Ambassadors of goodwill
Eguise des hors d’oeuvres to our 110th Independence Day, Dr. Raul M. Sunico gave a standing ovation performance at the Cathédrale SaintLouis des Invalides in Paris on 29 May 2008.
Mme. Christine Helfrich, musical director of the Invalides Museum des Armée, situ of Napoleon Bonaparte’s tomb, gushed, “Une bijoux!” (a jewel!); and Msgr. Francesco Follo, the Vatican Observer at the UNESCO, readily concurred. Listening to Chopin, Grieg, Respighi, Liszt, Debussy, Ravel, Kreisler and Rachmaninoff played without notes, ASEAN Ambassadors Le Kinh Tai (Vietnam), Soustakhone Pathammavong (Laos), and Saw Hla Min (Myanmar) marveled at the promethean memory… only to be astounded by the anthropologist Nicole Ravel’s revelation that our math major artist has even better memory for numbers. Sunico tugged at Pinoy heartstrings with his arrangements of Francisco Buencamino’s Ang Larawan and Ernani Cuenco’s Bato sa Buhangin; but the most stirring was his interpretation of Constancio de Guzman’s Bayan Ko ala Rachmaninoff.
After the concert, the Embassy tendered a reception at the Invalides Trophy Room for guests from Quai d’Orsay and French government officials, the diplomatic corps and Paris’ culture vultures. The genetically loquacious multilateralist Ambassadors to UNESCO – Héctor-Pastor Hernàndez Gonzàlez-Pardo (Cuba), Mubyi Alkateeb (Iraq). Van Nghia Dung (Vietnam) and Khamliene Nhouyvanisvong (Laos) were lost for words.
The performance at the Invalides was nth time that we tapped Raul Sunico. He had also flown the flag high for us in Vienna and in Berlin, (as he has also always obliged our other embassies abroad).
Incidentally, the Paris performance was possible only because we piggybacked on a Sunico concert arranged by Philippine Ambassador to The Netherlands Romeo Arguelles and our Honorary Consul General Eppo Horlings, who sportingly lent the maestro ahead of his scheduled engagement in The Hague. (Similarly, when the late Honorary Consul General to Monaco Dr. Stephen Zuellig booked the Bayanihan to perform in Monte Carlo, our Ambassador to Belgium and the European Community Cristina Ortega was quick to sign them up to detour to Brussels.)
This is the story of how our Ambassadors do their “impresario work” on shoe-string budget. Whenever the DFA informs our foreign service well in advance of the travel calendar of visiting artists, our posts are able to ride on to stretch the itinerary and get more bang for bucks.
One of the most peripatetic Ambassadors of Goodwill is Manuel Baldemor, who does us proud with his canvas in many capitals in Europe and across the Atlantic. The Philippine Madrigal Singers copped the Grand Prix for international choral competition in 1997 under the baton of its founder, the late Dr. Andrea Veneracion. Her anointed successor, the present dirigent Mark Anthony Carpio, followed through by winning a second Grand Prix again in 2007;. (After the Madz bested competition in Arezzo, Italy, it earned the right to again compete for the Grand Prix in Tolosa, Spain, this 2017. Those who believe in numerology see a promise of a third on every decade.) We could go on and on ad infinitum about several other performing Filipino artists…
Our artists are the Great Equalizers. Because as a maven said, in the field of arts, there are no developed or developing countries, but each country has that gift to give to the Good, the True and the Beautiful.
Yesterday evening, the Ambassador of Italy Massimo Roscigno honored Dr. Sunico and inducted him Commandatore in the Order of the Star of Italy for bringing his music to Rome countless times. I do not know what this signals to the other foreign Ambassadors of those countries where Dr. Sunico had performed. But before we call the others remiss, how does the Philippines recognize the invaluable contribution of our artists abroad? Does it always take an Imelda to do the right thing by them?