Featuring:
Myramae Meneses as Fiordiligi
Ivan Nery as Ferrando
Carlo Falcis as Guglielmo
Ralph Perez as Don Alfonso
Kristine Balingcos as Despina
Manila Symphony Orchestra
Arturo Molina, conductor
Despite
being an avid listener of numerous arias for the soprano, I've never seen
an actual opera before. I’ve always wanted to see one but
circumstances always led to one thing or another and I always ended up missing whatever
opera that was staged. Finally, I was able to see one when St. Scholastica’s College School of Music, along with the Manila Symphony Orchestra
staged Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte.
I
admit that I wasn’t prepared for this since I’ve always imagined that my first
opera experience would be something by Puccini whose music I truly love and not
something by Mozart. Although I know the synopsis of Così Fan Tutte
because of Nodame Cantabile, I can’t even name an aria or any piece of music
from this opera. I am not even familiar with how the overture goes. So the
anticipation that I thought that I would feel was replaced with some
uncertainty and anxiety since I know almost next to nothing regarding this work. Thankfully, this production, directed by McDo Bolanos
made it easy for someone like me to get into it.
Considering
that this was also the first foray of St. Scholastica’s College and the Manila
Symphony Orchestra in mounting an opera, they decided not to go full blast with
a lavish production. They instead opted for a more intimate staging at the St.
Cecilia’s Hall, with only the core characters and also by having the
recitatives in Filipino. This might not sit well with purists but for someone
like me, this was perfectly fine. At least, there’s
the MSO conducted by Arturo Molina providing the live music accompaniment. They can take
away the grand sets and costumes, but never take away the live music as I say.
But I do admit that I wished at one point that there was a full chorus singing their
hearts out in this production.
While
there was no chorus, there was NAMCYA winner Myramae Meneses as Fiordiligi and
I think that she really stood out in this production. Her acting left me a bit
unconvinced but her vocals were absolutely divine. Iona Ventocilla as Dorabella
had some nice moments especially with her duet with Meneses. Ivan Nery and
Carlo Falcis as Ferrando and Guglielmo provided the comic relief as the male
leads. But in terms of comedy, the scene stealer was definitely Kristine Balingcos as Despina,
the accomplice of the scheming Don Alfonso played by Ralph Perez. Her quirky portrayal of the helper absolutely pleased the audience.
It
was difficult to shift from looking at the English translation projected on
screen and then looking at what’s happening on stage. But I decided just to focus on the stage and I was still able to get how things went although I had no idea what was being sung. Overall, I also felt that the whole production could have done a lot more but as the music director Camille Lopez-Molina said
before the show started, this was just a small step and that they do hope to mount a
bigger production in the future. Eventually, they did succeed in making a newbie like me to want to see another opera in the near future. And looking at what’s in store in the
cultural calendar, I’m just glad that it's going to be a lot sooner than I expected.
Text by RAd
Photo by Kaye Atienza
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