Bending back, forging forth

Worlds apart in time and space are the cultural presentations in Manila of two foreign embassies: a concert of 17th-century Baroque music from the Embassy of France and a post-modern play by a contemporary Australian playwright from the Australian Embassy.

Never before heard in these parts is a unique ensemble, Les Trompettes de Versailles, presented by the French Spring in Manila 2001, Vivendi Water Philippines and the San Agustin Museum.

The name Versailles conjures the reign of the Sun King, Louis XIV (1638-1715) and the splendor of his royal court. Here in the gabled halls of his pleasure palace, he gamboled with les precieuses, ladies with intellectual pretensions who read Mme. de la Fayette and held that love was the only proper pursuit of life. Descendants in spirit of Marie de France and Eleanor of Aquitaine whose cults of courtly love the Abbe de Brantome exposed in his book, Tales of Fair and Gallant Ladies, these women held their own in the world of Dumas pere’s Three Musketeers and played with a passion their own game of pomp and circumstance with more artifice than art. They consumed hours at their toilette to dress with propriety: perukes and powder and pomade, artificial moles or beauty patches and yards of silks, satins and laces and black slippers with high scarlet heels.

One can imagine how some lecherous bloke of a baron or duke, eager for a quick lay in the gardens amidst the fountains and marble Venuses and Cupids of Versailles would much prefer a tumble with a buxom chambermaid to find relief and not have to unwrap layers upon layers of petticoats to sip her nectar behind the bushes. The great Moliere did find in these noble ladies material for satire in his comedy, Les Preciouses Ridicules.

In fairness to these ladies, it must be argued that the triumph of Reason in their time–as articulated by Descartes, Pascal, Fenelon and Bossuet–was not totally lost to their kind. Mme. de Sevigne raised the epistle to the finest level of wit, charm and grace that made gossip an art.

The concert in San Agustin of Les Trompettes de Versailles focused on one particular activity in the royal court–that of the king’s musicians when they entertain his Royal Highness and his guests. The members of the ensemble, trumpet players Serge Rougegrez and Patrick Marmande and organist Georges Bessonnet have specialized on a very narrow area of instrumental Baroque music–the kind of purely secular chamber music composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully, Francois Couperin, Louis Nicolas Clerambault, Jean-Joseph Mouret, Michel Corette and Michel-Richard Delalande. Particularly occasional in intent are the two pieces that open and conclude the concert–by Lully and Delalande respectively–with the common title, Symphonies pour les Soupers du Roy (Symphonies for the King’s Supper). Composed in high spirits to whet the appetite of His Royal Majesty, these pieces are simply perfect with the plates of truffles and escargot and wines from the vineyards of Provence.

(How convenient is the removal to Versailles with its scented gardens of royalty from Paris, from the stench of the marshes around the Seine and the slums of the Coquille, the capital of criminals, before Cardinal Mazarin ordered the district demolished.)

In the rarefied air of Versailles, Lully and company teased the musical ear with the intricacies of Baroque polyphony and counterpoint served with proportion, symmetry and balance. The contrast between the brilliant ringing tone color of the trumpets and the deep, penetrating sonorities of the pipe organ complemented each other to perfection.

Les Trompettes de Versailles graced the French Spring in Manila with the musical treasure of an age of elegance that should not be allowed to remain unheard.

On the opposite end of the cultural spectrum is the presentation of a play from the Land Down Under by the Australian Embassy Manila in celebration of the Centenary of Federation. Mounted by Dulaang Talyer at the Australia Center in Makati is Speaking in Tongues by Andrew Bovell, winner of the Australian Writers Guild Award (AWGIE) in 1997.

Breaking the bonds of conventional theater, it begins with a scene that exposes a lurid assignation between two pairs of lovers whose lines are delivered by the actors largely in unison much like in opera. Delivering lines of dialogue in different stages of undress to reveal various psychological states requires daring from the cast of four whose movements need to be choreographed with precision and perfect timing, while director Paul Y. Morales manages to accomplish, much to his credit, he being himself an experienced dancer and choreographer.

Bovell does not simply arrange incidents in a chronological order, that is, in the sequence in which they are supposed to have happened. Rather, his treatment of time is chronometric, meaning that the action moves backward, forward and sideways in time, a factor that can cause confusion in the mind of the viewer. Moreover, four actors need to play nine characters–Julien Mendoza: Leon/Nick; Tes Jamias: Jane/Sarah; Miales Kanapi: Sonia/Valerie; and Nor Domingo: Peter/Neil/John.

An artist does not need to explain his artwork; it should speak for itself. However, Bovell, knowing that he is essaying something new and different, is not inclined to take chances. He states: "Speaking in Tongues is about right and wrong of emotional conduct. It’s about contracts being broken between intimates while deep bonds are forged between strangers… I’m unconscious of the play being structurally different. It doesn’t follow the normal rules of playwriting. I’m worried that the audience will experience a degree of confusion with it. But I have faith that audiences are seeking different narrative shape and new modes of dramatic exchange. The least I hope for is that they leave the theater as haunted by these people as I am and perhaps seeking the same questions they do. How do I conduct myself in this world? How do I survive in it?"

Confusing as the play may seem, there is order in disorder. The means is cryptic, the message clear as day. There are age-old questions of morality to which sages and saints have sought the answer. Each of us needs to find his own way in his own fashion. Each individual person needs to make his choice. It is never easy because "strait is the gate." Therein lies the hemlock or the honey.

To this writer, Speaking in Tongues is like a kaleidoscope. Each turn changes the shapes and shades in the prisms that mirror the colors of love and lust. It is a map, an atlas–convoluted though it be–to guide the seeker to find the truth.

Two cultural events from two foreign embassies. One recalls the glory of the past. The other is a view of things to come. But both share a common aesthetic vision.

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For comments and suggestions, e-mail jessqcruz@hotmail.com...