The year 2002 in retrospect

Janus, after whom the first month of the year was named, had two faces. The ancient Roman god of ends and beginnings looked back to the old year and looked forward to the new. The Filipino cynic is certain to paint the old face with a grimace of dismay, disgust, or disappointment.

What ever happened to the annual week-long Las Piñas Bamboo Organ Festival? Was it held at all? Many foreign musicians from America and Europe used to be invited to the festival along with local artists. Without the zeal of Miles Morgan, its former music director, the Las Piñas fest has gone to pot.

I also miss the Old Manila Classics series which presented concerts in nine old churches before Christmas Day. Violin virtuoso Alfonso "Coke" Bolipata is the moving spirit behind this yearend festival. Project coordinator Ditas Gomez and marketing director Bonjin Bolinao could not get enough funding to support the enterprise. A great pity…

What about the appearance in Manila of mega-diva Kiri Te Kanawa? Did she cancel her concert here because of bomb threats, or was it all a scam? And blind tenor Andrea Boccelli – was he scared away by the terrorists, too?

What ever happened to Bankard Performance Arts series? I had so enjoyed their Bankard Trilogy directed by Jonas Sebastian and Bart Guingona. Bart’s TNT series presented by Actor’s Actors had been landmarks in the local theater as it had staged rarities like Francis and Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, among others. It seems that he scaled down the activities of his company last year.

Tanghalang Pilipino has also sunk into the swamps.

In January 2002, CCP’s resident drama company had detonated a super-lolo with a production of Carlo Goldoni’s The Liar transfigured into Pilipino by Ony de Leon into Ang Sinungaling, and staged by theater magus Nonon Padilla as a mind-boggling spectacle in Mandarin red that satirized the Chinoy culture of contemporary Philippine society. Nonon transformed Goldoni’s Venice and the conventions of the commedia dell’arte and comedia erudate into the exotic realm of Beijing opera (sans the feline vocalism) and tai chi. Sheer theatrical wizardry!

The following month, Nonon directed Paul Dumol’s shocker, Ang Pagpatay kay Luna, a thoroughly documented account of the assassination of the revolutionary general by his own people, a plot exposing the treachery of our heroes in the revolution against Spain. A mind-opener for our own nationalists and a call for our history books to be revised for the sake of historical truth.

After these two plays staged by TP, Nonon went on leave and the company sank into quagmire except for one shining moment when it rose briefly to the sunlight in August when it presented Malou Jacob’s Anatomiya ng Korupsyon under the deft direction of Dennis Marasigan.

Not just a flash in the pan but a brilliance that lighted up a dim horizon was Trumpet’s musical allegory, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, with a libretto by Luna Griño-Inocian and Jaime del Mundo and music by Lito Villarreal.

Anton Juan is one figure in Philippine theater who thrives on controversy. Trust him to direct the greatest play in Philippine literature and transform Nick Joaquin’s "Elegy in Three Scenes" into a gay play. The World Theatre Project and Samba-Likhaan production of Portrait of the Artist as Filipino takes liberties with the original play apparently with the author’s consent. Candida becomes Candido and Paula becomes Pablito as played by Behn Cervantes and Anton, respectively. In an age of transexualism, why not? The power of the play remains the same. Well, almost…

The most unforgettable production of this Joaquin masterpiece was that by the Barangay Theater Guild not long after the war. Directed by Lamberto Avellana and with Daisy Hontiveros-Avellana and Naty Crame-Rogers, Nick Agudo and Sarah Joaquin, it is engraved in the memory for all time.

Recently, the BTG rose from the ashes like the proverbial phoenix with a reading of Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra directed by Daisy no less and with daughter Ivy Avellana-Cosio and son Jose Mari in the lead.

Lito Casaje’s Dramatis Personae is still out there slugging. His answer to the economic slump dogging the country is efficient marketing, low-cost productions in the minimalist style and mounting the classics. Akutagawa’s Rashomon and Ibsen’s Peer Gynt and Brand, upheld by Lito’s tasteful direction, can’t possibly sink.

It was only Repertory Philippines that had weathered the slings and arrows of 2002’s outrageous fortune to bring the best of Broadway and the West End to the William J. Shaw Theatre in productions of the highest quality – Zeneida Amador, Baby Barredo, Joy Virata and Miguel Faustmann and the rest of the company had seen to that. But at the end of the year had hit them with the hardest arrow yet: Their contract at the Shangri-La Plaza Mall was not renewed.

They did not leave with a whimper but with a howl and a big bang which is what Charles Dicken’s, A Christmas Carol: Scrooge – The Musical is. An explosion of yuletide delights in its songs and dances and a grand cast led by Michael Williams. A play to bring a dreary year to an end by lifting our hearts to new hopes for the new year.

In the concert scene, the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra marched doggedly onward despite thorns and thistles along the way. The country’s prime symphony orchestra returned from its triumphs in Europe with renewed vigor and self-assurance. Maestro Ruggero Barbieri and the PPO presented a concert under the auspices of the US Embassy to commemorate the Sept. 11 tragedy at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Two days later, the PPO opened its 2002-03 season with a magisterial account of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 "Choral," with soloists Aileen Espinosa-Cura, Agnes Barredo, Nolyn Cabahug, Lawrence Jatayna with the UE Chorale, AUP Ambassadors and the UNIDA Ecumenical Chancel Choir.

Series III premiered Andrea Romberg’s The Song of the Bells in Asia. This cantata based on a text by Schiller was interpreted by soloists Rachelle Gerodias, Johanna Go, Gary del Rosario, Marvin Gayramon and Chorus Philippines. In the same concert, cellist Renato Lucas was the soloist in the PPO’s account of Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, a reading that merited for the cellist a thunderous ovation.

With the great things that Maestro Barbieri has done for the PPO, it is hoped must earnestly that his contract with the CCP be renewed.

Against all odds, indefatigable Fr. Pedro Galende managed to mount his San Agustin International Music Festival. A miserable printed program of this year’s events was in stark contrast to those full-colored baroque ones of yesteryears.

In February, the CCP and the Embassy of Spain presented Bravo Zarzuela!, a fiesta of songs and dances from Spain’s musical theater. It was a dazzling panorama of sights and sounds choreographed by Alberto Portillo and directed by Ambassador Tomas Rodriguez-Pantoja.

In April, the CCP and the Embassy of Israel presented Percaduo in what may be described as music with muscle, a unique concert that exhausts the expressive possibilities of percussion instruments.

In October, Toyota Classics presented the Orquestra de Cadaques from Spain under the baton of Philippe Entremont in a program that featured arias by Handel and Mozart sung by Gary del Rosario and music by Spanish composers Montsalvatge, Turina, Rodrigo and De Falla. Guitarist Jose Maria Gallardo del Rey rendered a definitve account of the solo parts of Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez.

In the same month, the ultimate musical sensation of the year was the visit of the New York Philharmonic and conductor Lorin Maazel. For two wondrous evenings, the NYPO entranced the audience with works by Beethoven, Debussy, Sibelius, Mussorgsky, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky. Young Chinese pianist Lang Lang worked wonders on the keyboard with his part in the part in the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto.

All in all, the year that was cannot be said to be entirely the winter of our discontent. So what if it really were? We cling to hope with the poet: "If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?"

The old face of Janus surveying the past year might be scowling with dismay. Would that the face gazing at the new year be smiling with hope!

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