Blind pianist Ibay awes singing in Puccini opera / Tenor Peñaverde NY debut

Early this year, the US-based blind pianist Carlos Ibay performed at an invitation recital in the residence of FilFest president Vicky F. Zubiri. To the immense surprise of the audience Ibay then sang two operatic arias.

To my own greater surprise, I recently received a notice that pianist Ibay gave his vocal debut as Mario Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca. The announcement follows: The Rosina Macie Jko Developing Artist Program of the American Center for Puccini Studies (Puccini America) presented an excellent concert version of Puccini’s tragic and violent melodrama Tosca in Silver Spring, Maryland, at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church.

The production featured young emerging vocal artists with the superb and seasoned Puccini veteran Kay Krekow in the starring role of Florina Tosca.

Puccini America’s emerging artist program is comparable to that of the Washington National Opera. It takes highly screened and exceptional vocal talents who are ready to embark upon a professional career, and gives them the final polishing they need in stage deportment, lyric diction, interpretation, ensemble, etc. with the definite distinction being the emphasis on the performance style and tradition of Puccini’s operas. In reference to lyric diction, it was indeed remarkable to hear such clear and idiomatic Italian being sung by all the artists.

Carlos Ibay, who was making his vocal debut as Mario Cavaradossi, is an extraordinary talent. He has been blind since birth, and working with such a severe handicap he is, in addition to being the possessor of a beautiful lyric voice, a breathtakingly virtuoso pianist. In fact, he opened the concert, in lieu of an overture, with the Liszt piano paraphrase on Verdi’s Rigoletto! It was a dazzling performance and radioed to the audience, in no uncertain terms, that this was not to be just another presentation of Tosca.

Mr. Ibay did not certainly disappoint in the opera. His opening aria, “Recondita armonia”, ran with a clarion brilliance and a very secure top Bb. His singing was consistent throughout the performance, and his voice had plenty of the required “oompf” and squillo for Cavaradossi’s impassioned outbursts. He had also an abundance of charm, suavity and tenderness, which he diplayed in the first act love duet with Ms. Krekow, and in his final aria “E lucevan le stelle”. Carlos Ibay is a handsome young man who is also fluent in four or five languages. With so much going for him, providing he can acquire, with luck, the promotion of an Andrea Bocelli, he could have a very promising career. ACPC must be heartily thanked for their support and promotion of this truly deserving young artist.

Roger Peñaverde’s NY debut

The young Filipino tenor Rogelio Peñaverde Jr. will have his New York debut as Don Ottavio in Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni on July 16, 7:30 p.m. at the Kaye Playhouse, Hunter’s College, New York City.

The opera is being produced by the Martina Arroyo Foundation, the same organization that presented Mozart’s “Magic Flute” in the same venue, wherein Peñaverde Jr., a scholar of the Foundation, was Prince Tamino in also his debut performance.

Rogelio gave a highly successful solo concert last April 30 in New York City under the auspices of the Felipe Padilla de Leon Foundation, Inc.

Sunico-Caces piano duet

The proliferation of excellent pianists continues to astound music lovers. Within a short time, Oliver Salonga, Reynaldo Reyes, the brilliant 15-year old Lorenzo Medel performed. International concertists Raul Sunico and Aries Caces will be heard in “Piano Duet” on July 10, 7 p.m. at Philamlife Theater, and Rudolf Golez in Alabang’s Philamlife Theater on July 30.

It is an unending cause for surprise how the highly acclaimed Sunico can still manage to concertize despite his heavy burdens as CCP president and dean of the UST Conservatory of Music.

A graduate of the Juilliard School of Music in New York, he has concertized and continues to do so in America, Europe and Asia, and to serve as jury member in major competitions abroad.

Austria-based Caces, concert pianist, chamber musician, repetiteur and conductor, was earlier named one of the “Gems of the Philippine Music Scene”. He is a graduate of the Academy of Music in Vienna under its foremost pianist, musicologist and pedagogue Paul Badura Skoda. After graduation, he was invited to teach at the prestigious school, the first Filipino to do so in its long history.

The program includes Brahms’ Variation on the theme of Haydn, Lutoslavski’s Paganini Variation, Chopin’s Rondo Op. 73, Poulenc’s Sonata for Four Hands, and Liszt’s Pathetique Concerto.

The concert will be for the benefit of orphans of Concordia’s Children Services, Inc.