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.

Martin Masadao knits, among his many talents

One of the first knitted accessories that Martin made. I was its proud owner after I received it from Rolly Fernandez's Express Service.

I write this as Typhoon Glenda is swirling above the sea/ocean and readying to hit land. So before the power goes down, I'd just like to give Brookside Baby's space to independent scriptwriter-director Martin Masadao who is adding another hyphen to his description soon, and that is indie film producer. He wrote and directed Anac Ti Pating which won for best film and best actor awards in the 2012 Sineng Pambansa festival.

He recently sent an email to select friends about his innovative way of raising funds for his next film project. The big-hearted Martin is also setting aside an amount for the super-typhoon Yolanda rehabilitation cause.

Like I always say in past blogs, artists are great philanthropists. They will respond with a generosity that no Henry Sy or John Gokongwei or coño millionaire or society matrons with Botoxed faces can ever match. And artists do so without strings (or in this case, yarn) attached. The good artists can be counted upon to sacrifice their total beings for a heavenly cause.

He knitted me a cobalt, or is it electric, blue accessory that I wore around my throat on two consecutive occasions: the opening of Gilda Cordero Fernando's painting exhibit at Silverlens Galleries last week and the Mostly Mozart 2014 Festival at the Philippine Stock Exchange auditorium (renamed Lanuza Hall) just this past Friday. Enough people saw it--the kind of crowd Martin wanted to catch.


With Jacqui Magno, who sang "Hindi Kita Malimot" and "Bridges" at GCF's opening program, manager Anna Ylagan and writer and editors' editor Lorna Kalaw Tirol

Karla Delgado (right), my former editor and a Baguio resident in her childhood, points to a Martina Knittera creation. Photo by Rolly Fernandez

One of my fave shots from that Silverlens evening. This one's with artist Robert Alejandro, all covered in black, his "daring" costume. Photo by Wendy Regalado


Arthur Espiritu holds up his hand-me-down "throat protector" given by the self-proclaimed presidentita of the Arthur Espiritu Fan Club of the Philippines, Northern Luzon chapter. Note his wedding band. Photo by Rolly Fernandez

I told Martin that I couldn't resist bequeathing the piece to Arthur Espiritu who leaves the country again for a six-month engagement in European opera houses (he's on contract there). He has always protected his throat from the cold, whether the cold of faulty air-conditioning or the bitter cold of winter. His soaring tenor is his means of livelihood, after all.

Once he got hold of the neck piece, he called his wife Christine from below the stage to safe-keep it. Arthur also emailed, thankful for the accessory.

He wrote:

Thanks so much again for that memento. I hope that Martin reaches his goals in raising funds. Please extend my warmest thanks and regards.

All the best,
Arthur

I promptly forwarded the note to Martin. See? That's what I like about our cultural ambassadors of goodwill. May breeding sila. The great ones never ever exhibit a sense of entitlement.

Mabuhay ka, Martin! Long may Martina Knittera live!

For orders of knitwear or knitted accessories, please look for Mr. Masadao in Google+, the more subdued social media platform (no offense to Facebookers).

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Friends!

Greetings! Hope all is well with all of you! :-)

I am going to write a script come September, full-length feature film, which means I will be holed up in Baguio City come July.

While writing, I am planning to use the time as well to knit. I figured I will have all the 'free' time and knitting will help me while thinking in front of the pc.

Here's the deal, if you guys have any old sweaters/knit wear (crocheted items will also do) that somehow you can't seem to get let go of or perhaps are attached to but no longer use because probably they're out of style? Send them to me and I will make tastas the yarn and fashion something 'new' out of it! :-)

Perhaps a cowl, shawl, vest, muffler, scarf, purse, bag, whatever!? Design will depend on color and type of yarn. I will personally hand knit the item. I'm thinking of charging 750 pesos, 500 to cover my labor and 250 to be donated to 'Threads For Life'*.

Rest assured that whatever I make for you will not be replicated for others. Sana you can take a 'before' pic of the item you will give me then we take another 'after' pic of whatever I will knit. I will maximize yarn of your pre-loved sweaters, ergo, you will not get only one item. (I can knit coasters, placemats, iphone case, etc. from leftover yarn).

Payment will be asked on delivery of knitted product. Let me know if you guys are game! Tulong nyo na yan sa akin. (500 will most probably go to cigarettes and beer! While writing manuscript! Haha!)

For those in Baguio, you may drop off your sweaters at Rm. 209 Laperal Bldg. Session Rd. Mon - Fri from 9am to 5pm and Sat fr 9am to 11am. For those in Manila, let me know via text or email when and where to pick up your sweaters.

Thanks very much. If you'd be satisfied with end product I would appreciate endorsement to your friends via word-of-mouth.

I think they would make personalized Xmas gifts, dont you think so?! :-)

Best Regards,

Martina Knittera!

P.S.

Threads For Life is a fund-raising initiative of our dear friend Marta for Yolanda effort. TFL sells pre-loved clothes, shoes, bags etc and all proceeds go to Yolanda. The 250 from the knitting project I will donate to Yolanda as well. :-)

'Petite Messe Solemnelle' at Ayala Museum Dec. 3

"A Christmas Offering," the Cultural Arts Events Organizer and Ayala Museum's special thanksgiving Christmas concert, gathers the country's finest classical artists in a one-night performance on Dec. 3, at the museum on Makati Ave. and De la Rosa St., Makati City, at 7 p.m..

The performers will present one of the most beautiful, dramatic and difficult sacred music ever written: "Petite Messe Solemnelle." Written by Gioachimo Rossini, one of the pillar of bel canto opera era and the genius behind the opera The Barber of Seville and La Cenerentola, the work was written at the twilight of his life as a thanksgiving to God.

Maestro Alberto Zedda, a Rossinian specialist said, "The Petite Messe Solemnelle can be par with Verdi's Requiem in its dramatic intensity and memorable melodies." In the original manuscript, Rossini specifically request for four of the finest singers in Italy, 16 chorus members of soloist caliber, two piano and one harmonium for the premiere and requirement of the work.

Arthur Espiritu (left)

The concert features the finest Filipino tenor in the world today, Arthur Espiritu and three of the country's premiere classical artists: soprano Camille Lopez Molina, soprano Margarita Yulo Gianella and bass-baritone Noel Azcona with the prestigious Viva Voce singers (16 of the most promising young singers today) with pianist Najib Ismail and Fahley Asuncion under the musical direction of Gideon Bendicion and Camille Lopez Molina.

Camille Lopez Molina

Noel Azcona

This concert is a perfect Christmas experience to remind people of God's gift. It is also the producers' humble thanksgiving. Proceeds from the concert will benefit the Home for the Abandoned Elders of the Sisters of the Child Jesus.

For Tickets, call COEA at tel. no. 782-7164 or 0918-3473027, the MCO Foundation at 750-0768 or 0920-954-0053, TicketWorld at 891-9999.

Arthur Espiritu soars in ‘The Poet Speaks’

The sixth of this month will linger long in the head and hearts, like the “last song syndrome,” of those who watched tenor Arthur Espiritu as he breathed life into the lyrics of poets and the music of the masters.

Princely Arthur Espiritu

The Ayala Museum lobby in Makati City was filled with sparkling anticipation as the perfumed set and casually dressed culture vultures took unnumbered seats.  The glass-walled, tall-ceilinged museum had been there for some time as venue for launchings of Jaime Zobel de Ayala’s de luxe books; it has hosted fashion shows of the likes of Josie Natori and Inno Sotto and similar worthy endeavors that enrich the city’s cultural life. But as venue for a concert like MCO Foundation Inc.’s “The Poet Speaks?” Now we’re talking!

The US-based Espiritu has consistently enthralled the operatic and fine music crowd with his prince-like stance, his “beautiful legato”, a critic once wrote. These qualities were present that enchanted evening when he interpreted art songs and cycles of poetry. Handel’s music from the opera Semele comes with lyrics of besotted god Jupiter offering his mortal lover Semele all the loveliness that his powers could execute for her: “Wher’er you walk / Cool gales shall fan the glade / Trees where you sit / Shall crowd into a shade …/ Where’er you tread / The blushing flowers shall rise / And all things flourish…”

His performance echoed past romances that overcame barriers like that of Robert and Clara Schumann (she was herself a composer but was bogged down by the bearing and raising of eight children). In “Liederkreis, Op. 24”, the interpreter in Espiritu swung from mood to mood as the songs required: sleepless lover fretting over an absent sweetheart, the same man focused on himself, his grief, sorrows, longing.

The German language is no barrier at all in understanding the agonies and ecstasies of love, something Espiritu, on his honeymoon stage with his wife, can relate to.

Pianist Najib Ismail and Espiritu hug after their performance.

Complementing Espiritu’s fascinating  performance  was Najib Ismael’s  virtuosity on the keys. Music critic Pablo Tariman said, “On the whole, the recital of tenor Arthur Espiritu with pianist Najib Ismail gave us a clear magic relationship between the four elements of a song recital: the poet, composer, singer and accompanist.”

The producers thoughtfully provided a complete program with the original German, Italian, Filipino and French lyrics side by side with English translations apart from projecting the lyrics up on one wall, the words superimposed on images from the Romantic era.

Liszt’s “Trei sonetti del petrarca”, a set of sonnets with lyrics by no less than Petrarch, tackles again the subject of love, its complications, especially its torments.

When Espiritu turned to National Artist Lucio San Pedro’s “Sampatak ng Hamog” (text by another National Artist, Bienvenido Lumbera), the melody is instantly familiar (Filipino music has a pull on racial memory), it came as a whiff of fresh air from angst-wrought European passion.

In performance

When Espiritu said “Sa Ugoy ng Duyan” was his Valentine to mothers in the audience, everyone quieted themselves, stifled coughs or the clearing of throats. Many in the audience, not just women, felt themselves tearing up to the sway and lullaby in the tenor's voice. At that moment in that evening, he became everyone’s son.

More European songs by von Gluck, Gounod and Delibes followed in the same vein of tortured declarations to a beloved. Despite the subject, Espiritu soared high till  the audience was putty in his hands.

He and Ismail received prolonged standing ovations, and they obliged with two encores. One was “Cessa di piu” from Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Seviglia that Joseph Uy, one of the concert organizers, said “was cut from the opera on its premiere because the stated singer cannot sing it due to its difficulty that requires immense agility.”

The second encore was “O del mio amato ben” by Stephen Donaudy from a song cycle that captured emotions of happiness, heartbreak, hope and healing.

Espiritu said when he sings something more serious or tragic or romantic, he allows the text to transform him so he could totally embody the character he plays: “I try to revisit personal experiences, whether something heartbreaking or something disappointing. I try to place myself back in that moment.  Of course, I make sure that I don’t get too sucked into that moment that I forget that I’m on stage.”

He continued, “I try not to put a stamp on any characters that I do. The idea is to interpret the work as written and intended by the poet/lyricist and the composer.”

Of the major tenors worldwide, Alfredo Kraus has left a mark on him for Kraus’s “longevity and technique [that are] just remarkable.”

That Wednesday night, Espiritu made a mark on music lovers’ hearts.

More of  Espiritu’s music at www. arthurespiritu.net--Text and photos by Elizabeth Lolarga

Originally published by Vera Files/Yahoo Philippines, Feb. 8, 2013

Tenor Arthur Espiritu wants to rediscover the Philippines

This story was originally published by Vera Files and Yahoo Philippines on Jan. 28, 2012. The blogger is reprinting it on this space after Mr. Espiritu's acclaimed performance at Ayala Museum recently.
~~~~~~~~~~~
For a much-in-demand tenor like Arthur Espiritu, who has performed at Teatro alla Scala, Piccolo Teatro di Milano, both in Italy, and with Opera Fuoco in Paris, he would like nothing better to rediscover his country of origin.

Espiritu: "If it was awards that I’m after, I’d rather quit singing. I’m serious about what I do. An award is just a symbol, a bonus. The award I look for is completing a successful show/concert/recital or when I have silenced my worst critic, myself."

Espiritu, who grew up in Tanay, Rizal,  migrated with his family to the United States in the late 1990s when  he was 14.  Two- and- a- half  years ago, he came back for a one-night concert  and swept  Manila’s classical music community off their feet. He has been back a few times  to perform, the last of which was  as Count Almaviva in the full-length production of  The  Barber of Seville last July at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

On Feb. 6, at 7 p.m., the newly-wed Espiritu will sing in “The Poet Speaks” with Najib Ismail on the piano at the Ayala Museum, Makati Ave., Makati City. After Feb. 17, he flies out of Manila and heads straight for Italy to do his first Cassio from Verdi’s Otello at the Teatro Comunale di Luciano Pavarotti Modena and Teatri Comunali di Piacenza. Rehearsals start on Feb. 18. After Otello, which ends in March, he flies to Pittsburgh to do Don Ramiro in Rossini’s La Cenerentola with the Pittsburgh Opera.

He said he plans to return here on the second week of May. With his new bride he wants to visit Davao, Palawan and perhaps Bohol. Apart from this he is open to projects that’ll benefit mainly young aspiring singers.

When it was pointed out that his wedding fell on the day the world was supposed to end, he said, “Christina and I did not know it was the Mayan calendar’s end-of-world date. Her Chinese aunt recommended Dec. 21. We originally wanted the 20th. She said it was bad luck. ‘Better on the 21st,’ she exclaimed. So we got married on the 21st. Christina is in the music world. It’s gonna be a musical family!”

Pianist Najib Ismail

He won the 2009 George London Award, the La Scala Award as part of the Belvedere Vocal Competition in Vienna, Austria, second place in the Irene Dalis Vocal Competition, the Rose-Palmai Tenser Mobile Opera Guild Award, among many.


He said, “If it was awards that I’m after, I’d rather quit singing. I’m serious about what I do. An award is just a symbol, a bonus. The award I look for is completing a successful show/concert/recital or when I have silenced my worst critic, myself.”

He  shares some performance  incidents that  helped hone his resourcefulness. He recalled how as a young artist while in the chorus of Cosi Fan Tutte, “I was one of the guys carrying the big cakes for the marriage scene. The guy on the other side carrying the cake fell. I followed him. The cake broke into three.  One fell into the French horn area and hit a percussion instrument. The second one rolled around the stage like a dropped coin. The third was chased by me and my cake partner. It was hilarious. Everyone on stage lost their concentration. They were all laughing. One of the leads played it off and improvised. We followed suit.”

Before a performance, Espiritu studies the composer and lyricists. “I study the other characters. I imagine the temperaments their characters have. Sometimes the learning and the discovering happen during rehearsals where you’ll know what the stage director wants, also the conductor, especially your colleagues. That’s what I find interesting in preparing for a piece: discovering new possibilities, both musically and dramatically.”

When he does comedy, his technique is: “If it’s a funny line or funny physical gesture or position, I interpret it in the most natural way. Overdoing or underdoing won’t cut it. I’m always in the moment with no preconceived ideas or anticipations. Each moment is fresh, always flowing. In some texts, there are subtexts involved. Forgive me if what I said is a bit of a doozy. I play along with subtexts and hidden meanings behind what I’m about to sing, say or do. If it involves an inside joke that most people can get or it’s something that I don’t get, I ask around or do research.”

He protects his voice by getting plenty of sleep, by not drinking or smoking. He doesn’t eat anything spicy that would irritate his throat in normal circumstances. He drinks room-temperature water, neither too hot nor too cold. When it’s cold, he protects areas where the cold air can penetrate his lungs by wearing ear muffs, scarfs to protect his throat and a jacket.

He said in the Philippines, “you can easily get sick. You walk outside on 25-30-plus degrees temperature, then walk into a mall with the air conditioning blasting, then add the sweat you accumulated from walking outside. Voila! Your lungs get a draft, you get a cold or what I call throat tickles.”

His dream is to do Werther, “my favorite opera. I’d like to sing some jazz, maybe do a cross-over album. I listen to all kinds of music. I don’t limit myself to classical. I like Swahili songs from Africa, a lot of choral pieces. I want to do Westside Story again.” His other wish: to record Filipino songs with a recording company when the opportunity comes.--Elizabeth Lolarga
 
Excerpts from Espiritu’s performances can be viewed in his website www.arthurespirtu.net.