Music lovers in Metro Manila are not aware opening nights at the Met could be had for the price of P450 at the Greenbelt Cinema 3.
There is no queueing at the box office and you can actually have soft drinks and sandwiches while enjoying your favorite arias.
Tuesday night (Sept. 29) at Greenbelt 3 in Ayala Cinemas saw the screening of a new production of La Traviata at the Met under music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin in a new staging by Michael Mayers.
German soprano Diana Damrau was Violetta with the Alfredo of Juan Diego Flores.
An outstanding Germont was heard in the person of baritone Quinn Kelsey.
What’s interesting about the screen version of the opera (note in high definition) is not just about arias and ensemble singing.
It has a lingering shot of the audience on opening night and the emcee is no other than the sensational mezzo Anita Rachvelishvili doing interviews during intermission.
The production was all worth the critics’ rave.
One came to terms with opera and grew up with the Violetta of Maria Callas and the Romanian, Nelly Miricioiu. Certainly, one could not imagine a German Violetta doing the part.
But La Damrau showed the kind of stuff she is made of by knocking her audience off in Sempre libera and dying with pathos and grace in her farewell aria, Addio del passato.
Flores didn’t disappoint as Alfredo. One’s bias was simply because one got used to Violetta’s dashing Alfredos in the person of Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, among others.
Again, one was in awe of the brilliant Germont of Kelsey in the well-nuanced and brilliantly sung Di provenza il mar.
Moreover, Mayers uncovered a breath-taking 18th-century setting with a beautiful hint of the four seasons.
There were many revelations in the interviews during the intermissions.
Damrau admitted she fell in love with Traviata when she saw the Franco Zeffirelli production featuring Teresa Stratas and Placido Domingo in the early 80s.
Said opera film was also screened in Manila in 1983 four years after Domingo was heard as Cavaradossi in a live Tosca at the CCP in 1979.
Other equally famous Alfredos have sung in Manila like Pavarotti and Jose Carreras (1994) and Franco Corelli in the early 70s.
A world-acclaimed Violetta of Miricioiu and the equally distinguished Alfredo of Arthur Espiritu were sampled in a special concert at the Ayala Museum in 2017. Their last act Traviata duet of Parigi o cara earned them ecstatic audience applause.
The Romanian diva made a little speech after their duet, “I want to tell you that your country is lucky to have a first-rate Alfredo in the person of Arthur (Espiritu).”
Espiritu sang a widely acclaimed Alfredo in a 2012 CCP Traviata opposite the Violetta of Rachelle Gerodias. The late Andrew Fernando was Germont and it was directed by Floy Quintos.
Espiritu’s acting and singing were such that an opera fan described the Filipino tenor as the “John Lloyd Cruz of opera.”
(Espiritu will be heard in a full concert at Manila Pianos Oct. 17, 6 p.m. and Oct. 20 at the University of the Philippines Visayas in Iloilo City.)
Another Traviata was seen at the CCP in the ’70s with Remedios Bosch Jimenez in the title role.
The opera returned at the CCP in the early ’90s with the Violetta of American soprano Donna Maria Zapola in a controversial CCP production directed by National Artist for Theater Rolando Tinio. Alfredo was no other than the late tenor Nolyn Cabahug.
Miricioiu, one of the greatest Violettas of this generation sang at the CCP in 1980 and returned in 1984 to great acclaim at the Manila Metropolitan Theater.
Both American and European critics compared her to the great Maria Callas.
She was the Violetta of José Carreras in Spain, Alfredo Kraus in Frankfurt Opera, and Placido Domingo in San Francisco Opera as last-minute substitute for soprano Katia Ricciarelli. She sang 14 performances of Traviata in Sydney Opera where Australian critics were one in saying La Miricioiu had nothing to fear from both Dame Joan Sutherland and Kiri Te Kanawa.
What’s next from the CCP and the Met HD series after Traviata? Georges Bizet’s Carmen is next at Greenbelt Cinema on Tuesday, October 4, 6:30 PM.
In this celebrated production at the Met, mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine sings the title role opposite tenor Roberto Alagna. Soprano Aleksandra Kurzak sings Micaëla, alongside bass Alexander Vinogradov as the swaggering bullfighter Escamillo. Louis Langrée conducts Sir Richard Eyre’s lively production.
Dr. Jaime Laya, president of the Filipinas Opera Society Foundation, Inc. (FOSFI) said the opera screening in commercial theaters is part of year-long opera appreciation series.
Of late, FOSFI has tied up with the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the Rustan’s Group of Companies in mounting a live production of Turandot on Dec. 9-11,2022 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
“FOSFI is glad to be a partner of the Philippine-Italian Association and the Cultural Center of the Philippines in presenting Turandot,” Laya said.
Puccini’s Turandot is the second opera that FOSFI has co-sponsored, the first one being the production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor at the CCP in 2020.
FOSFI was created under the leadership of the late Imelda Ongsiako-Cojuangco to promote appreciation of opera in the Philippines and to support talented Filipinos.
Now on its 7th series, the CCP-Met HD tie up started in 2014 and was also supported by FOSFI founded by Imelda Cojuangco.
“Fredesvinda Consunji was chairman. and is now headed by vice chair Danny Dolor with me as president. We are also co-sponsoring Turandot with CCP and Philippine Italian Association headed by Nedy Tantoco,” Laya added.
Like it or not, the CCP-Met 7th season in HD is certainly a good appetizer for a live Turandot in December.
