Music and arts as a way of life in Iloilo

ILOILO CITY—This city started as a Spanish settlement in the 1700s during the prolific period of George Frederic Handel ("The Messiah"), Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Josef Haydn.

The port of Iloilo was opened to world trade in 1855, six years after Frederic Chopin died in Paris.

Good commerce probably led to the rise of the middle upper class, which nurtured classical music. Like it or not, that time in the 1850s must be the decade the so-called mestizo communities of Iloilo (notably in the district of Jaro and Molo) rose to economic prominence.

The first branch of the country's first known bank, the El Banco Español Filipino de Isabel II (now Bank of the Philippine Islands), was opened in Iloilo City in 1897, the year Johannes Brahms died and just a year after Rizal died a national martyr. The choice of Iloilo as location of the first outlet in Southeast Asia was deemed logical because of its flourishing contact with world commerce. This city—along with Negros—had prime sugar lands. Nicholas Loney, a British vice consul in Iloilo from 1856 to 1869, became the father of the sugar industry in this part of the Visayas.

It was probably sugar money that allowed Ilonggos and Negrenses to enjoy the artistry of legendary pianist Artur Rubinstein (who was paid P5,000 per performance in the Visayas in the late 1940s) and the vocal might of Wagnerian soprano Helen Traubel who performed in Negros in the early ’50s (I saw a picture of Traubel huddled in a Bacolod airport in 1953).

The last two times I was in Iloilo in the ’80s, I feasted on the Manila Symphony Orchestra under Gilopez Kabayao and pianist Corazon Pineda Kabayao doing wonders with the First Liszt Concerto. The last time was when actor Freddie Santos yelled an earth-shaking Bravo! for Filipino tenor Otoniel Gonzaga who sang art songs and arias at the Central Philippine University church.

Yes, the first Filipino tenor of consequence—the first Filipino soloist of the Frankfurt Opera and the Philadelphia Orchestra (the second is Cecile Licad) is an Ilonggo and the first Filipino violinist to make a debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall is also an Ilonggo, Gilopez Kabayao. One of the first Filipino pianists to be heard in Europe and to win major prizes in international piano competitions, Germany-based Ma. Luisa Lopez Vito, is an Ilongga. She was last heard at the Manila Metropolitan Theater with the MSO as soloist in a Mozart concerto under Sergio Esmilla Jr. and at the CCP through a Bartok piano concerto with the PPO under Oscar Yatco.

Now, I am face to face with the pianist’s brother, former Rep. Rafael Lopez Vito (now running for city mayor), who points out the role played by music as he grew up in Iloilo. "My sister Luisa is the only musician in the family," he says. "She influenced us by showing us that through music, we can make our spirits literally soar. The arts also reinforced our core values. With the arts, we can understand the past because in a sense, Iloilo has a very cultured past. Music and the arts are a way of life here. In fact, fine music along with fine dining is our idea of a good life here."

One of the firsts to galvanize the Erap Resign Movement in Iloilo, councilor Vicente "Benjie" Gengos Jr. is raring to see a concert mounted at the more than 200-year-old Miag-ao church in nearby Miag-ao town.

"Culture should make a dramatic comeback in Iloilo and for the arts to thrive, you need a well-managed city free from the dirty clutches of traditional politics. The arts is supposed to purify and in turn, we should also purify the political process. With Edsa II, we should also start clean in this coming elections."

The country was going through another political upheaval leading to Edsa II when Ilonggo theater director Kevin Piamonte was preparing to mount "The Diary of Anne Frank" with violinist-turned-theater actress, Farida Kabayao, playing the title role. The director saw parallels between Anne Frank’s time and Erap’s unlamented times and why the Filipino should survive.

"Our country in the way we live is no longer stable. But there is reason to go on. We have a life and with this life are our ideals and dreams. Because of them, we have a life worth preserving."

On the night I saw "The Diary of Anne Frank" at the Iloilo CAP Auditorium, Kabayao let out her sensitive side as an actress. She is an Asian Anne Frank with a clear grasp of her part, and her portrayal, to say the least, was profoundly moving. But equally commendable was the Peter Van Daan of Dexter Cang who was a perfect foil for the young Kabayao. Cang exuded youthful vulnerability with ease and I couldn’t help looking at the Kabayao couple as their daughter figured in a romantic scene with this talented young man.

The rest of the cast who did well were Edgar Javison (Mr. Frank), Jon Jainga (Mr. Van Daan), Leanne Claire Marie F. Salas (Margot Frank), Don A. Protasio (Mr. Dussel) and Ulea D. J. Bayani (Mrs. Frank). The horrors of war were emphasized all the more with the multimedia presentation of Robert Rodriguez.

Piamonte pines for an Iloilo City that is more responsive to the arts. "Now it’s not difficult to sell a concert and theater tickets," he says. "We are also realizing that we ought to preserve what we have to offer."

Lopez Vito agrees. "My cultural agenda is basically to support cultural endeavors and preserve old homes and old churches. We have to pass ordinances to re-enforce this like the way they did in the cities of Silay and Bacolod."