French Spring in Manila blooms with youthful talent

It’s spring again. And it’s not caused by global warming folks, nor is it the earth’s axis shifting. It’s those fabulous French, who, for the third year in a row, are bringing to town a colorful season of Gallic culture dubbed as "French Spring in Manila."

Introduced in 1999 under the patronage of French Ambassador to Manila Gilles Chouraqui, the celebration is patterned after "French May in Hong Kong," the diplomat’s brainchild when he was still a consul in the former Crown Colony.

Over the past two years, "French Spring in Manila" has presented a varied cultural program featuring, among others, the world famous mime Marcel Marceau, avant garde choreographer Marie Claude Pietragalla, jazz musician Alain Brunet and a festival of French films.

As in previous festivals, "French Spring in Manila 2001" will again be presented by the French Embassy and Alliance Française de Manille, with the participation of Association Française d’Action Artistique.

The theme of this year’s celebration is "A Celebration of Youth" and it promises a fresh burst of young French talents from music, dance, film and the visual arts.

"French Spring in Manila 2001" opens tomorrow night with a heavyweight performance from the Orchestre de Contrebasses at the Captain’s Bar of the Mandarin Oriental Manila.

The orchestra has six members, namely Christian Genet, Xavier Lugue, Olivier Moret, Etienne Roumanet, Yves Torchinsky and Jean-Philippie Viret. These composer-performers perform a revolutionary repertoire that push the double bass to extreme limits, lifting not just the audiences’ spirits but their instruments as well, as they go about their numbers.

The orchestra will also grace the gala dinner officially opening the "French Spring in Manila" at the Mandarin Oriental’s grand ballroom the following evening.

Alain Brunet Jazzes Up The Music Scene

On May 30, jazz trumpeter Alain Brunet, will be the featured performer at the Captain’s Bar.

Brunet’s jazz concert series was one of the most successful shows during the first "French Spring in Manila." He performed to jampacked audiences in venues like Vincent’s Pub and Edsa Shangri-La Hotel’s Gillespie’s. A well-received part of Brunet’s stint was his jamming with the Ugoy-Ugoy Band.

Brunet’s return to this year’s "French Spring" is a much anticipated event, specially among jazz connoisseurs. This time around, Brunet will engage in a musical dialogue with Buhay, a group composed local jazz artists Tots Tolentino, Mar Dizon, Wowie Posadas and Meong Pacana. Together they will do their take on popular French melodies, such as Sous Les Ciel de Paris and Les Feuilles Mortes in what promises to be an exciting cross-cultural exchange.

Brunet will have other performances at Monks Dream on Jupiter St., Makati City on June 1, and at Freedom Bar in Quezon City on June 3. He also accepted an invitation from Gillespie’s to jam with its musicians on the evening of June 2.

French Figurative Painting

The latest in contemporary French figurative paintings dubbed Peintures(Figure) Peintures will be on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila on Roxas Blvd., Manila from June 8 to 18. The show is specially curated by art history professor Philippe Piguet. It features six artists whose works are representative of the kind of figurative works currently being produced in France. Piguet will be accompanied by Jerome François, one of the artists featured in the show.

During his stay François will meet with Filipino artists, journalists and students interested in contemporary forms of pictorial creation.

In conjunction with the exhibit, there will be a slide show at the Alliance Française de Manille auditorium accompanied by a commentary, explaining the current movements in the French art scene. Afterwards, artists and art critics will gather for a lively discussion.

Ballet

On June 6 at 8 p.m., the Junior Ballet of the Paris Conservatory will perform at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. The ballet group will offer a diverse repertoire of classical and contemporary ballet. Four numbers will be performed: Untitled for 10, Dub, Garden of Villandry and Fever. The group will also have workshops with Ballet Philippines and dance companies affiliated with Steps, the dance studio of Sophia Zobel.

A Little Night Of Music

Baroque music will fill San Agustin Church in Intramuros, Manila on June 7, 7 p.m., during the concert of Les Trompettes de Versailles. The group, composed of Serge Rougerez, Patrick Marmande, Georges Bessonet, will take its audience back in time to the grand halls of Versailles when masterpieces of French composers, like Jean-Baptiste Lully, François Couperin, Joseph Mouret, among others, resonated in its halls. Bessonet will play San Agustin’s newly restored pipe organ.

French Film Festival

No "French Spring" is complete without a film festival. Filipinos, after all, are one of the biggest moviegoers this side of the world. Truffaut, Lelouch, Chabrol, Godard, these names are not new to Pinoy cineastes.

The sixth French Film Festival will feature recent French film releases. It opens June 8 with the multi-awarded Le Gout des Autres (It Takes All Kinds) by Agnes Jaoui. The festival will run until June 18 and will screen the following movies: La Fille Sur le Pont (The Girl on the Bridge), Taxi 1, Place Vendôme, Une Affaire de Gout (A Matter of Taste), Merci Pour Le Chocolat (Nightcap), Indochine, Code Inconnu (Code Unknown), Est-Ouest (East-West), Salsa, and Asterix and Obelix Contre Caesar (Asterix and Obelix versus Caesar). All screenings are at the Cinema, Shangri-La Plaza Mall. All screenings are free to the public

Guaranteed To ‘Click’

Declics, meaning "click" is a program, launched by the Association d’Action Artistique and Radio France, to promote the new generation of French soloists and chamber music players who have won in international music competitions. Jerome Ducros and Gaulthier Capuçon are two young artists whose talents are supported by the French government. For their Manila concert, the piano and cello duo will render sonatas by Debussy, Brahms, Schumann and Rachmaninov. The gala concert will be held at the Carlos P. Romulo Theater, RCBC Plaza, Ayala Ave., Makati City, on June 18, supported by Banque National de Paris.

Violin Recital

At 27, violinist Frédéric Pelassy is one of the prominent musicians in France.

He was educated in Paris under Michele Auclair, in Salzburg under Sandor Frederic, and at the Gstaad Academy under Yehudi Menuhin.

Pelassy recorded his first album when he was 16; he now has 17 albums to his name.

Pelassy visits the Philippines for the second time and will be accompanied on the piano by Camerata dell Arte Foundation’s Luci Magalit.

On June 20 and 21, he will perform Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 1, Saint-Saens Rondo Capriccioso, Brahms Violin Sonata No. 3 and Ravel’s Tzigane.

Fete De La Musique

The music festival, Fete de la Musique, is a celebration traditionally observed in France during the Summer Solstice. On this day, music and dance performances are held at town squares all over France.

This cherished tradition comes to town and will be the fitting finale to "French Spring in Manila 2001." This year’s featured bands are South Border with Bituin Escalante, Rivermaya, Barbie’s Cradle, Razorback, Ugoy-Ugoy, Blue-Rats, Shots of Wisdom, Skin, Pinikpikan, Puro Ritmo, Brownbeat All-Stars, Imago, Cynthia Alexander, Spy, Rubber Inc., The Manila Youth Symphony Orchestra and many more. They will be performing at chosen venues in Malate showcasing their own particular music style. There will also be street theater, poetry reading, and performance art.

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"French Spring in Manila 2001" is sponsored by AFAA, ABS-CBN, Alcatel, Alstom, Asiatype, Aventis Pasteur/ Aventis Pharma, BNP-Paribas, Jewelmer International, Lafarge, Lançome, Les Films du Phoenix, L’Oreal, Metrobank Foundation, Pamatec, Suez Ondeo, Supply Oilfield Services, Tower Records, Vivendi Water, the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Mandarin Oriental, Manila, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, RCBC Plaza, Nakpil Street in Malate, EDSA Shangri-La Plaza Mall, San Agustin Church, St. Scholastica’s College and Westin Philippine Plaza.