‘Barber of Seville’: A delightful production
The gala of “The Barber of Seville” had the audience—even first-timers to the opera—delighted.
July 22, 2012
The gala of “The Barber of Seville” had the audience—even first-timers to the opera—delighted.
A rather late discovery is the fact that another Filipino singer—tenor Rodell Rosel—had made it to the Metropolitan Opera in New York three years ago (2009), in Richard Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier,” opposite no less than the revered American diva Renée Fleming and Susan Graham, and under the direction of the eminent conductor Edo de Waart.
When I told my bellicose and history-conscious cousin, the architect Toti Mendoza, that I was going to Tacloban, capital city of Leyte, he proclaimed: “Good! Will send you excerpts of how MacArthur’s staff treated Sergio Osmeña.”
For its 37th season, Dulaang Unibersidad ng Pilipinas opens with a restaging of last season’s “Noli Me Tangere: The Opera,” a retelling of José Rizal’s novel with music composed by National Artist for Music Felipe Padilla de Leon and libretto by National Artist for Visual Arts Guillermo Tolentino.
At the beginning of the 20th century, a revolution was brewing in Europe. It was the modernist assault in science and technology, literature and philosophy, music and dance, visual arts and architecture, film.
When news of the proposed P1-million bounty for Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corp. owner Delfin Lee hit headlines, heads turned to his very visible socialite daughter Divine. Some people even say she should be included in the charge sheet of people involved in the Pag-Ibig fraud.
I am a resident surgeon in the US, married to another surgeon, and we have two kids. We were college sweethearts, but agreed on a two-year trial separation in med school.
What goes up must come down. In this case, we’re not talking about life or karma. We’re talking about heels. If there’s a part of the woman’s body that’s been much abused in the 21st century—other than her pocket (a necessary extension of the woman’s body, by the way)—it must be her feet. They’re abused and punished not from too much walking or exertion, but from wearing stratospheric high heels. Seven inches, eight? Today’s shoes, like we said, have become the new millennium’s torture instruments.
Music moves emotions. It is one art form powerful enough to move us to tears. I recall watching Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera,” the world’s most successful and popular musical. Sitting in the dark, I was blown away with awe and delight at the drama the musical could evoke from me.
Billionaire-philanthropist Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. plunked down over P45 million so that 2,000 public school teachers in Tarlac could get a diploma from the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod.
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