'Andrea Bocelli wants to come back to Manila'

Thus says philanthropist and socio-civic leader Rose Marie J. Arenas, who was in Taipei recently to catch a concert of world-renowned blind Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. Arenas had front-row seats to the concert, and Bocelli even called her to his dressing room before his show to personally greet her and reminisce about his sold-out concert in Manila at the Araneta Coliseum in 2004.

“He gave me a warm hug and told me, ‘Just tell me when you want me in Manila and I will be there’,” Arenas told this writer.

At the time, the Araneta Coliseum, which was packed with 20,000 people, was transformed into a virtual “Scala de Milan.” The high and mighty mingled with students of classical music, who were given free entrance tickets to the concert by Arenas. The handlers of Bocelli told Arenas he was so impressed by the arrangements for his Manila concert  from the security, to his San Pellegrino water, to his private beach outing  that he is looking forward to an encore in Manila.

Arenas hints that this year might just end on a high note.

A Prima Ballerina comes home

Philippine Ballet Theatre (PBT) celebrates its 25th anniversary as the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ (CCP) resident ballet company this July with the staging of Romeo and Juliet. To pay tribute to this worthy occasion, PBT welcomes back Maniya Barredo, the prima ballerina who played the role of Juliet some decades ago. This time, Maniya will not dazzle the crowd with her perfect turns and pirouettes, but will instead captivate them with her directing skills.

Prima Ballerina Maniya Barredo.

 Maniya was in her early twenties when she first played the female lead role in Romeo and Juliet, when she was with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. She then performed Juliet with the Atlanta Ballet. Maniya started dancing when she was three or four. She trained under PBT and became a lead dancer, performing in a number of memorable productions. Though she has conquered different stages around the world, Maniya still considers a performance in CCP as among the most fulfilling and the defining moment of her career. It was after a performance in Giselle and in the presence of then President Ferdinand Marcos and First Lady Imelda Marcos when Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias, regarded as one of the greatest classical dancers of all time, anointed her Prima Ballerina.

Maniya proved to be worthy of the distinction, becoming the Prima Ballerina of the Atlanta Ballet for almost 20 years, a remarkable feat. Prior to her stint at the Atlanta Ballet, Maniya was the lead dancer at the Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal, even representing Canada at the International Ballet Festival in Cuba, where she received 20 curtain calls.

 Maniya retired from ballet in 1995. In 1998, she founded the Metropolitan Dance Theater, a no-nonsense dance school in Southeast America, accepting students only after passing the school’s rigorous audition process.

PBT is more than grateful to Maniya for taking some time off from her schedule and coming back to the country to be a part of its latest production. Romeo and Juliet is more than a PBT production, it is a homecoming of one of its best dancers, a prima ballerina who, after conquering the world, still knows she has to come home.

Virlanie’s Toddler Home gets a boost

The abandonment of babies in hospitals, streets and even in trash heaps is a common occurrence in the Philippines. Experts say that over 900 babies were abandoned in the country in 2010 alone, and that extreme poverty is the most common reason why parents abandon infants. Remember “Baby George,” the infant who was abandoned on an airplane returning from the Middle East after his mother gave birth to him on the plane?

Julian Fowler and Dominique Lemay of Virlanie with Ina Gemperle and James DuVivier of Forth & Tay.

Virlanie Foundation initially intervened on behalf of abandoned infants through its Mother and Child Home, opened in 1996 as a temporary shelter for young unwed mothers aged 14 to 24 years old on their first pregnancies or with their first babies. However, circumstances dictated that a specialized home be opened exclusively for toddlers. Filled to capacity, the Mother and Child Home was unable to provide adequate care for the mothers and infants. In addition, it was realized that mixing mothers and babies with toddlers who did not have mothers is detrimental to the self-esteem and proper development of the toddlers.

 On March 23 this year, Virlanie opened its special facility for toddlers. The Toddler Home is located close to Virlanie’s main office in Makati City and is its 13th dwelling for abandoned children. It currently caters to 12 toddlers, six of whom require special care. Toddler Home cares for these children with the end aim of reunifying them with relatives or having them adopted or moved to foster care.

 The annual operating budget of the Toddler Home project is P3.13 million. “Virlanie Foundation is working hard to find funds to continue its operations, vital to infants in dire need,” said its founder Dominique Lemay. “We welcome this check from Forth & Tay as it will go a long way.”

“It is a privilege to donate part of the proceeds of the first wines and spirits auction to the Virlanie Foundation, an institution which over the past 18 years has worked to prevent future physical and psychological abuse of children living in the streets,” said James DuVivier, president of Forth & Tay. “As a representative of a beverage alcohol company, we take social welfare issues at heart, and go beyond profit, getting more involved in the local community and focusing on wider responsibilities.” (You may e-mail me at [email protected])