Lea Salonga is not a human being. Disguised as a thirty-something (though she barely looks twenty-five), very pretty lady with peaches-and-cream skin, she is, in reality, a self-winding machine that sputters out spectacularly beautiful music, at will. But then again, there is that word will, which gives away the fact that she is, after all, human. Contradictions arise when we come face to face with immense talent. While at her concert last night, this fact was not lost on me.
Watching Lea, My Life... on Stage at the PICC Plenary Hall proved to be an amazing experience for this Lea Salonga fan. Never mind that the concert began 30 minutes behind schedule and that I was mistaken in thinking that the Filipino audience would know, by now, not to carry a cellphone (the ones I saw last night were not switched off, or even on vibrate mode, at that, so that every now and then, a text message alert would be heard--so much for respect to the performers and to the rest of the audience) inside the theater, or that several American Idol wannabes would break into song at random times during the concert, perhaps with the evil plot to upstage Lea, herself, annoying the hell out of the rest of the audience. Never mind all those because whatever distraction they posed were erased by the sheer talent of Lea Salonga herself, whose pitch-perfect, perfectly beautiful voice tackled every song like it was the easiest, most natural thing to do. Some of the pieces had high levels of technical difficulty, but she sang them all effortlessly.
She was perfectly at home doing her thing, very confident and un-self-conscious, hitting both high notes and low notes with equal skill and flawlessness, lighting up the whole stage with her mere presence (she's very pretty on tv but she is beautiful in person-she positively glowed like a gem in the middle of the stage!) and singing her way to everybody's heart, in command althroughout. Suffice it to say that she had the whole audience at the palm of her hand. As for me, she was twirling me by her little finger.
I was delighted at the repertoire; as suggested by the title, she sang songs which depicted her life story, including, of course, songs from the musicals that she played major parts in, like Annie, Miss Saigon, Flower Drum Song, Les Miserables, and They're Playing Our Song and less-known (to the non-Theater-enthusiast, at least) musicals like A Chorus Line (they modified the lyrics to "Nothing" to make it more in accord with her struggles with Philippine Popstardom) and Oliver (she once again did the beautiful medley of "Where is Love" and "As Long as He Needs Me," which she also sang in her Broadway concert some years back). Her Disney songs (from Aladdin and Mulan) were part of the programme, as well. There were bits of Pop (Aga Muhlach had a cameo role, by the way), and as further proof that she can, indeed, sing all the phonebooks in the universe, her version of Menudo's "If You're Not Here" sounded like a Broadway classic. Now beat that. Magic tricks aren't just for Circus Magicians, after all.
I am raving and speaking in superlatives, and that I'm well aware of. This was my first time to watch Lea perform live, and I would have to say that it was worth millions more than the ticket price, worth all the heavy traffic we had to go through just to get to the venue on time. An experience like this is one that I would cherish, if only for the fact that it has enriched me in ways that I couldn't even begin to imagine. Music is priceless and artists like Lea Salonga continually remind us that, yes, life could get real ugly, at times, but hey, there will always be beauty in it, however stubbornly our cynicism would want to turn the whites into greys. After all, that is what art does--turns the world inside-out and upside-down, digs deep and soars high, just so the beauty in things could be shown for the saddest, most jaded being to see.
And as for me, I'm off to make a list of songs that would make up the repertoire for my own concert.
Which, of course, I will stage in my dreams, haha.
Watching Lea, My Life... on Stage at the PICC Plenary Hall proved to be an amazing experience for this Lea Salonga fan. Never mind that the concert began 30 minutes behind schedule and that I was mistaken in thinking that the Filipino audience would know, by now, not to carry a cellphone (the ones I saw last night were not switched off, or even on vibrate mode, at that, so that every now and then, a text message alert would be heard--so much for respect to the performers and to the rest of the audience) inside the theater, or that several American Idol wannabes would break into song at random times during the concert, perhaps with the evil plot to upstage Lea, herself, annoying the hell out of the rest of the audience. Never mind all those because whatever distraction they posed were erased by the sheer talent of Lea Salonga herself, whose pitch-perfect, perfectly beautiful voice tackled every song like it was the easiest, most natural thing to do. Some of the pieces had high levels of technical difficulty, but she sang them all effortlessly.
She was perfectly at home doing her thing, very confident and un-self-conscious, hitting both high notes and low notes with equal skill and flawlessness, lighting up the whole stage with her mere presence (she's very pretty on tv but she is beautiful in person-she positively glowed like a gem in the middle of the stage!) and singing her way to everybody's heart, in command althroughout. Suffice it to say that she had the whole audience at the palm of her hand. As for me, she was twirling me by her little finger.
I was delighted at the repertoire; as suggested by the title, she sang songs which depicted her life story, including, of course, songs from the musicals that she played major parts in, like Annie, Miss Saigon, Flower Drum Song, Les Miserables, and They're Playing Our Song and less-known (to the non-Theater-enthusiast, at least) musicals like A Chorus Line (they modified the lyrics to "Nothing" to make it more in accord with her struggles with Philippine Popstardom) and Oliver (she once again did the beautiful medley of "Where is Love" and "As Long as He Needs Me," which she also sang in her Broadway concert some years back). Her Disney songs (from Aladdin and Mulan) were part of the programme, as well. There were bits of Pop (Aga Muhlach had a cameo role, by the way), and as further proof that she can, indeed, sing all the phonebooks in the universe, her version of Menudo's "If You're Not Here" sounded like a Broadway classic. Now beat that. Magic tricks aren't just for Circus Magicians, after all.
I am raving and speaking in superlatives, and that I'm well aware of. This was my first time to watch Lea perform live, and I would have to say that it was worth millions more than the ticket price, worth all the heavy traffic we had to go through just to get to the venue on time. An experience like this is one that I would cherish, if only for the fact that it has enriched me in ways that I couldn't even begin to imagine. Music is priceless and artists like Lea Salonga continually remind us that, yes, life could get real ugly, at times, but hey, there will always be beauty in it, however stubbornly our cynicism would want to turn the whites into greys. After all, that is what art does--turns the world inside-out and upside-down, digs deep and soars high, just so the beauty in things could be shown for the saddest, most jaded being to see.
And as for me, I'm off to make a list of songs that would make up the repertoire for my own concert.
Which, of course, I will stage in my dreams, haha.
Wow, you got to watch that! I lurve Lea!
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