Harana: Bravo!/ Rustie as brilliant liar

Philippine Opera Co.’s Harana at the RCBC auditorium garnered prolonged, deafening applause. Why? The program was vividly, identifiably, colorfully Filipino; it was cohesively and innovatively assembled; its remarkable singers were equally remarkable dancers-actors who lent credence to the claim of the early Spanish historian Fr. Chinino, SJ. that Filipinos have inherent talent in music and dance.

Further, Harana most persuasively asserted the exquisite lyricism of our songs through sopranos Ma. Florence Aguilar, Deeda Barretto, Ana Feleo and Karla Gutierrez, tenors Juan Alberto Gaerlan and Sherwin Sozon and baritones Lawrence Jatayna and Jack Salud. Seasoned and poised, they conveyed varying degrees of technical skill and artistic sensitivity, calling for performance ratings of 90 percent and above as they dramatized — danced or acted out — the songs.

Harana was a mini-encapsulation of Philippine culture: the non-Christian North (Cordillera) and South (Mindanao and Jolo) and the Hispanized, Christianized regions (Luzon and Visayas). Thus, Harana had the Igorot Suite, the Maria Clara Suite, the Rural Suite, the Muslim Suite, ending with folk songs and contemporary classics.

A felicitously and judiciously chosen screen image heightened the impact of each suite, while explaining its locale onstage, with a few images not quite adding significant value to certain episodes. Each suite was rich in ambiance; humorous touches were delightful and amusing, the costumes, lavish, sumptuous and elegant. One wondered, however, whether those for the Rural Suite, while retaining their elegance, should have been as lavish and sumptuous.

Choreography was imaginative; clever stage direction made for a fast-moving spectacle that enchanted and fascinated throughout. (The names of the choreographer and stage director were not in the program).

The nationalistic climax came when all eight singers, facing a huge flag as backdrop rendered Ang Bayan Kong Pilipinas, their thunderous voices — magnified by amplifiers — stirring the audience which listened in awe and admiration, each one present taking genuine pride in being Filipino and in witnessing Harana!

The show hewed to the Philippine Opera Co.’s commitment to preserve indigenous Philippine music and its appropriate dance and folklore and to present the Filipino image at its best. Harana should be shown here and abroad again and again.

Asked to speak at the FEU launching of Dr. Rustica Carpio’s book Shuttling through Stage and Screen, I said the following: “It is a great honor and privilege to have been asked to say a few words about Dr. Rustica Carpio, eminent stage and screen actress and director. Rustie and I have been friends for longer than my feminine vanity will allow me to admit, and I have admired her immensely for this length of time as one of the most brilliant liars onstage.

“Let me explain. The great British actor Richard Burton, whom I saw as Hamlet on Broadway in a modern version, once said that the actor is the only man onstage who knows he is lying. When Rustie acts, she knows she is lying. In person, she is quiet, modest and unassuming but she forgets her own personality and immerses herself totally into the role of a wily, deceitful woman or a boastful charlatan or a jealous wife.

“After her portrayal, she again becomes the quiet, modest, unassuming person she is. As a liar, she has inspired thousands of young thespians and her own peers and will continue to be the inimitable liar she is onstage to the lusty applause of theater-goers.

“Congratulations, Rustie, for the incomparable memories of stage and screen that are encapsulated in your book.”

At the launching, Ronan Ferrer gave a vocal rendition, FEU President Dr. Lydia B. Echauz welcomed the guests, Martin Lopez, executive director of the President’s Committee on Culture, recited a poem, and Rustie as Lady Macbeth re-enacted the sleep-walking scene from Macbeth.

National Artist in Literature F. Sionil Jose and his wife Tessie headed those present.