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Jess Q. Cruz

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Jess Q. Cruz

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A parable for our time

by Jess Q. Cruz - May 23, 2005 - 12:00am

You have seen them, these island women, in the canvases of Gauguin, their brown bodies burning brass in the Tahitian sun. You have read about them, these sirens of the southern seas, in the novels of Joseph Conrad....

Of ‘Duetto’ and Terezin

by Jess Q. Cruz - May 9, 2005 - 12:00am

They are the most endangered among endangered species – duo pianists. In fact, in our archipelago, Della Gamboa Besa and Anamaria Gregorio de Guzman are the only ones of their kind as far as I know, unless there...

Of hell and high water

by Jess Q. Cruz - April 25, 2005 - 12:00am

Before you can say the tongue-twister "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck would chuck wood," the 2004-2005 concert season of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra will already be over....

Of feminine forces and frailties

by Jess Q. Cruz - April 4, 2005 - 12:00am

Who says that all men are equal? Ideally before the law, they should be, but this is often not the case. Men have not been blessed by heaven equally.

Of muses, musicians and monsters

by Jess Q. Cruz - March 14, 2005 - 12:00am

Sundown in an old graveyard. Sparrows in the ancient acacias chirping the waning light away. And before the moss-draped chapel, soprano Rachelle Gerodias and pianist Najib Ismail holding their listeners enthralled...

Portraits of the Filipino in the performing arts

by Jess Q. Cruz - February 14, 2005 - 12:00am

Say what you will about the Pinoy – that he throws his garbage into the neighbor’s backyard; that he is indolent which is the reason why he is typified by Juan Tamad; that he does not wash his hands after...

Artistic alchemy

by Jess Q. Cruz - December 20, 2004 - 12:00am

In a concert or theatrical presentation, one artist – much more likely than not – will shine with more brilliance than the others. Very rarely will they all perform equally well even in an ensemble. But...

Two plays that plead for peace

by Jess Q. Cruz - October 17, 2004 - 12:00am

Of his monumental opus, History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides declares: "My work is not a piece to meet the taste of an immediate public but was done to last for ever."

Two plays that plead for peace

by Jess Q. Cruz - October 11, 2004 - 12:00am

Of his monumental opus, History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides declares: "My work is not a piece to meet the taste of an immediate public but was done to last for ever."

Of Pinocchio and of prayers for peace

by Jess Q. Cruz - August 18, 2004 - 12:00am

Buon giorno! Over at the Rep’s Globe Theater Onstage in Greenbelt 1, the lovable puppet from the land of lasagna comes to life again, and this time around, he sings and dances, too, in Rep’s Children’s...

Of Pinocchio and of prayers for peace

by Jess Q. Cruz - August 16, 2004 - 12:00am

After a dry cultural spell, July showers

by Jess Q. Cruz - August 2, 2004 - 12:00am

During those weeks late in June when Filipinos were anxiously waiting for the final results of the elections, activities in the performing arts came to a standstill. The counting of the ballots in Congress took center...

Bonding with Andrea Bocelli

by Jess Q. Cruz - May 17, 2004 - 12:00am

If you didn’t believe in a fairy godmother to lovers of opera who could fly to our far eastern shores from Tuscany in Italy on a magic carpet or whatever the singing sensation of our day, you had to shake off...

The maestro’s magnificent Mahler

by Jess Q. Cruz - May 10, 2004 - 12:00am

Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle." This paradox came from Michelangelo, who could express himself with a quill almost as much as with a chisel. He was astonished by the god-like power of...

Of something old, something new

by Jess Q. Cruz - April 26, 2004 - 12:00am

Just as the political pot began to boil in anticipation of the coming elections, the cultural cauldron bubbled and brimmed over. Bomb threat or no bomb threat, blasts those terrorists – Manila’s culture-vultures...

Ooh, la la! Those Frenchmen!

by Jess Q. Cruz - March 8, 2004 - 12:00am

French spring in Manila in January? No, but it might as well have been when the Cultural Center of the Philippines in cooperation with the Ambassade de France aux Philippines presented Maestro Dominique Fanal,...

Of fortune, fate and fame

by Jess Q. Cruz - March 1, 2004 - 12:00am

Bengali Nobel Prize winner for literature, Rabindranath Tagore, wrote these lines addressed to the Creator: Here is thy footstool and there rest thy feet where live the poorest, and the lowliest, and lost: When...

2003: Twists and turns in theater

by Jess Q. Cruz - January 19, 2004 - 12:00am

(Second of 2 parts) When Zeus tasked the Titans Epimetheus and Prometheus to create living things to populate the earth, the first, having only hindsight immediately gave fins, scales and gills to the fishes,...

2003: A year of hits & missed performances

by Jess Q. Cruz - December 29, 2003 - 12:00am

(First of 2 parts) In the pantheon of ancient Greek deities, the Titan Epimetheus occupied a low niche. His name means hindsight. He could see events only after they had happened. It isn’t much of a gift,...

Rx: Medicines for melancholy

by Jess Q. Cruz - December 15, 2003 - 12:00am

No, no, no! Not a dramatic reading, please! Isn’t that what sophomores are sometimes assigned to do in the classroom by their drama instructor? Reason enough to sit at the back of the room, catch a few winks...

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