The family and friends of entertainment icon Armida Siquion-Reyna and her son, movie director Carlos Siguion-Reyna, gathered last Sunday to celebrate the famous mother-and-son’s “taking kindly the counsel of the years.”
Armida and Carlitos share a birthday, Nov. 4. “Saves on birthday parties,” a writer-guest quipped. She turned 82, he 55.
by Pablo A. Tariman, VERA Files
Abaya’s passion for classical music remained one of the hallmarks of her personality. She breathed her last at the St. Luke’s hospital bed Monday night while listening to Cesar Montano sing Don McLean’s “Vincent.”
Two years before her death, Abaya admitted she was already fascinated by Mozart’s Requiem which some people always associate with funerals.
Interviewed for an All Soul’s Day story, she confided: “Mozart’s Requiem, as do all his sacred music, always pulls me away from earth and transports me to a heavenly experience. In that part called the Introitus, I associate the few notes played on a bassoon (accompanied by the string section and followed by the rest of the winds) as Mozart himself mourning his own death even before he actually expires. There is a subsequent build up with the brasses; and then the chorale storms heaven with an urgent plea, joining in the glorious Communion of Saints who begs for Mozart and for all his fellow mortals: Requiem aeternam dona ets, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ets. (Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine on them.) The Requiem does not at all sound like a funeral march. Rather, it is, at least for me, a fervent prayer for eternal life.”
Last Tuesday’s celebration of Vietnam’s 67th National Day had a concert featuring Filipino and Vietnamese songs as well as classics and Broadway hits.
Violinist Bui Cong Duy opened the concert with spellbinding Libersfreud (Love’s Joy) by Friedrich “Fritz” Kreisler. After a Vietnamese piece, Nho Que (Missing my Home Village), he did Hatinggabi by Antonio Molina.
By Marilyn Mana-ay Robles,VERA Files
Such is Walang Sugat, a sarswela written by the father of Tagalog sarswela, Severino Reyes, popularly known as Lola Basyang. Walang Sugat was written in 1898 and first staged in 1902. The play was considered subversive during the early years of American colonization.
The story line is very much relevant to this day.
A sarswela is a play which employs song, dance and poetry. For many years, this genre was used by Filipinos to express their conflicts of the heart, political fervor and resentment towards a domineering foreign colonizer. However, the advent of modern stage plays relegated sarswelas to the sidelines.
By Ellen Tordesillas, VERA Files
Video by Mario Ignacio and Mario Espinosa
YOU will know it’s Zumba time at Fitness First Southmall every morning of Monday and Tuesday because women are in their stylish gym attires as if they are going to a party.
And, it’s not just any party. Usually it is a themed party.
Last week, it was Polynesian. Women in floral headdress were gyrating to the tune of Conga Remix. In the next Zumba class, they looked alluring in off-shoulder blouses. Earlier, their theme costume was a necktie — worn, of course, over gym outfits.
Hilda Oraya, a Zumba devotee, says the vivacious beat of Zumba shakes off one’s inhibitions. “Masaya (fun) and inspires you to dress up.”
By PABLO A. TARIMAN,VERA Files
With soprano Rachelle Gerodias as Rosina, Barber of Seville is the first comic opera seen at the CCP after more than a decade. The less-heralded Don Giovanni by Mozart staged at the CCP in the mid-90s would have been a good introduction to the genre. But as it turned out, Don Giovanni had some opera lovers walking out even before the opera’s last arias were heard.
All eyes of course will also be on the PPO ex-music director, Ruggero Barbieri who figured in an earlier Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at the CCP, followed by Don Giovanni (1999) and Il Trovatore in Singapore (2001)
Kasama sa pagdasal para kay Dolphy ay ang panawagan ng marami niyang kaibigan at tagahanga na ibigay sa kanya ang National Artist Award o Orden ng Gawad Pambansang Alagad ng Sining, ang pinakamataas na pagkilala ng kontribusyon ng isang Pilipino sa larangan ng Sining na binibigay ng pamahalaan.
Wala namang tutol diyan dahil sang-ayon naman ang lahat sa kontribusyon ni Dolphy sa pagpasaya ng sambayanang Pilipino. Kaya lang may proseso ang National Artist award at hindi naman tama na i-short cut dahil lang sa delikado ngayon ang lagay ni Dolphy.
Sa tamang panahon, maaring ibigay yan ay Dolphy na walang bahid ng paboritismo at anomalya katulad ng nangyari noong panahon ni Gloria Arroyo para kay Carlos Caparas at kay Cecille Alvarez.
I did the following story for VERA Files
The real beauty of Ballet Manila’s latest project bringing together eleven international ballet stars in a once-in-a-lifetime production is that it will benefit talented Filipino students in public schools who dream of becoming ballet dancers.
On Friday and Saturday (June 8 and 9), at 7:30 p.m.,American Ballet Theatre’s Paloma Herrera and Maxim Beloserkovsky, The Royal Ballet’s David Makhateli and Natalia Kremen, Mariinsky Theatre’s Daria Pavlenko and Yevgeny Ivanchenko, English National Ballet’s Dmitri Gruzdev, Kremlin Ballet’s Aleksandra Timofeeva, Norwegian National Ballet’s Yoel Carreno and Yolanda Correa Frias, and the Philippines’ own Lisa Macuja-Elizalde will perform in a grand production, dubbed “World Stars of Ballet,” at the Aliw Theater, CCP Complex, Pasay City.
Itong mga nakaraang linggo, dalawang hairstyle ang nasa front page ng mga diyaryo at umiikot sa Facebook.
Ang isa ay ang hairstyle ni Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco nang siya at tumestigo para sa defense sa impeachment trial ni Chief Justice Renato Corona at ang isa ay yung kay Charice Pempengco, na ngayon ay talaga namang sikat na sikat na sa mundo sa larangan ng pop music.
Si Tiangco, na tumestigo na ang kanyang pork barrel o Priority Development Assistance Fund ay inipit nang hindi siya pumirma sa resolution para i-impeach si Corona ay dumating sa Senado na ang buhok ay parang kulay ng Dalmatian. Hinaluan ng kulay abo at puti ang buhok at nakatayo na parang nagulat.
Sabi nga ng isang kolumnista, sino ito, lalaking Cruella de Ville? Si Cruella de Ville ang kontrabidang karakter na ginampanan ni Glenn Close sa pelikulang 101 Dalmatians.
Another musical event to look forward to.
By Elizabeth Lolarga,VERA Files
It may come as a surprise to some that seasoned pianist Cecile Licad, ballerina Lisa Macuja and singer Lea Salonga, who continue to light up stages here and abroad, confess to pre-concert jitters.
A blunt Licad says, “I’m always agitated and nervous before every show since I was seven. But as I get older, I’m less afraid of screwing up things. Everything in life is not perfect so why not make an art of screwing up? I’d ask the presentor if I can have a siling labuyo (hot chili pepper), I eat it. The taste keeps me awake.”
Salonga shares that she paces a lot before a show starts, apart from warming up her throat, to free herself of nervousness. She adds, “I can’t sit still. I go through the blocking and lyrics in my head. I stay hydrated and don’t talk too much. Praying keeps my calm.”