In “Noli,” Padilla incorporated the brilliant aria, “Awit ng Gabi ni Sisa,” which he had written five years earlier on a commission of voice teacher Felicing Tirona. The song was originally for the graduation recital of her student, the distinguished coloratura soprano Fides Cuyugan Asensio.
Because the song was made expressly for her, the role of Sisa was naturally performed by Asensio in all major productions of the “Noli” opera until the ’90s.
“I sang the role of Sisa for 40 years, before anyone else sang it,” said Asensio.
When the opera was restaged by Dulaang UP in 2011 and 2012, the production’s music supervisor and vocal coach Camille Lopez Molina sought the advice of Asensio, her teacher. The mastery of a Sisa performance is really crucial to any “Noli” staging.
Asensio was not consulted for the J&S Production of “Noli” in Resorts World, so it is hoped Cebu-born Filipino-American Antoni Mendezona would pull through in playing Sisa.
Mendezona confessed that she remembered little about Philippine history, since she had left the country as a teenager when her family migrated to California. But doing Sisa, she added, has forced her to recover her past. Discovering the kundiman passages in De Leon’s masterpiece, and feeling deeply the connection to the Philippine past, was, in many ways, “like coming home,” she explained.
Molina said the music of De Leon for Sisa “is fantastic.” “The coloratura writing is pretty hard to forget,” she added. “Sisa represented the repression of our people, and that has cast a dark feeling on the entire opera. But this presentation here has a different treatment.”
The staging of the “Noli,” now running at Resorts World’s Newport Theater until Sept. 28, is a collaboration between New York-based Filipino producers—designer Jerry Sibal, entrepreneur Edwin Josue and philanthropist Loida Nicolas Lewis—and Manila-based production specialists.
Outstanding success
Sibal and Josue had staged “Noli” in New York before, whose opening night was marred by a near walkout by production members because of alleged disorganization. But the production pulled through so much so that it was later brought to Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
Tenor Sal Malaki, who played Ibarra in New York and Washington, described it as an “outstanding success” and credited it to the music director Anna Etsuko Tsuri, ironically a Japanese.
“She is Japanese, with no knowledge of Filipino folklore or history,” said Malaki. “But she studied the score, the characters, the story—she knew everything, and she knew how to manage the little time we had to prepare.”
In a sense, the person in the Resorts World cast who “knows everything” about the music and the backstage requirements of the opera is Molina, who now must play the character Isabel (Capitan Tiago’s sister) on stage, while multitasking as vocal coach.
“In the DUP shows, I was conductor, arranger, vocal coach and music director,” she said. “Here, while I am playing Isabel, I have to turn a deaf ear to slip-ups of some singers, and wait until there is a chance to talk to them.” Because of her background, she added, “my suggestions and comments have been respectfully considered by director Freddie Santos and the rehearsal master.”
There have been changes in the opera to fit it to 21st century theater. “It was designed by someone who (did) cruise ships,” Molina said, referring to De Leon who did band music for cruise ships, and he had “rock bands and dancing shows in mind, not opera.”
It has been the task of director Santos to transform the classical work into a show that today’s audiences will appreciate and enjoy.
“The venue is really huge. It is operatic,” he said.
“He has a beautiful voice,” said Asensio of Santos, her former student at the UP College of Music.
But for Santos, directing the opera is about bringing the message of Rizal to a wider audience, since very few adults, much less young people, today have actually read the “Noli.” “Ibarra came back to the Philippines to build a new kind of school that would uplift students to the best European standards then,” he explained. “Rizal knew that the more important revolution would be the one of the mind.”
Of course, there is the romantic part, and Ibarra’s love for Maria Clara, played by the inimitable soprano Rachelle Gerodias. “But you see that it is also about his love for our country,” Santos said. It is this passion of Rizal for the people that Santos seeks to bring out.
“I made it more visual, and used digital effects, so that people would feel this,” Santos said.
Also, with permission from De Leon and Tolentino heirs, Santos said he had rearranged a few sequences, so that the story would flow, and to “make the music visual.”
Beyond directing this magnificent work, Santos said, “I wish that those who watch Noli will leave the theater loving our country better, and will be inspired to read the book. Rizal had hoped that those with better education would do more for our country, and I hope we are contributing our share.”