Passion: Love, lust & obsession

MANILA, Philippines — Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Award-winning musical Passion is perhaps one of the most romantic tragedies ever written for the stage. Directed by Robbie Guevara, the world-class staging of the musical by the Philippine Opera Company (POC) dissects the power of love to turn one from feeling absolute revulsion towards one who shamelessly displays her affection, to a feeling of quiet understanding, caring and longing for her.

Passion comes to life in the contrast between two leading ladies — Clara, a young and luscious, but very much married woman, and Fosca, a painfully sick and miserable, but immensely passionate lady, and how the lead male character, military officer Giorgio, reacts to each of them. Giorgio’s love for the beautiful socialite Clara is purely carnal. The steamy and erotic opening scene depicts the lustful chemistry between the two. But when he is reassigned to a remote area of Northern Italy, the handsome Giorgio meets Fosca, a plain-looking, pathetic woman suffering from pain and illness. For her, it was love at first sight. Giorgio, on the other hand, detests her and ignores her scathingly at the start. Madly in love, Fosca stalks him and desperately throws herself at him at every opportunity.

The seemingly heartless Giorgio, who is followed even on the train by the very sick Fosca on his way to visit his beautiful paramour Clara, suddenly realizes that he has never been loved by anyone as much as Fosca. It is then that Giorgio discovers the greatness of the soul of the lonely Fosca. Clearing his mind and heart when his lover Clara declares that she could never leave her husband for him, Giorgio finds himself slowly returning Fosca’s affection. Fate, however, does not reward their love long enough as Fosca succumbs to illness. The tragedy of Fosca’s death changes the young officer completely. He now understands that love within reason is not true love.

Passion perfectly casts Shiela Valderrama as Fosca. Shiela holds the audience in the palm of her hand from the moment she steps onstage. She sang the touching Loving You with so much intensity and emotion. Truly, only a performer like Shiela can breathe life into this difficult role that quickly shifts from genuine affection to intense obsession. Her Fosca is delicate yet impassioned, deceitful yet sympathetic.

In this production, the POC, led by Karla Gutierrez, placed its bet on a relative newbie, Vien King, to be its male lead, and the company certainly proves itself as Vien turns into a star as Giorgio — sensitive and sincere in all his scenes. Jasmine Fitzgerald, on the other hand, is dazzling and vocally impressive as Clara. Her beauty radiates in the lovely, lavish Victorian-era period costumes designed by Zenaida Gutierrez.  Lorenz Martinez (Doctor Tambourri), Raul Montesa (Colonel Ricci) and Noel Rayos (Lt. Torasso) provide excellent cast support.

(Passion will run until Sept. 29, both for evening and matinee performances, at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Makati City. For tickets, call the Philippine Opera Company at 0917-6452946 or TicketWorld at 891-9999.)