Yes, Virginia, opera is alive and well in the Philippines

Who says opera is dead in the Philippines? The Philippine Opera Company’s recent gala, Opera Now, disproved this in a production that gathered 30 of the country’s established and promising singers on one stage. The concert presented some of the most popular arias, duets and ensembles from the world’s favorite operas, and served as a kickoff event for POC’s opera season next year.

The gala opened with Fides Cuyugan Asensio, grande dame of Philippine opera and mentor to many of today’s brightest opera stars, singing the Libiamo from Verdi’s La Traviata with tenor Leslie Diaz and the whole cast. It closed with tenor Nolyn Cabahug – the man who gave opera a face in the country in the ’80s and the ’90s – intoning Verdi’s Celesta Aïda from Aïda, before leading a mass singing of Nessun Dorma from Puccini’s Turandot. Featured in between were names in Philippine opera, as well as rising and emerging stars in the local firmament.

In paper and both on stage, the sequence of songs seemed most curious. Operaphiles would notice the irony in the programming. The concert opened with one of the liveliest duets in opera – Libiamo is a call for a good time and a toast to the importance of love; it closed with opera’s most unique opening aria: with barely a couple of minutes from the curtain’s rise, the tenor in Aïda is on stage singing a truly demanding song without the benefit of a warm up. Scattered in between were best-of moments in opera, sequenced in no recognizable order. You would get the same experience at home if you pressed shuffle after sliding in a compilation opera CD into your player at home.

The sequencing of numbers wasn’t the evening’s problem. It was the assignment of singers to songs. Surely, not all 30 singers were expected to sing an aria; that’s why the program had a sprinkling of duets and quartets. However, assigning songs that were not appropriate to the voices of singers, both young and old, hampered what would have been a satisfying exercise.

Truth is, the most successful and satisfying moments in Opera Now were those that featured established opera singers singing songs suited to their voices. The evening’s biggest successes were courtesy of Aileen Cura singing Kay Tamis ng Buhay from Felipe Padilla de Leon’s Noli Me Tangere and Camille Lopez singing Ritorna Vincitor from Verdi’s Aïda. Here were singers with voices perfectly suited for the expanse of the Main Theater of the Cultural Center of the Philippines and with the artistic and dramatic intelligence to do justice to the demands of their arias.

Cura had the honor of singing the only Filipino opera aria in the concert. Maria Clara’s aria expresses her deep love for her motherland, an idea not lost on the evening’s audience. A staging of this operatic classic, now forgotten by many of today’s young concertgoers, would be timely.

Lopez gave a truly riveting account of Aïda’s aria. Her voice was loud and clear, its heft ringing throughout the hall. More than her powerful voice was the heartrending singing she gave the aria, expressing Aïda’s dilemma whether to cheer on her lover Radames to victory or wish him failure to see his father and her family escape from the scourge of the Egyptian army.

Opera is more about beautiful singing than anything else. Acting often comes only second to the experience, although the demands of modern theater often required singers who could also sing well and act beautifully.

Mezzo Jay Valencia-Glorioso doesn’t have the most powerful voice to fill the CCP Main Theater. In her version of Dalilah’s Mon Coeur S’Ouvre à ta Voix from Saint-Säen’s Samson et Dalilah, she called on her dramatic prowess, seducing the audience to a most effective singing of this popular French aria. She might not have the marvelous voice to sing it – her voice is more suited to character roles, such as the vengeful Azucena in Verdi’s Il Trovatore – but lure the audience in this song, she did.

Among the evening’s successes, musically and dramatically, were Lionel Guico in a rousing Largo al Factotum from Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Pablo Molina in Dein ist Mein Ganzes Herz from Lehar’s The Land of Smiles, Kitchy Molina and Jai Sabas-Aracama in the Flower Duet from Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, and Lisa Cabahug in Mein Herr Marquis from Johann Strauss Die Fledermaus.

Another curiosity was the inclusion of the opening O Fortuna from Carl Orff’s cantata Carmina Burana. It sounds truly menacing, with its truths on the cyclic nature of fortune, but it’s not from an opera. Surely, there isn’t a dearth of suitable operatic choral numbers. There’s the Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore, Va, Pensiero from Nabucco, or even the grand Triumphal March from Aïda. There are a lot to choose from.

Kudos goes to Prof. Herminigildo Ranera and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra for accompanying Opera Now’s 30 singers without hitches. Ranera was able to scale down the orchestra’s playing to suit the individual needs of each singer. Those possessing of strong, powerful voices, he collaborated with highly charged music; those with light, budding voices, he paired with music of chamber-like dynamics.

One cavil, though. The idea of setting the orchestra on stage behind the singers was at a disadvantage to the music. Often, singer and orchestra were not in time, with either the orchestra galloping onward or the singer leading forward. It required singers and conductor to have ears that would adjust to the tempo of the music. Sometimes, it worked; sometimes, it didn’t. Often recitatives were rushed to the detriment of the dramatic moment.

The Philippine Opera Company managed to hurdle the resources to stage a spectacle like Opera Now. It has proven that opera can still be staged in the country, that there is an audience for such a production, and that we have enough singers to mount a production. With enough marketing savvy, it just might be as successful in its forthcoming 2006 opera season.