A bright, utilitarian voice that sweeps across continents as it conjures the aspirations of the inner princesses in millions of nice young women from Manila to London: no, it’s not Celine Dion, but Lea Salonga, the demure 39-year-old Philippine star whose autobiographical show, “The Journey So Far,” opened a three-week engagement at Café Carlyle on Tuesday evening.
Ms. Salonga is the vocal personification of what might be called the Broadway and Hollywood international style, which embraces Disney songs, Rodgers and Hammerstein ballads and the anthems of Schönberg and Boublil. Hers is a talent groomed to express inspirational generalities that please most of the people most of the time without taxing their emotions. Beyond an eagerness to please, impersonality is its signature quality.
The show-business history Ms. Salonga related in the agreeable tone of a friendly saleswoman helps explain the formation of such a sensibility. A child star in the Philippines, she made her professional debut at 7 in “The King and I” and starred in the title role of “Annie.” That track led her to the role of Kim, which she originated in “Miss Saigon” in London in 1989. Back then she was so innocent, she recalled, that the director, Nicholas Hytner, had to demonstrate the onstage love scenes step by step. She later played both Éponine and Fantine in “Les Misérables.” Her voice has been heard in “Aladdin” and in two “Mulan” movies.
Backed by a functional quartet under the direction of Larry Yurman, Ms. Salonga touched many of these bases on Tuesday, with some forays into Philippine music. Like most singers who rely on various degrees of declamation, Ms. Salonga was most appealing when she relaxed and sang a sweet, low-key rendition of “Someone to Watch Over Me,” accompanied by a single guitar. Especially in an intimate space like Café Carlyle, the cliché applies: Less is more.
“The Journey So Far” continues through March 27 at Café Carlyle, 35 East 76th Street, Manhattan; (212) 744-1600, thecarlyle.com.
hours back, i attended joey albert's homecoming concert with louie ocampo at the music museum in greenhills. as usual, many people flocked to greenhills to listen to joey's music. she sang her hits (e.g., collaborations with louie ocampo: tell me, iisa pa lamang, yakapin mo ako, it's over now, ikaw lang ang mamahalin, and without you; gerry paraiso's over and over; robert more's a million miles away; danny tan's iisa pa lamang; and jose mari chan's i remember the boy). she also sang louie ocampo's other hits (e.g., ewan, shadow of time, you are my song, say that you love me), burt bacharach, henry mancini, other standards, samba and bossa nova classics. as expected, joey's concert was magical. her musical collaboration with louie ocampo remains a formidable force within the local music industry.
but it wasn't easy getting tickets to joey's concert. tickets were sold out days before the concert date. not wanting to disturb joey, i ran to carla (a good friend and joey's sister-in-law) yesterday morning. though joey was very busy preparing for her gig, she was able to text back and secure close-to-the-stage orchestra seats for me at the very last minute.
i've been an avid follower of joey's music for ages now. joey and i also exchanged emails quite frequently when i lived in australia as a phd student. i am just so thrilled to see her with her family in manila.
with vancouver-based filipina singer and composer joey albert
joey albert sings tell me with louie ocampo on the keyboard
*** The latest on Jeffrey Jeturian's KUBRADOR
GFI Announces Global Lens 2008 Film Lineup New Crowned Hope, FIPRESCI and Un Certain Regard selections lead series in its 5th year
San Francisco, CA - August 7, 2007 - The Global Film Initiative announced today ten award-winning narrative, feature films from Argentina, China, Croatia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Lebanon, Philippines and South Africa that will headline the Global Lens 2008 film series.
"The films selected for Global Lens 2008 are beautiful, powerful stories that represent the best of cinema from around the world-they must be seen and experienced," says Susan Weeks Coulter, Board Chair of The Global Film Initiative.
Leading the list are critical favorites Opera Jawa (New Crowned Hope), The Bet Collector (FIPRESCI) and Luxury Car (Un Certain Regard). Also included is Sundance/NHK award-winner, The Custodian (Golden Berlin Bear nomination), and South African comedic hit, Bunny Chow(Official Selection, Toronto IFF).
Global Lens 2008, now in its fifth year, will premiere at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in January, before embarking on year-long tour of over thirty cities across the United States. For screening-dates and locations, please visit: http://www.globalfilm.org/calendar.php
Global Lens 2008 films:
· ALL FOR FREE (SVE DZABA), dir. Antonio Nuić, Croatia, 2006 Personal tragedy leads a young man to buy a mobile refreshment truck and embark on a darkly humorous and quixotic journey across post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina.
· THE BET COLLECTOR (KUBRADOR), dir. Jeffrey Jeturian, Philippines, 2006 A resilient housewife's job of collecting cash bets on the local numbers-game takes a psychological toll on her in the days before All Saint's Day.
· BUNNY CHOW, dir. John Barker, South Africa, 2006 Three up-and-coming comedians head out on a road trip, abandoning rules, reason and girlfriends to find music and the meaning of life in the "new" South Africa.
· THE CUSTODIAN (EL CUSTODIO), dir. Rodrigo Moreno, Argentina, 2006 A man's threshold for the mundane is chronicled by the uneventful days of his life as a bodyguard for a high profile politician.
· THE FISH FALL IN LOVE (MAHIHA ASHEGH MISHAVAND), dir. Ali Raffi, Iran, 2005 A group of resourceful women use food to convince a stubborn businessman to allow them to continue operating a restaurant in a building he owns.
· KEPT & DREAMLESS (LAS MANTENIDAS SIN SUEÑOS), dir. Vera Fogwill and Martín Desalvo, Argentina, 2005 Set during Argentina's economic crisis of the nineties, a drug-addicted mother struggles to keep her life afloat with the aid of her fiercely affectionate nine year-old daughter.
· THE KITE (LE CERF-VOLANT), dir. Randa Chahal Sabbag, Lebanon, 2003 On the eve of her marriage, a Lebanese girl realizes she is in love with the Israeli solider guarding the border checkpoint that separates her from her fiancé.
· LET THE WIND BLOW (HAVA ANEY DEY) dir. Partho Sen Gupta, India, 2004 At the height of nuclear-tensions between India and Pakistan, a restless group of friends weigh the bitter reality of their lives against fate and the philosophy of a nation.
· LUXURY CAR (JIANG CHENG XIA RI), dir. Wang Chao, China, 2006 A man travels to the city to visit his daughter-a karaoke bar escort-hoping to fulfill his wife's last wish of finding their missing son.
· OPERA JAWA, dir. Garin Nugroho, Indonesia, 2006 In the lush interior of Java, a potter's wife is seduced into a tragic love triangle in this stylish adaptation of the Hindu epic, The Ramayana.
The Global Film Initiative is a U.S.-based, 501(c)3 organization specializing in the acquisition, distribution and support of independent film from the developing world. Founded in 2002 with the mission of promoting cross-cultural understanding through cinema, each year the Initiative awards numerous grants to deserving filmmakers from emerging nations, and supports a touring film series entitled Global Lens. For more information about the Global Lens film series and The Global Film Initiative programs, please visit: http://www.globalfilm.org.
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from atty. joji alonso antonio: armando lao, mlr rilms launch screenwriting workshop
In its continuing advocacy for the creation of alternative films, MLR Films wishes to invite all interested writers who have written a script for television, stage plays, short films, full length feature films, and similar materials, to a SCRIPT WRITING workshop. The workshop will be held at a venue, to be announced later, inside the UP Diliman campus. It is sponsored in part by the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP). The workshop will be held every Saturday and Sunday afternoon from 1-7pm on the following dates: Sept 15/16, Sept 22/23, Sept 29/30, Oct 6/7, Oct 13/14, Oct 21/22 and Oct 27/28. The actual scriptwriting and consultation stage will be held in the months of November and December this year.
The workshop will be conducted by no less than Armando "Bing" Lao. For those who still don't know Bing, he grew up in General Santos, South Cotabato where he attended his primary and secondary education. In college, he took up Commerce at the University of the East, Manila. For the next eight years or so, Lao worked for various business companies in the accounting department. But in 1980, he decided he wanted to become a scriptwriter. He has never regretted that decision. He initially wrote for television drama programs and anthologies, notable of which were VIVA’S SPOTLIGHT, RPN 9’s DAVAO and GMA’s docu-drama WALANG BAKAS.
To date, Bing has written over twenty produced screenplays, majority of them critically acclaimed.
He has received six Manunuri awards for Best Screenplay for the following films—Takaw-Tukso, Itanong Mo Sa Buwan, Pila-Balde, Tuhog and La Vida Rosa. His latest written work,Minsan Pa was adjudged the 2005 Best Picture by the Young Critics Circle. Internationally, Pila-Balde won the NETPAC Jury Award in the first CineManila International Film Festival and likewise won the Gold Award in the 2000Worldfest Film Festival, Houston, Texas, U.S.A. It has since been exhibited in various film festivals abroad. Tuhog qualified as the Philippine official entry to the Cinema Present section in the 2000 Venice Film Festival.
Bing, who teaches film writing to both graduate and undergradute students at the University of the Philippines Film Institute, has mentored new writers whose films help propagate what he considers a narrative paradigm which favors strong cultural content and authentic representation, properties that make a film distinctly Filipino and globally competitive as well. Films like Masahista, Manoro, Kubrador, and Foster Child have validated this paradigm, the films having won acceptance and critical acclaim fromprestigious film festivals abroad. The CineMalaya best picture Tribu is the latest product of Lao’srealist manual. The still unreleased Tirador, another realist film, has been accepted in the Toronto Film festival this year. The scripts of the two films were also written under Bing's supervision.
Bing has been asked a number of times to sit as juror to scriptwriting contests and to facilitate scriptwriting workshops. He was a member of the 2005 CineMalaya screening committee. When asked what advice he can give to new filmmakers, he quipped: “Be culturally correct”.
The workshop can only accomodate 30 people. Because of this limitation, we invite interested participants to email us as soon as possible your filmography so we can begin the selection process for the 1st batch of workshoppers. You may send your filmographies to jojialonso@mlrfilms.com or to armando_lao@yahoo.com or preferably to both. You may also contact our workshop director, Seymour "Meyor" Sanchez at 0918 3384771. The workshop will begin as soon as Bing arrives from the Toronto International Film Festival.
The workshop fee is P5,000. FDCP's has generously agreed to cover P3,000 of this fee. The actual cost to the participant has thus been reduced to P2,000 only. A word of caution to food seekers, there will be no lavish food served during the workshop. But there will be coffee with biscuits/cookies.
The scripts/products of the workshop will continue to be owned by the writer-participant. MLR Films and the FDCP will assist in finding potential producers for the finished products.
Thank you and kindly spread the word. We are looking forward to another batch of great scripts!
from maestra isang tapales and jovita fuentes to ryan cayabyab and lea salonga, filipino musical artists have been winning worldwide acclaim as soloists, accompanists, composers and arrangers. i grew up being fascinated with filipino pop artists and their achievements in many international music festivals. but my fascination with these artists began with pilita corrales.
i skipped kindergarten and landed immediately in prep school at u.s.t. elementary school when pilita corrales bagged the best singer award during the 1st tokyo music festival (tmf) organized by tokyo’s popular music promotion association in 1972. pilita performed george canseco’s stirring ballad “my daughter.” she bested well-known musical artists like paul williams and olivia newton-john. tmf’s succeeding roster of participants and guest artists have included the likes of paul anka, shirley bassey, kate bush, kim carnes, joe cocker, natalie cole, the commodores, rita coolidge, randy crawford, sammy davis jr., al green, israeli superstar ofra haza, jermaine jackson, jackson five, al jarreau, limahl (lead singer of the 1980s pop band kajagoogoo), barry manilow, gilbert o’ sullivan, the pointer sisters, lionel richie, diana ross, frank sinatra, sister sledge ("we are family"), donna summer, the three degrees ("when will i see you again"), vaya con dios (a top belgian band), dionne warwick, andy williams and stevie wonder. not to be confused with the equally prestigious world popular song festival (organized separately by the tokyo-based yamaha music foundation from 1970 to 1989), pilita’s victory at tmf was clearly no mean feat. immediately upon arrival in manila, pilita landed in newspapers and on television where the local press began dubbing her as “asia’s queen of songs.” and that’s how i got to know more about her. soon, pilita became a permanent fixture on ibc channel 13's "seeing stars with joe quirino." then japan's matsushita corporation, owners of national (now panasonic) electronic appliances, handpicked pilita to endorse quintrix state-of-the-art color t.v. and jetscycle refrigerators. right before going to bed late at night, i would patiently wait for rpn channel 9 to air pilita's t.v. ad where she sang the first few bars of "kapantay ay langit" at eduardo's along roxas boulevard. pilita was then at the height of her popularity as the country's leading female vocalist.
these days, pilita is well-known to t.v. audiences as a comedy actress. she is “mamita” on gma channel 7’s comedy “lagot ka, isusumbong kita” opposite joey marquez, richard gomez, raymart santiago and benjie paras. soon, she will be even more famous as the female judge a la paula abdul in abc channel 5’s philippine idol. younger generations of filipinos are probably oblivious to pilita’s impressive feat as the first filipino winner of an international music festival. nobody seems to remember pilita's distinguished achievements as a recording, live performance and t.v. artist. nearly fifty years ago, pilita arrived in australia with a shipwrecked troupe of performers. initially, she was the assistant of magician and actor john calvert. calvert had earlier achieved popularity with his long-running magic show in hollywood with edgar bergen, gary cooper, cary grant and danny kaye during world war II. calvert also appeared in a movie with clark gable. later, pilita and calvert formed a tandem that proved to be very popular at the legendary tivoli theatre ("the tiv") on bourke street. "the tiv" was the center of melbourne's glamour, magic and live entertainment long before t.v., cinema, betamax, vhs, vcds, mobile phones, dvds, mp3s, ipods, blogs and laptops took over. it was also the site of pilita's first international success. as a leading female vocalist from 1958 to 1962, pilita achieved mainstream acceptance and popularity in australia way ahead of newton-john, pat carroll, helen reddy, patsy anne noble, debbie byrne, renee geyer, the moir sisters, colleen hewitt (who made a hit out of "day by day" from godspell), sister janet mead (who did a popular cover version of "the lord's prayer"), marcia hines, samantha sang (who scored a u.s. #1 hit in 1978 with barry and maurice gibb's "emotion" ), kate ceberano (who is actually filipino-hawaiian-australian), tina arena, kylie minogue and delta goodrem. the australian broadcasting corporation (abc) and melbourne's the agerecognize pilita as first woman ever to land on top of the australian pop charts in 1958 with "come closer to me." pilita also performed with international artists like the beatles, bob hope, julie andrews, pat boone (“you light up my life” singer debbie boone’s father) and sammy davis jr. (at caesar’s palace in las vegas) while hosting prizewinning musical-varieties like “an evening with pilita,” “pilita and jackie, ” “ang bagong kampeon” and "tanghalan ng kampeon.” she popularized songs by filipino composers (“a million thanks to you,” “kapantay ay langit,” “ang pipit”) way ahead of many local artists. her renditions of tagalog classics by tito arevalo, george canseco, levi celerio, constancio de guzman, dominador santiago, leopoldo silos, restituto umali and miguel velarde jr. under plaka pilipino and vicor helpedpave the way for the mainstream (and not just token or marginal) acceptance of original pilipino music (opm) during the 1970s and the 1980s.
after pilita, filipino artists realized that they can also win festival honors for the country. celeste legaspi won major prizes in world music festivals held in manila (1976, for philip monseratt’s “pusong nagmamahal”), tokyo (1976, also for “pusong nagmamahal”) and seoul (1981, for willy cruz’s “never ever say goodbye”). didith reyes bagged the gold prize during the 1977 tokyo music festival. leah navarro and the manila music machine bagged the bronze prize at tokyo in 1979. the philippines had been luckiest at the seoul popular music festival (1978-1983). winners of the annual metro manila popular music festival (1978-1985) were sent to compete at sejong cultural center. with the exception of lerma de la cruz (who did not win in 1983, in spite of her exceptional rendition of vehnee saturno's "ako'y ako"), filipinos won a slew of prizes in seoul: ryan cayabyab and hajji alejandro for “kay ganda ng ating musika” (grand prix, 1978); freddie aguilar for snaffu rigor's “bulag, pipi at bingi" (best performer, 1979); dero pedero and leah navarro for “isang mundo, isang awit” (bronze, 1980); ananias montano and something special for “babae ka” (bronze, 1981); and jun latonio, tillie moreno, eugene villaluz and louie reyes for “nothing i want more” (grand prix, 1982). in later years, jose mari chan, eugene villaluz and louie reyes, leo valdez, dulce, ivy violan, smokey mountain, regine velasquez, jaya, ryan cayabyab, gines tan, danny tan, vehnee saturno and a few other artists would achieve similar honors in festivals held in canada, china, finland, hong kong, japan, malaysia, the philippines and the united states during the 1980s and the early 1990s.
towards the 21st century, shortage of interest and sponsors caused the demise of many music festivals. the few surviving ones today are mostly national or regional in nature as in the case of san remo (italy) and the annual eurovision contest. gma 7 tried to revive metro pop during the 1990s but antonio barreiro passed away. no one could possibly execute the vision and spirit of music festivals locally the way he did.
gerry matias, one of pilita’s musical directors, happens to be the father of my former student gm matias. when i return to manila, i will probably ask gm to get me pilita's autograph. or i'll drop by pilita’s bar in greenhills and tell her how she fascinated me when i was growing up. one of these days, she ought to be proclaimed national artist. even the city of melbourne has named a street after her in forest hill. and yet, she opted to sing more for her kababayans back home. i will never understand why pilita corrales should not be receiving an honor she truly deserves.
"i'll take romance," pilita's 2nd long playing album in australia (circa 1958)
"this is pilita," pilita's 3rd long playing album in australia (circa 1962)
back cover of "this is pilita"
"speak low," one of pilita's chart-hitting 45" singles under astor records in australia
along the tram line on melbourne's bourke street with doreen ochea
