Concerto di natale: Joyous interaction

The Italian Embassy presented Concerto di Natale at the Meralco Theater in cooperation with Rustan’s and Globe Platinum to celebrate Christmas as well as the ending of Italy’s presidency of the European Union and the league’s recent expansion.

It featured Italian composers interpreted by Italian conductor Ruggero Barbieri, the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO), our own soprano Rachelle Gerodias and the young Italian pianist Francesco Fumarola, a former prodigy and a protégé of Ambassador Umberto Colesanti.

To this day, Rossini’s overtures remain extremely popular and La Cazza Ladra overture was conducted by Barbieri with vigor and vibrancy, with intensity alternating with flowing cadences. The Intermezzo from Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, one of the most lyrical in operatic literature, was treated as such, the strings tautly surfacing with the work’s melodiousness.

The drama of Verdi’s Nabucco was eloquently expressed in its overture, and Barbieri kept up the momentum throughout with tight ensemble playing. All three orchestral pieces made for gratifying music-making.

In a real sense, it is easier to sing an entire opera than to sing arias taken from diverse operas. The reason for this is clear in opera, the soprano interprets each aria within the context of the story, her emotion building up in logical manner. In singing various arias in a concert, the soprano renders each aria outside the context of the plot. Consequently, she has to recreate the story of each aria.

Rachelle Gerodias, doubtless one of our leading sopranos, wonderfully re-lived the circumstances of each aria she interpreted, thus giving life and substance to it. In Puccini’s aria from La Boheme, Mi Chiamano Mimi, she was the simple seamstress identifying herself to Rodolfo and his friends. In the aria from Gianni Schicchi, O Milo Babbini Caro, Lauretta declares her love for her father. In Donizetti’s So anch’ io la virtu magica (I, too, knew the magical craft), from the opera buffa Don Pasquale, Gerodias was appropriately gay and facetious, laughing merrily for being in on the plan to deceive her fiancé’s uncle; in Puccini’s Signore Ascolta from Turandot, the slave girl Liu sacrifices herself for love of Calaf.

Gerodias sang with sensitivity and passion, depicting the emotions in each aria, her legatos beautifully nuanced, her technique impeccable. It is one of our vocal wonders that Gerodias sings with a power way beyond what her petite and fragile-looking frame suggests, and the manner she manipulates her volume, from piano to forte and fortissimo and back to piano heightens her dramatic expressivity.

Only 19, yet already assured and confident, pianist Fumarola showed full grasp of the stylistic demands of Beethoven’s Concerto No. 3 in C Minor. He was vibrant in the opening movement, allego con brio; languid and meditative in the largo; joyous in the rondo allegro. What may have seemed rather wanting still in his rendition was a deeper expression, more varied tonal coloring and subtler shading – all of which will come in due time.

But his brilliant technique was quickly discernible in the rapid runs and arpeggios; his chordal passages displayed impressive power; the cadenzas were crisp and clear. Piano and orchestra conveyed close rapport.

To satisfy the audience’s insistent clamor for an encore, Fumarola played not one but two. These were Chopin’s Etude No. 2 Op. 25 which demonstrated fleetness and skill of the left hand, and Prelude No. 3, Op. 28 which might have been an etude because it demonstrated the fleetness and skill of the right hand.

The encores were again proof of Fumarola’s brilliant technique, so conspicuous at this early stage of the pianist’s career. Indeed, his performance can only be an augury of greater success in the future.

Listeners were won over by the total lack of sophistication in his stage manner – he was serious-miened and unsmiling throughout as he placed his right hand over his breast (as he bowed) to show appreciation for the lusty applause. The audience clapped rapturedly when he attempted to speak in Pilipino, saying "Masaya ako sa pag tugtog para sa inyo," adding to thunderous cheers, "Maraming, maraming salamat. Mabuhay!"

Before the concert closed, Gerodias re-entered the stage for Ode to Joy, Schubert’s poem sung to the final part of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The soprano’s voice lost a bit of its roundness as she exerted effort in singing above piano and orchestra, this playing fortissimo. In any case, it was a glorious ending. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony having been designated the national anthem of the expanded European Union, the event gained greater significance with the music resounding throughout the hall and above the throng to proclaim European unity. It was no less a personal triumph for Ambassador Colesanti.

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N.B. The seventh musical tour of eminent concert pianists Ingrid Santamaria and Reynaldo Reyes will start Jan. 6, 2004 and end Jan. 21 of the same year.