Una Notte d’ Incanto: An eloquent bonding

Within recent memory, music lovers could not have appreciated a more eloquent bonding between Italian and Filipino artists than what was demonstrated by Una Notte d’ Incanto, the benefit concert presented by the Phil-Italian Association (headed by Nedy Tantoco) to mark its 40th year.

Soprano Camille Lopez, who has received training abroad and who is doubtless one of our leading sopranos today, and Nolyn Cabahug, our best home-grown tenor who is of world-class caliber, exquisitely interpreted Italian arias; Italian Ruggero Barbieri, wielding the baton over the PPO, sensitively conducted Italian or Italian-inspired overtures; the redoubtable concert pianist Cecile Licad, for the entire second half of the program, held the audience in thrall during her rendition of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini with orchestral accompaniment.

Camille’s voice – fresh, translucent, evenly-timbered – sailed with ease through the high and low registers of the aria Ritorna Vincitor (from Aida). It was most gratifying to witness a young soprano demonstrate progress both in artistry and technique as she expressed with sustained vocal power and clarity of diction the varying emotions of the slave girl Aida. It was equally moving to listen to her delineation of the other tragic figure, Madama Butterfly, in Un bel di vedremo. Both roles are dramatically challenging: The first reflects conflicting loyalties owed to a father on the one hand, and to a lover on the other; the second conveys the valiant optimism of a Japanese woman in the face of imminent abandonment and betrayal by her American spouse.

Camille carried off both portrayals with poise and aplomb, her gestures measured and restrained.

His presence imposing as always, Nolyn was in top form, his voice resonant and mellifluous, his high notes firm, unwavering and, indeed, exciting whenever it attained its full volume. He was obviously undaunted by the fact that Nessum Dorma (from Turandot) was (is) virtually the signature aria of the great Pavarotti. Through his own highly impressive performance that night, Nolyn continues to retain his position among our finest tenors.

The duet Ah! Lo vedi . . . No, no Turiddu (from Cavalleria Rusticana) followed after the orchestral Intermezzo which, under Conductor Barbieri’s baton, alternately expressed dramatic fury and lyrical tranquility, this conveyed through beautiful melodies, with the strings "sighing".

In that duet, rendered by Camille and Nolyn, there was a remarkable convergence of musical instinct, musicianship, spirit, substance and style. That particular operatic duet gave me the impression of a lyric soprano and a lyric tenor singing together – however else they might be classified — such was the blending of vocal timbers.

Barbieri was in his element in the overtures — I Vespri Siciliani, the Intermezzo – and in Berlioz’s Roman Carnival. The lyricism pervading in them was beautifully expressed, with the harp and the strings pointing up that quality to express the pathos and the anguish contained in the operas themselves. The Intermezzo was particularly moving.

Cecile’s virtuosity generated the usual edge-of-the-seat excitement among her coterie of fans, combined as it is with incredible vitality and vibrancy, and her characteristic intensity and fire. Call it passion, if you will. The alchemy was all there again that night.

Yet, though she sounded like a hurricane at the height of its fury, she showed the keenest sensitivity, delicacy and restraint in the lyrical section, its melody constituting one of the most exquisite in piano literature.

With uncommon generosity, she rewarded the clamoring audience with four etudes, breezing astonishingly through an excerpt of Liszt’s St. Francis Walking over the Waves and Chopin’s Black Keys Etude which she had played in Malacañang as a teenager for Van Cliburn. Now, there is no difference between Cecile’s left and right hand whether it hurdles chords, runs, arpeggios. She proved her wizardry — once more — at the concert.