Bernal honored at CCP rites

MANILA, Philippines - National Artists, arts officials and members of the arts community paid tribute yesterday to National Artist for Theater and Design Salvador Bernal at necrological rites at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).

Bernal died of cardiac arrest last Oct. 26 at the age of 66.

National Artists for Visual Arts Napoleon Abueva and BenCab, and for Literature F. Sionil Jose, Virgilio Almario and Bienvenido Lumbera offered white tulips to their fellow artist as the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra played a moving intermezzo from Mascagni’s opera Cavaleria Rusticana.

Dancers of Ballet Philippines (BP) performed an excerpt of Denisa Reyes’ Te Deum, one of hundreds of pieces that Bernal had designed for the company.

BP founder Alice Reyes spoke of her long and fruitful collaboration with Bernal, as did fellow teacher at the Ateneo Sonia Roco and fellow theater worker Nonon Padilla. Emily Abrera and Felipe de Leon Jr., chairs of the CCP and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, respectively, cited his extensive contributions to the arts industry.

Bernal’s protegé and heir apparent Gino Gonzales gave a moving tribute to his mentor.

A 200-voice choir performed Oscar Escalada’s Candomble as confetti rained down on Bernal’s casket set on a floral dais on the stage of the CCP’s Main Theater, the scene of most of his outstanding sets and costumes for dance, opera and theater.

Bernal, named National Artist in 2003, was cited for his extensive body of over 300 designs, and for using inexpensive local materials like bamboo, abaca and katsa fabric to meet the usually limited budgets of local productions.

In so doing, “he exemplified the versatility of Filipino materials for design and proved that the poverty of a production need not imply a poverty of the imagination.” 

From the CCP, his body was taken to the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City for a Mass, then family and friends escorted Bernal to Dagupan City, the place of his birth.

He will be given burial honors befitting a national hero as Dagupan Mayor Benjamin Lim ordered the lowering of flags to half mast in all government buildings to mourn his death.

As the acknowledged guru of contemporary Filipino theater design, Bernal had shared his talent and knowledge with younger designers through his classes at the University of the Philippines and the Ateneo.

He also conceptualized programs for the CCP Production Design Center, which he organized. To promote and professionalize theater design, Bernal organized the Philippine Association of Theatre Designers and Technicians (PATDAT) in 1995.

Dagupeños will pay their last respects to this titan of the world of theater as the city government will hold honors for him at the Museo ng Dagupan.

His elder sister, Teresita Bernal Tabora, said interment rites will be held at noon on Nov. 2 at the Eternal Gardens in Dagupan City.