Fare thee well, Gamaliel Viray

Once again, we lose a classical musican. Worse, he hardly leaves a trace of the peak of his performances in the Internet. As with actor Adul de Leon, I searched for images of the recently deceased baritone Gamaliel Viray, only to find reproductions of posters of FPJ movies and even a portrait of Paul Newman. Gamy portrayed many a contravida role in those movies, and his thick moustache made those roles more credible.

Actor Frances Makil Ignacio said her Tito Gamy would've liked that Newman photo to illustrate Mr. Tariman's tribute. She found a video of her late father, Elmo Makil, with Gamy making a brief appearance. I've posted that on my Facebook profile page as I'm not too Internet savvy enough to link it to this page.

My worry is if Gamy bothered to cut a record or CD. I recall that Aurelio Estanislao also prematurely left this world without a recording of his voice. When soprano Evelyn Mandac learned of this, she shook her head violently, ruing aloud,"A shame, a crying shame." And it is, when you think of how we are bombarded daily on TV by wannabe's and trying hards whose voices or what passes for them are amplified and tweaked by sound engineers. Let Gamy haunt them.

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By Pablo A. Tariman

I learned from baritone Nomer Son that his distinguished colleague, baritone Gamaliel Viray, had passed away Oct. 19. I have yet to know what he died of and I don’t know how old he was. I figure he was in his late 60s.

Nomer said that today, Oct. 21, Gamy’s remains will be at Sta. Isabel College where he was a voice teacher for many years. From what I know, he is survived by his actress-wife Amable Quiambao and son Ishmael (named after film director Ishmael Bernal).

In his lifetime, Gamy wasn’t just an opera singer. He was stage and film actor and turned to teaching when opera and concert productions became rare as hen’s teeth, so to speak.

In 1979 when the Manila Metropolitan Theater had more opera productions than CCP, he was Zurga in Bizet’s Pearl Fishers with the Leila of soprano Eleanor Calbes. In 1990, he was Germont in the controversial production of La Traviata at the CCP with National Artist for Theater Rolando Tinio directing. What caused the controversy?

Tinio, who wanted to introduce the opera to the new generation of opera lovers, translated the opera in Pilipino and localized it by changing the setting of the opera from Paris to Binondo.

I wrote of Gamy in that opera in the July 8, 1990 issue of the Daily Globe thus: “Next to the Violetta of Donna Maria Zapola, the Germont of Gamaliel Viray registered with such authority that echoed in his singing.. He once again showed that confident singing he earlier revealed as Zurga in the 1981 production of Pearl Fishers. Tinio’s translation of Di provenza il mar sang with such fervor by Viray is another good argument in favor of opera translation.”

A finalist in the Concours International de Chant in France and the Francisco Vinas Vocal Competition in Spain, Gamy was also Marcello in the CCP production of La Boheme with the Rodolfo of tenor Harry Theyard who is identified with the Metropolitan Opera of New York. He was also Papagueno in the CCP production of Magic Flute under Sarah Caldwell and Count Almaviva in Marriage of Figaro also mounted by the then newly-born but short-lived Opera Companyof the Philippines.. He made his American operatic debut with the Opera Company of Boston as Burundai in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Invisible City of Kitezh.

The fact is Gamy commuted between opera and musical theater. He was in Aida, Carmen, La Gioconda, Turandot and Cavalleria Rusticana, among others but he was also appearing in musicals such as Man of La Mancha, Merry Wives of Windsor, Cats (excerpts) including the zarzuela, Walang Sugat.

But as he commuted between opera and theater (mainly with Teatro Pilipino, Tanghalang Pilipino and Bulwagang Gantimpala), Gamy also found time to be character-actor in many action, drama and comedy films.

He was the senator in Abaya’s Baby Tsina, the mayor in Hinahanap-Hanap Kita, the congressman in Kahit Pader Gigibain Ko! ", the college dean in Bakit May Kahapon Pa?, the big boss in Madrasta, and the lawyer in Kahit Kunting Pagtingin Part II, the punctilious judge in the FPJ blockbuster Kung Puno Na Ang Salop Part III, among others.

I recall one Friday night in the 90s when Gamy was interpreting Schubert songs in Paco Park while demonstrators clashed with police officers along Taft Ave. Knowing that traffic was hard to beat after the commotion at Taft Ave., we (with his wife, Ama and pianist Cecile Roxas) ended up in a M.H. del Pilar watering hole where customers were no opera buffs and people were into karaoke singing.

Recognizing the baritone, one customer asked Gamy to sing. After a night of Schubert and Verdi at Paco Park, he ended up singing “What We Did Last Summer” and “Around the World.”

“I can manage with this instant karaoke singing,” said Viray then.

In Boston Opera where he debuted in a Rimsky-Korsakov opera directed by Sarah Caldwell, there were two contrasting shows in the Boston theater. Inside, he was singing a Rimsky-Korsakov aria while outside, anti-dictatorship demonstrators were chanting about poverty in the Philippines.

I never had the nerve to ask him why his singing was hounded by demonstrations from Boston to Paco Park and Liwasang Bonifacio.

It was also Gamy who "leaked" to me the well-kept-secret that the late Fernando Poe, Jr. was in fact hooked on opera.

While playing some Traviata music on the set of an action film, Viray was approached by the The King if the music was from Traviata.

“Yes,”answered a surprised baritone.

Then FPJ told Viray his little known secret: “Did you know that I took voice lessons from bass baritone Jose Mossessgeld Santiago-Font upon the prodding of my father?”

Santiago-Font happened to be the first Filipino bass baritone to sing at La Scala in 1932 followed by tenor Arthur Espiritu in 2007.

Soprano Rachelle Gerodias has worked with Viray in three opera productions namely the Rolando Tinio version of Puccini’s La Boheme, Gianni Schicchi and in the world premier of Fr. Manuel Maramba's "Lord Takayama Ukon."

Recalled Gerodias: “The first was very important to me because it was the Rolando Tinio adaptation of La Boheme at the CCP which was my very first opera production. We had two sets of cast - a junior and senior one. I was Rosina in the junior cast and Tito Gamy was the Marcello in the senior cast. In Gianni Schicchi ,I actually performed with him as his daughter, Lauretta while he played the title role of Gianni Schicchi to whom I sang the famous aria O mio babbino caro. I remembered his portrayal of that role very well. I thought he was the perfect Schicchi and singing Lauretta with him was such a great honor and pleasure for me.”

Added the soprano: “Tito Gamy is probably one of the best baritones the Philippines has produced. Such a great artist and singer. It was painful to see him after he got sick. He lost a lot of weight and his voice was never the same. But I will never forget his voice especially in La Boheme and Gianni Schicchi. I will always be thankful to be a witness and part of the life of such a great artist. Thank you, Tito Gamy! We will miss you!”

The soprano is right. Gamy is one of the last good baritones of his generation that included Nomer Son and Elmo Makil, among others. Bass baritone Emmanuel Gregorio and Makil had also passed away.

There is big comfort though in the new generation of baritones in the persons of Jonathan Zaens, Noel Azcona and Andrew Fernando, among others.

The way this country go crazy over tenors and sopranos at the expense of baritones was at one time deplored by environmentalist and art patron Odette Alcantara. “The lack of appreciation for bass and baritones in this country is something I begrudge,” Odette once said. “But as their voice category connotes, the bass and baritone are the foundation of an orchestra and even good choirs need the skeleton of good basses and baritones for them to shine.”

To the uninitiated in opera, the baritone is the middle male voice whose range is from G, an octave and a half below middle C. Those who can go below middle C are known as the bass. Tenors soar to reach their high Cs’ bass baritones descend to a super low C and even D.

Ordinary mortals like us can probably gurgle a low C but only good baritones like Gamy Viray can sing it.

The last time I saw Gamy was when he attended the recital of baritone Noel Azcona at the Pasig Museum where I mounted the Pasig Summer Music Festival which lasted for five years.

When Azcona sings at the Kiss The Cook Gourmet on Sunday, Oct. 24, with flutist Christopher Oracion and pianist Mary Anne Espina, we will certainly dedicate the concert to the late baritone of consequence.

For now, I will remember Gamy as Germont for his ravishing “Il provenza il mar” in the 1990 production of La Traviata and as Zurga in the 1981 Met production of The Pearl Fishers courtesy of the late Tita Conching Sunico.

Viray (far right) with his co-teachers at Santa Isabel College (Courtesy of Pablo Tariman)