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AS far
as festivals go, people may be dazzled by a flashy
introduction, entranced by a substantial middle body,
but they will never forget the grand ending. This seems
to be what the Manila Chamber Orchestra had in mind as
it concludes Summer Arts Festival with the Philippine
premiere of Bluebeard’s Castle.
Performing in what may be a once-in-a-lifetime event
will be two of the brightest stars in the opera world
today: baritone Andrew Fernando and mezzo-soprano
Clarissa Ocampo. Both are multi-awarded stars who have
taken time from their performances in the US to do
Bluebeard’s Castle in the Manila.
Fernando, who sang alongside Ocampo in Tchaikovsky’s
Eugene Onegin two years ago at the Main Theater of the
Cultural
Center of the Philippines, said they are glad to perform
for the benefit of Filipinos.
They
admitted that opera performances don’t have a wide
audience in the country and that with this upcoming
performance, they may be able to expose more people to
opera. “Works like Bluebeard’s Castle are seldom
performed, and to do this in Manila will be a rare
opportunity for us to introduce our fellow Filipinos to
the beauty of opera,” he said. Fernando and Ocampo
performed Bluebeard’s Castle in Chicago in 2007 and
believe that the Filipinos are ready for more intense
operas.
“I
believe that the Filipinos have been exposed to operas
for many years now, from Madame Butterfly, La Traviata,
La Bohème and Rigoletto. We’ve given them [Filipinos]
enough of the traditional repertoires, and they need to
see something new,” Ocampo explained.
“Works
like Bluebeard’s Castle are dramatic readings, so this
will give the audience a better chance to absorb the
music and appreciate it much better,” she said, adding
that Bartok’s works like Bluebeard’s Castle are very
modern and visual, so she’s optimistic that people, even
those not exposed to opera, would give it a try.
Fernando
has had a very lucrative career having won in the Loren
L. Zachary National Voice Competition and the
Metropolitan Opera National Auditions, both in the US,
and is an alumnus of the San Francisco Opera Merola
Program, and was Opera Pacific’s resident baritone from
1999 to 2002. Fernando has appeared as Marcello in La
Bohème, as well as the title roles in Eugene Onegin and
Rigoletto, among many opera performances.
Ocampo
also has several awards under her belt: winner of the
New York Vocal Artists Competition at Carnegie Hall,
two-time prizewinner of the National Music Competition
for Young Artists in the Philippines, and the Anna Case
McKay Scholarship Grant for
Juilliard
School,
among many others.
She has
also been featured as Flora Bervoix in Verdi’s La
Traviata, Rosina in The Barber of Seville, third spirit
in The Magic Flute and Olga in Eugene Onegin. In 2004
Ocampo released her debut album Cradle Songs, a
multiawarded collection of lullabies from around the
world sung in their native tongue.
They
both have started and head the nonprofit organization
Let’s Shout Out, whose goal is to increase opera
appreciation across the US and Asia. “We believe that
children should be exposed to opera at a very young age
so they may appreciate it in its purity,” Ocampo said.
“We did this one performance in a mountain province in
the Philippines—this was for children—and they loved it,
they just loved it.”
The
Manila premiere of Bluebeard’s Castle will be on April
24,
7:30 pm, at the Francisco Santiago Hall,
BDO
South Tower, Makati City. Tickets are available at
Ticketworld (891-9999) or the MCO secretariat
(878-4359). |
