MSO Brings Tagalog Carmen Back to FEU
On August 29, 1956, audiences at the Far Eastern University Auditorium heard Georges Bizet’s Carmen in Tagalog.
Not a Filipino-inspired retelling. Not a few translated songs placed inside a variety show. Bizet’s opera, performed in Tagalog, with a young Conchita “Conching” H. Rosal singing the title role.
Seventy years later, the Manila Symphony Orchestra is returning to FEU on the same date.
Opera at Kundiman: The Legacy of Maestra Conching Rosal will be presented on August 29, 2026, at 7:00 PM at the FEU Auditorium in Manila. It is the fourth concert in the MSO Centennial Season and also marks Rosal’s 100th birth anniversary.
How Carmen reached Manila in Tagalog
The 1956 production was conducted by Herbert Zipper, who had succeeded MSO founder Alexander Lippay as musical director. Trudl Dubsky-Zipper staged the opera.
Instead of using the original French libretto, the production used a Tagalog translation by Manuel Carballo Santiago and Vicente Liwag.
It is easy to treat that detail as historical trivia now. It was a serious artistic decision. Filipino audiences were allowed to meet the characters in a language that did not keep them at a polite distance.
The music remained Bizet’s. The emotional access changed.
And at the center of the production was Rosal, still early in a career that would make her one of the country’s leading operatic voices.
Conching Rosal did not have to choose
Rosal was born in San Jose, Batangas, in 1926. She first sang in her parish church before studying at the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music.
Her operatic career included productions of Madama Butterfly, Aida, and Ang Kiri. From the 1950s through the 1970s, she became one of the defining Filipino sopranos of her generation.
But Rosal was not only an opera singer.
She was also closely identified with kundiman, performing and recording Filipino art songs at a time when keeping them visible required actual singers, actual concerts, and actual audiences. Heritage did not preserve itself.
That is why the new concert’s title works. Opera and kundiman were not competing sides of Rosal’s career. Both belonged to her.
What the concert will perform
Opera at Kundiman is not a complete staging of Carmen. The program will feature selections from Bizet’s opera performed in Tagalog, recalling the 1956 production, alongside kundiman and other Filipino vocal works.
The announced Filipino composers include Nicanor Abelardo, Francisco Santiago, Leopoldo Silos, Constancio de Guzman, and Manuel Velez.
The connection does not need much decoration. Opera and kundiman both depend on singers who understand that volume is not the same as feeling. Language carries part of the drama. What the singer does with it carries the rest.
In this concert, Tagalog is not being brought in because August happens to be Buwan ng Wika. Tagalog is already part of the story.
The featured singers
The concert brings together soprano Rachelle Gerodias-Park, mezzo-soprano Michelle Mariposa, tenor Arthur Espiritu, and baritone Byeong-In Park.
Gerodias-Park is the first Aliw Awards Hall of Fame recipient for Best Female Classical Performer. Mariposa reached the grand finals of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. Espiritu is an internationally performing tenor and a George London Award recipient. Park is an international opera baritone and vocal mentor.
They will perform with the Manila Symphony Orchestra under Music Director Marlon Chen. The FEU Chorale and FEU Dance Company will also take part in the presentation.
Why the FEU Auditorium matters
The FEU Auditorium is not interchangeable with another Manila concert hall.
Inaugurated in 1949, the Art Deco auditorium was designed by National Artist for Architecture Pablo Antonio Sr. It also served as one of the Manila Symphony Orchestra’s homes during the 1950s.
That makes the August 29 return unusually precise. The MSO is not merely commemorating an old performance from somewhere else. It is going back to the room where it happened.
Anniversary concerts often have to work hard to create significance around a round number. This one already has a date, a place, an artist, and a piece of music that still deserves to be heard.
Readers following the orchestra’s wider season can continue through Unsaulicited’s Concerts in Manila guide.
Opera at Kundiman tickets and discounts
Date: August 29, 2026
Time: 7:00 PM
Venue: FEU Auditorium, Manila
VIP: ₱5,000
Premium Patron: ₱3,500
Regular Patron A: ₱3,000
Regular Patron B: ₱2,500
General Admission A: ₱2,000
General Admission B: ₱1,000
The announced student discount is 50%. Senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and diplomats may receive a 20% discount.
A separate 20% early-bird discount is available using the code CONCHINGEB20 until August 14, 2026, at 11:59 PM. The organizer’s and ticketing platform’s applicable terms still apply.
Buy tickets through TicketWorld.
There is something quietly corrective about bringing this history back during Buwan ng Wika.
Filipino was already capable of carrying opera seventy years ago. It did not need permission then.
It does not need permission now.