A Pleasant Evening with Calbes, friends at Kalayaan Cabaret

A Pleasant Evening with Calbes, friends at Kalayaan Cabaret

By Maripi Leynes

With eyes closed, we could easily imagine that the men and women singing the kundiman on stage were professional singers from the Philippines. The diction was near perfect and the technical rendition was excellent.

The singers from different cultures on this particular day were all students of untiring but retiring soprano Eleanor Calbes. They donated their professional fees to perform and raise funds for the renovation project of the Kalayaan Cultural Community Centre in Mississauga. The event called “The Building Cabaret” was held on August 25 in the banquet hall that was due for renovation.

Members of the Filipino-Canadian community responded to the generosity of the singers by coming to the concert and showing their appreciation.

The multi-cultural singers endeared themselves to the audience all the more by including a number of Filipino ballads and folk songs in the programme.

Yolanda Neo and Rob Dalgleish performed a duet, choosing “Ikaw Lamang” by composer E. Cuenco. This was the fifth number but the first Tagalog song. This was followed by “Nasaan Ka Irog”, a composition by N. Abelardo, rendered by Blair Barnsdale., “Tag-araw” (S. Suarez) by Marilyn Bacani, “Kung Sakali Man” (F. Santiago), another duet but this time by Paddy Menzies and Julie Cabri, “Sa Mahal Kong Bayan” (arrangement by L. San Pedro) by Julie, Sandy Whiting, Paddy and Diana Rimac. After the intermission, Yolanda Neo performed another Tagalog song, “Kay Tamis ng Buhay” (F. de Leon) then Sharon Purcell followed with “Ano Kaya ang Kapalaran”(N. Abelardo) , “Babalik Ka Rin” (De Guzman) by Holly, Marilyn and Vanessa and “Anak Dalita”(F. Santiago) by Julie and Rob.

Julie Cabri, an accomplished singer who is flying to Paris soon for further training, brought the audience to their feet in standing ovation by singing an Ilocano folk song “Ti Ayat Ti Meysa nga Ubing” (arrangement by L. Kasilag) with full expression and some acting.

For the finale, all the singers gathered on stage to sing “Bayan Ko”. The song did not fail to rouse the emotions of the people in the audience. It was sang so fervently that the audience felt the energy of the People Power in the room once again.

The Tagalog songs were interspersed with Broadway hits and old standards, thereby broadening the appeal of the programme to cross-generations and multi-cultures.

With other directors, this idea of making non-Filipinos sing Tagalog songs could have been plain gimmickry, pa-cute as the fags will say. How often have we seen an unprepared non-Filipino take the stage to sing in broken Tagalog and still captivate the simple Pinoy folks? But Calbes, the artistic director of Calbes Voice Studio, did not stop at that. She used the same high standards with the singers and the songs and demanded hours of learning and practice to make them sound authentic. This just shows the professionalism of both Calbes and the singers.

Acknowledgments should be given to Eldon McBride, Calbes Voice Studio official accompanist; Paul Feltcher, master of ceremony; Sany Whiting, costume coordinator; Jimmy Gonzales and friends for the lighting and sound; and of course the producers, KCCC President Consolacion Quejas, and the members of the Board; as well as the many volunteers who helped make the event both a fundraising and artistic success.

Overall, it was a well-spent after-dinner evening in the company of like-minded people. It had rained all day so it was the right place to be at the right time.