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| Pianist Dingdong Fiel, soprano Rachelle Gerodias, and baritone Byeong-In Park |
An intimate performance by the trio of baritone Byeong-In Park, soprano Rachelle Gerodias, and pianist Dingdong Fiel made for a very enjoyable Bastille Thursday, the latest installment of Le Jeudis culturels presented by the Embassy of France and the Allliance Française de Manille.
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| Byeong-In Park |
Coming off the heels of the Bastille Day celebrations, this evening was filled with music, not just limited to those in French or by French composers, that celebrate the universal values of liberté, égalité, and fraternité.
The first half was dedicated to art songs like Claude Debussy's Trois Chansons, L 99, Gabriel Fauré's Après un rêve, Op. 7, No. 1, Franz Schubert's Du bist die Ruh D. 776; Op. 59, No. 3, Robert Schumann's Liebeslied, Op. 51 No. 5, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Net, tolko tot kto znal, Op. 6 No. 6.
Art songs have never been my strongest suit and all that were performed were not familiar to me at all. But this really led me to listen closely about the way the Rachelle and Byeong-In sang. Never have I seen the two of them perform in such an intimate setting. The multi-purpose hall at the Alliance is small (hence the limited number of seats) and has a low ceiling. Right off the bat, I noticed that there was a certain delicateness with how they sang knowing that there were no audiences in the balconies to worry about. In fact, French Ambassador Nicolas Galey was seated just about a meter in front of them.
Due to Audio Visual Attaché Martin Macalintal's prodding, Dingdong Fiel whipped up a solo of Debussy's Feux d'artifices, prelude for piano, L. 131/12 , a last minute addition to the program, to close out the first half.
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| Rachelle Gerodias |
The second half were devoted to arias and duets from various operas like Libiamo ne' lieti calici from Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata, Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre aka Toreador aria from Georges Bizet's Carmen, Je veux vivre! from Charles Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, Ernesto de Curtis' Torna a Surriento, O mio babbino caro from Giacomo Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, and Bess, You is My Woman from George Gershwin.'s Porgy and Bess. Both the performers and the audience were more relaxed clearly enjoying the night, thanks to the generous cocktails served courtesy of Giffard.
The audience were really in good spirits after the last number was performed that the two had to oblige with encores which were the Merry Widow Duet from Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow and Mutya ng Pasig by Nicanor Abelardo. Had I enjoyed a few more cocktails, I would've shouted that Byeong-In perform a Korean song.
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| Dingdong Fiel, RAd, Rachelle Gerodias, and Byeong-In Park |
Of all the four editions of Le Jeudis culturels that I've attended so far, Bastille Thursday has been the most enjoyable by a mile. It also didn't hurt that Rachelle, Byeong-In, and Dingdong have been good friends of mine and there was no way I could've missed this despite the heavy rains and other events that happened on the same night.
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