Did you know that Meryl Streep & Maestra Dalisay Aldaba studied under the same voice teacher?

MANILA, Philippines - The singing life and times of erstwhile New York heiress Florence Foster Jenkins will come to life when the film bearing her name opens in Philippine cinemas on Aug. 24 with no less than the film icon, Meryl Streep, in the title role.

Streep — who heads the jury of the recent edition of the Berlin International Film Festival which picked a Lav Diaz film for the Silver Bear Prize — will portray the role of a rich woman who loves singing. But the truth is, La Jenkins is not an exceptional singer but a friendly figure in New York’s classical music scene.

The American actress is a natural choice since she actually studied voice in real life under the then highly- esteemed voice teacher, Estelle Liebling, who happens to be the teacher of Filipina diva Dalisay Aldaba, who debuted in New York City Opera as Madama Butterfly in 1948, a year before Streep was born.

Liebling who passed away in 1970 is also the voice teacher of American diva Beverly Sills who sang at the Meralco Theater in 1969 where wine reportedly flowed in the garden fountain.

Filipino diva Dalisay Aldaba (right, with Italian diva Wilma Vernocchi) at the CCP in the ’70s. She got Estelle Liebling’s services for her debut role at the New York City Opera. In the company of American diva Beverly Sills and their common teacher, Liebling.

A member of a very musical Jewish family, Liebling was one of the most influential teachers of singing in America. Her father and her uncles, George, Emil and Solly Liebling, all studied with composer Franz Liszt and had significant careers as pianists and composers. At first, Liebling was trained as a pianist but, as she stated, “Fortunately, they found I had a voice.”

Maestra Aldaba once recounted to me that she asked for quick vocal coaching from Madam Liebling because she was a last-minute choice for the role of Cio Cio San and hasn’t sung the opera in its entirety. Her New York debut was a success and for this, she couldn’t thank Liebling enough.

Streep studied under Liebling at age 12 (1961) hoping for a career in opera. She was born June 22, 1949 in Summit, New Jersey to a pharmaceutical executive and a commercial artist.

The author with Maestra Aldaba (second from right) with former CCP president and National Artist for Music Lucrecia Kasilag and baritone Jonathan Velasco in their last dinner together at the Shangri-La Makati in the ’90s.

The actress actually made her stage debut at age 12 singing Oh Holy Night in French in a school production. The good reception for which made her mother decide to let her pursue a career in opera. For four years, Streep took voice lessons from the eminent Liebling who is also the teacher of Beverly Sills. After four years, the aspiring prepubescent coloratura soprano quit the singing lessons and lived out a real-life drama as cheerleader during her high school days at Bernardsville High in New Jersey.

In an interview with Paul Chi, Florence Jenkins director Stephen Frears opined: “The great (director) Mike Nichols said, ‘After you work with Meryl, you’re spoiled for the rest of your life.’ And it’s true. She’s terrific. I worked with a lot of great actresses, and Meryl, she just is — she brings these parts to life. She’s very disciplined and skillful. It was a pleasure.”

The director also related he was immediately struck when he first read Nicholas Martin’s script about the real Florence Foster Jenkins. He realized the wealthy heiress was more than just a bad singer; he was moved by her fearlessness and sincerity. “I heard Florence’s recordings on YouTube and she makes you laugh. She’s so dreadful, but at the same time she touches you because she’s so courageous and very brave. There’s something affecting about it and that makes her phenomenal.”

The original idea was to lip-sync the original Jenkins recording but the director suddenly made a decision to make La Streep sing the arias live.

The director pointed out: “The truth in the performance seemed so essential to it all. Watching Meryl doing it live on camera is what Florence did. That’s what really mattered — capturing that real moment. I would make her do Queen of the Night. Opera singers can’t sing it after a certain age, and I made her do it far too many times.”

In another press conference, Meryl admitted singing Jenkins’ life was fun. “It was way, way more fun, but it was more terrifying. That made us very alive because it changed each time.”

But since the story is about bad singing, the director said Meryl didn’t have a hard time reproducing it. “I don’t ever think I said to her to sing worse. I didn’t give her any direction. Meryl’s a very good, trained singer and you can only sing that badly if you can sing that well. She worked very, very hard and was very skillful at it. When you listen to Florence, she almost gets the pitch right, but doesn’t quite and that’s why it’s so dreadful. Meryl perfectly and discretely did it. She just turned up, was fully equipped and did it.”