Rama, Hari (Ballet Philippines on Youtube)

Earlier this week, I chanced upon a Facebook post announcing that Rama, Hari will be on Youtube live today at 3PM. I watched the 2PM show in 2012, but for some reason, I was not able to blog about it. I remember falling in love with the music, especially the drums, not caring much for ballet although the performers were all really good. Stage props were not given much effort but I loved the costumes.

This afternoon, I was trying to focus on studying Business Mandarin but the sweltering heat is too much that I fell asleep, waking up shortly to check out FB and found that Rama, Hari had already started. Good thing I saw that post, or I would have totally forgotten about this free Youtube offering.

I chose to watch on my laptop and was disappointed that the video is not on HD, the sounds were equally bad. I wonder why CCP did not opt to make this more worth it for viewers at this time of Covid-19 lockdown. No wonder the performance arts in the Philippines are not popular and the average Filipino will choose low quality entertainment which does not enrich one's intellectual experience. While I am grateful to CCP for relieving memories of this excellent collaboration among our five National Artists, I will have to say that there is much work to be done to promote the arts among the people. I envy my parents' time when everybody seems cultured (yet maybe in the wrong way because they are too flooded with American stuff) that my parents at least know musicals. In my generation, I have few friends who are into theater. In our family as always, I am the only one among us siblings who is into these kinds of things.

I cannot help but compare this to UK's The Show Must Go On! Youtube channel. Weeks prior, they made The Phantom of the Opera and its sequel Love Never Dies available for everyone for 48 hours in order to gather donations for The Actors Fund. So HD version is uploaded and memories of utter awe came back to me. I wonder if Filipino performance artists are also being cared for in the same manner. But I guess they are left to fend for themselves. This country has been made poor by corrupt government officials especially by political dynasties for so many decades now and nothing has changed. Truth be told, although I worry about people having financial issues during this time, I cannot bring myself to donate to organizations because the money will eventually be controlled by politicians who will just pocket most of it, leaving very little to those truly in need. 

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On another note, I remember the paper I wrote together with other Southeast Asian students on Ramayana. Last year I chanced upon a Mashable article on the Ramayana versions in SEA which is like an article version of our group's paper. I don't know who the writer is, but it does not even acknowledge its source which I suspect is our paper because that exactly is our paper topic. I suspect that it being a group paper and it being submitted to the program organizers, the paper must have fallen into the hands of an intellectually deficient academician-wannabe in search of an easy paper to write. Of course I find it insulting because I headed that group paper and contributed the most to it, spending sleepless night poring over sources and revising the paper to make it coherent and consistent given that there were six or seven of us with our own assigned parts, each with his/ her own writing style. 

So anyway, since I remember our paper, I will share a bit of information about Ramayana and the Philippines. The Maranao people have their own version and the title is Maharadia Lawana. Curiously, the title name focuses on Lawana, the indigenized version of Ravana. And watching Rama, Hari now makes me wonder how come CCP or Ballet Philippines do not use this material instead for the performances to inform the audience that we receive many Indian influences which the average Filipino does not even know of. As always, it is the elites who keep these things to themselves and those "intellectuals" who reside in their ivory towers.

Giselle @CCP/ The Octopus 08172013

Last Saturday I woke up to a gloomy day so I continued reading "The Octopus" by Frank Norris. The book is surprisingly a good read. I first had an impression that it would bore me to death when I saw it in Booksale but I bought it anyway. It's about the resistance put up by farmers in California against the monopolistic land-grabbing Railroad and thrown in the narrative are human tendencies for violence, corruption, and oppression.  It's a good read during these times with the issues revolving around the pork barrel.

Just to share a passage from the book, taken from Presley's speech:

"They own us, these task-masters of ours; they own our homes, they own our legislatures. We cannot escape from them. There is no redress. We are told we can defeat them by the allot-box. They own the ballot-box. We are told that we must look to the courts for redress; they own the courts. We know them for what they are, --- ruffians in politics, ruffians in finance, ruffians in law, ruffians in trade, bribers, swindlers, and tricksters. No outrage too great to daunt them, no petty larceny too small to shame them; despoiling a government treasury of a million dollars; yet picking the pockets of a farm hand of the price of a loaf of bread.

"They swindle a nation of a hundred million and call it Financiering; they levy a blackmail and call it Commerce; they corrupt a legislature and call it Politics;they bribe a judge and call it Law; they hire blacklegs to carry out their plans and call it Organisation; they prostitute the honor of a State and call it Competition.

"(...) We talk of liberty--- oh, the farce of it, oh, the folly of it! We tell ourselves and teach our children that we have achieved liberty, that we no longer need to fight for it. Why, the fight is just beginning and so long as our conception of liberty remains as it is to-day, it will continue.

"(...) Liberty is not a crowned goddess, beautiful, in spotless garments, victorious, supreme. Liberty is the Man In the Street, a terrible figure, rushing through powder smoke, fouled with the mud and ordure of the gutter, bloody, rampant, brutal, yelling curses, in one hand a smoking rifle, in the other, a blazing torch.

"Freedom is not given free to any who ask; Liberty is not born of the gods. She is a child of the People, born in the very height and heat of battle, born from death, stained with blood, grimed with powder. And she grows to be not a goddess, but a Fury, a fearful figure, slaying friend and foe alike, raging, insatiable, merciless, the Red Terror." (pp.551-552)

I didn't get to finish the book (and as of writing I'm still a few pages shy from finishing but I'm busy with work, you see). Anyway, I committed one blooper perhaps because I was so engrossed with "The Octopus". I forgot that the ballet performance was at 2pm and not at 3pm. It was already 1:15PM so I ran out of the house and took the LRT. It was raining but who cares? I bought my ticket and I'm not gonna miss it despite the rain. Once I stepped out of the train, I ran down to Vito Cruz and ran all the way to CCP never minding the rain on my face. I was 15 minutes late but I still got to have a seat. Whew!

So I did get to watch the tragic story of Giselle who fell in love with a man who turns out to be a duke already engaged. She dies of too much heartbreak when she learned the truth after a brief period of bliss with her beloved.

But the beautiful choreography was highlighted in Act 2 where, even without words, the duke sought forgiveness and one could see with every step and every dance move the intensity of this scene. Giselle, despite everything, forgives him and even protects him form the harsh punishment due him by the Wilis, jilted lovers who seek vengeance.

One thing that disappoints is that live music was not used. I was expecting to witness again the magnificence of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra but the audience of the 2pm show was denied this. I wonder if the 7pm performance was treated to PPO's presence?

I was reminded of the ballet musical show Rama Hari last 2012. The Manila Symphonic Orchestra played live then and one member of the orchestra stood out: the one who played the drums.

Pardon my crappy phone pics...