French and different - Why And Why Not

The French have a far more disarming alternative to the Foreign Legion and it's called French Spring in Manila in this culturally-challenged part of the world. As its intriguing name suggests, this rash of francophilia comes as the Philippine edition of the annual embarrassment of riches that also hits other Asian capitals like Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore and Hong Kong -- all in the name of post-imperial la mission civilisatrice.

But there are invasions and there are invasions, some more heartily welcomed and looked forward to than others. French Spring in Manila, although it is only on its second year, has warmed so many Filipino hearts that it seems like it has been around for a long time and certainly now occupies a stellar place in the capital's still-tepid cultural calendar.

Although preceded publicity-wise by last year's unbelievable fanfare, complete with one of the most glittering banquets held in Manila in recent memory and with no less than a headline-grabbing cause célèbre marking its gala night at the Cultural Center, the ongoing 2000 festival has had to scrap its formal May 29th launch date.

With the Jolo hostage crisis seemingly headed for a long stretch and two French nationals among the Abu Sayyaf's unwilling guests, the local French embassy wisely assumed that it would be most inappropriate to hold another grand banquet evoking the best of France's culinary and performing arts heritage. Last year's opening at the Hotel Intercon featured a French diva whose name evades me but whose stunning beauty and radiant coloratura voice have not been seen in one woman in this city for a long time.

For this year's aborted bacchanalia, avant-garde entertainment would have been provided by the celebrated Orchestre de Contrebasses, with double bass music ranging from soul music and jazz to Latino. The cancellation postponed the orchestra's Manila debut to 2001.

Open free to the public or by invitation, French Spring in Manila offers 11 separate cultural activities ranging from chamber music to street theater, poetry reading to film and all the way to a circus. Unfortunately, the Parisian Cirque Baroque which mixes modern dance with acrobatics and trapeze acts has quietly come and gone, having performed at the Ayala Malls at the height of the recent Metro-Manila bomb scare.

But definitely worth the bother is the well-known Ballet Nationale de Marseille/Pietragalla at the CCP Main Theater.

Under Marie-Claude Pietragalla, star ballerina and choreographer, the modern dance group established by Roland Petit in 1972 will be presenting a triple bill production entitled Impressions of the 20th Century.

Scheduled for June 15th and 16th, this presentation is not likely to be upstaged by the kind of explosive off-stage drama that accompanied the Ballet Nationale de Lyon just over a year ago on May 29, 1999.

Although the Carmen Ballet set to Georges Bizet's 1875 opera of the same name drew extravagant raves from that memorable night's standing-room-only audience, the spotlight of live TV coverage and front-page headlines the next day focused on the dramatic, if uncouth, showdown between warring factions of the Cultural Center establishment.

Two rival CCP chairpersons could not rein in their explosive differences and the more entrenched one of them ordered the center's security guards to keep her rival out of the premises at all costs. The result was a wild verbal and physical scuffle that quickly entangled a number of the city's social and cultural luminaries, many indignant about the use of barbaric force in an otherwise civilized gathering.

Needless to add, the ballet's second and last show the next day filled every seat in the house and left many disappointed fans out in the cold.

The hullabaloo spilled over to the two shows of the ageless French mime Marcel Marceau. Intermittent rain however threatened to spoil the glorious fireworks show at Rizal Park, although it could not keep a fairly large crowd from turning out in a sea of a raincoats and umbrellas.

For film buffs this time around, it's back to the old venue at the Shangri-La Mall from June 1-15. There will be 14 outstanding films ranging from the 1999 hit Les enfants du Marais to the 1990 Cyrano de Bergarac starring Gerard Depardieu to the 1965 classic Pierrot le fou.

To whom do we owe yet another great outpouring of French culture? First, to the cultural mandarins of France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs who've somehow figured out that deploying artists overseas can win infinitely more friends than politicians and, yes, the Foreign Legion.

In Manila, kudos must go to the most amiable Ambassador Gilles Chouraqui who, in just one year, has emerged as the unofficial dean and most respected member of the diplomatic corps. He's ably assisted on the cultural front by energetic Marcel Jouve and in media relations by the well-liked Kostia Zakow. This winning team has whipped up tremendous support from top French and Filipino corporations and has developed a vast and discriminating audience that can only grow with the years.

Nelson A. Navarro's e-mail address: <[email protected]>