By PABLO A. TARIMAN
TENOR Arthur Espiritu, the first Filipino tenor to sing at La Scala in Milan, again made history as the first Filipino to sing Cassio in Otello mounted in Teatro Communale Luciano Pavarotti in Modena, Italy.
Espiritu,who sang for the first time in the hometown of Pavarotti,said the audience was very enthusiastic in the first two nights of the concert this week. “I heard people cry at the end when Otello killed Desdemona and Otello killed himself. It’s still a timeless work by Shakespeare and Verdi did it justice.”
He found the Teatro Communale named after the famous tenor simply beautiful and on top of that, it has great acoustics. “The town itself has its charm, a very clean and quiet town. It is surreal to be singing in a place where Pavarotti grew up.”
He added the Otello of Kristian Benedikt and and the Desdemona of Yolanda Auyanet were both sang by fantastic singers. “Kristian (Benedikt) has this huge dark dramatic tenor and Yolanda (Auyanet) with whom I had a conversation with I think sang the most beautiful version of Ave Maria. She was fantastic on opening night and got the crowd going with lots of bravos.”
Espiritu admitted his latest Verdi role was not as tough and as challenging as his Duke in Rigoletto and his Alfredo in Traviata. Nevertheless as Cassio the sidekick of Otello, he said he enjoyed “the chance to play drunk and just lose your temper and just go crazy onstage and beat people up.”
The tough challenge to him is the ensemble singing. “You have to count all the time especially in the third act trio with Otello and Iago. Also, performing for an Italian company requires extra attention to the language. You are singing in Italian and the subtitles are also in Italian. Hence, you are exposed because most of the audience — if not 100% — is Italians. Sometimes you will encounter bothersome moments but you have to get through it and just basically do your job.”
The tenor admitted Otello was a great work but he would not put it in the level of Rigoletto and Traviata or even Attila. “With Otello, I find it very hard to concentrate at times because you are in a lot of interjections and there is no sense of continuity.”
For the record, Otello has never been performed in the Philippines, not even in the past when Italian opera productions proliferated.
Thus far, the first and the last Filipino to sing Otello is the Ohio-based Filipino tenor Otoniel Gonzaga who sang it in Prague and in Yokohama in Japan. He had earlier expressed desire to mount it at the CCP but he only succeeded in singing excerpts from Otello in a PPO concert in the 90s featuring the third act trio with Iago of Andrew Fernando and the Cassio of the then very young Gary del Rosario. His Desdemona was an Italian soprano who has seen better singing years.
After Modena, Espiritu flies to Pittsburgh to sing the Prince in Cenerentola with the Angelina of the Alaskan mezzo Vivica Genaux.”
Back in Manila in May, the tenor, who got married last December, prepares for the big role in his life: fatherhood. “We are having a child soon. So, I must prepare for the little one coming into this world. I am very excited about this.”
Of his last recital in Manila, where he was given a standing ovation, he said: “I enjoyed the music, my collaboration with Najib (Ismail) and the reaction of the crowd. I was very very happy with the result.”
His tip for a good performance. “There is nothing like being prepared all the time and seizing the moment. You should have lots of rest to be in good vocal shape. For now, I just want to say I feel lucky and happy to be able to share my music to people and make them happy.