Emir/Spanish poet honored/Alexis/Katrina's US tour

“Emir”, an original, full-length Filipino musical directed by multi-awarded Chito S. Roño, is due for release soon.

Set in a fictional ME emirate, and mostly shot in Morocco, “Emir” tells the story of a Filipino nanny Amelia, played by singer Frencheska Farr, who takes care of the Sheik’s oldest son Ahmed. Amelia teaches Ahmed Filipino values.

A war ensues; Amelia and Ahmed escape to the desert but are separated eventually. Years later, they meet in the Philippines.

Executive producers are Rolando S. Atienza, Nes Jardin, and Digna H. Santiago. Story is by Jerry Gracio; musical director Josefino Toledo directs the PPO; composers are Gary Granada, Vin and Ebe Dancel, Diwa de Leon and Toledo. Librettists are G. Granada, J. Gracio and Rody Vera; editor is Jerrold Tarog; choreographer is Douglas Nierras.

Other singing nannies are Dulce (who most impressively performed for the press), Beverly Salviejo, Liesl Batucan, Melanie Dujunco, Kalila Aguilos and Julia Clarete.

Lex Marcos’ art exhibit “El Eco”, a tribute to the celebrated Spanish poet Miguel Hernandez, opened last Friday at Galerie Anna in cooperation with Instituto Cervantes. Guests of honor were Spanish Ambassador Luis and Soledad Arias Romero.

Readings were based on Hernandez’s life and works, with interpretation in Spanish by IC director Jose Rodriguez; in Tagalog, by Ito Rivera; in English, by Cid Reyes.

Marcos’ paintings “weave tales of war and love, struggle and triumph, family and solitude, creating a portal into the historical and personal, breaching the realm of the modern — the colors, shadows and linear squiggles resonating with Hernandez’s works”.

The richly talented Alexis Edralin, 28, finally succumbed to leukemia.

In 2008, she performed in a benefit concert for Nolyn Cabahug. A NAMCYA winner at 17, Alexis sang during the Millennium Concert assisted by the PPO.

Her obituary reads: “The voice has been stilled but her beautiful music and the pride and joy she left behind we will cherish forever”. Music personalities Ramon Santos and Irma P. Enrile were at her wake. Alexis was the grand-daughter of Max Edralin Jr. whose wife of 52 years, Fe, died days earlier than Alexis. My deepest condolence.

After a long hiatus, the Metropolitan, the “Grande Dame” of theaters, reopened recently with “Senakulo” directed by Lou Velasco, songs by Pilita Corrales and an excerpt from Isagani Cruz’s zarzuela “Baler sa Puso Ko”.

The KALAHI aims to prove the Met a haven for creativity and cultural diversity. The Met was designed by Juan Arellano; its murals were by Fernando Amorsolo; its sculptured works by Italian Francesco Monti.

Inaugurated in 1931, the Met staged zarzuelas and operas until it was damaged by WWII. Reconstructed, it eventually closed in 1996.

At the soft launch were Mayor Alfredo Lim, Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, DepEd Secretary Mona Valisno, Cecile Guidote Alvarez, Malou Jacob, Gemma Cruz, Gloria Romero, German Moreno and Bodgie Pascua.

Soprano Katrina Saporsantos, Master of Music graduate, Manhattan School of Music, and winner of the 2008 Eisenberg-Fried Concerto Competition, will give a recital “Autobiography of an Opera Singer” at the New Jersey Public Library on May 23, and concerts in San Francisco and New York. At the Manhattan School Opera Studio, she was Mimi in La Boheme, Leonore in Il Trovatore, Cio Cio San in Madame Butterfly, among other roles.

She sang accompanied by the Manhattan Philharmonia in Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, and was in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with MSM Symphony Orchestra at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.