Dos Bravissimos

Some members of the APZ Tone Tomšič

I had almost no time to rest right after the Cinemalaya since I returned for the eleventh straight day to the Cultural Center of the Philippines to see Dos Bravissimos. This show held at the Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo (CCP Main Theater) featured two award winning choirs: the Philippines’ University of Sto. Tomas Singers and Slovenia’s University of Ljubljana Akademski Pevski Zbor Tone Tomšič. Both are university based choirs that had already won various choral competitions from all over which made this concert a must see for those who love choral music.

The concert consisted of two parts with both of them starting off with the UST Singers with Fidel Calalang Jr. conducting the choir. The choir was met with a resounding welcome from the audience dominated by students and alumni from UST. And I was glad to be seated beside a UST student who was knowledgeable about choirs since I’ve always been honest that my knowledge of the choral repertoire is extremely limited. The UST Singers’ sets mostly consisted of fairly recent work which are less than a century old. They also had a nice mix of local and foreign repertoire although some felt a bit alien to me since some pieces had a heavy dose of dissonance which I am not really used to. Their featured soloists were sopranos Ma. Pilar Charlene Ramos and Rachelle Gerodias and they were also joined by Teresa Montes and Bruce Rivera who played percussion in one of the songs.

Soprano Rachelle Gerodias

The APZ Tone Tomšič, conducted by Sebastjan Vhrovnik, also had their sets focused on more recent works but they also included some Slovenian Folksongs in their programme. The audience was initially stunned to see how tall some of their members were and how they had more members than the local choir. If I didn’t know much about the music performed by the UST Singers, just imagine how much more I didn’t know regarding the Slovenian music performed by the visiting choir. Fortunately, someone from the bass section briefly introduced and described   some of the pieces before the choir performed them so it somehow helped me understand the music a bit. Featured soloists from this choir were, sopranos Urša Šetina, Ulrika Šegula, mezzosoprano Petra Frece, alto Alma Kajdiž, tenor Miha Kovačec and baritone Urban Marinko.

As I’ve said, I’m no expert in choral music and the bulk of both choirs performed material from the 20^th century. And I wasn’t able to gauge if it was good or not since most of the pieces were either totally new to me or were heavy on dissonance. I did notice that the UST Singers performed with flair and pizzazz, with some numbers accompanied by some choreography. They also exhibited their showmanship with crowd pleasing numbers such as Ragtime by Stephen Flaherty which was taken from the musical of the same name. They just didn’t sing but they also entertained their home audience. Meanwhile, the APZ Tone Tomšič performed rather conservatively while standing with music sheet in hand. The Slovenian choir’s music felt somewhat cerebral especially one of their Ave Marias with the women down among the audience at the orchestra section whispering the prayer while the men remained on stage singing the song. This setup felt like I was at a forest with fairies flying all around and whispering while an all male choir was singing hidden among the trees in front of me. But they did loosen up in the end when they started to include some dancing to their singing which the crowd really appreciated.

APZ Tone Tomšič performing at the CCP Main Lobby

And what the crowd really appreciated were the encores which were sung by the combined choirs. First that they sang was A Special Memory originally recorded by Iwi Laurel featuring a soloist from the visiting choir which was really a nice touch and the second one was Irish Blessing. But the singing didn’t stop on stage since after the concert, both choirs went to the lobby to greet the audience. And then APZ Tone Tomšič started singing once again and was met with tremendous applause by everyone at the lobby whenever they finished. And this happened at least three times. The Slovenians were treated like celebrities with many people taking photos of them.

This made me feel like Cinemalaya, with all the excitement and the energy, didn’t end at all. I initially thought that returning to the CCP after the Cinemalaya would entail a big adjustment from me since I expected less people attending and also a less festive atmosphere. But I was mistaken during that night since it was truly a night of bravissimos: the UST Singers, the APZ Tone Tomšič, and the very appreciative audience.