Otoniel Gonzaga teams up with Dulce

This is one musical event not to be missed.

Otoniel Gonzaga, the country’s foremost tenor, teams up with Asian diva Dulce and the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) in a yearend concert called “Christmas Spectacular & Immortal Arias” at the Philamlife Theater on December 9, 2006.

In the same concert, the MPO under the baton of Rodel Colmenar, will also accompany guest soprano Camille Lopez Molina and flutist Christopher Oracion, two-time first prize winner of the National Music Competition for Young Artists.

Fresh from his triumphant team-up with Lea Salonga early this year, Gonzaga, a winner of the Marian Anderson Voice Competition and the ARD International Voice Competition in Munich, will do a duet with Dulce, a grand prize winner of the Asian Singing Competition in Hong Kong.

Born in Iloilo, Gonzaga received his training at the Curtis Institute of Music under the tutelage of English tenor Richard Lewis and American soprano Margaret Harshaw, and later from professor John Lester.

Gonzaga’s operetta credits include singing over 75 roles including Barinkay in Johann Strauss’ Der Zigeunerbaron, Paganini in Lehár’s Paganini, and Camille de Rosillon in The Merry Widow. He is well known as Prince Souchong in The Land of Smiles; a role he has sung in more than 30 different productions and well over 500 performances. Gonzaga is active on the concert stage, and has worked with many conductors, including Maestros Pablo Casals, Herbert von Karajan, and Eugene Ormandy.

Dulce was the same singer who tried for the role of Gigi in Miss Saigon and got an ovation during the audition. Miss Saigon composer Claude-Michel Schonberg compared Dulce’s voice “to a Boeing 747 taking off.”

A recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award given by the ALIW Foundation in 2003, Dulce is described by music critics as singer non-pareil.

Wrote Jullie Yap Daza of Dulce: “Though her name conjures everything nice and sweet, on stage she is likened to a lethal weapon with its blade as sharp as it is shiny, and the love songs that are her repertoire becomes dangerous territory!”

While Gonzaga will do immortal arias, from Tosca and Rigoletto, Dulce will do immortal love songs
identified with her such as “Memory” from Cats and with With One Look from Sunset Boulevard.

Soprano Camille Lopez Molina who brought the house down in her guest appearance in Opera Now 1 and 2 at the CCP will do a La Boheme duet with Gonzaga.

Flutist Christopher Oracion who shared the stage with Cecile Licad in the Filipino Heritage Festival concert in Paoay, Ilocos Norte, will do Bizet’s Carmen Fantasy and Verdi’s Traviata Concertwaltzer.

Gonzaga’s December 9 concert will open the Great Performance Series at the Philamlife Theater.

The second concert in the series will feature brilliant young Russian pianist Ilya Rashkovsky, first
prizewinner of the First Hong Kong International Piano Competition and second prize winner of the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris. Rashkovskiy will do a solo recital called An Evening of Piano Fantasy at the Philamslife Theater on Wednesday, December 13, 2006.

Presented in cooperation with Philamlife Insurance Company, the Great Performance Series ends on February 24, 2007 with a performance of Romanian violin superstar Alexandru Tomescu with pianist Mary Anne Espina.

For ticket inquiries on above concerts, please call tel. 9007023 or cell 09065104270.