VERA Files
The last three months were constant, if, extreme, challenges for the country’s foremost tenor.
The year 2020 is many things to cultural watchers.
Are opera productions going back to normal? After six months of lockdown in Manila, tenor Arthur Espiritu gets back to the opera stage with a role debut in Gounod’s Romeo et Juliet at the Magdeburg Opera House in Germany.
Friday night amidst scare of the corona virus, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor — first performed in 1835 in Naples, Italy — had a triumphant return at the Cultural Center of the Philippines where it was last seen in Pilipino version in 1976.
While opera remains a rarity in Metro Manila (except for some concerts offering token arias and some once-a-year opera production), tenor Arthur Espiritu is leading an opera life that the Filipino opera lover can only dream of.
Last Saturday night was pretty much like the state of the nation when no one was looking.
For his only appearance on a Philippine stage this year, tenor Arthur Espiritu, much in demand in European opera houses, is doing love duets with three sopranos on July 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the Spotlight Power Mac in Circuit Makati.
The foursome, with accompanying artist Gabriel Paguirigan, will be seen in “Les Nuit d’ete: An Evening of Opera Love Duets” on July 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the Spotlight Power Mac in Circuit Makati.
If his cheering CCP crowd last September 26 was of any indication, matched by a shouting ovation coming from a predominantly millennial audience, it just meant tenor Arthur Espiritu has bridged the gap between the young and the old in opera appreciation.
The 48-member Manila Symphony Junior Orchestra under Jeffrey Solares made another history when they bagged the first prize Sunday July 8 in the 12th edition of the Summa Cum Laude Festival in Vienna.