Mexico FL's cultural visit / Yang's gala / Adonay concert / A hundred nuns sing, dance

Mexico’s First Lady Madame Margarita Zabala de Calderon, who is making a visit, will be welcomed at a cultural gala by Senators Edgardo Angara and Franklin M. Drilon, together with Secretaries Armin Luistro, Leila de Lima and Enrique Ona and to the launch of the Dia del Galleon Commemorative Stamps tomorrow, Nov. 24, 6-8 p.m., at the PICC Meeting Room 5.

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Music lovers eagerly await tomorrow’s Klassikal Music Foundation opera gala featuring George Yang’s scholars, with Yang’s own special participation. Director is internationally acclaimed baritone Andrew Fernando. Pianist Farley Asuncion is assisting artist. Venue: Philamlife theater, 7:30 p.m.

Arias from Bizet’s Pearl Fishers, R. Strauss Der Rosenkavalier and Die Fledermaus, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute, Bellini’s I Puritani, Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann, Puccini’s Tosca, and Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. Also from Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, Verdi’s Un Ballo en Maschera, Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet, Douglas Moore’s The Ballad of Baby Doe, Gershwin’s Bess You Is My Baby Now, Verdi’s Rigoletto and Traviata and Bizet’s Carmen.

Yang will sing Lehar’s Das ist mein Ganzez herz, and join the scholars in Traviata.

Yang disclosed that the young talents have been strenuously rehearsing to achieve their fullest potential. “It will be an exciting gala,” Yang added.

The singers are tenor Nomer Madridejo, soprano Veronica Cruz, baritone Vincent Olandesca, soprano Ruth Escrupulo, mezzo-soprano Jhomerita Chua-So, tenors Paolo Azul and Glen Naquila, soprano Karla Villanueva, baritone Jillbert Chua, sopranos Vida Grace Mirang, Stephanie Aguilar and Barrely Espina, baritones Huaxing “Erik” Yu, Cipriano de Guzman, Jr., and Belford King Mabunga, sopranos Jade Rubis Riccio and Mary Anne Dominese, tenor Christian Nagano, sopranos Geraldine Flores, Rosette Aquinir and Lailanie Labre.

Tickets at P500 are available at the lobby for students with ID’s, at P300.

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Last Nov. 20, the St. Scholastica’s School of Music and its Alumni Association presented “Parangal Kay Rizal” to mark Rizal’s 150th birth anniversary with excerpts from the opera “Noli Me Tangere”, “Mi Ultimo Adios” and “Sa Kabataan” by sopranos Myramae Meneses, Mia Bolanos and Luz Morete-Martinez, tenor James Doak, violinist Joseph Bryan Cimafranca, pianists Greg Zuñiega, Judy Tan and Rica delos Angeles, Cuerdas de Sta. Scholastica, SSC Guitar Ensemble and choir under conductor Maria Lourdes Hermo.

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To mark the 100 years of St. Paul Chartres Foundation, one hundred nuns will sing and dance in “100 Years in 100 Voices” at the Fleur-de-lis theater on Nov. 24 at 6 p.m. Sr. Anunciata Sta. Ana, dean of music, will conduct.

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The NAMCYA, the CCP, the CHED, the DepED and the NCCA will present the six national winners of the traditional music ensemble contest on Nov. 26 at 6 pm CCP Little Theater. Winners in the ballet, choir, piano, strings and woodwinds competitions will perform on Nov. 27, 6 p.m. CCP main theater. All concerts are free and open to the public.

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The music of renowned 19th century Filipino composer Marcelo Adonay will be revived by the Madrigal Singers under Mark Carpio on Nov. 30 at 3 p.m., CCP Little Theater. Performers will be bass soloist Greg de Leon, pianist Nita Abrogar Quinto, violinist Chona Noble, the UP Cherubim and Seraphim under Elena R. Mirano, and the UP Orchestra under Edna Martinez.

The event is part of CCP’s and the UP’s historical musicologists’ continuing crusade to acquaint Filipino audiences with the lost music of their Spanish colonial heritage.

Adonay (1848-1928), from Pakil, Laguna, started as a tiple (boy soprano) in San Agustin Church. Self-taught, his skill honed by friars, he soon became adept at playing the organ, piano, violin, contrabass, flute, trumpet, then began composing liturgical and secular pieces.