producer of Broadway and West End plays and musicals, has nevertheless joined in the outcry. She has admitted when interviewed that local companies have had to double efforts in training newcomers after talents are being gobbled up by offers from abroad.

Reviewer and columnist Nestor Torre particularly has zeroed in on the restaging of Filipino acclaimed musicals Katy and Rama Hari, noting that “…funding for the arts is limited in this country, so when 80 percent of it goes to support foreign acts and shows, look who’s holding the bag and scrounging around for the loose change — the Filipino creative artist… In our view, no country should reduce its artists to the status of mendicants — it just isn’t right.” Rama Hari with Karylle and Christian Bautista runs at the CCP from Nov. 30 to Dec 9. Katy with Isay Alvarez runs at the CCP from Jan. 17 to Jan. 27, 2013.                

Older ones will remember how Cameron Mackintosh discovered young Lea Salonga and Monique Wilson among the talents of Repertory and cast them in the lead role of Kim in Miss Saigon in 1989 on London’s West End. The musical by Claude Schonberg and Alain Boublil, based on the opera Madame Butterfly, became a huge success, where another Pinay, Isay Alvarez, essayed the role of Gigi. This started casters running to the Philippines, then a virtually undiscovered mecca of performing arts talents.

But while outfits like Repertory were happy their efforts in training world-class talents have been recognized, there is also the other side of the coin where they are seen as trainers for others, with the local product suffering in the long run. Now that Mackintosh has returned to hold auditions for a Miss Saigon repeat, fears are back that the best of our singing-acting talents will again be gone for at least a decade.

To top it all, a controversy recently arose when the cast of The Phantom of the Opera were exempted from paying P5,000 each as required by the Equity Rights Program covering music and theater. Instead, the Immigration Bureau granted them special work permits. The Alliance of Working Artists for Rights and Equity (AWARE) slammed the BI for seemingly “lawyering for the cause of foreign productions.”

It is, however, also unfair for us to make sweeping statements, when it is obvious that much of the fault is really our own. The Filipino has been much too “mabait” to foreigners, allowing them free entrance to our home, hearth and livelihood with an accompanying smile. Also, the Filipino has never really been united on issues, waiting for the last minute before raising a howl!

This is the atmosphere in Manila awaiting Grammy-winning trumpeter Chris Botti’s two-night concert on Dec. 4 and 6 billed Christmas with Botti at the Resort World’s Newport Performing Arts Theater. It is his second Manila outing following the successful Chris Botti Live in Manila last June when we witnessed an amazing connection to an audience unfamiliar with a man and his trumpet in a solo concert with a sprinkling of guests.

From this experience, we do not expect that Botti will create the same negative furor. For one thing, Botti is already familiar with the Filipino psyche from his last visit. Apart from his versatility at fusing together both jazz and pop music, his multiple Grammys, three albums reaching the No. 1 position on Billboard jazz album charts, back-stories that include dedicating himself to playing the trumpet at age 12 upon hearing Miles Davis play My Funny Valentine, he has done short tours with Frank Sinatra and Buddy Rich, shared a long tour history with Paul Simon and performed/recorded with Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole, Bette Midler and others.

During his June visit, he hit the headlines when he rearranged his itinerary to give a master class to musically-gifted underprivileged children that ended in his discovery of 11-year-old JP Santa Ana whom he invited to guest on his show with the solo Carnival of Venice and a duet Italia. Impressed by the kid, Botti promised to send him a new trumpet — a promise he kept. We will not be surprised to find JP guesting once more in December.

Christmas with Botti is an event by Radio High 105.9 FM, for the benefit of Children’s Hour. Show tickets are available through Ticketworld at 891-9999, or through www.ticketworld.com.ph.

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