MY MENTOR, MY SLAVE

On the fifth day of her birthday in August 2011Fides Cuyugan Asension shows that age spanning decades is not a barrier to being artistically productive. A testament to that is Applause, a wealth of excerpts from her operas.

Who does not know Fides, the opera singer, stage actress, tv host, producer, and mentor to a number of well-known singing stars now? She is the moving spirit behind big productions that have been shown here and abroad, those that showcase Philippine talents at their best, whether on or backstage. Recently she appeared in Nino, the independent DVD movie directed by Loy Arcenas and which won the International Jury’s Choice Award under the Cinemalaya Filmfest. Fides rendered a moving portrayal of a singing character that has undergone a series of debacles in her life – the loss of her husband to another woman, business loss, and the impending sale of her ancestral home which she shares with her brother. Her emotions could run from pain to grief, to anger confronting her niece who wants to sell the house, to joy and elation as she sang operatic songs with her other co-singers in the end. In 2009, she appeared as a flighty sexy spy who has died and is seeking entry to heaven in the play, When God Dispenses Justice, an oral reading at Merk’s Bar in Makati. Fides brought the house down with her tongue-in-cheek turning serious in talking with God, justifying her political harassment using all kinds of dirty tricks, of those subjects that could make the state teeter and lose ground. The play garnered two minutes of standing ovation afterwards.

Applause, presented at the UP Abelardo Hall recently, includes her librettos of Larawan ng Kababaihan: Mukha at Maskara, music by Dr. Lucrecia Kasilag and direction by Behn Cervantes; Mayo:Bisperas ng Liwanag/Rey Paguio, music, direction by Nazer D. Salcedo; Song of Joseph/Jeannelle and Raymond Roldan, music and direction by Noel Cabazor; Why Flowers Bloom in May/Kasilag, music, direction by Victor Henry Tejero; La Loba Negra/Francisco Feliciano, music, direction by Alegria Ferrer; and Spoliarium:Juan Luna/Ryan Cayabyab, music and direction by Alexander Cortez.

By their titles alone, the operas indicate varied themes ranging from concepts about womanhood, the supernatural, the Biblical story of Mary and Joseph, ecology and the assassination of Governor Bustamante during the Spanish period and the passionate love between Juan Luna and his wife whom he accidentally shoots to death, To tackle these themes is to pour into hundreds of books and find theatrical significance in them. Fides, the librettist thus has given significance to those themes, using that high form of theatrical art, the opera, in order to bring them to the focus of our Philippine audience. Those themes are not at all commercially viable according to many producers, yet Fides’ productions, through the able management of Jocelyn R. Rago, the executive producer of Musical Theatre Foundation.

Each opera in Applause is memorable, although these were just excerpts from the full length operas. Larawan projects several women wearing Spanish era costumes and holding masks as they portray Rizal’s characters – Sisa, Maria Clara, Donya Victorina – while a Babaylan (Emilyn Olfindo) in white, sang serving as the “conscience” of the group.

The Spanish setting and music of Larawan is similar to Mayo which is based on Nick Joaquin’s May Day Eve where a young woman (Lorna Llames) is counseled by an older woman (Camille Lopez) that she would see her future husband if she lit a candle by a mirror on the eve of May but should be careful lest she sees the devil instead.

Excerpts from Song of Joseph include the calling of Mary (Lena McKanzie) to be the mother of the messiah through the holy spirit, the denunciation of Mary’s parents (Emilyn Olfindo, Marvin Gayramon and G. de Leon) to give honor to the birth of Christ, and finally the family of Mary, Joseph (Raymond Roldan) and Jesus (Miguel Aguila) in the finale.

Why Flowers… is a take on the environmental movement with a mythical basis. The Earth caretaker Maiden Maieia (Jeannelle Bihag), meets Sun King Rayo (Dondi Ong) fall in love. He takes her to the Moon (Nicole Asensio) as it is cooler there. Later on she returns to the earth in May when flowers bloom to care for the flowers again as they had dried up during her absence. May is the combined names of King Rayo and Maieia. Marvin Gayramon is memorable as the Ecology Queen who raps up his song in sync with the young people’s penchant for the genre. His costume won the finalist in Extreme costume PQ’11 Prague Czechoslovakia. However, the costumes of the Sun King and of the Moon goddess were spectacular as they looked very out of this world. The former was wrapped in gold, while the latter wore an all silver dress, with a headdress of white straw with a beaded headband and a beaded mask with silver eyes as well.

La Loba features a chorus and two wolves or La Loba – played by Alegria Ferrer and Kitchy Molina. Alegria moves with the stealth of a wolf and her costume in black with a silver pendant on her neck truly evokes the image of a wolf.

Spoliarium raises fear and terror over the temper of Juan Luna (Robert Sena) in his treatment of his wife, Paz (Ana Feleo) The excerpts show his fear of losing his artistic powers, his jealousy and anger over the loss of their child and the impulsive act of using a gun. In reality, Luna was jealous and suspicious that his wife was carrying on a relationship with another man.

Historical bit
However, history will tell that Luna’s shooting Paz was accidental. Luna was trying to enter through the door of their house where Paz, her mother and their son were, but they would not open it. So Luna shoots the door not knowing that the two women were behind it, thus killing them in the process. In terms of music, Sena sings with great clarity of words and appropriate “macho” emotions so that we could fathom why Luna’s act in the end comes about. Even the child of Luna, Luling (Jhiz Deocariza) sang with discipline onstage.

What is great about Applause is that all the singers are of high caliber – they sing in pitch. No one is off synch or out of rhythm and all excerpts are well-rehearsed. The technique of putting two askewed rectangular screens on the left and right of the stage is also well-conceived as projections of the titles of each excerpt are done here.

Contexts of scenes
However, it would have been better had the screens carried brief summaries of the scenes before the staging of each excerpt to give their proper contexts.. In this manner, the audience would have understood what is going onstage while appreciating the visuals and sounds. Also, for dark costumes, the best background must be of light color to project the actors better instead of black dresses against black backdrop. Moreover, for a sun king, King Rayo wrapped around with golden rays in weblike design, could have made more fiery moves to show that he is really the king so that his capture of Maieia to make her fall in love with him would have been justified. It must be said however, that some of the memorable screen projections were the moving clouds

Eclectic music
The music in Applause is eclectic as it changes from modern to ethnic and back. It just seems that because of the highly imaginative writing of Fides, the composers had come up with pieces that were not only musical but also challenging to the vocal cords of the tenors, sopranos, mezzo sopranos, altos, baritones and basses. Tenors Raymond Roldan, Dondi Ong and Robert Sena easily get recognized for their high notes sang effortlessly. Sopranos Alegria, Camille and Jeannelle who easily switched roles are particularly attractive for their high pitched voices and dramatic acting. I must say though that the music of Cayabyab and Paguio particularly enhanced the scenes depicted, while Kasilag’s music in When Flowers Bloom… was apropos to the setting of the opera. May I also request though that better microphones be provided the singers so that the words of every song can be heard well and for better understanding the opera. There is nothing like hearing the music and the lyrics sang well to make our minds and hearts flow with the librettist’s motives for writing the opera.

However, it is noted here that all the directors of the various segments are male except for
Alegria Ferrer. That is one out of six directors meaning to say 16% only of the total number whereas the ideal should have been forty to fifty per cent to make women equal to men in the larger society. Now why is it necessary to have more women directors in the cultural field? Not only is it to implement the Constitutional guarantee that women are equal to men but that women’s perspectives and approaches to art, drama, music and film, among all other forms, could be unique compared to men. Some male directors would shun scenes that depict emotional entanglements (although many commercial filmmakers exploit that for gain of audience). In Spoliarium, where Luna is shown with his dying or dead wife, the child Luling comes and then holds the shoulders of the former. Yet the immediate response of a child could have been to go up to his mother, talk to her to wake her up, and should he find her dead, then that would have been the only time when he would sidle up to his father.

Am I speaking as a director myself? Maybe but I also speak as a member of the audience, sharing the grief and empathizing with the child over the loss of his mother.

Anyway, our country definitely has a lot of musical talents that we can depend on to bring realization to works like those of Fides. We must commend her and the Musical Theatre Foundation administered by Joy Rago for their continuing dedication to making opera a flourishing cultural endeavor in the country.

Let us remember Fides’ guiding motto: “Opera my mentor, my slave.”


Fly Bird, painting by Emma Orozco dedicated to her Mother, Esperanza, 2006