Tenor Arthur Espiritu remains the year’s most exciting singer with his landmark concerts in Baguio City in October and at the Manila Pianos in Makati last month.
His rarely heard “Tosca” aria “E lucevan le Stelle” (heard for the first time in Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Germany, in October) thrilled the Baguio audience, some of whom drove all the way from Manila to hear the sensational tenor.
Opera lover Dr. Benito Sunga was ecstatic: “What a memorable concert! The golden voice of Espiritu with the combination of two soprano voices, Angeli Benipayo and Nerissa de Juan, was as smooth as honey and butter. The combination is simply pure heaven!”
Mario Gatus, who drove all the way from Manila to watch the concert, said: “Tenor Espiritu’s ‘E lucevan le Stelle’ from ‘Tosca’ alone is worth the trip to Baguio. The rest is simply icing on the rich Italian dessert that they served.”
The sopranos with Espiritu in Baguio, De Juan and Benipayo, and Manila Pianos’ Elle Tuazon, are the most promising sopranos of the year.
For his performance in Baguio and at the Manila Pianos concerts, pianist Gabriel Allan Paguirigan is my Collaborating Artist of the Year.
Shining moments
The year 2025 will see Espiritu making more grand debuts in the international opera scene.
In February to March, Espiritu will make his debut at Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Italy, in the title role of “Faust,” which he has sung many times in European opera houses.
In May, Espiritu will sing the role of the Prince in Dvorak’s “Rusalka.”
Meanwhile, Benipayo continued her winning streak in Vietnam when she sang the role of Pamina in “Magic Flute” with the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Japanese conductor Honna Tetsuji.
Benipayo was also a standout singing with the University of the Philippines (UP) Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Josefino Toledo in an evening of Filipino zarzuelas and opera by the UP Symphony Orchestra held on Nov. 8 at the University Theater in UP Diliman.
Conducted by Chino Toledo, the university orchestra revealed some shining moments with a good chorus and distinguished soloists, namely Krissan Manikan Tan who sang an aria from “Adriana Lecouvreur” (“Acerba voluttà”) with ease with just a hint of her mezzo sound, but redeeming herself with a dose of good acting. Baritone Lionel Guico sang and acted with ease in “Largo al Factotum” from “Barber of Seville.”
Still, the runaway winners were tenor Ervin Lumauag and soprano Benipayo in their arias from Gounod’s “Romeo et Juliet” (“Je Veux Vivre” and “Ah! Leve toi Soleil”).
Still one of the year’s best is the closing concert of the Philippine Philharmonic under Maestro Grzegorz Nowak. The reading of Tchaikovsky’s 5th left nothing to be desired. The Polish conductor knows the piece inside and out and what resulted was pure Tchaikovsky magic.
My violinist of the year is Diomedes Saraza Jr. for his seamless interpretation of the Sibelius concerto with the PPO under Nowak. He elicited a screaming ovation for his encore, his own arrangement of Felipe Padilla de Leon’s “Magtanim ay Di Biro.”
Moving performance
A few Filipino compositions were tried out during the year, but none comes close to Conrado del Rosario’s “Mahal” interpreted by the Manila Symphony Junior w under the baton of Jeffrey Solares.
It was second in a series of concerts at the MiraNila ancestral house opened by cellist Damodar das Castillo.
Del Rosario admitted he was deeply moved by the MiraNila auwdience reaction. “It’s an immense honor as a composer when your music resonates with people. Many approached me afterward to express how much they were touched by ‘Mahal,’ which is perhaps the greatest compliment a composer can receive.”
What the audience didn’t know was that Del Rosario was a winner of the League of Filipino Composers Chamber Music Composition Competition in 1982 for his String Quartet No. 1, which enabled him to take up studies at the Berlin University of the Arts with Isang Yun and Witold Szalonek. That Berlin exposure refined his artistry, resulting in his winning his first international competitions, among them the Hambacher, Hitzacker and Irino, which gave him recognition from the Berlin Cultural Senate.
More news
Cecile Licad earned three standing ovations in her return engagement at Carnegie Hall. Her sold-out return engagement at Carnegie’s Kurt Weill Auditorium electrified audiences Dec. 5 and elicited pride from Filipinos in the audience.
“Cecile Licad was mobbed like a Hollywood star at the adjacent lounge,” reported music fan Lui Queano, who drove all the way from Toronto to watch the concert.
The PPO under conductor Herminigildo Ranera had a well-received outreach concert in Science City of Munoz, Nueva Ecija, last Dec. 9. Soloists were Camille Lopez Molina, Lara Maigue, Diomedes Saraza Jr., and Arman Ferrer, among others. Mayor Baby Armi Alvarez and Vice Mayor Nestor Alvarez thanked the Cultural Center of the Philippines for making the Christmas concert possible.
My second book, “Encounters in the Arts,” will be out before the new year. It has 586 pages of interviews, profiles, reportage, and essays on the leading personalities in music, dance, opera, literature, and cinema, plus arts criticism and selected essays. For copies (P1,000/hardbound edition), text tel. no. (0906) 510-4270 or email [email protected].
