Still on the back roads of my mind

I revisited my blog, brooksidebaby.blogspot.com, to search for old pictures of the late Mercy Fabros that her daughter May-i requested. I sent her links to blog entries where her Nanay was mentioned or quoted.

I am posting these three pictures of Mercy. The first two show us attending Viva Voce's "Complicated the Concert" in 2014 at the former Lopez Museum and Library on Textite Road, Pasig. The building that housed said museum and library is no more. It will assume another form in Rockwell Makati, but when that will open, I am not privy to that info. It just adds to the grief over lost people and lost stomping grounds in one's life.

Viva Voce's Camille Lopez Molina and Myramae T. Meneses bookend me and Mercy Fabros.

Color-coordinated! From left: Joseph Uy, Mher U. Nival, Mercedes Fabros, Ivan Niccolo Nery and me

In that concert, Mercy and I heard Raymond Yadao sing Julian Celis Bautista's kundiman "Parang Maghapon Lamang." We felt the hair on our arms rise. In the blog, I wrote that the Levi Celerio lyrics told of youth wasted: "Even if it feels like the length of a life, whether it ends at age 27 or at age 88, is long in earth-time, in the eyes of Eternity, it is only the equivalent of an afternoon."

Ang buhay ko’y maghapon lang pala

Tila isang saglit sa akin ang ngumingiting umaga!

May awit ang ibong tanda ng pag-asa!

Pagsapit ng hapon, ay!, kay lungkot sa puso kong nagdurusa!

Kung katotohanan ay ganyan,

Bakit sinayang ko yaong unang sigla ng aking buhay!

Di na magbabalik kahit na kaylan man

O! ang buhay pala ay parang maghapon lamang!

The third photo shows Mercy cradling my grandchild Kai. My daughter Kimi Fernandez had just "graduated" from Lamaze class with a successful childbirth, Dr. Melendre Araos as her attending OB-GYN.

My gratitude to Mercy and Melen is as boundless as the mysterious love that binds sisters together.

‘Cosi fan Tutte’ targets millennials

From left: Carlo Mañalac, Carlo Falcis and Roby Malubay

The title of this Italian opera by Mozart means “all women are the same.” Its plot concerns two friends betting about their respective fiancee’s loyalty. When a third friend warns them not to be too trusting for all "women are the same," they test their sweethearts’ loyalties by disguising themselves and wooing their lovers to see who remains true.

The Manila Chamber Orchestra Foundation (MCOF) production on Nov. 28 at 7 p.m. at Ayala Museum stars members of the Viva Voce Ensemble: soprano Anna Migallos as Fiordiligi, soprano Aissa Guilatco as Dorabella, tenor Carlo Mañalac as Ferrando, baritone Carlo Falcis as Guglielmo, mezzo soprano Roxy Aldiosa as Despina and bass baritone Roby Mahusay as Don Alfonso.

The male cast shared that the opera’s setting will have a contemporary feel. Falcis said, “It will be different in a sense that it is more ‘now’. Our characters are living in the present. They’re like yuppies living in the age of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The characters are more adult, not teens. Their relationship problems are real as they are today. But we remain faithful to Mozart’s music, the Italian text and how the story goes.”

Malubay agreed, “This ‘Cosi’ is different because it is in a modern setting. We think millennials can relate to it, especially those with complicated love lives.”

Directed by and under the musical supervision of Camille Lopez Molina, “Cosi fan Tutte” also features recitative parts which Mañalac, 28, a voice graduate of St. Scholastica’s College (SSC), finds challenging. These are what he called “the conversations in the opera. All the while I thought it was easy. A recitative has its own style. It’s another discipline.”

He described his role of Ferrando as a “hyper and energetic guy but a control freak” who finds it hard to let go. He added, “The opera is basically about letting go and having fun. The high tessitura of my role needs a lot of stamina. I don’t know why Mozart does this to his tenors and sopranos! Anyway, I’m working really hard to have that stamina.”

Also an SSC graduate, major in voice, and the oldest among the guys at 35, Falcis said the part of Guglielmo “has been the role I've been doing ever since. But we always have different takes on it. Aside from relearning the songs and adding the recitatives, this Guglielmo is different from the ones I’ve played. He’s more serious and mature, not as playful as before. So I had to pull back a bit from that playful side and become a more adult.”

He continued, “What makes ‘Cosi’ special is the ensemble work—how Mozart married the words with the music and with the characters themselves, how he let lines flow from one character to another with his whole music. I have learned so much on how to be a team player in an ensemble because of ‘Cosi.’”

Malubay, 25, an SSC student taking his second degree in voice, has to strike a balance between his studies and performing professionally. He said, “Studying the opera is a challenge because i did some parts of it before, but now we will add recitatives. Mozart’s work sounds easy, but if you work and perform it, it has big, big obstacles for a singer when it comes to technique and endurance.”

He plays Don Alfonso in his favorite opera. To prepare he has watched different versions of the opera so that he has an idea what the story is about, who Don Alfonso is in the story.

Food and water play a huge part in their pre- and post-performance. Manalac always treats himself to warm soup before going onstage, adding, “I always like performing with a full stomach. I find it easier for me to sing when I’m full. And after performances, anything goes. Usually the group goes out for good food again. We talk about the funny things that happened during the performance.”

Falcis likes some quiet time before the performance “to get my mind and whole being focused on the work at hand and calm down my nerves. Afterwards, we can chill. Chilling takes a lot of forms: eating out, having coffee or ice cream.”

Malubay prefers to just drink water to hydrate his body and vocal folds, practice his lines and keep his mind full of happy and positive vibes. He also exercises.

For tickets, call Ticketworld at tel. no. 891-9999, MCOF, 997-9483, 782-7184 or cell phone nos. 0920-9540053 and 0918-347-3027. --Elizabeth Lolarga

The cast of Cosi fan Tutte


This article was first published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer's Lifestyle section on Nov. 21, 2016.

Mango magic

Mmmmmmmmango crepe as prepared by a cook who deserves to be kissed, Pablo Molina

My friend Joseph Uy and I tasted the first mangoes of summer at the Molina residence in Quezon City last week. During the days and nights leading to that Saturday lunch, Joseph and I exchanged heated text messages about how we imagined the mango crepe to be prepared by tenor-vocal coach Pablo Molina would taste in our mouth. Everyone from the Viva Voce ensemble who had tried it was raving about it and making us envious.

At one point, Joseph waxed poetic and musical and said the scent of the Grand Marnier being cooked was enough to make him hit a high C.

Our SMS conversation took a turn for the ridiculous when Joseph tried to push our trip to the Molinas to an earlier time just in case we could be served dessert first. He texted: "How about we leave at 9:30?"

"Too early," I texted back. "How about 10:30?"

We were early in the end, waiting for lunch to be served while Camille Lopez Molina wrapped up private lessons with two students. I thought Joseph was becoming gaunt from his ravenous hunger.

When the healthy Mediterranean fare was brought out from the kitchen (seafood pasta, chicken and vegetable kebabs and salad), we hungry hippos quickly dug in. I don't know how many servings we each had, but Joseph had to ask for Coke Zero to be bought at a nearby grocery so we could all burp and create some space for the crepes.

Pablo was the perfect host. He gave us extra squeezes of cream for the dessert worth crossing several cities and enduring Saturday traffic for. Thank you, Molina family! We ask only to be adopted by you.

Seafood pasta (top) and kebabs paired with yogurt. The Molina family truly knows how to eat...and by extension, live to the hilt!

Joseph Uy (top) in a satisfied and contemplative mood and top chef Pablo Molina Photos by Babeth Lolarga

Pure, unplugged

Prof. Arturo Molina leading the 90-year-old Manila Symphony Orchestra, the oldest in the country and in Asia

The new performing arts venue at the Circuit Makati (formerly the Sta. Ana racetrack) allows for instrumentalists and vocalists to perform without anything to enhance the sound. "Pure, unplugged" was how Jeffrey Solares, executive director of the Manila Symphony Orchestra (MSO), described the sound when the MSO played its final run-through this Saturday before the concert "Love in the Time of Opera" started.

Billed as a pre-Valentine concert, the event came to be within less than a month when an MSO concert was postponed and something had to replace it since some musicians are full-time salaried people and had to be involved in something. Solares sounded out Camille Lopez Molina, artistic director and vocal coach of Viva Voce, because he believed that an opera-based concert was the easiest to sell.

She was game, and the team-up with the orchestra was set in place. It was also an opportunity to help raise funds for the travel and living expenses of the two Viva Voce members, sopranos Myramae Meneses and Renee Michaela Fajardo, when they fly to London in August as scholars of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. (Incidentally, MSO bassoonist Ariel Perez is a Guildhall alumnus and full scholar, too.)

Also in Viva Voce's favor was the availability of tenor Arthur Espiritu and baritone Noel Azcona. The same went for stage actors Nonie Buencamino and Teenee Chan who waived their fees and gave their all for love of music. The universe was conspiring for this show to succeed.

The audience was treated to steamy love duets, all the more amazing because the singers-actors could twist and turn their bodies while not losing a beat, not affecting their voices' volume. There were physically unusual pairings like the one between the towering hulk of a tenor in Mark Bautista and the sweet and petite Iona Ventocilla, who has the role of Mimi down pat, in the timeless "O Soave Fanciulla" from La Boheme. But then opera is where suspension of belief is called for. The role of tubercular Mimi is more often than not sung by a robust soprano.

As Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow, Lopez Molina had the build and dignity of age to match Azcona's Count Danilo. Theirs was a subtle battle of the sexes that ended with love triumphant.

Glenda Liao (in orange gown) is Monica and Raymond Yadao is Lukas in their duet "Makikiliti Kang Totoo" from the Severino Reyes zarzuela Walang Sugat.

But the duet that blew my head away was not between a man and a woman in the throes of passionate love but the obvious affection between two girls walking by a river and gathering flowers: Lakmé, daughter of a Brahmin priest and played by Meneses, and servant Mallika, played by Fajardo, from Delibes' French opera Lakme. This famous flower duet has been sung by superstar pairings from Korea's gift to the world Sumi Jo and Ah-Kyung Lee to Anna Netrebko and Elina Garanca to grand dames of opera Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne. Now we have a Meneses and Fajardo to hold a candle to them.

It was the MSO's and Viva Voce's first time to perform at the ProMac Spotlight Center. Surely, this is a sign of more enchanted evenings to come. Kudos to everyone involved in this production!

A choral rendition of Puccini's "Nessun Dorma" served as the encore after the concert closed with Bernstein's "Tonight" and balcony scene. Among those in the picture are Meneses, Chan and Anna Migallos. Photos by Pinky Lolarga Susi

MSO's masterstroke

The MSO under Prof. Arturo Molina about to take a bow at last week's "Opera Vs. Broadway" at Ayala Museum.

The Manila Symphony Orchestra's masterstroke this year in attracting an ever-increasing number of followers in Metro Manila is pitting popular music fare with the classical. In its nine rush-hour concerts this year alone, we've seen them do "Bach Vs. Beatles," a concert that the MSO later brought to Baguio City along with "Soundtracks and Symphonies" as part of its Music Everywhere outreach program.

Even with a serious program like July's "Transfigured Night" (music by Schoenberg), the program never failed to engage. Always there is an educational component--a conductor or MSO official faces the audience to give the context of the music. After all, to continue to exist in this generation of millennials, the MSO has to use the media the kids are used to for social marketing (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Mailchimp) and for staging (attractive PowerPoint presentations projected in the background).

Each concert is entertainingly annotated by Jeffrey Solares, the orchestra's executive director, who knows his audience's kaliti by making references to popular figures or ideas in a manner and a language that are also pop. He banishes all notions that classical music is only for the elite and the erudite. He encourages more people to attend live performances instead of settling for YouTube or recordings because of the elements of excitement and unpredictability, saying, "Lots of things can happen--a voice can croak, strings can break..."

He defines opera as a musical art form that emulates Greek theater and formed by poets, philosophers and musicians who had studied Greek drama. To open last week's program of "Marriage of Figaro," the MSO played Mozart's "Overture to Marriage of Figaro," an opera that Solares describes as controversial during its time in the last 1700s because it dared to poke fun at the dukes, duchesses and other members of the royalty and it was from the point of view of the servants.

Michaela Fajardo, soprano with a creamy voice

What made the concert doubly special was the participation of some members of the country's premier vocal ensemble, Viva Voce. Soprano Michaela Fajardo surprised us immediately with the aria "Voi Che Sapete" or "Tell Me What Love Is." It's a textured voice--high and deep, if that were possible. Plus it had volume that could extend up to the back row of the capacity crowd. Impresario Joseph Uy, if he had been there, would've described the voice's quality as "creamy" to mean a pure lyric voice.

Carlo Mañalac may look skinny and fragile for a tenor but his voice has power.

Solares disclosed that Fajardo was his violin student for four years. When she wasn't turning up for lessons anymore, he was happily surprised to learn that she had shifted to voice as her major. Young, fresh-faced tenor Carlo Mañalac showed a nervous quiver in his voice in the initial notes and lyrics of Donizetti's romanza, "Una Furtiva Lagrima" from the opera L'elesir di amore. Solares noted how operas are all bound by one theme: love or doomed love.

Our favorite aria was sung: Musetta's aria "Quando Me En Vo" from Puccini's La Boheme with soprano Iona Ventocilla proving that she can alternate the roles of the suffering seamstress Mimi and the coquettish Musetta. (By the way, the chamber version of La Boheme will be restaged by Viva Voce on Nov. 26 at Ayala Museum after the acclaimed summer presentation of the well-loved opera at Baguio's Hill Station. Last Tuesday's museum audience had a glimpse of the dramatic dynamics and singing of Ventoncilla as Mimi and Mañalac as Rodolfo in their duet "O Soave Fanciula.")

The rush-hour concerts, meant to draw Makati's young professionals so they can skip the after-5 p.m. traffic, are short enough not to require an intermission, but the MSO instead played the sweetly melodious intermezzo from "Cavalleria Rusticana" that had the audience heave a collective sigh at the end. For this alone our evening was made.

There was, of course, the accession to popular fare: overtures from My Fair Lady and Westside Story, songs from Phantom of the Opera, Jekyll and Hyde where tenor Carlo Falcis proved he could be a belter in reality TV shows cum singing competitions, Rent and Les Miserables. For an encore, the MSO obliged with the overture from Chicago.

I confess to being biased. When the classics face off with pop, the classics win by a knockout.

Meeting Venus

Flutist Christopher Oracion and soprano Camille Lopez Molina

There are many things I'm grateful for in my life, "In My Life" a la Beatles. One is having decided to consciously immerse myself in generic cultural work--helping in whatever capacity, mainly setting aside riches of time and health for something I love to see with my eyes, listen to with my ears while there's still some clarity in those senses. Somewhere along the way, the heart and the mind, invisible to the world, except through an ECG or a brain scan, combine to make the experience whole. Art and music have a way of making one's life whole and not a hole (ha! poor pun there!).

Two, I've met up close and personal the people who the group ABBA once had a ready song for: "Thank You for the Music."

Three, despite my schedule, the decision continues to enrich my soul, the kind of enrichment that can take me all the way to death's threshold. And I won't be afraid, no, sir, I won't.

The experience of art is always like meeting Venus to crib the title of a movie, kinda based on the Wagner opera Tannhauser and which I thoroughly enjoyed (saw it twice on the wide screen) in the '90s.

When I think of Venus, I think of soprano Camille Lopez Molina, the founding mama of Viva Voce, the group of classically trained singers. The members and more outside it make up the core of a Philippine operatic scene that is slowly being coveted by some parts of Asia that don't have the inborn musicality of Pinoys and Pinays.

I've watched Viva Voce as an ensemble or as soloists, tandems or trios, and I've always left the event venue sometimes in tears but renewed, revived, restored. Better yet, resurrected.

Ma'am Cams, as she's called by her students, once shared something she wrote, and Cams, I wish to claim it as my Tosca "Vissi d'arte, vissi d'amore" credo for the rest of my mortal days:

"The reward? The reward is the work itself. In the end, all the accolades, the rejections, the praise, the criticisms - all are just part of the road. Sometimes they make the journey easier, sometimes they make it more difficult. You find a way to navigate through them and you move on.

"Then you come to a crossroads and you have to choose which direction to take. What do you really want to do? Where do you really want to go? Only you can decide, because only you know.

"And you end up with people who are going in the same direction. A different journey, but the same direction, and you welcome each one as you get to know them, or you leave them, or they leave you.

"And life goes on. And work goes on. Thank God!"

Thank God, indeed!

P.S. This morning's reflection is made possible through a Joni Mitchell full album, particularly the song "Come In from the Cold."

O light, o music divine

Looking pleased even from her side view, lyric coloratura Sumi Jo, a superstar in the operatic and cross-over music world, enfolds soprano Myramae Meneses in her loving arms during a master class at St. Scholastica's College in February this year. Photo by Anna Leah Sarabia

Ms Meneses (in white) and tenor Ivan Niccolo Nery (rightmost) at the Viva Voce's repeat of "Complicated The Concert" at the Lopez Museum in July Photo by Babeth Lolarga

The days are shortening, the nights are lengthening, and we just hurried past mid-November! I once wrote a former pen pal (Frank Cimatu, then on Friendly fellowship in Seattle) how my young children then wished that November could be skipped so that their eager hands and hearts could get on with the "business" of Christmas (unwrapping presents, receiving gold and red ampao envelopes and such).

Often and nearly forgotten during the lead-up to Yuletide are people for whom the merriment of the season feels like a stinging slap on the face, that is, they may resent it in their pain or lonesomeness. Is it any wonder that cases of depression are ironically high during this celebratory season?

And here comes the Culture Arts Events Organizer (CAEO) about to swing a balance between the celebration of the liberator Christ child's birth and putting The Beatitudes into action. Its concert, "Christmas Solstice," billed as an evening of timeless Christmas carols on Dec. 7 at 7:30 p.m. at the Ayala Museum on Makati Ave. will have for its beneficiaries children who need medical treatment for their cancer.

The three featured singers are among the most sought after following their respective professional debuts at the same venue in 2013 and this year: soprano Myramae Meneses and Stephanie Aguilar, and tenor Ivan Niccolo Nery. Pianist Greg Zuniega will assist them in their renditions of carols from the 17th century to the present. These songs include: Felipe de leon's "Pasko Na, Sinta Ko" and "Payapang Daigdig", the exquisite "Cantique de Noel" (also known as "O Holy Night"), Andrew Lloyd Webber's masterpiece "Pie Jesu," Cesar Franck's "Panis Angelicus," Handel's "Let the Bright Seraphim."

The Handel aria, which is from his opera Samson, has been interpreted, each in their lovely way, by sopranos Renee Fleming, Kiri Te Kanawa and Kathleen Battle (go to YouTube, my friend!). A bit of background on the lyrics is: "the aria summons the celestial hosts of seraphim and cherubim to hail the dead hero, with trumpet figures responding to the singer." (Source: http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/let-bright-seraphim-george-frideric-handel)

Let us go then, let us go with the angels as one imagines them descending as these are sung on Advent's first Sunday:

Let the bright seraphim
in burning row,
their loud, uplifted angel trumpets blow.

Let the cherubic host,
in tuneful choirs,
touch their immortal harps
with golden wires.

Tickets are available at Ticketworld, tel. no. 891-9999, or the CAEO, tel. nos. 782-7164, 517-3763, 0920-954-0053, 0918-347-3027 or 0920-465-5725.

A little afternoon music in one's brief life

Soprano Myramae Meneses, second from right, with the other members of Viva Voce, leads the singing of Francisco Santiago's "Pilipinas Kong Mahal" that ended the second and last part of "Complicated the Concert" at the Lopez Museum and Library. Photo by Babeth Lolarga

The second time around "Complicated the Concert" was as lovely as the first, if not lovelier and more colorful in terms of costume and production details.

Camille Lopez Molina, Viva Voce founder who also served as assisting artist on the piano to the 10 classical singers (many, if not all, of them her students in voice), promised us earlier: "We've tweaked the program so it will be interesting even to those who saw the first concert."

We were at the May 31 concert, a prelude to June's historical milestones (Rizal's birthday and Philippine Independence Day). During that performance of art songs, from bel canto arias to kundimans, what struck the listener/viewer was the program's potent political content as images from the exhibit of Leslie de Chavez, Mike Adrao and Ea Torrado were flashed on one side of the wall, alternating with more slides of the museum's permanent collection of works by Filipino masters and photos of notorious figures in front-page news. (The exhibit, by the way, has been extended until tomorrow, Aug. 4.)

During the July 19 re-staging at the same venue, the singers' formal wear and an elevated platform that served as stage added a dramatic element. And this time the "tweaking" that Lopez Molina did with the program drew more dramatic responses. This audience member found herself copiously and silently weeping at Kristine Marie Balingcos' interpretation of Catalini's "Ebben, ne andro lontana" from the opera La Wally, a heroine's death aria before she throws herself in an avalanche. It's not an ordinary soprano who can acquit herself with that aria, especially if one has heard versions by Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi or the young Angela Gheorghiu.

Certain types of music invite that kind of visceral response. By the time tenor Ivan Niccolo Nery was singing Schumann's "Stille Tränen," to mean "Silent Tears," with a slide closeup of an unknown man, a survivor of supertyphoon Yolanda aboard a C 130 plane that was evacuating him and hundreds of other survivors from Tacloban, Leyte, my handkerchief was soaked.

Romance filled the afternoon air with soprano Myramae Meneses' "Ah! Love but a Day." Not included in the first staging, this is from a song cycle by American composer Amy Beach with lyrics by the English poet Robert Browning: "Ah, Love, but a day,/And the world has changed!/The sun's away,/And the bird estranged;/The wind has dropped,/And the sky's deranged;/Summer has stopped./Look in my eyes!/Wilt thou change too?/Should I fear surprise?/Shall I find aught new /In the old and dear,/In the good and true,/With the changing year?"

But it was upon hearing for the very first time baritone Raymond Yadao sing Juan Celis Bautista's kundiman "Parang Maghapon Lamang" that one felt as though one's Filipino chest was being cut open without anesthesia. Levi Celerio's haunting lyrics tell of youth wasted. Even if it feels like the length of a life, whether it ends at age 27 or at age 88, is long in earth-time, in the eyes of Eternity, it is only the equivalent of an afternoon.

Ang buhay ko’y maghapon lang pala
Tila isang saglit sa akin ang ngumingiting umaga!
May awit ang ibong tanda ng pag-asa!
Pagsapit ng hapon, ay!, kay lungkot sa puso kong nagdurusa!
Kung katotohanan ay ganyan,
Bakit sinayang ko yaong unang sigla ng aking buhay!
Di na magbabalik kahit na kaylan man
O! ang buhay pala ay parang maghapon lamang!

Camille Lopez Molina and Myramae Meneses bracket two similarly dressed music fans (the blogger and Mercy Lactao Fabros).

With Manila Chamber Orchestra Foundation's Joseph Uy, tenors Nomher Nival and Ivan Niccolo Nery. Joseph once reassured me during a sad period in my life (I never seem to run out of these periods): "A golden tone from a good singer's voice erases all the frustrations in life." Amen to that, Joseph, amen.

Classical music singers who work their butts off and like it

Viva Voce, which is made up of members who are soloists in their own right, will have a repeat performance of "Complicated the Concert" on July 19 at 2 p.m. at the Lopez Museum and Library, Benpres bldg., Exchange road, Ortigas Center, Pasig City. Photo by Babeth Lolarga

With Typhoon Glenda veering away from the country after exacting another round of damage to life and property and with the storm signal down, the show must go on for Viva Voce's "Complicated the Concert." This is a repeat performance of an earlier acclaimed concert of patriotic hymns and more lamentations in song form, all inspired by the museum's permanent exhibition and current ones of visual and performing artists Leslie de Chavez, Mike Adrao and Ea Torrado.

Led by soprano and voice professor Camille Lopez Molina, who is also the group's accompanist, Viva Voce originated as an intensive summer voice workshop intended to provide young classical singers with a venue where they could master their craft.

Lopez Molina said, "It was designed to help them conquer the challenges of performing as soloists. The first Viva Voce workshop was held in 2010, the last in 2012. From there we have evolved into a performing group of singers. The group is just a temporary haven to help iron out vocal performance problems of each individual. It's a sort of halfway house between being a student and a professional. We teach these kids not just how to sing and perform but also to give them a heads up on the business side of the profession, the ethics, the risks, the requirements."

Viva Voce was also a good reason to go up to Baguio. Their head said, "Gawa tayo ng gimik para maka-stay sa Baguio ng matagal-tagal sa summer!"

The first batch of facilitators in 2010 were tenors John Glenn Gaerlan and Randy Gilongo, Pablo Molina (Camille's husband and also a singer) and she. Their pianists were Peter Porticos and Camille's mother, Dr. Myrna Lopez.

Viva Voce founder Camille Lopez Molina Photo from her Facebook profile

Lopez Molina had already attended many voice workshops in the US and Canada. Being a natural teacher, she thought she could combine and adapt the formats she learned abroad "to suit our resources and our participants' needs."

In the second batch of facilitators were soprano Rica Nepomuceno, pianist Najib Ismail and actor Nonie Buencamino. The 2012 workshop was a dream come true with such luminaries as tenor Arthur Espiritu, soprano and professor Irma Potenciano and Dr. Jonathan Malicsi as facilitators. The workshop content included singing diction sessions, text analysis, interpretation sessions and career talks.

Their Baguio summers weren't all sight-seeing and sleeping till noon. Activities lined up daily were physical exercises for stretching, breathing and support, and muscular coordination, vocalizations, games, individual lessons, masterclasses and recitals.

Lopez Molina continued, "We were lucky that Glenn found good venues for us to use, particularly the Convent of the Holy Spirit on Pacdal Road. The place is far from the noise of the city center. There is a hilltop on the property where we would have morning exercises in the open. It's a strenuous climb, it was a challenge to drag ourselves up there every morning, but the effort was so worth it."

Excellence is one of Viva Voce's guiding principles, if not THE guiding principle. It is, as the founder put it, "the only way you can make a living from classical singing. Your attitude reflects your artistry, and artistry is what you can sell, not just your talent. There are a lot of really talented people who can't break into this field because of an attitude of mediocrity. Puwede na just doesn't cut it. You have to be the best person for the job. That means working your butt off to master your instrument and learn your craft."

She described excellence as a quality that "challenges you, keeps your artistry fresh and gets you noticed. Anybody can sing classically or operatically, but not anybody can actually be a classical or an opera singer. Excellence means you don't make a distinction between 'Philippine standards' and world-class. And it's more fun when you have others with you learning the same things."

Technically, Viva Voce isn't a chorus or a choir. Lopez Molina explained, "Viva Voce is composed of soloists who sing as an ensemble, which includes chorus work in operas, oratorios and masses. But the thrust is different. The focus of a choir is the sound of the whole group, to sound as one. An ensemble puts more emphasis on individuals performing together and finding a common musical 'groove' or vibe but with each person's sound still clearly defined."

To prepare for "Complicated the Concert," what the Viva Voce members did, upon the invitation of Lopez Museum consultant Ricky Francisco (who joined the 2012 Baguio workshop), was to view the art works. He explained everything to them from the concept of the entire exhibit to each artist's work's significance and intention.

Then the group put their heads together on how they could somehow incorporate or weave the works in the songs. This led to the use the slides and subtitling since they already have a projector and floor-to-ceiling screen installed.

Lopez Molina recalled the process of selecting their program repertoire: "I let the art works guide us. We took each work literally, asking ourselves, 'What do you see?' We chose each number in the repertoire literally like what is the song saying? From there I chose real-life photographs that are relevant to both painting and song. These connected us to the real and present world. This process made me see much more behind the text of the songs and the visual content of the art works. I realized how intertwined our individual identities and our psyche as a nation are to our nation's history."

Asked if the meaning of plaintive love songs could also be expanded to the idea of bayang inaapi, she nodded vigorously, saying, "Definitely!" - Elizabeth Lolarga

Clear, uncomplicated, thought-provoking | Vera Files

Clear, uncomplicated, thought-provoking | Vera Files

A Mass that is anything but petite | Vera Files

A Mass that is anything but petite | Vera Files

A Mass that is anything but petite

It is anything but petite. But that is how Petite Messe Solennelle by Gioachino Rossini, pillar of the bel canto opera era and composer of the opera The Barber of Seville, is officially described.

The mass, the Christmas offering on Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. at the Ayala Museum on Makati Ave., Makati City, has a stellar line-up: tenor Arthur Espiritu, sopranos Camille Lopez Molina and Margarita Giannelli, baritone Noel Azcona and 16 Viva Voce singers, including Myramae Meneses.

Espiritu and Ismail

Margarita Giannelli

Najib Ismail, who will be the accompanist with Farley Asuncion on a second piano, said, "This late work by Rossini was called petite not because of its length but because of its scale. It was conceived for four soloists, a double vocal quartet, two pianos and a harmonium compared to his Stabat Mater which is for vocal soloists, a big choir and orchestra."

He continued, "It's petite because ideally it can be performed in a small venue, making it more intimate in a way without sacrificing the grandeur of the work. In terms of an orchestral feel, this is provided by two pianos with the harmonium providing the wind section of an actual orchestra. This work was later transcribed by the composer for soloists, choir and orchestra, which I personally feel loses the petite, intimate feel of the work."
Asked why he and the soloists chose this work, he answered, "It's beautiful. Many months ago, Arthur, Camille, Margarita and I were looking for a beautiful work that we can do that will involve our young singers as well. Also, it is a great opportunity for us to work together as musicians."

Baritone Noel Azcona

Azcona said their plans for the Rossini mass "came out as an impromptu thing. We messaged each other. Najib came up with the idea of the Petite Messe Solennelle. We were all excited. It is perfect because of its transitional melodies and deeper romantic theme."

Camille Lopez Molina

Lopez Molina added, "We talked about what piece we wanted to sing with each other because we had so much fun in MusicArtes's production of 'Best of Opera' in June. Early December sounded good because I'm due to give birth on the 14th, Margarita's coming home with her family for the holidays, Noel's leaving for his studies in the US and Arthur's leaving for his engagements later in the month. Arthur proposed it to MCO Foundation's Joseph Uy."

Azcona explained the appeal of the Mass: "It calls for a small, intimate group. Of course, singing with the country's finest singers will be exciting experience. I'm sure the audience will find the work spiritually appropriate in these times. What an excellent way to convey our sentiments in these hard times."

Lopez Molina hopes for "an emotional response.”
“Given the gravity of the Yolanda devastation and the solemnity of Rossini's music, there should be a chord struck deep down inside us somewhere," she said.

As one of two artistic directors of the production (the other is Gideon Bendicion), she said, "This piece is more
difficult than anything Viva Voce has tackled before. The music is so rich, the harmonies and progressions complex and unusual. It's taking all we've got to learn and perform it. Our conductor, Gideon, and I have our hands full drilling the group. It has been more or less two weeks of intensive rehearsals."

Azcona performed the work 10 years ago at the International Las Piñas Bamboo Organ Festival, recalling, "It was my first professional singing gig. I was quite nervous because of the compositional complexities. Studying it was tedious but rewarding. It's not your usual Rossini music. It's fantastic!"

Espiritu with Meneses and his wife Christine

Espiritu, who started out as "a huge pop guy," following Gary Valenciano's moves and singing style, said learning to love the classics is easy. "All you need is one passionate person. All it takes is a moment of exposure. I feel passionately about outreach programs."

He said classical musicians work hard on their materials. "We find out about character, we read the classics in literature. When I did Nixon in China (he played Mao Zedong ), I read up. Let's give people this chance to hear this music we love."

The other Viva Voce members, the most promising opera singers today, are: Kristine Balingcos, Lovelle Inoferio, Millicent Lao, Aissa Guilatco, Iona Ventocilla, Roxy Aldiosa, Tanya Corcuera, Antonio Ferrer, Carlo Falcis, Ivan Niccolo Nery, Paolo Gallon, Jairus Gonzalez, Raymond Yadao, Yen Dilig and Zip de Guzman. --Elizabeth Lolarga

For tickets, call the Cultural Arts Events Organizer, tel. no. 782-7164 or cell phone 0918-3473027, MCO Foundation at 750-0768 or 0920-954-0053, or TicketWorld at 891-9999.

Espiritu sings again at Ayala Museum in a benefit concert for super typhoon Yolanda survivors Dec. 12 at 7 p.m. For tickets for "Arthur Espiritu and Friends," call Paula Fernandez, 759-8288 local 31.

Originally published by Vera Files, Nov. 28, 2013.