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Shirley Pizarro

A different, yet amazing Lea Salonga in her Cebu show


A world-class talent, no matter where she performs, is still world-class.


May it be marking a milestone in her career by performing to a full-packed Carnegie Hall in New York City or singing before an SRO crowd at the Waterfront Hotel Lahug’s grand ballroom in Cebu City, world-class artist Lea Salonga easily commands a standing ovation.

Regretfully, we missed the historic Carnegie performance last October, but in Cebu, we, along with my husband Bong and Sony-BMG’s Narciso Chan, again witnessed how Lea magically cast a spell to a loyal audience who never gets tired of hearing beautiful songs from the lips of a musical angel called Lea.

It was a truly fantastic performance. No matter how many times we’ve watched her before, still, Lea manages to show us how excellent an artist she truly is. She shines even brighter each time.

Now more than four months pregnant and is bound to know the baby’s gender anytime, Lea amazed us with a different yet beautiful timbre to her voice — richer, fuller, more mature and more passionate. Maybe it was because of the baby, or maybe because she is now married and has experienced ‘a whole new world,’ to borrow one of her songs, but whatever it is, we know that Lea sings different now. Differently marvelous! What a lucky audience, the people from Cebu were, having been treated to yet the best we’ve seen of our very own international singer.

Lea came out in a black, empire-cut Rajo Laurel number, sequinned on top over the sheer material, and she was very lovely that night. Her tummy slightly noticeable, she was simply glowing.

While every other Filipino artist fails when the matter of delivering spiels come to fore, with Lea, it is a totally different story. We could sit in the audience and listen to her tell stories all night long and not get at all nervous that she’s speaking too much or too little. Her spiels are much-awaited. She can hold the audience right at the palm of her hand, with her wonderful anecdotes and witty punchlines in between the beautiful music.

For this concert especially, the normally very reserved Lea willingly shared a bit more of her to her audience. She said she will be giving birth in May, next year, here in the Philippines where she finds a certain comfort being home with her Mom and family and all. We loved how she calls the life growing in her belly Peanut, and how her mother, the doting Mommy Ligaya Salonga, prefers to be called Abu (short for Abuelita) and not Lola. Lea also said she and her mom are wishing for a girl, while her loving husband Rob (a wonderful, wonderful person) prays for a boy "because everybody else wants a girl."

It was also a first for me to hear Lea talked about "Miss Saigon" requiring her to wear a bikini and do a bed scene in the musical when she first came to London many years ago. "I was 18, a very conservative Catholic from the Philippines and so when I was told I’d have to wear bikini in front of thousands of people, I freaked out!," she said.

When she reached home, an apartment she shared with her Mom in London, she told her about her dilemma and her mom’s only response to her ‘problem’ was that, ‘call your Dad’ which she immediately did. Lea narrated, "I called my Dad here in the Philippines and in a panic, I told him that these people in ‘Miss Saigon’ wanted me to wear a bikini. I told him, it’s so embarrassing to be remembered wearing a bikini in such a public place. But with the wisdom of a Commodore, my Dad pacified me and said, ‘hija, they will not remember you wearing the bikini. They will remember you for shooting yourself in the head at the end of the play."

Lea’s father was right of course! And we have the entire country witnessing that, with a Tony Awards and Sir Lawrence Olivier trophies tucked under Lea’s belt to prove it.

The music, thanks to her musical director Gerard Salonga and his orchestra (his wife DJ Francisco-Salonga being one of them), was fantastic, as always. Our personal favorites that night were the ones we heard for the first time, which Mrs. Salonga (who was seated beside us during the show) told us she sang during the Carnegie performance. We love the Carpenters medley, I lost myself into the sheer beauty of the music and the voice, Lea’s version of "True Colors" the arrangement was truly enchanting, the good old "On My Own" and "I’ll Give My Life For You" which was done in its original arrangement, the Disney songs from "Aladdin" and "Mulan," which have been my children’s anthem; her homage to Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland, and the acoustic version of ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him." Truly, truly, Gerard Salonga’s genius is preeminent in all the songs. Congratulations!

Lea’s special guest that night, was 10-year-old Julia Abueva who is fast becoming a byword in the music circle. We first heard of her through Mrs. Salonga so many months back, and she was raving about the little girl’s talent urging me to watch her soon. And so, seeing and hearing Julia Abueva for the first time that night in Cebu left us with no doubt why she has easily captured the heart of Mommy Ligaya. She truly is a wonderful singer, her voice is powerful and she moves very gracefully onstage. She was featured in a number with Lea and she was perfect for the "young Lea" role she played there.

All these excitements in Lea’s concert made us realize another first. Her show ended at 12 midnight although it started at past 9 p.m. Reason was the crowd was just too reluctant to let her go that’s why she was forced to do three encore numbers. Thus, Lea earned another well-deserved standing ovation to end the night.

http://www.mb.com.ph/ENTR2005121751899.html

Trivia on: Lea Salonga
Lea started out as a bubbly little
singer at the age of 7, playing
Annie in the Repretory production
of LIttle Orphan Annie. She went
on to sing for advertisements
(KLIM, Gift Gate, etc.), and joined
shows like That's Entertainment.
At the age of ten, she had her own
TV show co-hosted by brother,
Gerard.

A New Year’s wish list


Following a tradition, we’ve listed down a handful of our New Year’s wishes, and included in it those that have been volunteered to us by some well-meaning friends — keen observers and passionate about the local showbusiness.


May this piece serve as an encouragement, and a blessing to most, all in the purpose of looking forward to a brighter, better and wiser 2006.

This is our wish:

*snipped*

• For Lea Salonga and Robert Chien: A safe and swift delivery of a healthy and beautiful baby in May, 2006.

*snipped*

http://www.mb.com.ph/2005123152832.html

Snapshots of 2005
Awards and altercations, scandals and successes

First posted 07:57pm (Mla time) Dec 31, 2005
By The Inquirer Entertainment Staff
Inquirer

Editor's Note: Published on page A2-1 of the January 1, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

*snipped*

October

Tony-winning actress-singer Lea Salonga happily announces that she is pregnant. Husband Robert Chien and grandmother Ligaya Salonga are just as jubilant, of course.

*snipped*

http://news.inq7.net/entertainment/index.p...&story_id=61618

happy lea

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HUS BACK!?

Friday, January 13, 2006


A whole new world for Lea Salonga

By Ayn Veronica L. de Jesus

Lea Salonga is quitting show business. Even if the lady practically grew up before our very eyes. We watched her struggle from a gawky teenager, awkwardly trying to fit into the local and very mass-based show-biz culture. But with her crystal-clear voice and perfect pitch, she won the much-coveted role of Miss Saigon and garnered international awards for it. In the next few years, she essayed plum roles in Broadway classics, did voices of lead female characters in Walt Disney movie productions.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d18/ringgit/lea.jpg
Mommy-to-be Lea—5 months
pregnant—singing “On My Own”
at the press conference.

And now she is leaving all that behind to embrace a whole new world—motherhood. This, she believes, is the greatest role that an actress, nay a woman, can face.

“I’m prepared to take a nice, long break to spend time with my baby,” Lea said on Tuesday at a media conference. She is five months pregnant today, but once the baby comes in some time in mid-May, “everything takes a back seat.”

Although she has set no timetable for the furlough—“it could be six months, one year, two years”— Lea is sure she wants to do it. “If I never have to sing again, or do another concert again, it will be all worth it for me.

“As everybody knows, my mother was a stay-at-home mom. I’m not the strong or the type A mother like her,” she is quick to add with hearty laughter. “But it’s the only way I know.”

“I’m not going away [from show biz] forever. But I don’t ever want to look back and see that I was never there [for my baby.’ Until then, people just have to stay tuned and wait.”

Lea plans to deliver her baby here “because all the tita and other relatives are here. But we’ll travel back and forth because the other set of grandparents are in the United States.”

Last performance

While waiting to give birth, Lea has no plans of slowing down. “But while I still can, I plan to travel, sing, see friends and family, and perform.”

On January 25 Lea will perform with Filipino tenor Otoniel Gonzaga and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Australia-based conductor Julian Quirit.

Gonzaga is based in Europe where he has sung as a member of the Frankfurt Opera and other German opera companies, and guest artist of opera houses in Vienna, Brussels, Barcelona, Basel, Glasgow, Graz, Salsburg and Zurich. He has also sung in numerous venues in the United States, and winding up performances in Canada.

Guest soprano is Rachelle Gerodias, a product of the University of Santo Tomás, was a scholar at the Eastman School of Music in New York where she received her Music Degree in Voice Performance and Literature. Guest baritone Noel Azcona, also from UST, earned credits as a soloist in the 2004 Pasig Summer Music Festival.

Far-fetched

While the combination of classical and Broadway may be far-fetched, it is not the first time such a thing has been done. The world-renowned Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti has recorded songs with rock artists such as Bryan Adams, Sting and U2’s Bono to raise funds for children’s charities, and top-billed “Pavarotti and Friends” with popular artists such as Boyzone, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, Jon Bon Jovi, Ricky Martin and Lionel Richie, the Spice Girls and Vanessa Williams.

For this show, all performers say that audiences should “keep an open mind.” Rolando Gonzaga, who represented father Otoniel during the media event, said that the show “is not a celebration of opera. It is not a celebration of Broadway. It is a celebration of music. We should be proud of what the Filipino has to offer.”

Conductor Quirit likens his role in the show to that of a driver. “I normally drive a Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Maseratti, even the calesa. But if given the chance to drive a Ferrari, I would do it.”

He has worked with opera greats such as Pavarotti, the Spanish tenor Jose Carreras, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Dame Joan Sutherland; distinguished ballet companies such as the Bolshoi Ballet; and other illustrious classical artists.

Salonga admits that there will be vocal adjustments to be made, such as in the use of microphones to pump up her singing volume “because Otoniel’s voice is really big. But if we put the right material together and the right people together to do a certain task, the differences don’t matter. So I advise those with doubts to keep an open mind.”

The program will open with Giuseppe Verdi’s La Forza del Destino Overture, followed by Gonzaga singing “My Friend’s Life Is Really Worth Living.” Salonga follows with “On My Own” from Les Misérables. Both artists will close the program with “The Prayer,” a song originally performed by Celine Dion for the animation movie The Magic Sword.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Show starts at 8 p.m. at the CCP Main Theater. For tickets, call 901-7156
or (0910) 885-1136 or the CCP Box Office at 832-3704.

http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2006/j...060113lif1.html

quote

On January 25 Lea will perform with Filipino tenor Otoniel Gonzaga and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Australia-based conductor Julian Quirit.

wer?

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HUS BACK!?

Lea to give birth in Philippines


CHECK IT OUT
BONG DE LEON
People's Journal

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d18/ring...ea-Salonga1.jpg
She wants her bundle of joy to see the light here.

IMMORTAL arias from opera and exciting sounds of Broadway including Filipino kundiman will highlight the concert of tenor Otoniel Gonzaga with Lea Salonga on January 25 at the CCP main theater. They will be joined by an exciting batch of young opera talents led by guest soprano Rachelle Gerodias and baritone Noel Azcona with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Julian Quirit. The program opens with Verdi's Guidita, La Forza del Overture to be followed by tenor Gonzaga singing a meaningful number from Lehar's Guidita, "My Friends Life Is Really Worth Living." Lea follows with an equally luminous number from "Les Miserables," On My Own." Gonzaga and Salonga will close the program with a duet, "The Prayer." "It's an honor and great pleasure to finally team up with Lea Salonga," said tenor Gonzaga who just wind up New Year concerts in Montreal, Canada and Germany. He was understudy of Placido Domingo in the triple bill presentation of the National Opera in Washington D. C. and was recently heard in San Francisco Opera in the role of Florestan in Beethoven's Fidelio. Salonga, on the other hand, just had a triumphant debut at the Carnegie Hall in New York. Salonga is the first Filipino and probably the first Asian to essay the role of Eponine in "Les Miserables" in London. Gonzaga, on the other hand, is the first Filipino to sing the part of Verdi's Otello which he sang to great success in Prague and Japan. He sang the lead role in Verdi's Attila at the New York City Opera. After Lea's concert with the famous Filipino tenor, she'll be having a grand hiatus from her singing career due to forthcoming baby she expects to deliver sometime in May here in the Philippines. If it's going to be a girl, which she delightfully love to have, she'll name her Katherine as in Katherine Hepburn, or Beverly. She's not saying she's totally turning her back from her career, over and above, there's a new role that will take place ` motherhood ` which will definitely take her time, effort, love and attention . She's going to raise her child the way she was raised by her mom, Ligaya. Lea turns 39 on February 22.

http://www.journal.com.ph/news.asp?pid=2&s...ay=15&year=2006

quote

Lea turns 39 on February 22.

di sya mukhang 39 ah

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HUS BACK!?

Anak ni Lea, di pa alam ang gender
ABOUT SHOWBIZ Ni Nitz Miralles
Ang Pilipino STAR Ngayon 01/16/2006

[IMG]http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d18/ringgit/leaS.jpg[/IMG]

Napanood namin ang interview kay Lea Salonga kung saan, sinabi nitong dito niya piniling isilang ang first baby nila ng husband niyang si Robert Chien. Narito raw ang pamilya niya kaya mas pinili niyang dito manganak.

Sa Mayo magsisilang si Lea at hindi pa nila alam ng asawa kung ano ang gender nang magiging anak. Sa last ultrasound niya’y naka-taas at naka-cross daw ang paa ng kanyang baby.

Kapag babae ang isilang, Katherine Beverly ang ipapangalan nila sa bata in honor of her mother-in-law na Beverly ang pangalan. ‘Pag lalake, kailangan daw, may Benjamin sa name nito para Benj ang nickname.

http://www.philstar.com/philstar/PINOY200601167304.htm

hula ko... lalake yan

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Lea hardworking mom-to-be

Lea Salonga has kept showbiz circles wondering why she is working hard at this stage of her pregnancy when she could just be relaxing in her home and luxuriating in cheery thoughts about her impending motherhood.

Instead Lea is concertizing like is was the natural thing to do for a pregnant woman. A fortnight ago, she was in Cebu City, playing the Waterfront Hotel and Casino for two nights. According to a ######y local lifestyle columnist, Lea did really well on the first night, but on the second evening she was outshone by a local arts group who presented a Best of Broadway show using homegrown talents, most of whom came from the city’s elite. The columnist inferred the local show drew a larger crowd than Lea. Can that be possible?

http://www.filipinoreporter.com/entertain.htm

congrats..

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Lea Faces a Whole New World

Five months pregnant, Lea Salonga can’t wait to embrace a whole new world -- motherhood. When the stork visits in May, she says “everything takes a back seat.” Motherhood, she believes, is the greatest role that a woman can face.

“I’m prepared to take a nice, long break to spend time with my baby,” Lea says. “It could be six months, one year, two years. . . If I never have to sing again, or do another concert again, it will be all worth it for me.”

Lea plans to deliver her baby in the Philippines “because all the tita and other relatives are here. But we’ll travel back and forth because the other set of grandparents are in the United States.”

http://www.planetphilippines.com/

daan ulit!

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Babae, type iregalo ni Lea Salonga kay Robert Chien!

Dondon Sermino

NAGHARAP at mistula talagang mag-ina sina Lea Salonga at Ms. Loren Legarda. Eh, ‘di ba nga, noon pa sinasabi na magkahawig ang dalawa, na kung pagtatabihin mo, mapagkakamalan mo talagang mag-ina.

Pareho kasing punumpuno ng laman ang utak ng dalawa. Parehong mahusay magsalita sa harap ng publiko. At higit sa lahat, pareho silang maganda.

Sa programa ni Loren sa ABC, ang Real Stories Kasama si Loren (Friday 11:00 PM), binuksan ni Lea ang nilalaman ng kanyang puso at isip kay Loren.

Siyempre, napunta ang usapan ng dalawa sa pagbubuntis ni Lea. Inusisa nga ni Loren si Lea kung ano ang gusto niyang maging panganay nila ni Robert Chien.

Kung si Lea nga ang masusunod, mas gusto niya na babae ang unang maging anak nila ni Robert.

"It had better be a burger and not a turtle. We saw the burger, and so we were very happy!" say ni Lea.

Siyempre, gaya ng inaasahan, pahinga muna si Lea sa kanyang trabaho. Anim na buwan na nga ang ipinagbubuntis ni Lea, at ilang buwan na lang ay magiging nanay na siya.

"My career will take a backseat," say pa ni Lea.

Type nga ni Lea na personal na alagaan ang magiging baby nila ni Robert. At kahit naman siguro magpahinga si Lea sa showbiz, hindi ito magiging kawalan sa kanya.

Kumbaga, napaghandaan na talaga nila ni Robert ang pagkakaroon ng anak. Nag-ipon nang husto bago lumagay sa tahimik.

Siyanga pala, sobrang matagumpay ang concert ni Lea sa Carnegie Hall sa New York noong Nobyembre 2005.

Sabi nga ni Lea, bagama’t marami-rami na rin siyang awards na natanggap mula sa mga kinikilalang grupo, kakaiba pa rin ang tropeo na ibinigay sa kanila ng Diyos, ang baby nga nila ni Robert.

http://www.abante.com.ph/issue/feb2006/main.htm

we miss lea!!

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Lea says, baby comes first before career


MARIA Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga, better known as Lea Salonga, now faces her most challenging role yet in life – being a full-time mom. And with the typical Salonga discipline, she is in it 100 percent.

"My career will take a backseat," she affirms.

Lea relates how pregnancy has changed her life, aside from being addicted to french fries, and how retrospectively, her rich professional and personal journey seem to climax with the news of a baby coming to her and husband Robert Chien’s life.

"It had better be a burger and not a turtle," quips the six-month-pregnant would-be mom while chatting with "Real Stories" host Loren Legarda. "We saw the burger, and so we were very happy!"

Catch the full interview this Friday (Feb. 24), 11 p.m., on ABC’s "Real Stories Kasama si Loren." The episode also features Lea’s performances at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York last November.

http://www.tempo.com.ph/news.php?aid=21609

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEA!!!