'Harana': A dying art?

Uso pa ba, ang harana?” I once wallowed with my high school friends while passing around a bucket of Red Horse after class. It was the definitive anthem of my youth — the song that everyone would sing along to, proudly on the microphone, at jukeboxes or at their fortysomething uncle’s birthday party. It was a piece of work, really — a musical hit that mounted Parokya ni Edgar on the musical map, in as much as the OPM band was able to shed light on an art form that was fast fading away into oblivion.

Harana was, for all intents and purposes, a love letter to a withering cornerstone of our nation’s cultural history. For everything that Chito Miranda and his pals warbled about and sang in the ’90s, Harana had every bit the heart and honesty that effectively immortalizes it in the annals of OPM rock ‘n’ roll history and to this day, continues to resonate with your modern day Juan de la Cruz.

Ang Bagong Harana

Despite the popularity and notoriety of Parokya’s OPM classic, as an art form, not much is known about the harana these days. Memories of this once mainstream musical style popularized by the likes of Diomedes Maturan and Ruben Tagalog in the ’60s have been reduced to the mere ashes of a ’90s jukebox hit. Some say, like OPM, the art form is dying. With the advent of newer music genres, harana has quietly been left behind.

“Students are not anymore exposed to listening to something classical. When they hear harana or kundiman, they consider it old,” shares Karla Gutierrez, head of leading opera outfit, Philippine Opera Company which is staging a cultural renewal and resurgence through the return of its sleeper hit, Ang Bagong Harana.

She continues, “It is a difficult effort to try and do something truly Filipino nowadays. But after the warm response we got last year, we know that there is an audience out there that is hungry for this kind of entertainment that reconnects us with our souls.”

A Love Letter

Each of the 10 classically-trained singers an accomplished soloist in his or her own right. The show is a musical journey that traces the evolution of Philippine music through song, movement and drama. “It is more than just a selection of well-loved Filipino love songs,” Gutierrez shares. “It is a love letter to the Pinoy, to our history, our lost past, and the values that we must take with us as we journey as a nation into the future.”

With the influx of foreign productions coming in and out of the country, how does one even begin to conceptualize, or weave together a show like Ang Bagong Harana when behemoths like Phantom of the Opera or the recently concluded Mamma Mia are wont to compete with an already niche and limited theater or opera-going market?

For an art form that, like pickup lines, yogurt, and the mercurial rise (and fall) of Philippine celebrity, has become passé in light of more pop-culturally relevant trends, opera, or in this case harana sure has developed some tensile strength balls.

The New Strategy

Like the light at the end of every tunnel, there is a solution to harana’s woes, she proposes: stay true to the tenets and discipline of the art form but overhaul aesthetic and its so-called packaging so it becomes more culturally-relevant. She adds, “Gone are the days when classical singers just stood and sang. We work with younger singers now so that the youth can relate more, and be inspired.”

The performers of Ang Bagong Harana have had to undergo intense training and be honed like musical theater actors, dancing and delivering spiels in the process while singing classical tunes. Gutierrez shares, “We want to remove what the majority thinks of classical singers or opera that it is boring. It’s nice to see that younger audiences have taken a liking to the show.”

Cultural Renewal

Believe it or not, young’uns have gone as far as waiting for the performers after shows, asking for autographs, and expressing their fondness and appreciation for POC’s cultural efforts. Some have also expressed desire to take up voice lessons in light of the wonderful singing that happens within the show.

This positive feedback is due in large part to the magical moments in Ang Bagong Harana when audience members find themselves overwhelmed by the breadth and depth of the show’s musical suites, composed of the very songs that their forebears would sing to them in their youth. Tears and wave of thoroughbred nostalgia are the probable side effects.

“Every song is very personal,” and when it came to the question of bringing back the show, Gutierrez ends, “I think our best accomplishment is reigniting the patriotism and pride of being Filipino again. To me, that is our greatest accomplishment. ‘Love and support, your own.”

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Directed by award-winning director and writer Floy Quintos, Ang Bagong Harana returns for a limited run at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza Makati from June 6 to 9 with galas at 8 p.m., and matinees at 3:30 p.m. For tickets, call Philippine Opera Company at 0917-5224183 or 0917-5272880 or call Ticketworld at 891-9999.