Read this article by Ivy Vibar of abs-cbnnews.com as Jose Rizal’s life and execution are being recreated through a Twitter account named @tweetnirizal ran by an entrepreneur who is a member of Dead Heroes Society (a group of bloggers posing as national heroes online to increase citizen’s knowledge of Filipino history and current events). Click the link to read more about it.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/lifestyle/12/30/11/rizal-dies-twitter

Noli Me Tangere: The Opera had a successful leg of shows in New York and in Washington D.C that the two Philippine National Artists responsible for the libretto of the opera, Felipe de Leon and Guillermo Tolentino, JS Productions’ President Jerry Sibal and Loida Nicolas-Lewis thought that it was time to re-introduce Noli Me Tangere to the younger generation in Manila.

As quoted on an interview with The Philippine Star, Jerry Sibal, a premier New York event and floral designer had said, “It is the perfect time to bring back the Noli opera to Manila because there have been a lot of Broadway productions staged here (Manila) recently. The younger generation is so immersed in the Internet that they’ve forgotten history and culture. I think it’s high time that we educate them, as it is our history that identifies us as Filipinos.”

Sal Malaki who will play Crisostomo Ibarra and Rachelle Gerodias as Maria Clara, two world-class talents will lead the Manila production of Noli Me Tangere. Gerodias one of the most sought after sopranos completed her Master’s degree in Vocal Performance and Vocal Literature from the famed Eastman School of Music in New York and graduated cum laude from the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music. She has also been awarded “The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service.”

Malaki on the other hand is one of the most in demand artists of the Los Angeles Opera Company, under the general direction of world-renowed tenor and conductor Placido Domingo. He has appeared in more than 105 Los Angeles Opera productions since he joined the company in 1995. In the same article from, The Philippine Star, Malaki is quoted saying, “This is our very own and we can claim this tunay na Filipino. We learned about Noli when we were young…but we continue to learn”

As for Gerodias, she says that she looks forward to interpreting Maria Clara’s character. She is quoted, “Noli Me Tangere is probably the most beautiful operatic work that is truly Filipino, I feel proud to be part of this production. Aside from the beautiful music everyone will enjoy, it is a story about love, honor and hope, things we all need to draw inspiration from.” Playing alternate for Ibarra are Manila-based undiscovered greats, Ivan Nery for Ibarra and Myramae Meneses for Maria Clara both from St. Scholastica’s College in Manila with bachelor’s degrees in music under the illustrious soprano Camille Lopez-Molina.

The cast of Nolie Me Tangere: The Opera

Aside from the people who were involved in the play itself, one more person who should be credited for her bringing supporting the opera, and for her passion in education in the Philippines is Loida Nicolas-Lewis. She was originally from Sorsogon City, Philippines but later moved to the United States of America to pursue her law career and manage businesses.

She later opened The Lewis College in her hometown in Sorsogon City because she believes that it is better to share her blessings in helping educate the Filipino citizens, as this is where the future will depend on. With that vision that she have, this was also is the same for our national hero, Jose Rizal. He also believed and had that in mind when he wrote his novel “Noli Me Tangere” and is also why Loida Nicolas-Lewis felt that it is “her civic duty to keep promoting” the Noli Me Tangere novel. She is quoted saying, “I believe God has a plan for everyone and if we are faithful and open ourselves to that plan, our lives will be blessed. Noli Me Tangere: The Opera will run from September 11 to 29 at the Newport Performing Arts Theatre in Resorts World Manila. The Manila Philharmonic Orchestra led by Maestro Rodel Colmenar will lend their musical prowess to the production that will be directed by theatre director Freddie Santos. Honorary guests for the opera include Boy Abunda, Gemma Cruz Araneta, Willy and Marion Cosculluela, Secretary Albert del Rosario, Margie Mora-Floirendo and Loida Nicola Lewis.

The official poster for Noli Me Tangere: The Opera

Schedules are as follows: Gala Night: Thursday at 8pm on September 11, 2014 Regular Run is September 14 at 3pm, 17 at 8pm, 21 at 3pm, 24 at 8pm, 28 at 3pm, 2014 at the Newport Performing Arts Theatre, Resorts World Manila, 3^rd Floor, Newport Mall, Newport Blvd, Newport City Cybertourism Zone, Pasay City.

For more details, Visit their Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/nolioperamanila or call their number at 899-7938 to 39.

For ticket inquiries contact Dennis Villaluz at (02) 788-9108, 0916-8571-553 or 0932-175-8599 Students will valid id may avail discounted tickets for the balcony seats at P500 through the generosity of San Miguel and chairman and CEO Ramon Ang.

All Information from: The Start articile ‘Nole Me Tangere: A beautiful opera that is truly Filipino and “Why Loida Lewis continues to believe-an invest- in education from the Inquirer.

George Aseniero (grandson of one of Rizal’s students in Dapitan) analyzes Rizal’s views on imperialism in Filipinas dentro de cienaños and notably in fragmentary drafts never completed and published. Aseniero also brings into comparative perspective the views of Cuba’s Marti and Puerto Rico’s Betances, who, like Rizal, wrote about the advent of imperialism and how their respective countries might fall prey to this new phenomenon.This essay was presented at the Ateneo ConferenceRizal: Puso, Diwa,Buhay, at Malayin July 2011.

Educated in the Philippines, Sweden and Switzerland, the author worked for several years with the United Nations University in Geneva and Tokyo where he was responsible for international research on development and, in particular, Latin American studies.

Read the article by clicking on this link: Rizal on Imperialism

In this article (which is a transcript of a lecture delivered in 2008), Dr. Quibuyen traces Rizal’s concept of nation and community, and how these concepts can be used by modern-day Filipinos in order to survive what the author calls the “Age of Stupidity”. Dr. Quibuyen based his lecture on Rizal’s Filipinas de cien anos,  wherein the hero laid out what he thought would happen to his beloved homeland.

Read the full article by clicking on this link: Towards Community in a Doomed World: Rediscovering Rizal’s Prophetic Vision in the Age of Peak Oil and Global Warming (Dr. Floro Quibuyen)

ABSTRACT

If the nationalist ilustrados of the late19th century basked in the Age of Enlightenment, we now wallow in the Age of Stupid (from the film with the same title). Would Rizal, the reputed Child of the Enlightenment, have anything relevant to say regarding our Age of Stupid? That’s the question I’d like to pose today, as we commemorate his sesquicentennial. Rizal’s Filipinas dentro de cien años (1890) says practically nothing about the global crises we facetoday—ecological, economic, resource depletion—which could lead to the collapse of the capitalist world system by 2050. To confront our predicament in the Age of Stupid we would need an apocalyptic vision, which seems to have been suppressed in Cien años. That vision drives a play in verse that Rizal had written ten years before Cien años—Junto al Pasig. TheJunto al Pasig poses the problem but answers it only cryptically—an answer that the Noli-Fili (I take this to be one novel in two parts) fails to disclose. Rizal’s exile in Dapitan was a blessing in disguise. It was in Dapitan that Rizal finally realized and put into practice the solution to the problem posed in Junto al Pasig. The answer is heralded by Himno a Talisay.This paper critically traces Rizal‟s intellectual-spiritual journey from Junto al Pasig (1880) to Himno a Talisay (1895), and concludes by relating Rizal‟s Talisay solution to the post-caplitalist solutions being envisioned today by progressive writers/futurists who foresee the collapse of industrial civilization and the end of the capitalist world system by 2050.

Read the article by clicking on this link: Apocalypse in the 21st century: Rizal’s Prophetic Vision FromJunto al Pasig to Hymno a Talisay

Alvarez, Beatriz Tardio
Ph.D. in Philippine Literature in Spanish from the University of the Philippines;
Postgraduate Studies on Gender and Feminism, Complutense University (Spain);
M.A. in Spanish Language and Literatures, University of Alcalá (Spain)

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to achieve a literary appreciation to the Noli and the Fili, in view of their literary context. Rizal’s two novels have been primarily studied through the looking glass of history, often neglecting them as literary works in their own right.This paper attempts to remedy this lacunae by two means: pointing to their narrative tradition and context; and the literary background of Rizal himself. It will provide the basis for a literary approach and evaluation of Rizal’s principal literary works. It focuses on the 17th century and the French Classicism, and will show how Rizal reads the Moralist writers of the French Classicism to find in them inspiration, materials, and influences for the style and structure of his novels. This appreciation will be guided by their intertextuality with the work of La Bruyère, Characters.

Read the article by clicking on this link: Rizal’s Novels as Literature

Rizal’s Novels as Literature

In celebration of the 150th year of Rizal’s birth, John Nery’s Revolutionary Spirit, an exhaustive study of Rizal, his works, and his influence in Southeast Asia, has been published by the Ateneo de Manila University Press, in cooperation with Singapore’s Institute  of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS).

In collecting material for and working on this book’s engagingly written chapters, Nery sought to discern Rizal’s impact on Asia and among Asian intellectuals by studying Rizal himself, getting to know him more, and finding out how his contemporaries saw him. In the process he encounters and discusses at length many influential misreadings.

Noted historian Fr.  John N. Schumacher, SJ, finds that Nery “breaks much newer ground in the larger part of the book, demonstrating the role Rizal played in inspiring Indonesian nationalists.” Malaysian author Shaharuddin Maaruf likewise recognizes Nery’s contribution to an insightful examination of a great life as well as to an enriched “Southeast Asian philosophy of history.”

In his preface, the author cites a Social Weather Stations survey that reports Rizal’s “preeminence in the Philippine pantheon with
unprecedented clarity, 150 years after his birth” among its respondents. The author contends that while this finding would not
have surprised Rizal’s contemporaries, including  Bonifacio, many college-educated Filipinos have been “taught that Rizal was
insufficiently nationalistic, a patriot compromised by his class, a separatist undone by his scruples”  according to the most influential history texts of the second half of the 20th century.

Through an impressive bibliography in Spanish, Indonesian, Dutch, English and Tagalog, the author rigorously shows that this
interpretation is seriously inadequate. Further the author likewise proves that Rizal’s status as foremost Filipino hero can also be
discerned in how the Indonesians and Malaysians appropriated him in the movement for independence, and in how he figures in the region’s intellectual, political and literary discourse.

John Nery, PDI senior editor, is a visiting research fellow at the ISEAS, and the first Sandra Burton Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University (2011-2012). He has been cited for his investigative reports and opinion journalism.

Revolutionary Spirit: Jose Rizal in Southeast Asia is available at the Ateneo Press bookshop, Bellarmine Hall, Ateneo de Manila University, Loyola Heights campus, and soon in bookstores nationwide.

Antonio Luna, the brother of Juan Luna.

Antonio Regidor, supporter of the Propaganda Movement.

Ferdinand Blumentritt, an Austrian school principal. He was Rizal’s closest friend and confidant.

Graciano Lopez Jaena, together with Rizal and del Pilar, founded the La Solidaridad.

Juan Luna

Marcelo H. del Pilar

Mariano Ponce

Trinidad Pardo de Tavera.

Photos were first published in Lolo Jose: An Intimate and Illustrated Portrait of Jose Rizal (Vibal Foundation, 2008)

First picture of Rizal, at thirteen years old.

Rizal in his Ateneo uniform, 1877.

Self-portrait of Rizal, drawn while he attended gymnastics class in Ateneo Municipal.

Rizal at the age of twenty-six.

Rizal at eight years old.

Rizal at 31.

Rizal at 18

Rizal at 21

Rizal at 24

Rizal (portrait by Juan Luna)

Buy the e-book version from VeePress!