Tribute to Mario Lanza: Tenor Nival’s moment in time

Nomher Nival on Mario Lanza:

“I love his voice. We took him up in school. I heard him for the first time around my second or third year at the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music. I love his ‘Because’ because he sang it passionately. He was so romantic and full of energy. He was one of those singers who sang full blast. Contrary to people’s impression that he was shouting, he was actually very intense.”

Read more: Tribute to Mario Lanza: Tenor Nival’s moment in time

Adventures with Sister Suzy

Our Merry Maller at the Capitol Commons Estancia something or other

Ellen Suzanne Lolarga is my number two sister (before her is Evelyn Marie or Embeng and after her are Genevieve Therese, Pinky for short, and Eugenia Celerina, just Gigi to all). I was five years old when Suzy was born.

I still remember seeing my mother going into labor. My Dad, yaya and I accompanied Mom to the University of the East-Ramon Magsaysay Medical Center. When Mom was wheeled into the delivery room on a gurney, she waved to Dad with instructions for the yaya to walk me home. That was my first memory of Su, as she was about to enter our lives.

My second memory of her was at Luneta Park in the early '60s (not Doroy Valencia's Rizal Park yet). We were near the breakwaters: Mom, the yaya, Suzy and me. I had the urge to pee. There were no portalets then. So Mom brought me to peepee by a bush, but I got bitten by ants on my buttocks, and I squealed like the piglet I can be sometimes. So Mom and yaya had to brush off the ants. Meanwhile, Suzy, a toddler by then, wandered away. When the adults realized she was amiss, it was Press the Panic Button time.

That must have been a weekend; there were just too many people (already!) then. Meanwhile, I remember being held by my hand tightly so I couldn't go astray either as Mom and yaya searched high and low for Suzy by which time, Mom being Mom, was in near hysterics. From the park we walked all the way to The Manila Hotel. It was already dark. As we approached the hotel, a car's headlights were switched on--and there was Suzy in the light, still dressed up like a doll with her bonnet and little handbag.

Whenever this story is recalled in family conversations, Gigi never fails to say that it was a sign of things to come. That is, Suzy would turn into a Merry Maller. On certain after-school days or weekends, that's what she does for exercise. Now and then she picks up a knickknack or three, most especially children's books from Book Sale that she can use for her Montessori class or to give to her grandnieces Max and Kai and grandnephew Jared.

The rest of the abubots are stashed in her aparador. Whenever there's a birthday, a wedding or similar festive occasions, she always has something ready. When we have no time to shop, we go to her and request for a suitable item when a friend or family member is having a thing (birthday or anniversary). Of course, we pay up.

Kind, gentle to all the wee ones in our lives, Suzy is shown here wiping traces of ube ice cream from Jared Susi's mouth.

This makes Suzy the perfect steward of our household budget now that Mom is retired from that. She settles the electric, phone, Wifi and water bills, does the groceries (the others contribute, too).

Every family needs a Suzy who is quiet, dependable, loves little children and lets them go to her for comfort and loving loving. And she is that silent patron of art and music, a cultural soldier, daresay I. She's gonna pinch me tonight (she's my roommate when I'm at Mom's).

Happy birth month, sis!

Suzy with tenor Arthur Espiritu, the prince of cantabile, a title given him by music reviewer Pablo Tariman, at Ayala Museum in 2013. This was at a post-Yolanda fundraising concert called "Arthur Espiritu and Friends." The other singers were sopranos Myramae Meneses and Kay Balajadia-Liggayu and tenor Nomher Nival.

Tenor Nomher Nival in a relaxed moment after "Donizetti and Friends," the last of two Opera Gala series featuring the participants in the first intensive vocal workshop/master class in the Philippines of soprano great Nelly Miricioiu Photos by Babeth Lolarga

Last Saturday (March 21), her birthday, she spent the evening with me at the Ayala Museum. Tenor Nomher Nival dedicated the penultimate number in the Opera Gala recital called Donizetti and Friends "to Suzy."

Following is the English translation of the aria, Donizetti's "Una Furtiva Lagrima," from the Italian comic opera L'Elisir d'Amore (The Elixir of Love):

A single secret tear
from her eye did spring:
as if she envied all the youths
that laughingly passed her by.
What more searching need I do?
What more searching need I do?
She loves me! Yes, she loves me, I see it. I see it.
For just an instant the beating
of her beautiful heart I could feel!
As if my sighs were hers,
and her sighs were mine!
The beating, the beating of her heart I could feel,
to merge my sighs with hers...
Heavens! Yes, I could die!
I could ask for nothing more, nothing more.
Oh, heavens! Yes, I could, I could die!
I could ask for nothing more, nothing more.
Yes, I could die! Yes, I could die of love.

Thank you, Joseph Uy and Nomher, for making Suzy happy.

Master class with Maestra Nelly | Vera Files

Master class with Maestra Nelly | Vera Files

Knucklehead Nelly

While watching soprano Nelly Miricioiu's animus and duende take over her at Monday's press conference, I was reminded of a fictional character that I've always identified with in my pre-teen years when St. Paul College of Quezon City mounted the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific. There before me at Cravings Restaurant's function room at the Shangri-La Plaza Mall was a living, breathing, laughing Nellie Forbush, the cockeyed optimist herself.

After her two-hour or more "recital" of her life from childhood to today, I called the Emile De Becque of my life to gush about La Nelly, what a force of life she is, how her statements apply not just to singing but to writing and the living of a creative life and how she deserves wider coverage in mass media. At which point, Rolly, my husband, started singing phrases from the song "Volare", and I doubled up laughing. The cab driver must've thought I had gone insane!

Below are photos of Ms. Miricioiu, alone, with her husband Barry Kirk, with our friends in media and the music world. Thank you, Pagcor, Amara Resort, Cravings and all who're making Ms. Nelly's visit an occasion for her to think about returning in the near future. Cue for me to die happy.

Quotable Nelly: "It's an amazing feeling to be back. I didn't intend to leave Romania. I felt I could be an artist and a patriot at the same time." She defected from Romania and was granted British citizenship, but she still sings at events that benefit Romanian charities. Photos by Babeth Lolarga

The Miricioiu-Kirk couple chooses their first meal for the day. The evening before when they had just arrived from London, she passed the drinks menu to Barry and said, "Darling, choose the wine. You're the specialist."

She's also a screwball kind of comedienne in the Lucille Ball mold. She always manages to keep writer Pablo Tariman in stitches. She calls him "a quiet boy from the province." Now that sets those of us who know him laughing.

A conductor once told the young Nelly who was a bundle of nervous energy: "You have expression in your little finger. That is enough." She considered that a good tip because it enables the music's simplicity and elegance to emerge.

With film critic Mario Hernando

With soprano Glenda Velasco Liao who won't be in the masterclass at Ayala Museum but will be part of the technical staff operating the supertitles

With Al Andres, one of the hardworking associates of Culture Arts Events Organizers who doesn't look like he has lost his entire shirt wardrobe from risking all to push and market concerts like tomorrow's "Nelly Miricioiu: Live in Manila" at 8 p.m. at Meralco Theater

With small but terrific soprano Myramae Tapia Meneses whose solo voice soared at the Manila Cathedral and Luneta Grandstand during the visit of Pope Francis

Romania's and the Philippines' soprano greats Nelly and Camille Lopez Molina, respectively. Love Nelly's polka-dot stockings!

With Angel Reyes Nacino of the Manila Chamber Orchestra Foundation

This guy's dopamine level will remain at a high level for the rest of 2015. This is all the loving he needs.

‘When I’m onstage, I belong to you’ – Nelly Miricioiu | Vera Files

‘When I’m onstage, I belong to you’ – Nelly Miricioiu | Vera Files

When Monday meant Nelly

Boosted by a breakfast of vitamins and hopia and a late lunch of Hizon's ensaymada and hot chocolate at its main branch in Ermita, Manila, I managed to make it to EDSA Shangri-La Mandaluyong City to welcome Nelly Miricioiu.

Al Andres and Joseph Uy of Culture Arts Events Organizers, the guys behind the production "Nelly Miricioiu: Live in Manila", assigned me the role of flower girl (never been one in all of my childhood). I gladly accepted with aplomb!

I am counting the hours until I hear her voice live. I don't know if I'll ever be content again with YouTube videos or music CDs after the March 6 experience at Meralco Theater.

The virtue of being punctual is rewarded. Otherwise, Pablo Tariman would've done the honors of offering this lovely bouquet from Market! Market! to another of his soul mates, the diva Nelly. When Al clicked my camera, he said, "O, di parang nasa Panagbenga ka rin? Mas maganda pa!" I wanted to hum Ravel's "Bolero" into his ear.

Not wanting to be upstaged, Pablo rushed home earlier to shower and change costume. The extra trip home paid off. He pulled off the fresh-from-my-Caribbean-secret-hideaway look.

The hug and reunion. Ms. Nelly's cry of "Oh Pablo, oh my God!" sounded like a line from Bellini

That's Nelly's husband of over 20 years, engineer Barry Kirk, behind her while she kisses Pablo.

Flower girl's voice goes high pitched in excitement as she requests one of opera's greats to turn to the camera, please.

Ms. Nelly hugs the Teddy Bear of the music world, Joseph Uy.

In her mother country Romania, Nelly was given an honor that is equivalent to the royal title of "Dame." And a gracious dame she is. After the initial hugs and kisses, she invited everyone for a drink and said it was on her. Of course, Joseph and everyone else refused the offer. She was, after all, in the country that had enfolded her as one of its own when she left Romania during its troubled times.

Vital, animated, expressive--that's how Dame Nelly is in person.

She accepts the gifts from the flower girl: food for the body and soul--taisan cake from Hizon's and a copy of the first Philippine PEN Journal which has "healing" for its theme. My essay "The Strength of Roots or the Need for Flight?" is included in it. When she saw the word "healing" on the blue cover, she said, "I believe in these things." She told us of a hard time in her life, how she wandered into a bookstore, discovered a book on the Tantric form of healing, how it changed her and deepened her spirituality.