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Sunday, June 16, 2024 Vol. 19 No. 243
P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 12 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK
Cycling through the fabled history of an opera house, now a hotel
O
By Renato Redentor Constantino
N the corner of Rizal Avenue and Doroteo Jose stands the Manila Grand Opera Hotel, a fabulist if the establishment were a person.
WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT addressing the audience at the Philippine Assembly in the Manila Grand Opera House, 16 October 1907. MGOH GALLERY VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
IMAGE COURTESTY VIDEO48 (VIDEO48.BLOGSPOT.COM/2010/08/AUGUST-19-1964-GANGSTERS-SHOOT-UP-OPERA.HTML)
This is about the history of a place that has gone through many costume changes, a story bursting with intersectionality, with a past so implausible it should be celebrated annually by poets and climate activists alike.[1] Because yes, in the truly grand manner: only in the Philippines. In one breath: where else can you find a modern hotel that began as a national cycling racetrack owned by a Syrian that became a national theater that attracted
the fabled Russian Circus Troupe, that transformed into the majestic Manila Grand Opera House (MGOH), pulling in renowned Italian tenors and the magnificent Jovita Fuentes, a place that staged boxing matches, gave roots to bodabil—our vaudeville—and where the country first tasted “American democracy” when the inauguration of the Philippine Assembly was opened by a US Secretary of War and where, just three decades later, the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas
GEN. MACARIO SAKAY ON A BIKE. For the second leg on 15 June 2024 of #SintangLakbay,
a bicycle tour meant to promote mobility and awareness of climate change and encourage “active interaction with urban landscapes, restoring working-class memory” in the nation’s history while “mobilizing public contributions to remembering through art and research.” #SintangLakbay is a joint project of PUP, 350 Pilipinas, and the Constantino Foundation to mark the 120th founding anniversary of the university. RENATO REDENTOR CONSTANTINO
(PKP) merged with the Socialist Party of the Philippines.[2] From its bicycle velodrome origins in 1892, ownership moved in 1942 to Toribio Teodoro, the magnate of a shoe business named Ang Tibay—literally, The Durable—and indeed it was, at least for the place. The following year the establishment burned down mere months after it was inundated by a flood only to rise again; the footwear enterprise folded in two decades but
the theater lives on as the New Manila Grand Opera House with a new tagline—“the theater with a history.”[3] On its stage sang the Sylvia la Torre and Pilita Corrales, with Rodolfo Vera Quizon (Dolphy) and Adelaida Fernando-Villegas (Dely Atay-Atayan) seeding the country’s clouds of laughter. This is where the duo Conrado Piring and Perfecto Piñon—Pugak and Tugak—gave boisterous joy to so many. There bodabil lifted to fame Mariano Contreras and Arturo Vergara Medina—Pugo and Bentot—and long before he became the vice mayor of Makati, the country’s financial center today, Augusto Valdes Pangan was performing in the MGOH during the Japanese Occupation when he was only 13: First as Mr. Boogie-Woogie and later as Chiquito, the comedian.[4] Maybe showbiz with politics is the original Philippine cocktail? But the rise of cinema spelled the decline of theater and soon the Manila Grand Opera House fell slowly into disrepair, the decay accelerating as the advent of television spelled the decline of moviehouses.[5] By the 1970s, the “theater with a history” was showing soft porn, which killed bodabil. Eventually it became a restobar named Chicks O’Clock, and in 2008, it was reborn as the Manila Grand Opera Hotel, a place of calm and refinement compared to the squalor of many of its decaying concrete neighbors. (Editor’s note: The Manila Grand Opera Hotel, as it has been known since 2008, was founded by the late businessman-philanthropist, Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, who had supported causes of local Filipino artists and media institutions and practitioners). As for USA-style democracy, a few facts of history will suffice. Two cast-iron memorials by the “Philippine Historical Committee” are all that remains of the Manila Grand Continued from A1
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 58.5890 n JAPAN 0.3732 n UK 74.7478 n HK 7.5015 n CHINA 8.0787 n SINGAPORE 43.3671 n AUSTRALIA 38.8679 n EU 62.9363 n KOREA 0.0426 n SAUDI ARABIA 15.6175 Source: BSP (June 14, 2024)