One year in the making! A group of 10 very passionate members in the Ikebana International Chapter 108, namely, Banj and Mike Claparols, Connie Gonzalez, Joy Balatbat, Baby Buñag, Monsie David, Izza Hallare, Piedad Roman, Nancy Uy and Dellie Yap put their minds and resources together to come up with an ikebana show to be staged this February.
“Ikebana Meets Opera” finally jelled into fruition and was presented to the Manila membership at Arya Residences this month. The chosen opera was Turandot and each arranger creatively interpreted characters in the work of Giacomo Puccini, as produced by the avant-garde Japanese filmmaker and artist Teshigahara Hiroshi in Lyon (1992) and Geneva (1996).
The artistic work of Teshigahara in Europe was complemented by costume designer Mori Omi. Aptly, the presenters in the group were garbed in the style of modern-day Japanese designer Issey Miyake. The event turned out to be quite a fashion show.
Ikebana, or the Japanese art of flower arrangement, put the members’ skills to the test when they had to embody the opera’s characters Princess Turandot, her father, Emperor Altoum, the unknown Prince Calaf, slave girl Liu, the three ministers of the imperial household Ping, Pang and Pong, and the three riddles of Princess Turandot. The flower arrangements emerged as clever interpretations of Puccini’s characters.
Filipino craftmanship from Laguna, Cebu, Bicol and the United States was proudly showcased: the hand-formed works in pottery of Hadrian Mendoza, Maria Cecilia Magdamit and John Pettyjohn used as containers helped to project the arrangers’ creations to the planned effect.
On the side were murals made of coconut spathe imaginatively executed on canvas by Joy Balatbat and Connie Gonzalez.
What an art show it was! As pracitioners of ikebana are forever on the search for new materials to employ, the coconut spathe, bamboo and pandan — all from the Philippines — were put to good use, and the results were stunning.