A gripping Spoliarium / RP lensmen’s photos in French Spring show

Art lovers are conversant with the turbulent marriage of Juan Luna – concededly the greatest Filipino painter – and the Spanish Maria de la Paz Pardo de Tavera (Chiching). From their blood-and-thunder domestic life and its tragic ending emerges Spoliarium, the opera-in-concert composed by Ryan Cayabyab to the libretto of Fides S. Asensio.

The opera was staged last Saturday at the Art Gallery/Ablaza Hall of the National Museum under the auspices of the Museum Foundation headed by president Maribel Ongpin, with Concepcion "Tata" Poblador as over-all chairman of the presentation.

The music-drama took place on a small dais, with a huge reproduction of the Spoliarium as single setting and focal point. Players entered and exited from the sides, thus enabling continuous, uninterrupted action. The operatic prologues opens with a rousing toast to Luna by the chorus and principals facing the spectacular painting which has just garnered the grand prize in the Paris Exposition. Later, Luna, Rizal and Trinidad, Paz’s brother, meet in Luna’s apartment where both have been posing for "The Blood Compact", with Rizal as Sikatuna and Trinidad as Legazpi.

Luna offers his friends chocolate to drink, making the distinction, in levity, between chocolate eh (espeso) for the ilustrado and chocolate ah (aguado) for the Indio. Trinidad contends, however, that the mind and the heart are what give a man his true worth. The painter confesses his love for Trinidad's sister Paz, airing his misgivings about an Indio marrying a Castillian. Trinidad drives away Luna’s fears but Donna Juliana, Luna’s would-be mother-in-law, has dark forebodings about Luna’s violent temper.

A touching love scene ensues, with Luna passionately declaring his love for Paz and subsequently proposing marriage. With hardly any transition, the next scene shows Luna being violently cruel to his wife whom he suspects of infidelity. He also blames her for the death of their three- year-old daughter Bibi, their son Luling offering him small consolation.

The oppressive atmosphere, all along, keeps betraying Luna’s intermittent streaks of madness, and the scene in a Paris cabaret with a bevy of can-can dancers entertaining Luna and his friends, who drink and carouse, relieves the tension. In a terrible rage, Luna leaves while his friends appease him, and the inevitable happens soon after.

Luna’s remorse for the murder of his wife is gripping as he caresses her corpse, and the poignancy is heightened by Luling who enters and reads from a book thinking that his murdered mother and murdered grandmother are merely asleep.

Cayabyab’s music is stirring and powerful, with the recorded music provided by the San Miguel Orchestra and the SM Master Chorale. Cayabyab's score eloquently conveys the dark moods of Luna, the depression of Chuching, their tortuous, turbulent marriage. Asensio’s libretto, tight and crisp, tells the story while reflecting the political and social situation of the era, particularly Spanish-Philippine relations.

Tenor Eladio Pamaran was brilliant and utterly persuasive as the temperamental, unpredictable Luna. His voice – admirably strong if rather stringent – forcefully sustained the top notes to dramatize the many tense moments. Soprano Ana Feleo as Chuching evoked pity, fear and anxiety by turns. Her top notes rang firmly and mellifluously though her delivery was not always as effective in the middle and lower registers.

The chorus enlivened the many scenes with their vibrant singing. The can-can dancers were a delight. (One wondered, however, how the Spanish zapateado got into the Parisian can-can).

Asensio’s delineation of Doña Juliana was compelling, and the friends of Luna – Trinidad (Raymond Leslie Diaz), Felix, Trinidad’s brother (Alejandro Lesaca), Rizal (Nazer Salcedo) contributed considerable credibility to the drama. Costumes created the ambiance of the era. Stage director Alexander Cortez showed authoritative knowledge that gave authenticity to the period music-drama.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo graced the occasion in the company of National Museum Director Corazon Alvina and NCCA Executive Director Cecile G. Alvarez.

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As part of French Spring, the Alliance Francaise and the French Embassy are hosting an exhibit of photographs taken by Filipino lensmen Juan Caguicia, Richard de Guzman a.k.a. Bahaghari and Cris Sevilla. The exhibit entitled "Clowns without Borders", opened June 5 at the lobby of Ayala Greenbelt and will close June 22.

In 2005, the AF had asked the lensmen to record the encounter between visiting circus clowns and our deprived children. The photographers did the assignment for free, immortalizing in 40 photos now on show the joy of children in the poorest areas of Manila and Cebu.

The circus team, collaborating with French and local NGOs, consisted of Antonin Maurel, musician-clown; Caroline Escafit and Julien Cassier, acrobats; Alexander Pavlata and Doriane Moretus, clowns; Franck Mboueke, musician. Their show was a gladsome experience both for children and adults – and the photo exhibit proves it!