Press Release:
A
rare treat awaits music lovers as the Manila
Chamber Orchestra Foundation presents
a special concert, "An
Evening of Bel Canto" on October
26, 2013 at
7:00 p.m., at
the Ayala
Museum, Makati
Ave. cor. de la Rosa St., Makati City.
Bel
Canto which
literally means "The
Art of Beautiful Singing" is
a vocal fad made popular during the late 17th century that requires
singers to possess incredible virtuosic vocal technique and
impeccable musicality. Composers such as Rossini,
Bellini and Donizetti wrote
music with limpid melodic lines that would encompass a singer's whole
vocal range with a lot of ornate embellishments. Operas like I
Puritani, La Sonnambula, Norma, Lucia di Lammermoor are
some of the well-known bel canto opera.
Promising
a spectacular vocal evening, "An
Evening of Bel Canto" will
feature some of the country's finest young singers today headed by
the internationally-acclaimed Filipino tenor - Arthur
Espiritu,
considered as the country's premiere tenor today, the sole and first
Filipino to win the Belvedere Vocal Competition in Vienna, and the
only Filipino to have sung in many major opera houses in the world
including the prestigious Teatro alla Scala, St. Gallen Opera in
Switzerland, Paris Opera, Pittsburgh Opera to name a
few. Performing with him are soprano Elainne
Vibal,
a Jovita Fuentes Vocal Competition winner; soprano Myramae
Meneses,
the 2012 Aliw Awardee for Best Actress in a Musical and the top
winner of the National Competition for Young Artists;
and soprano Stephanie
Aguilar,
last year's third prize winner of the Jovita Fuentes Vocal
Competition. Performing with them will be most a sought-after
collaborating artist -- pianist Najib
Ismail. The
concert will also have Supertitles, an English translation
projected on the sides of the concert venue for the audience's
better appreciation of the words and music.
Highlight
of the program includes some of the most challenging arias and rarely
performed scenes from great operas including the duet from Bellini's
"I
Puritani" with
its three high D's (high notes), the exquisite duet from Rossini's
"Semiramide", and
the fiendish Donizetti's "La
Fille du Regiment".
This
concert is for the benefit of foundations that support medical
treatment for children afflicted with Cancer. For tickets, please
call TICKETWORLD at (891-9999), COEA
at (782-7164 or
0918-3473027) and
MCO Secretariat at 750-0768 or 0920-9540053.
This concert is made possible in partnership with Ayala
Museum, BusinessWorld, HighLife, DZFE.FM The Master’s
Touch and
Lyric Piano.
