The night the PPO played Santa

’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring – not even a mouse…

Remember this old rhyme, Virginia?

Yes, of course you do. Did you hang your stockings by the chimney? All the year round, St. Nicholas’ elves were busy in his workshop in the North Pole making zillions of toys. On this night of nights, he would harness his reindeer to a sleigh with jingling bells and fly over land and sea to bring his gifts to all the children in the world.

In my country, kids don’t know St. Nicholas. Your people taught us that the person who brings Christmas presents is Santa Claus. They are one and the same fellow, of course – you know, the old man with a long beard and the potbelly dressed in a thick, heavy red-and-white costume. Is there only one Santa Claus? I know that you get confused when, during the yuletide season you see a Santa ringing a bell at the head of the Salvation Army at a street corner and you see several more at the shopping centers around the corner.

A Filipino child is not likely to write a newspaper editor to ask if there truly is a Santa Claus. He already knows that Santa is a myth. He has been robbed of his innocence at an early age. The gnomes of rationalism, materialism, and cynicism have invaded his mind and driven away the dream-fairy. Do you think that he is likely to use his computer to compute how many angels can dance at the point of a needle?

As for our poor children – and there are hordes of them in the streets, begging for alms, scrounging in garbage piles for scraps of food, sniffing solvent — do they think of Santa at all? The more enterprising among these waifs go caroling with karakas, tambourines and tin can drums. They still seem to have the spirit of Christmas in their souls.

And this is why, Virginia, you and I, have a knightly mission to bring Santa Claus to the lives of our children.

A week or so ago, Santa Claus did come to Manila aboard a jumbo jet from Finland. His arrival at the NAIA was covered by the papers and the TV networks. He had very rosy cheeks and soulful eyes. Too bad that I didn’t get to hear his deep-voiced "Ho! Ho! Ho!"

In the meantime, our Cultural Center of the Philippines played Santa to an audience of around two thousand people, many of them youngsters, when it featured the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra in a free open-air concert at the Folk Arts Theater front lawn. The presentation billed as Christmas & Gershwin, is Concert Series IV of the PPO’s 2002-2003 season.

You should have been there, Virginia. You’d have loved this concert by the sea. It was a clear evening and there was a cool breeze blowing in from the bay.

Except for the Filipino songs, the program was not unlike that which the New York Philharmonic usually presents in Central Park in the summer – some light classics and lots of popular music.

Conductor Ruggero Barbieri and the PPO opened the concert with Peter Tchaikovsky’s "Waltz of the Flowers" from The Nutcracker. You are familiar with this ballet music, I’m sure. We might have seen the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center and recall the tale of this girl who falls asleep on Christmas Eve beside a Christmas tree and dreams of holiday goodies on the dining table and rats and toys including a dashing toy soldier and fairies. Do you know that Maestro Barbieri’s baton is a magic wand that can conjure these visions?

Guest pop artist Bituin Escalante warbled George Gershwin’s old familiar favorites "Summertime" from the opera Porgy and Bess and But Not for Me. Bituin is a young singer and I’m sure she’ll go places.

Ryan Cayabyab’s Kumukutikutitap is a local favorite during the yuletide season. I’m sure you’ll find the title a tongue twister. It’s a Tagalog word that describes the tiny twinkling multi-colored lights of Christmas and the composer’s sorcery recreates precisely this joyous spectacle.

We have many fine children’s choirs and the Mandaluyong Children’s Choir is the most celebrated among these. You should have heard this ensemble deliver Matthew Wilder’s Reflection and Noel Regney-Gloria Shayne’s Do You Hear What I Hear? and Maligayang Bati, Panginoon. And I could say to your American children’s choirs, "Eat your heart out!"

Another choral group was featured that evening – Coro de la Reyna that has 27 members and the Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija Choral Groups, composed of 184 voices, who come from seven choirs, namely Koro, Maestro Singers, GASS Choir, PhilRice Chorale, BPHRE Chorale, Muñoz National High School Choir, and the Muñoz Children’s Choir. The participation of the group was under the sponsorship of Muñoz Mayor Nestor L. Alvarez with the full support of CLSU president Dr. Rodolfo C. Roldan.

They were simply awesome when they raised their combined vocal forces to heaven in Adeste Fidelis and Joy to the World.

Johann Strauss, Jr.’s The Beautiful Blue Danube followed with its lovely, lilting waltz melodies bringing the sights and sounds of imperial Vienna.

Bituin came on stage again with more of Gershwin – a medley that included Love Walked In, Somebody Loves Me, The Man I Love, and Embraceable You. When her voice turned husky and soulful in the lower register in The Man I Love, she really got me and I could have wept, believe me. I understand that she has not taken formal vocal lessons. Can you imagine what she could do with her voice if she had?

With a good choir around, is it surprising that the PPO should serve at Christmas time George Friedrich Handel’s "The Hallelujah Chorus" from The Messiah?

The concert-by-the-bay was concluded with Leroy Anderson’s Christmas Festival, a compilation of traditional carols.

As much as I enjoyed the PPO’s yuletide concert, I can’t help griping about flies in the ointment. There were these two young lovebirds seated next to me who should have been cooing sweet nothings to one another and not chattering like mad magpies that I wanted to bang their heads together like cymbals. And even worse was the sound system, which was absolutely the pits.

When Maestro Barbieri and the PPO gifted their admiring audience with an encore, Strauss Sr.’s Radetzky March, and invited the listeners to clap, I would have wanted to clap with the sound technician’s ears between my hands, and Santa would have approved with a resounding "Ho! Ho! Ho!"

We live in difficult times, Virginia, more than your young mind can imagine. My Christmas wish is to throw all our bickering politicians, the Abu Sayyaf, the noisy demonstrators in the streets like the Kilusang Mayo Uno, and the CPP-NPA into Santa’s bag and maroon them in a giant iceberg in the North Pole or make them work in his toy factory with his elves to humanize them.

And then the children and all folks with a child’s heart can make every day of the year Christmas day! Every story should have a happy ending, don’t you think?

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For comments, write to jessqcruz@hotmail.com.