Download 1 Requiem For Dodo Edgardo “Dodo” Crisol, highly

Requiem For Dodo
Edgardo “Dodo” Crisol, highly - acclaimed tenor and a bright and shining star in Philippine opera and
theatre, is gone. He passed away May 6, 2011 at the Philippine Heart Center due to complications of
diabetes. He was 57.
Dodo appeared in over a hundred productions in Manila’s performing art scene, many of which have been
reviewed and documented by CCP and the national publications. These productions involved theatre,
opera, oratorios, Broadway musicales, recitals, concerts, symphony solos, chamber music and theatre
performance events, zarzuelas, Asian theatre, Philippine traditional theatre, street and protest theatre and
classical readers theatre.
Dodo Crisol was the first Filipino tenor to perform opera in Russia in a Russian- French production of La
Traviata, debuting internationally as Alfredo, at the World Music Festival (July 17-26, l992). Ukrainian
conductor Anatoly Cherpurnoi had taken exception of “Crisol’s vocal coloring and bravura which
manifested a specifically Italianate school of singing. Cherpurnoi had expressed further surprise at
Crisol’s technical dramatic mastery of the material, granting that the festival had only allowed him a
single rehearsal with the orchestra and cast, leaving the difficult final act of the opera unrehearsed for
opening night. X x x x Madame Galina Poroshina of the Russian Theatre Academy commended Crisol’s
intense, heart- throbbing performance, placing him at par with Russian actors. ‘ He transcends technique
and mere vocalism’ enthused the Stanislavsky proponent.”
As a result of his success in Russia, he was invited by Lhagvyn Erdenbulgan, president and director of the
State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet of Mongolia to perform the Duke of Mantua in a Mongolian
Festival production of “Rigoletto.” Madame Poroshina likewise invited him to return to Moscow to sing
Alfredo with the Russian Theatre Academy.
In l988, Dodo was also the first Filipino to place in the prestigious worldwide Madame Butterfly
Competitions held in Tokyo every ten years. One of the six tenor semi-finalists ( out of 300) from Russia,
Romania, Japan, New Zealand and the Philippines, the competition took place among 20 countries from
Europe, Asia and America. Crisol held his own in a contest dominated by Russians and, with the
exception of Japan, was the only Asian to emerge as semi –finalist in the demanding competition.
Director Alfred Holecek of the Prague Music College said of him: “ Crisol is excellent operatic material
with international potential. One of the few who sing from the heart. It is unfortunate that juries in
international competitions have to pit one good artist with another.”
In l983, Dodo, together with brilliant mezzo- soprano Josie Bailen, likewise apprenticed with Madame
Sarah Caldwell of the Boston Opera Company. He continued training with Madame Raquel Adonaylo of
the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. His international theatre mentors include Aida Forster of the
New York Neighborhood Playhouse, Galina Poroshina of Moscow Art Theatre, Valentina Pasutinsky of
the Bolshoi Opera, Rudolf Felner of the Boston Opera and British Maestro Vernon Mackie.
In Manila , he was highly acclaimed by National Artist Leonor Orosa- Goquingco ( Phil. Star, July
18,l988), thus: “Crisol may yet become our greatest Filipino tenor ”, enthused the late Madame OrosaGoquingco, after Dodo’s recital at the Philamlife Theatre. “ Simpatico, taller than most of our other
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tenors, gifted with a voice characterized by freshness, volume and pure tonal quality, intelligent and with
a theatrical experience and expertise to stand him in good stead in his dramatic renderings... Crisol’s
voice is more fluid, freer, more expansive, yet more disciplined. And his diction and enunciation are as
near perfect as can be (only final consonants in English, i.e. p.k.t.d. remain to be ‘exploded’). X x x x”
“ Crisol evinced flashes of brilliance in the operatic arias, i.e. Puccini’s “ Che gellida manina,” Verdi’s
lively “Questa O Quella,” Giordano’s “ Come un bel di di Maggio. His high notes , in particular, were
resonant and rotund, his crescendos well-structured.”
“Gratifying ,likewise, were the vocal artist’s interpretations of Angel Pena’s “Iyo Kailan Pa Man,” and
Santiago’s “Pakiusap.” His legatos in di Crescenzo’s “Rondine al Nido” were notable, and he sang
Leoncavallo’s “Mattinata” with flair and feeling. The audience clapped resoundingly at the end of his
impassioned interpretation.”
“ An ingratiating “Core Ingrato” ( Cardillo) closed the program proper and the audience vigorously
demanding an encore, Crisol obliged with still another Neapolitan song “ Torna a Sorrento.”
“ Crisol hopes to make his way up through concertizing (as Gigli and Pavarotti did before him) even as he
also concentrates on finishing his studies under Maestro Mackie.”
Dodo first gained acclaim as a college student in the Philippine premiere of Jesus Christ Superstar, where
he played Judas. His other memorable productions and roles are: Jason in Euripedes Medea, Catullus in
Carl Orff’s Catulli Carmina, Macbeth in Shakesperare’s Macbeth, Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Boheme, the
Duke and Borsa In Verdi’s Rigoletto, Cavaradossi in Puccini’ s Tosca, Azdak in Brecht’s Caucasian
Chalk Circle, Lopahin in Anton Chekov’s Cherry Orchard, Miguel in Menotti’s Saint of Bleeker Street,
the Prodigal Son, in Debussy’s L’Enfant Prodigue, the Ghost in Britten’s Turn of the Screw, Mauler in
Brecht’s St. Joan of the Stockyards, Eisenstein in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, Basilio in Mozart’s La Notte
di Figaro, the Impressario in Mozart’s Impressario, Monostatos in Mozart’s Die Zauberflaute, Cervantes
in Man of La Mancha, Pozzo in Becket’s Waiting For Godot, Don Ramon in Ang Kiri, Simoun and
Gobernador in Fili I and Fili II and Bunraku Chanteur in Sakurahime among many others. Dodo also
premiered the role of Magellan in the fusion opera, Tejero’s “Lapu-Lapu.”
Crisol will be sadly missed in the opera circles and by his voice students. He was a founding member of
the Opera Company of the Philippines and Artistic Director of Musika Klasika Filipino, which was
formed by his friends, who are all music lovers and his avid supporters. The company is dedicated to
promoting music appreciation and love for the classics. It aims to popularize classical music at the
grassroots level and eradicate the notion that classical music is only for society’s intellectuals and the
upper class. In that regard, Crisol undertook the Filipino translation of opera classics and musical theatre
to make it understandable to the common man and he also sought to create original Filipino opera
classics, e.g. La Loba Negra, which was produced by his mentor, Fides Cuyugan-Asencio. Aside from
Asencio, Crisol received his vocal training from Philippine musical legends like the late baritone Aurelio
Estanislao. He studied at the Ateneo de Manila for high school and graduate studies in Philosophy and at
the University of the Philippines, where he majored in Mass Communications.
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In the last decade of his life, aside from concertizing with his friends, such as outstanding sopranos
Rachelle Gerodias, Elaine Lee, Jennifer Uy, Aileen Cura, Agnes Barredo, Alegria Ferrer, Cynthia Guico
and of course, La Diva Maestra Josie Bailen; baritone Lionel Guico and tenors Nolyn Cabahug, Lemuel
de la Cruz and Jonathan Badon, Crisol also delivered musical informance for colleges like the
Assumption College titled “ Shakespeare and the Musical Unconscious.” He rendered songs and
delivered a lecture –performance tracing the beginnings of opera, from Greek tragedies to the psalms and
sonnets, the roving troubadours and Elizabethan Shakespeare and its evolution into Broadway shows and
MTV. Together with selected students, Crisol delivered moving performances from Romeo and Juliet,
Hamlet, Julius Caesar and Macbeth.
One time in March, 2003, together with Rachelle Gerodias and Lemuel de la Cruz , Dodo performed at
the Las Pinas Church with the Bamboo Organ, for a hundred French audience, who were all members of
Count Hubert D’Aboville’s Clan in Brittany. Dodo sang the difficult but moving aria, Massenet’s “Ah
Fuyez Douche Image! from Manon Lescaut. After the concert a group of French people approached him
and commended him and said that they seldom heard that aria sung in France and here they were in the
Philippines hearing it sang so well by a Filipino tenor.
Dodo Crisol was not only steeped in the classics. He was also into avant garde “musical deconstruction”
of the Beatles’ vocal works.’ He and baritone Lionel Guico produced a concert (2002) titled “Cool
Duets” by setting the Beatles’ songs ,“Here Comes the Sun, and The Long and Winding Road,” within the
context of more ancient traditions such as the Bel Canto tradition to which the Beatles can trace their
sources. He sought to promote world and Filipino masterworks as alternative music to decadent ahistorical music to which the younger audiences have been exposed. “In ‘classicizing’ the Beatles, the
cycle of music evolution from folk to pop to classical and back to folk is preserved.”
Only a tenor who is also a literary genius like Dodo Crisol could mount such a performance. His was a
life certainly well –lived and so inspired his voice scholars on whom Dodo so generously gave his
musical wisdom and techniques. To his friends and family, he was a loving and caring man, complicated
and temperamental at times, but so devoted, loyal and true. At his funeral, soprano Fides Asencio sang:
“There was a boy , a very special boy....” touchingly. His close friends in the opera world rendered two
nights of glorious music and arias at the Della Strada Chapel that Dodo would have loved to join and sing
as well. Young opera singers like coloratura Lena Mckenzie, mezzo-soprano Krissan Manikan and
baritone Leo Logdat paid homage as well to a fallen idol. They were accompanied on the piano by UP
Prof. Augusto Espino and Kobi Maceda. His 12- year old nephew, Jolo Crisol, delivered a very moving
tribute to his beloved uncle friend. We were all lucky to have known such a talented genius. The opera
world will be sadly bereft of a lyric tenor so erudite and consummate as an artist. May he continue to sing
in the light and be embraced at last by infinite peace and love.
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( By : Diane Franco –N.B. The author is the Executive Director of Musika Klasika Filipino).