LISTENING to a mishmash of operatic arias and
Broadway hits, as though an iPod shuffle was being executed as a
“sensurround” experience, is a lovely way to spend an evening. It turns lovelier because this one happened on a Monday, unexpectedly and pleasantly jump-starting a week of hard work.
When visiting Hong Kong baritone Wayne Yeh and the Philippines’ Lissa
Romero de Guia, with dependable piano accompanist Mary Anne Espina,
engaged in a mock battle called “Opera vs. Broadway,” it was in the name
of philanthropy. EDSA Shangri-La Hotel offered its capacious Isla
Ballroom rent-free for this benefit concert for Typhoon Sendong
survivors.
Yeh and de Guia are volunteers of the Art of Living Foundation, a
non-government organization (NGO) that continues to give trauma relief to
adult and child survivors of the disaster in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan
cities. The foundation has 145 chapters worldwide with the Philippine
chapter involved in helping rehabilitate Bilibid prison inmates and
survivors of super-typhoons.
Denise Celdran, the foundation’s breath works instructor, said what
sets this NGO’s work apart is its focus on removing stress and negative
emotions through simple breathing, sound meditation techniques and yoga
stretches. An audio-visual presentation before the concert showed how
the survivors became calm and more optimistic after they learned these
exercises in the tent cities or basketball courts.
She added that these exercises put smiles back on people’s faces and
peace in their minds, enabling them to function better and relish
donated food, clothes and temporary shelter. Celdran pointed out how
many thousands more need to be reached and empowered.
LISSA ROMERO DE GUIA
Thus,
what de Guia called “a ping pong between opera and Broadway” was
thought up to raise more funds for volunteers who will help restart
other lives.
A sidelight was a silent auction for the same cause featuring works
donated by these visual artists: Tosha and Gus Albor, Wesley
Valenzuela, Stephanie Lopez, Felix Bacolor, Kidlat and Kabunyan de Guia,
Oliver Olivete and Marisa Romero.
Observing how people get mired in past traumas and worry
unnecessarily about the future, Celdran said the foundation teaches
people “to be in the present, to be in the moment” so they could them
live “artfully, gracefully, peacefully.”
She said these are possible by learning how to manage the mind,
emotions, stored memories, intellect that passes judgment, ego that
expresses and processes bad memories. This management of all layers of
experience, she said, leads to a self that can contribute to improving
society.
WAYNE YEH
Lanky baritone Yeh, whose credits include singing as a lad before
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and appearing in Opera Hong Kong’s productions of
Turandot, Mozart’s
Requiem,
Carmen,
among others, continues to train with voice coaches Rita Patane and
Pietro Spagnoli in Milan, Italy. That night, he entered from the back of
the ballroom, clad in black tuxedo and pants, white bowtie and dark
glasses. He held a cordless mic and warbled “Figaro” from
The Barber of Seville while shaking hands with some members of the audience.
The rest of the evening he alternated use of the center stage with de
Guia. Her theater experience includes being in the original German cast
of
Miss Saigon in Stuttgart, the Narrator in the original German cast
of
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (the first Filipina to play that role on the international stage), and playing Gigi in
Miss Saigon, United Kingdom tour.
Semi-retired from theater after going into writing, she showed that
she still had “it,” a wide vocal range. She moved from alto in South
Pacific’s “Bali Hai” to middle range and to a belter of a soprano in
“Home” from
The Wiz.
She displayed her acting chops without a costume change. In her black
and gray long dress with a
panuelo top, she was a flirt in “I Enjoy
Being a Girl” from
Flower Drum Song, a besotted Eliza in “I Could Have Danced All Night” from
My Fair Lady, a tragic Eponine in “On My Own” from
Les Miserables, a noble woman in “Something Wonderful,” a wistful illicit lover in the medley “I Have Dreamed” and “We Kiss in a Shadow” from
The King and I,
which she reprised with Yeh in a duet after an earlier song on
one-upmanship with him, Berlin’s “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better”
from
Annie Get Your Gun.
The practice of breath work enabled de Guia to hold notes far longer
than possible. This had a heavily partial audience cheering for her.
Similarly, Yeh tried to match her with his solos of “Our Father,” “Ave
Maria,” “You Raise Me Up” and encores (“O Sole Mio” and “Santa Lucia”).
Inspirational teacher Sri Ravi Shankar defined music as “sound in
harmony, silence in clarity.” That night, silence and sound came
together without clashing.--
Elizabeth Lolarga
First published by Vera Files/Yahoo Philippines, March 31, 2012
Photos by RONALD VERZO
