Lisa radiantly exquisite / Gerard Salonga electrifies

In its audacious and innovative attempt to widen the appeal of ballet, and to give more substance to Lisa Macuja Elizalde’s title “Ballerina of the people”, Ballet Manila presented “Ballet, Band and Ballads”, with the pop music provided by Side A.

I did not quite relate to Side A, being a generation (or two) removed from it. The enchanting melodies of such Broadway musicals as “The Sound of Music,” “South Pacific,” “My Fair Lady” are much more to my liking. At any rate, Ballet Manila roundly succeeded in reaching out to the public, the full Aliw Theater roaring and screaming its delight as Side A members performed the audience lustily singing their songs while dancers turned and twirled to them.

“Les Sylphides” by Bam Damian is not the first choreography of his I remember seeing and many of his works have drawn praise.

Traditionally, sylphs, nymphs and fairies belong to the gentler sex. Hewing closely to the title “Les Sylphides”, tutus were attached to the white shorts of the male dancers to suggest they were ethereal and female creatures. Despite the tutus, the virile and masculine movements — doubtless skilled and disciplined — could not portray the dancers as sylphs, the title of the choreography notwithstanding.

The program notes state: “Masculine dynamics replaces the melancholy of ethereal sylphs. A ‘white ballet’ of men … a genre rarely seen in the world of dance.” So be it. But the number for reasons cited, appeared incongruous. Illogical. Others may think otherwise. A satiric approach would have been effective.

Refinement and elegance defined the Grand Pas Classique performed by Russian ballerina Elena Chernova who was most competently partnered by Nazer Salgado. They danced to the music of Daniel Auber and the choreography of Alexande Gorsky who collaborated with Petipa on Don Quixote. The lyrical flowing style transported viewers to an elevated realm.

The realm became even more elevated, more rarified as Lisa Macuja, partnered by Rudy de Dios, glided with exquisite grace in “Summer End” to Chopin’s Concerto in E Minor played by no less than pianist Van Cliburn. The restrained, superbly measured movements, the arresting pauses, the buoyant lifts with Lisa towering onstage in startling poses — all these conveyed the loftiest expression of love between a boy and a girl. With Lisa radiantly exquisite in the pas de deux, the program reached a sublime moment.

“Love Beyond Goodbye”, with choreography, concept, costume and light design by Manuel Molina, was to the music of singing sensation Josh Groban.

Molina made the huge cast engage in riveting poses, fevered and often riotous movement, arresting, statuesque group formations. Five pairs, conveying enduring love, went through spectacular and dazzling lifts (which often bordered on the acrobatic), executed with remarkable skill. The pairs were Sofia Sangco Peralta and Alfren Salgado — (Un Giorno por Noi), Yanti Marduli and Nazer Salgado (To Where You Are), Zaira Cosico and Rudy de Dios (La Ultima Notte), Mylene Aggabao Salgado and Francis Cascaño (Alejate), Czarina Villegas and Ricardo Mallari (Perte). Their message of eternal love came through with charming eloquence. In sum, ballet that afternoon widened its appeal while the public reiterated its craze for current pop music.

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Words like “thunder and lightning,” “fire and brimstone,” “power and dynamism” came to mind as the Filharmonika played under conductor Gerard Salonga. In the concert sponsored by Barangay-Bel Air headed by Punong Constancia Q. Lichauco, Glinka’s rousing overture to “Russlan and Ludmilla” and Tchaikovsky’s similarly rousing “1812 Overture” shook the rafters.

Songs from films and Broadway musicals, light classics and kundimans signified Salonga’s admirable versatility and expertise in widely diverse musical idioms, while showing off his obviously disciplined, thoroughly rehearsed and highly talented young musicians: the tightly cohesive strings, the firmly focused, unerring woodwinds and brasses, the compelling percussions.

Soloists maintained the strictest standards of performance: concert master Divina Francisco in John Williams’ “Star Wars” and principal cellist Edgardo Pasamba in Cenizal’s Hindi Kita Malimot.

Lyrical passages, e.g., in the latter part of “1810 Overture” might have been played more gently, more softly to contrast starkly with the pounding, robustly rhythmic, stirring portions. Nevertheless, Salonga’s vibrant, fiery, powerful baton-wielding was daunting and difficult to match. He remains one of our leading, most sough-after conductors, and arguably, our youngest.