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New operas; arts festivals; concerts; exciting collaborations in theater, dance and music; and the launch of the updated encyclopedia of Philippine arts will be the highlights of the 2017 season of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).
This was announced by CCP Vice President and Artistic Director Chris B. Millado at a press conference at the CCP Tanghalang Aurelino Tolentino (Little Theater) on January 18.
During the conference, Millado emphasized that the CCP remains to be the only cultural facility in the Philippines that embraces all art forms.
“When one watches ballet at the CCP, for example, one could also catch an exhibit, visit the museum, or catch the matinee [screening] of a indie film or [the performance of] an original Filipino musical,” Millado said.
“Moreover, the CCP hosts the largest and most influential festivals in the country…. The CCP holds at least six festivals in a year, making it the epicenter of creative expression and audience engagement,” he added.
Exciting events
Taking place later this month is the 60th-anniversary restaging of Noli Me Tangere: The Opera (Touch Me Not: The Opera), a full-length operatic adaptation of Dr. José Rizal’s influential 1887 novel of the same title that features the original music of National Artist for Music Felipe de Leon Sr. and the libretto of National Artist for Sculpture Guillermo Tolentino. New York-based events designer Jerry Sibal directs this production, as well as designs its sets and costumes.
Manila Fringe is an open-access, artist-driven community celebration that showcases fresh, daring and groundbreaking work in theater, literature, music, dance, visual arts, film, cabaret, performance art, spoken word, and every other genre in between.
Due to insistent public, Symphonic Aegis/Aegis in Symphony: The Repeat (Hugot Pa More!) brings back pop-rock group Aegis and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO) for another fusion of classical and contemporary music that is sure to delight audiences.
The Pasinaya Open House Festival, considered the largest multi-arts festival in the country, introduces this year an additional day of workshops in various performing-arts forms and popular arts, as well as an Arts Market, where audiences can pre-register for the Summer Arts workshops.
This festival extends its reach beyond the CCP Complex in Pasay City to include cultural venues. Art enthusiasts can look forward to see the Indak Filipinas: Festival of Philippine Folkloric Dance and Music, Performatura Festival II: Performed Literatures, and the Andrea O. Veneracion International Choral Festival Manila 2017.
CCP’s other popular festivals slated to return this year include the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival and Competition and the Virgin Labfest, a festival of untried, untested and unstaged one-act plays.
The opera season features some of the leading practitioners of the art form. Lovers of Metropolitan Opera productions can look forward to seeing screenings of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Così fan tutte (February 14), Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (March 14) and Turandot (April 4), and Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde (May 9) at the Ayala Greenbelt Cinema.
The visual-arts scene at CCP will feature the Maceda 100: National Artist Jose Maceda Centennial exhibit opening with a special reenactment of Maceda’s performance piece, Cassettes 100.
Digital and print versions of the CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Arts, the most authoritative and comprehensive source of information on Philippine art covering the peoples, architecture, visual arts, dance, music, theater, film, broadcast arts, and literature of the country, will be launched later this year.
For more information about the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ 2017 season, call (632) 832-1125 or visit www.culturalcenter.gov.ph.