My Operatic ‘Valentine’
By By Pablo A. Tariman
Manila
Mon 11th February 2013
ROMANIAN diva Nelly Miricioiu,who turned 60 last year , continues to baffle and charm critics in her engagements around the world. But even when she was barely out of her twenties, she was already the incomparable diva to theFilipinoconcert audience whom she had enthralled during her Manila debut at the Cultural Center of the Philippines(CCP) in 1980, and at theManilaMetropolitan Theater in 1984.
Romanian diva Nelly Miricioiu with Filipino tenor Frankie Aseniero at the Met in 1984. This was my debut as impresario.
I recall those glorious events like they happened only last week. Nellys Met debut was my first concert as impresario, courtesy of the late music lover Attorney Honorio Poblador.
At the CCP in 1980, I was thrilled by Nellys Rossini aria, Una voce poco fa and promptly became her fan when she sang Vissi d arte from Tosca. I was so moved by her performance that I left right after, not bothering with the concluding symphonic piece.
In 1984, I debuted as a reluctant impresario with Nelly as my soloist with the Manila Symphony Orchestra under Sergio Esmilla, Jr. I remember every vivid detail of this special engagement. She had asked me to interrupt an ongoing rehearsal at the Metropolitan Theater to make an announcement. Till then, I had been content just listening to her from the last few rows of the theater, relishing her spectacular vocal power.
I couldnt even believe this 1984 concert was happening at all. It was the year of heady triumph for her at all the important houses: the Covent Garden, Frankfurt Opera, Paris Opera. At one time she made a quick stopover in Manila after 12 performances of La Traviata at the Sydney Opera and a sold out recital in Melbourne. She had just sang Boheme in Frankfurt with a Filipino tenor named OtonielGonzaga. But she was indeed back in the country, this diva I had admired from the audience and who was now a friend.
The friendship started in 1980, after her well-received Manila debut, and deepened when she announced that she wasnt going back to Romania. The press had called it a defection then, and as a result, her pictures were all over the local papers. But defection or not, I believed in her talent and monitored her progress during rehearsals for her last concert in Manila in December of the same year. This was before her debut with the Scottish Opera.
Nelly Miricioiu as Violetta in a Traviata production in Washington D.C.
Back in Manila four years later, Nelly asked me to give a little speech in the middle of rehearsals. I looked at my dear friend imploringly; I would do anything for her except make an impromptu speech for those musicians.
But she was insistent. Listen Pablo, she said, I know you are a shy person and the worst thing that I can ask of you is to go on that stage and make a little speech. But this concert is important to me. It is my gift to theFilipino peopleand to this theater. Tell them I am singing for free, and in fact you too are working for free in this concert. Tell them what this concert means to me and to you.
Nelly Miricioiu. Still singing at 60
Nelly knew the problems of the theater then. The orchestra was facing a severe financial crisis and morale was low. (After this engagement, the MSO disbanded and became the Manila Chamber Orchestra, which also disbanded a few years later). But if she and I were doing it for love, they,the musicians,should too, for the same reason.
My knees were shaking as I mounted the stage of the main theater. Some musicians must have thought I was about to burst into a bizarre aria. Professor Sergio Esmilla, then music director of the Manila Symphony, introduced me as a writer-turned-impresario. I put on a very authoritative face and managed to deliver the divas message quite clearly: This concert isnt Miss Miricioius debut in Manila, but her first in this historic theater. She considers Manila her second home and this is her homecoming. For this concert, she is performing for free (the musicians applauded) and the proceeds will go to the scholarship fund for orchestra members (another applause). This concert is her way of saying thank you to theFilipino audiencewho received her well in 1980. She wants me to tell you that you will receive token gifts from her right after the concert.
Nelly Miricioiu at the Met in 1984. I am covered by Mrs. Manzano (Luis Manzano's grandmother) shown here greeting the diva while a younger Boy Abunda looks on.
I heard another round of applause as I returned to my orchestra seat and caught Nelly smiling.
I vividly recall the big night. Her first aria (A non credea from La Sonnambula) was interrupted by loud applause just before the cabaletta. At the end of it, the audience went wild. When Nelly sang the last two Filipino songs, Sa Kabukiran and Ay Ay Kalisud, pandemonium broke loose. There was deafening applause and much stomping of feet, not just from the audience, but from the orchestra members as well. Seated at the back row, I was dazed. I rushed backstage to deliver the cash gifts from the soprano to the orchestra members. It never occurred to me that as impresario and publicist of the concert, I was at least entitled to transportation money. But I couldnt care less.
The sight of an audience in uproar over glorious music delivered by a glorious singer is what feeds an impresarios soul. Friends were congratulating me and asking: How much did you earn? I didnt reply. What mattered was that it was a grand debut as impresario, and for the next few years I couldnt ask for more. The concert was an extension of a bond of friendship and I continued to treat concerts as such.
In one of the last few postcards I got from Nelly a few years after that Manila concert, she shared that her New York Metropolitan Opera debut was a success. A friend later confirmed that she was opening Londons Covent Gardens season with Meyerbeers Les Huguenots. If you want to see me, one of her last letterssaid, I am opening the Hong Kong Arts Festival with La Traviata. Isnt Hong Kong just an hour away from Manila?
I didnt make it to Hong Kong, but her note made me recall her first Manila concert and what the media reported as her defection. I soon found out what prompted that decision.
In November 1980, after she had made headlines in Manila, she was rehearsing for a farewell concert with a Filipino conductor. In between her Casta Diva and Caro nome, during which I was the lone audience in her room, her disenchantment with her home countrys leaders began to surface.
But please, Pablo, she would say, Don?t write anything about it. It will be difficult for me and for my family who are still there. Please write about my music. I know that if I didnt sing well here, you wouldnt be here everyday watching me rehearse for the next concert.
From a compatriot who sheltered her after her defection, she realized she really had to leave her homeland, if only to nurture her art to perfection. Her businessman-compatriot left Romania in 1939 before the communists took over and he visited again in 1996 and 1970. It wasnt the same Romania he loved in his youth, he said.
When he met Nelly through the Filipino conductor, he invited Nelly to his house and introduced her to his Filipino wife. As they showed her around, Nelly realized that the freedom she didnt have in her homeland could be had in Manila.
The events before Nellys farewell concert in 1980 are also clear in my mind. Her conductor wasnt giving her an easy time and at one point, she walked out of a Boheme aria when he wouldnt give in to her tempo. I would always be around to console her and join her in the car for the ride back home.
On top of her rehearsal troubles, there had been rumors circulating that the reason she wasnt going back to Romania was that she had fallen in love with a local musician. Look, Pablo, this is my wedding photo, she said. Take a look at my husband.
Her husband, a lawyer-violinist, was a dead ringer for good-looking actor Omar Sharif.
Now, Pablo, she continued, please tell people I will not exchange my husbands face for that musician they are talking about. I used the photo for the article I wrote about her farewell concert, to the consternation of the musician who was promoting a concert by way of a ridiculous love team in the making.
As her farewell concert drew near, Nelly and I realized that we had to contend with this musician on artistic as well as very personal levels, and she was getting the worst end of it.
A day before the event, Nelly told me, Pablo, we are not going to the reception arranged by that musician after the concert. My friend is hosting another reception for me and that is where we are going.
After the concert, where every aria ended with shouts of Brava! Nelly signed autographs while I quielty gathered her things: bags, flowers, a suitcase and prepared for a clandestine exit with the soprano. After the last opera fan had left, we headed for the artists exit area and went to the car that would facilitate our escape from that musicians reception.
At the corner of Vito Cruz andRoxas Boulevard
, the musicians car passed us, and he asked where we were going. I signalled that we were headed to his place for the reception. But when the green light flashed, our car took off in another direction. At the other reception hosted by her compatriot, Nelly was in high spirits. She egged me to dance and I did, after four bottles of beer, and I heard her say while we were on the dance floor, Pablo, life isnt just about music. You must also learn how to socialize and enjoy another life.
At one in the morning, I bade goodbye to Nelly, who lent me her hosts family car and passed on to me a bouquet containing half a hundred red roses. Pablo, she said as she handed me the flowers, you are a dear friend.
In the morning, my daughters woke up to find our living room full of empty beer bottles laden with red roses. I could not find a proper vase for them!
Of Nelly's defection in Manila in 1980, certain things may now be clarified. Then First LadyImeldaMarcos, in deference to the countrys diplomatic relations with Romania in 1980, rejected Nellys request for asylum. Great Britain,through the help of Lord Harewood who is related to the British monarch (and a confidante of the late Maria Callas), accepted Nelly after her triumphant debut in a Covent Garden production of Pagliacci opposite Jon Vickers.
After her world-wide success and the subsequent fall of the Romanian dictator, the Romanian government finally allowed Nelly to see her family (her husband, her father and mother), and they had a reunion in her new London home. She later separated from her Romanian husband and married a British impresario with whom she now has a son.
And yet, the Nelly I would cherish is not just the diva but the good friend Ive known. In an intimate and impromptu musicale, she would sing Mutya ng Pasig for the late Conching Rosal and Irma Potenciano and it was easy to see that she had found Manila as a second home.
Nelly's greeting card
Today, Nelly is a byword in all the worlds leading opera houses. On top of this world-wide success, the Nelly I remember was the diva who in 1984 gave a free concert at the Manila Metropolitan Theater as a gift toFilipinos. I remember how she dined with Filipino friends and even sang Granada in aMakatirestaurant in the spirit of fun. After her singing, which literally froze both waiters and customers, a gentle old lady approached her and said, You have a fantastic voice. I think you should take up voice culture.
And the diva simply replied, Thank you, I think I will.
THE DIVA AND I
Manila
Mon 11th February 2013
ROMANIAN diva Nelly Miricioiu,who turned 60 last year , continues to baffle and charm critics in her engagements around the world. But even when she was barely out of her twenties, she was already the incomparable diva to theFilipinoconcert audience whom she had enthralled during her Manila debut at the Cultural Center of the Philippines(CCP) in 1980, and at theManilaMetropolitan Theater in 1984.
Romanian diva Nelly Miricioiu with Filipino tenor Frankie Aseniero at the Met in 1984. This was my debut as impresario.
I recall those glorious events like they happened only last week. Nellys Met debut was my first concert as impresario, courtesy of the late music lover Attorney Honorio Poblador.
At the CCP in 1980, I was thrilled by Nellys Rossini aria, Una voce poco fa and promptly became her fan when she sang Vissi d arte from Tosca. I was so moved by her performance that I left right after, not bothering with the concluding symphonic piece.
In 1984, I debuted as a reluctant impresario with Nelly as my soloist with the Manila Symphony Orchestra under Sergio Esmilla, Jr. I remember every vivid detail of this special engagement. She had asked me to interrupt an ongoing rehearsal at the Metropolitan Theater to make an announcement. Till then, I had been content just listening to her from the last few rows of the theater, relishing her spectacular vocal power.
I couldnt even believe this 1984 concert was happening at all. It was the year of heady triumph for her at all the important houses: the Covent Garden, Frankfurt Opera, Paris Opera. At one time she made a quick stopover in Manila after 12 performances of La Traviata at the Sydney Opera and a sold out recital in Melbourne. She had just sang Boheme in Frankfurt with a Filipino tenor named OtonielGonzaga. But she was indeed back in the country, this diva I had admired from the audience and who was now a friend.
The friendship started in 1980, after her well-received Manila debut, and deepened when she announced that she wasnt going back to Romania. The press had called it a defection then, and as a result, her pictures were all over the local papers. But defection or not, I believed in her talent and monitored her progress during rehearsals for her last concert in Manila in December of the same year. This was before her debut with the Scottish Opera.
Nelly Miricioiu as Violetta in a Traviata production in Washington D.C.
Back in Manila four years later, Nelly asked me to give a little speech in the middle of rehearsals. I looked at my dear friend imploringly; I would do anything for her except make an impromptu speech for those musicians.
But she was insistent. Listen Pablo, she said, I know you are a shy person and the worst thing that I can ask of you is to go on that stage and make a little speech. But this concert is important to me. It is my gift to theFilipino peopleand to this theater. Tell them I am singing for free, and in fact you too are working for free in this concert. Tell them what this concert means to me and to you.
Nelly Miricioiu. Still singing at 60
Nelly knew the problems of the theater then. The orchestra was facing a severe financial crisis and morale was low. (After this engagement, the MSO disbanded and became the Manila Chamber Orchestra, which also disbanded a few years later). But if she and I were doing it for love, they,the musicians,should too, for the same reason.
My knees were shaking as I mounted the stage of the main theater. Some musicians must have thought I was about to burst into a bizarre aria. Professor Sergio Esmilla, then music director of the Manila Symphony, introduced me as a writer-turned-impresario. I put on a very authoritative face and managed to deliver the divas message quite clearly: This concert isnt Miss Miricioius debut in Manila, but her first in this historic theater. She considers Manila her second home and this is her homecoming. For this concert, she is performing for free (the musicians applauded) and the proceeds will go to the scholarship fund for orchestra members (another applause). This concert is her way of saying thank you to theFilipino audiencewho received her well in 1980. She wants me to tell you that you will receive token gifts from her right after the concert.
Nelly Miricioiu at the Met in 1984. I am covered by Mrs. Manzano (Luis Manzano's grandmother) shown here greeting the diva while a younger Boy Abunda looks on.
I heard another round of applause as I returned to my orchestra seat and caught Nelly smiling.
I vividly recall the big night. Her first aria (A non credea from La Sonnambula) was interrupted by loud applause just before the cabaletta. At the end of it, the audience went wild. When Nelly sang the last two Filipino songs, Sa Kabukiran and Ay Ay Kalisud, pandemonium broke loose. There was deafening applause and much stomping of feet, not just from the audience, but from the orchestra members as well. Seated at the back row, I was dazed. I rushed backstage to deliver the cash gifts from the soprano to the orchestra members. It never occurred to me that as impresario and publicist of the concert, I was at least entitled to transportation money. But I couldnt care less.
The sight of an audience in uproar over glorious music delivered by a glorious singer is what feeds an impresarios soul. Friends were congratulating me and asking: How much did you earn? I didnt reply. What mattered was that it was a grand debut as impresario, and for the next few years I couldnt ask for more. The concert was an extension of a bond of friendship and I continued to treat concerts as such.
In one of the last few postcards I got from Nelly a few years after that Manila concert, she shared that her New York Metropolitan Opera debut was a success. A friend later confirmed that she was opening Londons Covent Gardens season with Meyerbeers Les Huguenots. If you want to see me, one of her last letterssaid, I am opening the Hong Kong Arts Festival with La Traviata. Isnt Hong Kong just an hour away from Manila?
I didnt make it to Hong Kong, but her note made me recall her first Manila concert and what the media reported as her defection. I soon found out what prompted that decision.
In November 1980, after she had made headlines in Manila, she was rehearsing for a farewell concert with a Filipino conductor. In between her Casta Diva and Caro nome, during which I was the lone audience in her room, her disenchantment with her home countrys leaders began to surface.
But please, Pablo, she would say, Don?t write anything about it. It will be difficult for me and for my family who are still there. Please write about my music. I know that if I didnt sing well here, you wouldnt be here everyday watching me rehearse for the next concert.
From a compatriot who sheltered her after her defection, she realized she really had to leave her homeland, if only to nurture her art to perfection. Her businessman-compatriot left Romania in 1939 before the communists took over and he visited again in 1996 and 1970. It wasnt the same Romania he loved in his youth, he said.
When he met Nelly through the Filipino conductor, he invited Nelly to his house and introduced her to his Filipino wife. As they showed her around, Nelly realized that the freedom she didnt have in her homeland could be had in Manila.
The events before Nellys farewell concert in 1980 are also clear in my mind. Her conductor wasnt giving her an easy time and at one point, she walked out of a Boheme aria when he wouldnt give in to her tempo. I would always be around to console her and join her in the car for the ride back home.
On top of her rehearsal troubles, there had been rumors circulating that the reason she wasnt going back to Romania was that she had fallen in love with a local musician. Look, Pablo, this is my wedding photo, she said. Take a look at my husband.
Her husband, a lawyer-violinist, was a dead ringer for good-looking actor Omar Sharif.
Now, Pablo, she continued, please tell people I will not exchange my husbands face for that musician they are talking about. I used the photo for the article I wrote about her farewell concert, to the consternation of the musician who was promoting a concert by way of a ridiculous love team in the making.
As her farewell concert drew near, Nelly and I realized that we had to contend with this musician on artistic as well as very personal levels, and she was getting the worst end of it.
A day before the event, Nelly told me, Pablo, we are not going to the reception arranged by that musician after the concert. My friend is hosting another reception for me and that is where we are going.
After the concert, where every aria ended with shouts of Brava! Nelly signed autographs while I quielty gathered her things: bags, flowers, a suitcase and prepared for a clandestine exit with the soprano. After the last opera fan had left, we headed for the artists exit area and went to the car that would facilitate our escape from that musicians reception.
At the corner of Vito Cruz andRoxas Boulevard
, the musicians car passed us, and he asked where we were going. I signalled that we were headed to his place for the reception. But when the green light flashed, our car took off in another direction. At the other reception hosted by her compatriot, Nelly was in high spirits. She egged me to dance and I did, after four bottles of beer, and I heard her say while we were on the dance floor, Pablo, life isnt just about music. You must also learn how to socialize and enjoy another life.
At one in the morning, I bade goodbye to Nelly, who lent me her hosts family car and passed on to me a bouquet containing half a hundred red roses. Pablo, she said as she handed me the flowers, you are a dear friend.
In the morning, my daughters woke up to find our living room full of empty beer bottles laden with red roses. I could not find a proper vase for them!
Of Nelly's defection in Manila in 1980, certain things may now be clarified. Then First LadyImeldaMarcos, in deference to the countrys diplomatic relations with Romania in 1980, rejected Nellys request for asylum. Great Britain,through the help of Lord Harewood who is related to the British monarch (and a confidante of the late Maria Callas), accepted Nelly after her triumphant debut in a Covent Garden production of Pagliacci opposite Jon Vickers.
After her world-wide success and the subsequent fall of the Romanian dictator, the Romanian government finally allowed Nelly to see her family (her husband, her father and mother), and they had a reunion in her new London home. She later separated from her Romanian husband and married a British impresario with whom she now has a son.
And yet, the Nelly I would cherish is not just the diva but the good friend Ive known. In an intimate and impromptu musicale, she would sing Mutya ng Pasig for the late Conching Rosal and Irma Potenciano and it was easy to see that she had found Manila as a second home.
Nelly's greeting card
Today, Nelly is a byword in all the worlds leading opera houses. On top of this world-wide success, the Nelly I remember was the diva who in 1984 gave a free concert at the Manila Metropolitan Theater as a gift toFilipinos. I remember how she dined with Filipino friends and even sang Granada in aMakatirestaurant in the spirit of fun. After her singing, which literally froze both waiters and customers, a gentle old lady approached her and said, You have a fantastic voice. I think you should take up voice culture.
And the diva simply replied, Thank you, I think I will.