A rare treat awaits music lovers as the Manila Chamber Orchestra Foundation presents a special concert, “An Evening of Bel Canto”, on October 26 at 7:00 PM 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 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 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 with cancer.
For tickets, call TICKETWORLD at (+632) 8919999, COEA at (+632) 7827164 or (+63) 9183473027, and MCO Secretariat at (+632) 7500768 or (+63) 9209540053.
