Artistic alchemy
December 20, 2004 | 12:00am
In a concert or theatrical presentation, one artist – much more likely than not – will shine with more brilliance than the others. Very rarely will they all perform equally well even in an ensemble. But one individual player is likely to rise above the rest.
In a musical like Repertory Philippines’ The Wizard of Oz, director Baby Barredo makes full use of her mastery of stagecraft to put into harness a gifted cast of talents such that Cara Barredo who plays Dorothy, with all her girlish charm, can scarcely outshine the theatrical alchemy of Baby.
In the final presentation of the Filipino Artists Series, guitarist Manuel Cabrera II had the stage of the CCP Little Theater all to himself and the full attention of an enthralled audience.
Several factors determine why a performing artist with a group outshines the others: advanced studies under a scholarship in America or Europe, prestigious awards, and sheer genius.
Maestro Ruggero Barbieri was given a warm welcome by the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, which responded to him briskly like a spirited stallion to a familiar rider. Eine Nacht Musik was presented by the CCP and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in celebration of the 2004 Philippine-German Month.
The maestro and the orchestra delivered a magisterial account of Bernstein’s Overture to Candide and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 in F Major. The evening, however, belonged to young German violinist Angelo Bard who essayed Haydn’s Violin Concerto in C Major with Maestro Barbieri and the PPO. Classical grace and youthful restraint informed this reading, in addition to a soulful Adagio that crowned this account.
In contrast to the Haydn was Sarasate’s Introduction and Tarantelle with its wild Gypsy rhythms, which Bard served with the uninhibited flamboyance of youth.
In the world that he moves around in, boy wonders are a dime-a-dozen. He needs to keep moving up to higher and higher levels of excellence. Judging from his accomplishments in the past, his performance at the CCP (and his exotic name) I can safely say he can make it to the top.
The PPO’s Concert IV: Holiday Nights was held at the Raja Sulayman Park in front of Malate Church. To get to this place from the University Belt in the horrendous early evening traffic of Friday, I had to rely on Ariel and his motorbike to get me there on time. I clung to him for dear life as we zigzagged our way, my companion a daredevil member of the Hell’s Angels, who squeezed our way through traffic in defiance of the laws of physics. But he did get us in one piece to the church on time, bless his soul!
The opener was the familiar Foster-Bayer Sager’s The Prayer, often heard in weddings these days – here rendered by pop singer Angela Lei Atienza and tenor Jose Randy Gilongo. Mayor Lito Atienza delivered a spiel, after which Maestro Eugene Castillo led the orchestra, sopranos Alegria Ocampo Ferrer and Maria Katrina Saporsantos, mezzo Agnes Garcia Barredo, tenor Gilongo, baritone Noel Azcona and the Philippine Normal University Chorale in a reading of J. S. Bach’s Magnificat in D, BWV 243.
However, all the Baroque magnificence of Bach was lost on me despite Maestro Castillo’s annotations. What should rise to heaven’s gate as a joyous paean to the Virgin Mary rang in my ears like a dirge. Blame the musicians, the plaza, the vehicular traffic on the boulevard, the magpies in the audience chattering mindlessly. And blame my ears still numb from the wild ride on Ariel’s flying machine. As an afterthought, I think that the lace-like intricacies of the master composers counterpoint can be projected in all its Baroque splendor only inside the CCP Main Theater.
Ariel Ramirez’ Navidad Nuestra came off more successfully with its evocation of the first Christmas and its familiar Latin-American musical idiom. Even more absorbing was Michael Thorne’s After a Toccata, an esoteric mind-bending exercise on Bach’s greatest hit, Toccata and Fugue in D Minor for organ, which evokes memories of Vincent Price’s horror flicks.
The spirited and tuneful Huapango by Mexican composer Jose Pablo Moncayo had a wisp of our Mexican-Spanish past. So did Suite of 16th Century Carols arranged by Cecinio Ronquillo.
Cayabyab’s Kumukutikutitap and O Come All Ye Faithful concluded the concert along with a display of fireworks. As always, the program notes of Michaela Steinberg are nothing less than superb.
I need to give credit to the outstanding singers of the PNU Chorale.
Less than a cannon shot away from this plaza lies Nicotina Garden Pavillion where director Bart Guingona and producer Bibsy Carballo staged a production that’s one of a kind, Ten Times Ten. This is an anthology of short-shorts that runs the gamut from farce to pathos. The gallery of characters includes a matron with a passion for theater, a rock star leaving his friends for a concert tour, two lonely souls trapped in a Ferris wheel, a guy indulging in phone sex, a man who thinks he can’t dance, a janitor mimicking the boss, two women confessing their secrets, two brothers bonding over a bowl of soup, and people rehearsing for a wedding ceremony. Like the changing shapes and colors of a kaleidoscope, this show focuses on those meaningful moments that reveal insights into the human condition. A brilliant cast breathed life into these characters – Adriana Agcaoili, Alma Concepcion, Ces Quesada, Michael de Mesa, Ricky Davao, Richard Signey and, outshining everyone else, Bodjie Pascua. His diyanitor doing an imitation of his boss and his middle-aged bachelor, squirming tossing and twisting this way and that in dire agony to hold his piss in the bladder as he groans impotent beside an old maid in a Ferris wheel trapped in mid-air, is simply a riot.
Over at the Carlos P. Romulo Theater in Makati City, The Royal Norwegian Embassy and the Filipino-Norwegian society presented a Dramatis Personae production of Henrik Ibsen’s Lady from the Sea. Designed and directed by Lito Casaje, the play, set in a small town by the fjond, tells the strange obsession of the young second wife, Ellida (Lesley Anne Leveriza) of a country doctor, Dr. Wangel (Alfonso Deza). A handsome stranger (Bon Reyes) from her past reappears and entices her to leave the doctor and sail away with him, foisting upon her a choice between romance and reality.
The rest of the cast includes, among others, Kim Bartolome, Krystel Dionisio, Daniel Robert Magisa and Dingdong Rosales. This production is likely to be remembered for its atmospheric evocation of a Norwegian mid-summer and Deza’s restrained but strong portrayal of the doctor.
At the Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater in UP Diliman, the attraction is Dulaang UP’s production of Tipunin Itong Taghoy: The Miguel Hernandez Project, a trilingual theatrical pastiche which recounts the short life of a poet fighting the forces of fascism in his native Spain. A tour-de-force of stagecraft firmly anchored on the poems of Hernandez, the play, which fuses poetry, drama, music and dance, employs a whole arsenal of arms to project the horrors of civil war. Director Jose Estrella, script and Filipino translator Ronan Capinding, a host of artistic and production staff, composers Joey Ayala and Lex Marcos and the boys and girls in the cast deserve accolade for their resurrection of an icon of Spanish literature descended from a poor family of goatherds.
Lex Marcos deserves special mention not only for his musical contribution but also for his sensitive portrayal of Miguel Hernandez, freedom fighter and poet.
For comments, reactions, suggestions, and invitations, send e-mail to jessqcruz@hotmail.com.
In a musical like Repertory Philippines’ The Wizard of Oz, director Baby Barredo makes full use of her mastery of stagecraft to put into harness a gifted cast of talents such that Cara Barredo who plays Dorothy, with all her girlish charm, can scarcely outshine the theatrical alchemy of Baby.
In the final presentation of the Filipino Artists Series, guitarist Manuel Cabrera II had the stage of the CCP Little Theater all to himself and the full attention of an enthralled audience.
Several factors determine why a performing artist with a group outshines the others: advanced studies under a scholarship in America or Europe, prestigious awards, and sheer genius.
Maestro Ruggero Barbieri was given a warm welcome by the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, which responded to him briskly like a spirited stallion to a familiar rider. Eine Nacht Musik was presented by the CCP and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in celebration of the 2004 Philippine-German Month.
The maestro and the orchestra delivered a magisterial account of Bernstein’s Overture to Candide and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 in F Major. The evening, however, belonged to young German violinist Angelo Bard who essayed Haydn’s Violin Concerto in C Major with Maestro Barbieri and the PPO. Classical grace and youthful restraint informed this reading, in addition to a soulful Adagio that crowned this account.
In contrast to the Haydn was Sarasate’s Introduction and Tarantelle with its wild Gypsy rhythms, which Bard served with the uninhibited flamboyance of youth.
In the world that he moves around in, boy wonders are a dime-a-dozen. He needs to keep moving up to higher and higher levels of excellence. Judging from his accomplishments in the past, his performance at the CCP (and his exotic name) I can safely say he can make it to the top.
The PPO’s Concert IV: Holiday Nights was held at the Raja Sulayman Park in front of Malate Church. To get to this place from the University Belt in the horrendous early evening traffic of Friday, I had to rely on Ariel and his motorbike to get me there on time. I clung to him for dear life as we zigzagged our way, my companion a daredevil member of the Hell’s Angels, who squeezed our way through traffic in defiance of the laws of physics. But he did get us in one piece to the church on time, bless his soul!
The opener was the familiar Foster-Bayer Sager’s The Prayer, often heard in weddings these days – here rendered by pop singer Angela Lei Atienza and tenor Jose Randy Gilongo. Mayor Lito Atienza delivered a spiel, after which Maestro Eugene Castillo led the orchestra, sopranos Alegria Ocampo Ferrer and Maria Katrina Saporsantos, mezzo Agnes Garcia Barredo, tenor Gilongo, baritone Noel Azcona and the Philippine Normal University Chorale in a reading of J. S. Bach’s Magnificat in D, BWV 243.
However, all the Baroque magnificence of Bach was lost on me despite Maestro Castillo’s annotations. What should rise to heaven’s gate as a joyous paean to the Virgin Mary rang in my ears like a dirge. Blame the musicians, the plaza, the vehicular traffic on the boulevard, the magpies in the audience chattering mindlessly. And blame my ears still numb from the wild ride on Ariel’s flying machine. As an afterthought, I think that the lace-like intricacies of the master composers counterpoint can be projected in all its Baroque splendor only inside the CCP Main Theater.
Ariel Ramirez’ Navidad Nuestra came off more successfully with its evocation of the first Christmas and its familiar Latin-American musical idiom. Even more absorbing was Michael Thorne’s After a Toccata, an esoteric mind-bending exercise on Bach’s greatest hit, Toccata and Fugue in D Minor for organ, which evokes memories of Vincent Price’s horror flicks.
The spirited and tuneful Huapango by Mexican composer Jose Pablo Moncayo had a wisp of our Mexican-Spanish past. So did Suite of 16th Century Carols arranged by Cecinio Ronquillo.
Cayabyab’s Kumukutikutitap and O Come All Ye Faithful concluded the concert along with a display of fireworks. As always, the program notes of Michaela Steinberg are nothing less than superb.
I need to give credit to the outstanding singers of the PNU Chorale.
Less than a cannon shot away from this plaza lies Nicotina Garden Pavillion where director Bart Guingona and producer Bibsy Carballo staged a production that’s one of a kind, Ten Times Ten. This is an anthology of short-shorts that runs the gamut from farce to pathos. The gallery of characters includes a matron with a passion for theater, a rock star leaving his friends for a concert tour, two lonely souls trapped in a Ferris wheel, a guy indulging in phone sex, a man who thinks he can’t dance, a janitor mimicking the boss, two women confessing their secrets, two brothers bonding over a bowl of soup, and people rehearsing for a wedding ceremony. Like the changing shapes and colors of a kaleidoscope, this show focuses on those meaningful moments that reveal insights into the human condition. A brilliant cast breathed life into these characters – Adriana Agcaoili, Alma Concepcion, Ces Quesada, Michael de Mesa, Ricky Davao, Richard Signey and, outshining everyone else, Bodjie Pascua. His diyanitor doing an imitation of his boss and his middle-aged bachelor, squirming tossing and twisting this way and that in dire agony to hold his piss in the bladder as he groans impotent beside an old maid in a Ferris wheel trapped in mid-air, is simply a riot.
Over at the Carlos P. Romulo Theater in Makati City, The Royal Norwegian Embassy and the Filipino-Norwegian society presented a Dramatis Personae production of Henrik Ibsen’s Lady from the Sea. Designed and directed by Lito Casaje, the play, set in a small town by the fjond, tells the strange obsession of the young second wife, Ellida (Lesley Anne Leveriza) of a country doctor, Dr. Wangel (Alfonso Deza). A handsome stranger (Bon Reyes) from her past reappears and entices her to leave the doctor and sail away with him, foisting upon her a choice between romance and reality.
The rest of the cast includes, among others, Kim Bartolome, Krystel Dionisio, Daniel Robert Magisa and Dingdong Rosales. This production is likely to be remembered for its atmospheric evocation of a Norwegian mid-summer and Deza’s restrained but strong portrayal of the doctor.
At the Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater in UP Diliman, the attraction is Dulaang UP’s production of Tipunin Itong Taghoy: The Miguel Hernandez Project, a trilingual theatrical pastiche which recounts the short life of a poet fighting the forces of fascism in his native Spain. A tour-de-force of stagecraft firmly anchored on the poems of Hernandez, the play, which fuses poetry, drama, music and dance, employs a whole arsenal of arms to project the horrors of civil war. Director Jose Estrella, script and Filipino translator Ronan Capinding, a host of artistic and production staff, composers Joey Ayala and Lex Marcos and the boys and girls in the cast deserve accolade for their resurrection of an icon of Spanish literature descended from a poor family of goatherds.
Lex Marcos deserves special mention not only for his musical contribution but also for his sensitive portrayal of Miguel Hernandez, freedom fighter and poet.
BrandSpace Articles
<
>
