First, you have to acquire the country’s premiere orchestra, and this cannot be other than the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra.
Second, you need a spacious hall with fine acoustics, like the Main Theater of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
Third, you will have to engage singers from among the finest of our vocal artists, such as soprano Rachelle Gerodias and tenor Nolyn Cabahug.
Gerodias completed her bachelor of music degree in voice under Prof. Gloria Dizon-Coronel at the University of Santo Tomas. She was a frequent winner in vocal competitions while she was still a student. As a full scholar, she earned a professional diploma in opera under Prof. Kevin Miller at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. And as a scholar at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, she finished a master of music degree in voice performance and literature with a performer’s certificate under Masako Toribara. Crowning her accomplishments in New York was winning the grand prize of the Civic Morning Musicals Vocal Competition in Syracuse.
Gerodias has performed in major roles in operatic productions in the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Philippines. And for her performances, she has received the highest critical acclaim.
Cabahug has been singing since he was 10 when his mother encouraged him to join the church choir. He took up music at the University of the Philippines and was a voice scholar of legendary mentor Maestra Isang Tapales. He became a member and soloist of the Manila Metropolitan Theater Choir and the UP Concert Chorus with which he toured Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and Asia.
Cabahug has sung leading roles in Italian and Filipino operas and in Broadway musicals. He is without doubt the classical singer best known by the public. His ringing high C has been heard in radio and TV commercials. The National Press Club has honored him as "Opera Singer of the Year."
In addition to their operatic engagements, Gerodias and Cabahug have also sung in oratorios, masses and Filipino sarswelas. With the exemplary credentials of these artists, is it any wonder that you’d engage them in your ideal New Year concert?
Fourth, you need a repertoire that lifts the spirit. Nothing heavy will do – no Bellini, Verdi or Puccini. It has to bubble gaily like champagne to intoxicate with the joie de vivre of the season, flinging to oblivion the sorrows of the past year and lifting the expectations and hopes of the new year. And what music can accomplish this better than music for the dance? And what dance music brings the fullest measure of charm and effervescent sparkle than the Viennese waltz?
And fifth, you can do no better than a conductor from Austria who can deliver the one musical form that his country is identified with, like Dr. Ernest Hoetzl. He holds three masteral degrees – of philosophy in classical languages, of arts in music education and of music in opera conducting, plus a doctorate degree in musicology. And he has had numerous engagements as conductor and lecturer in five continents.
The PPO’s Concert Series V, New Year Concert, had everything going for it – a guest conductor with credible credentials, two of the country’s finest singers, and a light repertoire aimed to delight an audience thirsting for entertainment that could make it forget the country’s ills.
The opening number immediately established the festive mood of the season, a waltz by The Waltz King himself, Johann Strauss, Jr. – Eine Nacht in Venedig. The evening might be in Venice or in Vienna but the spirit of the music is the same, that of the dance, which Dr. Hoetzl and the PPO served with relish.
A Strauss waltz follows a definite pattern: A quasi-symphonic introduction which is followed by a chain of four to five waltzes, each with a pair of contrasting themes, and the whole set brought to a brilliant close in a coda which recalls the best tunes from the actual waltzes. These pieces in 3/4 time are not so much intended for the ballroom as they are for the concert hall. They usually contain contrasting sections in the beat of the polka or some other dance rhythm. The waltz has had many exponents in and out of Austria, most of these influenced by Strauss.
The PPO concert served samplings of these minor composers – Joseph Lanner’s Die Schonbrunner Waltz, Robert Stolz’ Viennese Coffee Waltz and Joseph Hellmesberger’s Danse Diabolique in addition to works by Franz Lehar and Engelbert Humperdinck.
The highlight of the first half of the concert was Gerodias’ account of "The Laughing Song" from Strauss’ operetta Die Fledermaus, a comedy of disguises and mistaken identities. In Act II, Adele, a lady’s maid, gatecrashes into Count Orlofsky’s New Year’s Eve masquerade ball and is suspected as other than who she pretends to be. In her show-stopping number, she attempts to laugh off the suspicions of the guests
…You really must admit that your mistake
was a very funny one indeed!
Yes, very funny, indeed, hahaha
is the matter, hahaha…
Gerodias was absolutely stupendous, vocally and histrionically, such that the rest of the evening was anticlimactic.
Cabahug seemed to be feeling out of sorts but did a creditable delivery of the song, "Yours Is My Heart Alone" from Lehar’s The Land of Smiles.
The last four numbers of the evening came from Philippine sarswelas.
Gerodias warbled Jose Estrella’s "Ang Maya" from Filipinas Para Los Filipinos and Cabahug bragged the cowardly rebel’s ironic boast "Ako’y Hindi Duwag" from Fulgencio Tolentino’s Walang Sugat. The two singers hammed it up in "Makikiliti Kang Totoo" but turned seriously patriotic for "Bayan Ko" from the same sarswela.
Was everything in the concert as you would have it? Not quite. There was a fly or two in the ointment, if a cliché may be excused.
Cabahug could have invested his comic songs with a little more down-to-earth humor. And one would have wanted the waltzes to have more "swing" to them, a little more bite. More sentimentality, a little more rubato, would have spelled the difference between a good performance and a great one.
Dr. Hoetzl and the PPO obliged the clamor of the audience with an encore – Strauss’ The Beautiful Blue Danube Waltz, which they served with perfect charm and elegance.