Tenor Arthur Espiritu remains the year’s most exciting singer with his landmark concerts in Baguio City
in October and another one on November 16 at the Manila Pianos in Makati.
His rarely heard Tosca aria E lucevan le Stelle (heard for the first time in Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Germany in October) sent shivers on the spines of 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 tenor Espiritu with the combination of two soprano voices, Angeli Benipayo and Nerissa De Juan were as smooth as honey and butter. What else can you ask for? The combination is simply pure heaven!”
Mario Gatus who drove all the way from Manila to Baguio to watch the concert, enthused: “Tenor Espiritu’s E lucevan le Stelle from Tosca alone is worth the trip going to Baguio. The rest are simply icing on the rich Italian dessert that they served.”
The sopranos with Espiritu in Baguio (Nerissa de Juan and Angeli 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.
The year 2025 will see tenor Arthur Espiritu making more grand debuts in the international opera scene,
In February to March 2025, 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 2025, Espiritu sings 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 still a standout singing with the University of the Philippines Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Josefino Toledo in an evening of Filipino zarzuelas and opera by the UP-Symphony Orchestra Nov. 8 at the state university theater in 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 Angeli 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 5 th 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 Maestro Novak.
He elicited a screaming ovation for his encore, his own arrangement of D Felipe Padila de Leon’s Ang
Magtanim ay Di Biro.
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 Orchestra 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 audience 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.
That enabled him to have studies at the Berlin University of the Arts with Isang Yun and Witold Szalonek. That Berlin exposure refined his artistry which resulted in his winning his first international competition among them the Hambacher, Hitzacker and Irino which gave him recognition from the Berlin Cultural Senate.
Concert News: Cecile Licad earned three standing ovations in her return engagement at the Carnegie Hall.
Her sold-out return engagement at Carnegie’s Kurt Weill Auditorium electrified audiences Thursday night (Dec. 5) and elicited bottomless 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 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 CCP for making the Christmas concert possible.,
Book News: 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 cinema and arts criticism plus selected essays. P1000 a copy (hardbound edition). Text 09065104270 or email: artsnewsservice@gmail.com.