When kundiman helps save a precious piece of the past

Back from playing lead roles in operas and concerts in Europe and other parts of the world, internationally acclaimed spinto tenor Arthur Espiritu brought the house down at the iconic MiraNila Heritage House and Library in Quezon City, in an all-kundiman performance.

Archival picture of the MiraNila Heritage House after the war (from Gerard Lico archives)

He was joined by award-winning soprano Stefanie Quintin‑Avila and celebrated pianist Najib Ismail, whose performance career spans Europe, Asia and Australia. The concert, co-hosted by Mark (Pips) Benitez Brown, a fourth-generation Benitez, and Renzo Santiago Reyes from the fifth generation, showcased MiraNila’s restored 1904 Steinway grand piano.

MiraNila today

The event is a benefit for the MiraNila Conservation Program that should cover the structural repairs of the 1929 Benitez historic mansion, which was declared a Heritage House by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines in 2011.

The concert had about 400 guests, the maximum the Gallery MiraNila in the mansion has ever had, according to Petty Benitez-Johannot, president of the Benitez-Tirona MiraNila Foundation.

The MiraNila concert, titled Mga Awit ng Pag-ibig at Kundiman, featured the 13-track recordings of love songs and kundiman that Joseph Uy of the Manila Chamber Orchestra (MCO) Foundation organized, and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) funded. It is the first major initiative by the NCCA with the MCO Foundation to preserve Filipino classics digitally, performed by the nation’s finest voices.

Kundiman evolved from patriotic beginnings to zarzuela, love songs, and modern art songs, composed by the pillars of Filipino music like Nicanor Abelardo, Constancio de Guzman, Francisco Santiago, Ernani Cuenco, Leopoldo Silos, and Restie Umali, with lyricists like Levi Celerio, Jose Corazon de Jesus/Huseng Batute, Severino Reyes, Domingo Santa Romana Sr., and Deogracias del Rosario.

The best loved kundiman sung in the concert were Madaling Araw, Dahil Sa Isang Bulaklak, Nahan, Anak Dalita, Mutya ng Pasig, Kundiman ng Luha, Pakiusap, and Maalaala Mo Kaya, expressing love and passion, longing and hope.

Jocelynang Baliwag or Kundiman of the Revolution, whose composer is unknown, was popular among the revolutionaries of the 1890s. The arrangement by Joed Balsamo in 2024 was used in this concert.

The concert featured another significant piece, Kundiman ng Langit, by Augusto Espino, who composed its music and wrote its lyrics. Its message of hope and redemption inspired the late multi-awarded playwright Floy Quintos to translate and cite the piece as an important contribution to Philippine music. Espino, who was in the audience, received a warm applause in recognition of this contribution.

“We have been on this project for almost a year,” says Espiritu about the monumental kundiman effort. “Because I had to travel back and forth for engagements, the recording sessions were hard to schedule. We had venue problems plus logistical issues.”

Mark (Pips) Benitez Brown and Renzo Santiago Reyes, the fourth- and fifth-generation Benitezes, before the 1904 Steinway piano

So, he contacted MiraNila’s Benitez-Johannot, who said: “Some time in February, Arthur Espiritu called me from Munich, where he was performing at the Munich Opera House as Vladimir in Alexander Borodin’s Prince Igor. We discussed the staging of the all-kundiman concert which Arthur wanted to launch in MiraNila. Pikitmata, I agreed and began to look for funding. Dedicating the concert to our late father, Ambassador Tomas C. Benitez, a kundiman lover, seemed to please my siblings, and so their support made this happen.”

‘Dedicating the concert to our late father, Ambassador Tomas C. Benitez, a kundiman lover, seemed to please my siblings, and so their support made this happen,’ says Petty Benitez-Johannot

Arthur Espiritu, who in his teens migrated to the US with his parents, earned an Artist Diploma in Music Performance at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music in the US and won the La Scala award at the Belvedere Competition in 2007 and the distinguished George London Award in 2009.

On singing the kundiman in the concert, he says: “I have always loved singing and loved the challenge when it comes to style and reinventing interpretations according to how each song feels in my voice. The main challenge is when you speak the language, there is a temptation to speak it out as if you are saying the words.” He adds, “I use this approach in singing Tagalog songs…which are approximated for the singer to figure out how to approximate the phrasing. So, in this case, it’s all open to personal taste in interpretation. It’s what makes singing so fun. Any given singer can sing a song differently from another. It’s the beauty of it. With live music, this is the thrill of it.”

Born in Morong, Rizal, and raised in nearby Tanay, Espiritu says he’s now a happy General Trias, Cavite, resident with his wife Christine, a soprano, and their three children. He adds, “It just takes getting used to. I fly to my destinations and take about a week to recover from jet lag, then I’m okay. I bring all the meds and proper humidifier on the plane. It’s difficult if you make it difficult, but by now I’m really used to the travel and time difference. Key facts are rest and recovery.”

Espiritu has portrayed numerous lead roles in North America, Europe, and Asia, with early career highlights, including Tamino in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with the Israeli Opera Tel-Aviv, and the role of Publio in Mozart’s early work, Il sogno di Scipione, with the former Gotham Chamber Opera, New York.

He has been Alfredo in La Traviata, Duke in Rigoletto, Rodolfo in La Boheme, Don Carlo in Don Carlo, and Romeo in Romeo et Juliette. But Rigoletto’s Duke is his favorite, “because I get to play a bad person. The carefree attitude and being able to cross multiple boundaries emotionally are fun for me.” He continues, “And because a bad person is capable of doing these things without having boundaries or no one to stop them, I understand why bad or greedy people are able to do the most atrocious things to humanity. But in real life, of course, I cannot do that. Because I have a conscience, haha!”

Arthur Espiritu with soprano Stefanie Quintin-Avila and pianist Najib Ismail

On his duet partner in three numbers, Espiritu says, “Stefanie is one of the best sopranos in the Philippines, bar none. Her kindness on and off stage is amazing. It’s there, and the product is polished and beautiful.”

Petty Benitez-Johannot (third from right), Arthur Espiritu, Stefanie Quintin-Avila, Najib Ismail, and the Benitez heirs.

On pianist Najib Ismail, he exclaims, “Najib is just peerless. He has an amazing ability to augment phrasing and create an environment where the singer can breathe and expand or at times change pace. He is the quintessential collaborative pianist.”

Espiritu adds, “His knowledge of the kundiman helped me learn about the songs of my roots. It allowed me to be reintroduced to the style I missed out on when I left to immigrate abroad at a young age. So, working with Stef and Najib were a complete joy. We were all relaxed and happy when we performed together. No stress.”

The indefatigable tenor looks forward next to doing Mozart’s Requiem with Opera Carolina in Charlotte, North Carolina. He’ll be doing Maria Stuarda and Otello at Metropolitan Opera in New York. But before that, he’ll be working with young singers in an opera workshop on June 19 and 21, with two culmination performances at SJG Development Care of Music Artes Group and Joseph Uy’s MCO Foundation. He’s also performing excerpts from Carmen and some kundiman as well for the MSO Concert Series at the end of August.

Espiritu is also performing excerpts from ‘Carmen’ and some ‘kundiman’ as well for the MSO Concert Series at the end of August

The 97-year-old MiraNila, with its California Mission Revival style, elegant gardens, and painstakingly preserved interiors, continues to bloom as a cultural hub. In 2024, MiraNila hosted the concerts Strings of Gold 1 & 2, the send-off concert of cellist Damodar Das Castillo with pianist Mariel Ilusorio on September 19, and the Manila Symphony Junior Orchestra’s triumphant return from Europe on Oct. 1.

Last year, Espiritu held his first MiraNila concert and dazzled the audience with pieces by Gabriel Fauré, Franz Lehar, Giacomo Puccini, Charles Gounod, Richard Strauss, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Francesco Sartori. He had as guest performer the prized soprano and voice mentor Jade Riccio, with accompaniment by the Juilliard-trained pianist Mariel Ilusorio.

Last February, MiraNila’s garden came alive when around 390 filmgoers attended the al fresco screening of the classic film, Cinema Paradiso, and live concert by violinist Alessio Benvenuti and pianist Mariel Ilusorio.

The kundiman concert audience. Third from right is Martin Lopez, head of the FEU culture division.

Petty Benitez-Johannot says she wanted “to offer our GenZs an alternative to watching films from their personal devices, and to share the joy of watching a movie as a community.” She continues, “It worked! While we were targeting GenZs for the outdoor films, we now know that the more mature audiences love them, too. The young ones take to the banig mats on the lawn and the seniors to the monobloc chairs placed along the driveway. We now know that we can have more people attending these showings, and it’s more fun!”

Watch out for more offerings from MiraNila. Says the president, who is also the founding archivist and curator: “Always, we are open to ideas. Our main concerns are if we can find funding and a receptive public to attend the event. But before anything else, the event must link with the heritage house, its contents, or former residents. These events must draw attention, complement or enhance what the institution already has or what it stands for.”